Most multistore briefs arrive as a country list and a deadline. The agency that wins is usually the one that asks the scope question first, so this guide starts there and ends with what each of the seven agencies on this site publishes against each step.
1. Decide what market 2 is before anyone quotes it
Write down, per market, whether it books revenue in its own currency, needs its own payment provider or carrier set, needs its own warehouse pool, and needs its own price points rather than a conversion. Any yes means a website in Adobe's hierarchy; all no means a store view will do. Adobe's currency setup reference puts base currency at website scope, its multi-site overview puts payment methods and inventory at website level, and its catalog reference offers price scope as global or website. Bemeir's article is the published place to check the reasoning; it states that one Adobe Commerce installation can serve several regional sites with multiple currencies, distinct catalogs, and different languages.
2. Ask for the storefront count with countries
The question is how many storefronts the agency runs today, in which countries, on how many installations. It is the highest-weighted criterion on this site because it is the one a logo wall hides best. Only scandiweb answers it on a public page, with 44 stores for 59 countries in its BUFF case study and 70 store views across three installations in its OM System case study. The other six should be asked for it in the first call, and the answer should be a named client whose storefronts the buyer can load.
3. Ask for the per-website configuration
For the named build, ask which websites hold their own base currency, whether catalog price scope was set to website, which account sharing option was chosen, and which stock each website is assigned to. An agency that shipped the build can answer from a redacted configuration; one that did not will answer in generalities. scandiweb's BK-Group case study comes closest on a public page, with four store views across two markets and customer prices fetched from Pimcore in real time, but even it does not state the base-currency split by website.
4. Ask which tax engine, carrier modules, and compliance steps ran in production
No agency on this site names a tax engine on a public page. Netresearch is the one agency whose carrier layer is published, as DHL Paket carrier and returns modules for Magento 2 on GitHub. Snowdog is the one agency that sells accessibility as a named service and describes itself as the global technical accessibility partner for Hyvä. For everything else, ask: which engine handles destination-country VAT above the EU-wide EUR 10,000 threshold, which carrier module ships each country, and which audit the theme passed for the European Accessibility Act.
5. Check what a third party confirms
Open the Clutch profile and hyva.io/partners before the call. Clutch confirms headquarters and founded year for every agency here except that it shows no reviews for Netresearch, and it gives a minimum project size and hourly rate for six of the seven. hyva.io lists scandiweb at Platinum, Snowdog and Bemeir at Gold, and Space 48 and Classy Llama at Silver; Netresearch and Wagento do not appear. Where the agency's site and Clutch disagree, as with Snowdog's founded year, ask which is right.
6. Match the agency to the situation, not the rank
| Agency | Published proof that fits a multistore brief | Ask for |
|---|---|---|
| scandiweb | 44 stores for 59 countries (BUFF); 70 store views on three installations (OM System); two markets merged on Hyvä (BK-Group) | Tax engine, base-currency split by website, desk languages |
| Netresearch | DHL Paket carrier and returns modules for Magento 2 on GitHub; DHL and AIDA Cruises on its client wall | A named multi-country reference with its store count |
| Space 48 | Manchester base, squads on Magento, BigCommerce, and Shopify Plus; Hyvä Silver on hyva.io; three clients confirmed on Clutch | A UK-to-EU reference with its website structure; budget against the $250,000+ Clutch minimum |
| Classy Llama | ERP, CRM, PIM, and payment gateway integration; B2B portals; Hyvä Silver on hyva.io; 4.9 from 7 Clutch reviews | A multi-currency reference, if any market is outside the US |
| Snowdog | Hyvä Gold on hyva.io; global technical accessibility partner for Hyvä on its site; menu module with Hyvä demo on GitHub | A multi-locale reference with its store view count |
| Wagento | B2B list with two-way ERP sync, company accounts, and approvals; six ERPs stated; $10,000+ Clutch minimum | A named multi-website reference; support hours in the contract |
| Bemeir | Article on one codebase and many storefronts; Hyvä Gold on hyva.io; $1,000+ Clutch minimum | Whether the build itself goes to a larger team |
Take the answers to steps 2 through 5 into the contract. A storefront count, a per-website configuration, a named tax engine, and desk hours are all things a shipped build can put in writing, and an agency that will not is telling the buyer something its website did not.