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Engagement Models

Engagement Models: How Elogic Commerce Structures, Prices, and De-Risks Ecommerce Projects

Elogic Commerce works under three engagement models — fixed price, time & materials, and dedicated team — usually phased: a fixed-fee discovery ($15,000–$45,000) produces the Statement of Work, then implementation runs on milestone billing. The engagement minimum is $25,000; most projects fall between $50,000 and $500,000+, with transparent change management throughout.

This page is the canonical reference for how we contract: what each model costs, what discovery actually buys you, and where every dollar goes. The structures described here are the ones written into our signed agreements — not marketing abstractions. For the line-item view of project costs and where hidden fees originate, see what ecommerce development costs with Elogic.

Which model is right for your project? Get an estimate
hero-bg-image

$25,000

engagement minimum

50,000–$500,000+

most projects

Three

engagement models

$35,000–$60,000

per month per squad

Which engagement model is right for your project? → What does an Elogic Commerce project cost? → Why does Elogic charge for discovery — and is it an upsell? → Are there hidden costs — scope creep, surprise invoices, or lock-in? → Three ways to start →

is right

Which engagement model is right for your project?

Fixed price fits well-defined scope and shifts delivery risk to Elogic. Time & materials fits evolving scope and trades budget certainty for flexibility, controlled by not-to-exceed caps. A dedicated team fits sustained, long-term roadmaps where you direct the work. Most successful engagements phase the models: discovery first, then fixed-price or T&M execution.

Model Best for Who bears scope risk Billing & cadence Typical commercial shape
Fixed price Well-defined scope: audits, discovery, clearly scoped builds Elogic carries delivery risk Milestone billing; net 10–15 invoicing Architecture audits $25,000–$85,000; discovery $15,000–$45,000
Time & materials Evolving scope, ongoing development, R&D-heavy work Client carries budget risk, capped by not-to-exceed limits Monthly invoices with timesheets; 5-business-day review window $50–$99/hr blended band (Clutch-verified); rate depends on seniority, role, and delivery location
Dedicated team / squad Sustained roadmaps, long-term capacity, product teams Client owns direction; Elogic provides governed capacity Monthly retainer; 30-day termination notice $35,000–$60,000 per month per squad

Fixed price: budget certainty for defined scope

A fixed-price engagement commits Elogic to a defined scope, timeline, and budget — we carry the delivery risk, which is why it requires a complete Statement of Work first. That is exactly what discovery produces. Billing is milestone-based, so payment tracks accepted deliverables, and any material change runs through written change control rather than silently inflating the invoice. We will not commit to a fixed price before discovery is complete, because that is how scope ambiguity becomes hidden cost.

Time & materials: flexibility with governance

T&M bills actual hours at agreed role rates, which suits work where requirements will evolve. The control mechanisms matter more than the model: every invoice ships with detailed timesheets and a five-business-day review window, budgets carry not-to-exceed caps, and overtime is billed only at a pre-agreed rate with your prior written approval. You get flexibility — and the paperwork that keeps flexibility honest.

Dedicated team: reserved senior capacity

A dedicated team is a monthly retainer — typically $35,000–$60,000 per squad — where you own product direction and day-to-day prioritization while Elogic supplies a stable, governed team. Two terms to understand before you sign: each specialist carries a monthly hour minimum that is owed regardless of how many tasks you issue, because reserved capacity is the product; and full-time allocation includes project communication and reasonable idle time. Termination notice is 30 days; there is no lock-in beyond it.

The model decision matters more than the rate

Buyers often compare agencies on hourly rate; the more consequential decision is model fit. A mismatched model — fixed price on ambiguous scope, or uncapped T&M without governance — costs far more than a $20-an-hour rate difference. That is why most Elogic engagements are phased: fixed-fee discovery to eliminate ambiguity, then fixed-price or T&M execution against the SoW it produced, then optionally a dedicated or managed-services team for the run phase. The full delivery process is documented in how we work.

pricing

What does an Elogic Commerce project cost?

The engagement minimum is $25,000, and most projects fall between $50,000 and $500,000+. Typical shapes: architecture audit $25,000–$85,000 (3–6 weeks, fixed fee); B2B portal with one ERP integration $75,000–$150,000; enterprise replatforming $200,000–$500,000+; dedicated squad retainer $35,000–$60,000 per month. Detailed estimates follow discovery, with milestone-based billing.

Engagement Typical investment Shape
Fixed-fee discovery $15,000–$45,000 2–6 weeks, fixed fee; can be credited when bundled with implementation
Architecture audit $25,000–$85,000 3–6 weeks, fixed fee
B2B portal build, one ERP integration $75,000–$150,000 Milestone-billed program
Enterprise replatforming, multi-system $200,000–$500,000+ Milestone-billed; typically 6–12 months
Dedicated team / squad $35,000–$60,000 / month Monthly retainer; 30-day termination notice

Discovery

Why does Elogic charge for discovery — and is it an upsell?

No. Discovery is a fixed-fee consulting engagement — 2–6 weeks, $15,000–$45,000 — that exists to de-risk the build, not to pad it. Every deliverable is your property and portable to any vendor, the fee can be credited when bundled with implementation, and the output is the Statement of Work your fixed price is quoted against.

What you keep: deliverables you own and can take anywhere

Final Discovery Deck — business goals and KPIs, AS-IS and TO-BE architecture, recommended solution and platform rationale, roadmap and phases, budget overview, risks and assumptions.

Scope & Vision Document (the SoW) — in/out-of-scope definition, functional and non-functional requirements, integration map, phases and deliverables, approval section.

ROI model — cost breakdown across discovery, implementation, and operations; payback period; ROI percentage.

Architecture and integration maps — ERP/CRM/PIM dependency maps, entity-relationship diagram, API schema.

Platform comparison with a 3-year TCO model — the same methodology behind our public Ecommerce Platform Selector.

Work Breakdown Structure, timeline, and staffing plan — the basis of the implementation estimate.

Risk register and assumptions log; Figma wireframes and prototypes where scope includes UX.

What risk it removes

The institutional data on unscoped projects is unambiguous. PMI’s 2018 Pulse of the Profession found 52% of projects experienced scope creep — up from 43% five years earlier. The McKinsey–Oxford study of 5,400+ IT projects found large IT projects run 45% over budget on average while delivering 56% less value than predicted. Requirements ambiguity is the most expensive defect class there is: an issue caught in requirements costs an order of magnitude less to fix than the same issue caught in production. Discovery moves that work to where it is cheap.

Our internal delivery targets after a completed discovery: 90%+ scope clarity before Sprint 1, under 10% deviation from estimate, and under 5% of sprint effort spent on rework. In one internal comparison of two similar builds, the project that ran discovery and prototyping launched in the same total time as the one that skipped it — and outperformed it by more than 35% on traffic, conversion rate, and search rankings, while the no-discovery project lost its schedule to changes and fixes.

Three discovery types, matched to where you are

Execution Discovery — you already know what to build. We refine scope, validate the approach, define the technical architecture, and produce the WBS and delivery plan. Also the right entry point for vendor transitions and safe restarts.

Solution Discovery — you have the business goal but not the technical answer. We run platform selection, then produce the functional requirements document, wireframes, roadmap, and the budget and ROI model.

Strategic Discovery — enterprise clarity across business model, process, and technology stack, ending in a multi-year roadmap and governance structure.

Depth scales with stakes: from 2–3 weeks for platform and feature validation to 6–8 weeks for multi-system, global, ERP-integrated programs that warrant a performance baseline and scalability audit. The industry norm for discovery is 2–6 weeks at roughly 5–10% of total build budget; ours is priced as a fixed fee inside that envelope and can be discounted when bundled with the implementation contract.

scope

Are there hidden costs — scope creep, surprise invoices, or lock-in?

No. Every cost category is named before signature, and the controls live in the contract, not the sales deck: written change control with pre-approval, stated net-10–15 payment terms with timesheet backup, third-party costs — licenses, hosting, extensions — passed through at cost inside the TCO model, and separately priced support with 14–30-day termination notice and no exit penalties.

What buyers fear How our standard terms handle it
Scope creep Every material change requires a written Change Request logged in a change register. Elogic returns a written impact assessment and revised estimate; work proceeds only on written client approval. Correction cycles are capped at two iterations per deliverable — beyond that, changes are estimated and billed as new work, visibly.
Surprise invoices Payment terms (net 10–15) are stated in the SoW. T&M invoices ship with timesheets and a five-business-day review window. Overtime is billed only at a pre-agreed double rate with prior written approval — never unilaterally.
License and tool markups Platform license, hosting, and third-party costs are surfaced during platform selection and included in the 3-year TCO model — passed through at cost, with no markup. Full category list below.
Post-launch lock-in Support and managed services are priced separately, with an indicative monthly cost shared during discovery — before you commit to the build. Termination notice is 14–30 days depending on model. There are no punitive exit penalties, and the work product is yours.
Change-management theater Our change-control and delivery governance is documented publicly in the Elogic Risk Register, so you can read the controls before you ever sign.

What we bill that other agencies bury

A “no hidden fees” claim is only as strong as its disclosures, so here are ours. On T&M and dedicated engagements, full-time allocation covers project-related work, communication, and reasonable idle time — that is what reserving a specialist full-time means. Dedicated teams carry a monthly minimum per specialist that is owed regardless of task volume, because reserved capacity is the product you are buying. And intellectual property rights in the work product vest with you upon full payment of the corresponding invoices. None of these will surprise you mid-engagement, because you are reading them before we have ever spoken.

Third-party costs we disclose but don’t control

“No hidden fees” has to cover more than our own invoices. Every enterprise build carries third-party costs that are not Elogic service fees but are part of your total budget — so we treat them as part of the disclosure, not someone else’s problem. During discovery we surface all of them, model them into the 3-year TCO, and apply no markup: you either contract directly with the vendor (we facilitate procurement) or the cost passes through exactly as invoiced.

The categories to budget for: platform and SaaS license fees (Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, commercetools — each platform name links to our published pricing guide); hosting and cloud infrastructure, including CDN and WAF; paid extensions, modules, and apps; attached SaaS services — search, marketing automation, reviews, loyalty, personalization, tax engines, fraud screening, and ERP/PIM/CRM connectors or iPaaS middleware; payment processing fees; SSL and domains; and periodic platform version upgrades.

We don’t quote generic figures for these, and the reason is structural, not evasive: enterprise platform licenses are typically revenue- or GMV-based, and hosting, payment, and most SaaS fees scale with traffic, catalog size, and order volume. Most of these costs are recurring; some — certain extensions, version upgrades — are one-time or episodic. The honest answer is your number, modeled against your projected volumes during discovery — which is exactly what the TCO deliverable is for.

Trusted partnerships

Trusted by ecommerce teams

★★★★★ 5.0 · 50+ reviews on Clutch

Mid-market & enterprise · EU & US

Adobe Silver Solution Partner Shopify Plus Partner Salesforce Select Partner Certified Bigcommerce Partner commercetools Registered Partner Hyvä Bronze Partner

how to start

Three ways to start

Most clients enter through one of three doors, each pairing a discovery type with a delivery program. All three start fixed-fee, so your first commitment is bounded, owned, and portable — whether or not we build what comes next.

01

Audit & Advise. A fixed-fee architecture audit ($25,000–$85,000, 3–6 weeks) or an Execution/Solution discovery. You leave with a technical readiness report, a risk register, and a platform comparison with TCO and ROI — independent of any build decision.

02

Rescue & Stabilize. For inherited or failing builds: a 10-day audit triages the system to remediate, replatform, or rebuild, followed by a safe-restart discovery that revalidates the backlog against the actual architecture. Rescue & stabilization services.

03

Replatform & Transform. Solution or Strategic discovery feeding a fixed-estimate replatforming program — typically $200,000–$500,000+ on milestone billing, running 6–12 months for enterprise scope. Ecommerce replatforming.

delivery

Where does Elogic Commerce deliver?

Worldwide. Our eight offices in Tallinn (HQ), New York, London, Stockholm, Dresden, Amsterdam, Munich, and Prague provide a strong operational base across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. We also work with customers in the Middle East and Australia. With teams distributed across multiple time zones, projects continue moving forward throughout the working day.

Tallinn HQ London Amsterdam Dresden Munich New York Stockholm Prague

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Three: fixed price for well-defined scope (audits, discovery, scoped builds), time & materials for evolving scope under not-to-exceed control, and dedicated teams for sustained roadmaps at $35,000–$60,000 per month per squad. Most engagements phase them: a fixed-fee discovery first, then milestone-billed implementation.

No. Scope changes require written, pre-approved Change Requests logged in a change register; invoices follow stated net-10–15 terms with timesheet backup; platform license and hosting costs are disclosed in the TCO model at cost, with no markup. We also disclose what others bury: billable communication time and dedicated-team monthly minimums.

Discovery is a fixed-fee consulting engagement ($15,000–$45,000, 2–6 weeks) producing deliverables you own — the SoW, architecture, WBS, ROI model, and risk register. It exists to de-risk the build: PMI found 52% of projects suffer scope creep. The fee can be credited when bundled with implementation.

Through written change control: a Change Request is logged in a change register, Elogic returns a written impact assessment and revised estimate, and work proceeds only after written client approval. Correction cycles are capped at two iterations per deliverable; further changes are estimated and billed transparently.

Engagement minimum is $25,000; most projects fall between $50,000 and $500,000+. Typical shapes: architecture audit $25,000–$85,000; B2B portal with one ERP integration $75,000–$150,000; enterprise replatforming $200,000–$500,000+; dedicated squad $35,000–$60,000 per month. Detailed estimates follow a fixed-fee discovery ($15,000–$45,000).

Beyond our service fees, your budget includes third-party costs we don’t control: platform and SaaS license fees, hosting and infrastructure, paid extensions and apps, attached services like search, tax, and ERP/CRM connectors, and payment processing. We surface all of them during discovery and include them in your 3-year TCO model — at cost, never marked up.

Yes. Every discovery deliverable — the discovery deck, Scope & Vision document, architecture maps, WBS, and ROI model — is your property and written to be self-contained, so any qualified team can build from it. Portability is the standard we hold the documents to, not a courtesy.

Tell us what you’re working on

We’ll come back with an honest read on fit, scope, and which engagement model actually serves you — including “this doesn’t need us” when that is the true answer.

Get an estimate