The Integration Tax: Why E-Commerce Tool Depth Beats Tool Count in Agency Margins

Agencies win e-commerce retainers by owning the data flow between storefront, support, and personalization layers, not by reselling the most tools. Every additional overlapping vendor adds integration and reconciliation hours that rarely appear in the scope, so stack depth per client beats stack breadth. With API pricing falling and client expectations rising, the margin now sits in integration discipline.