Question number 1: can you run a Magento website?

Any developer that claims to know how to develop for Magento 2 needs to be able to install a web server on a cloud-based infrastructure that runs the current web: DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services (AWS) or any lighter shared-hosting service like Nexcess.

Runing a Magento 2 web shop involves instantianting a web-server, usually called "nginx" or "apache 2". Can they do it?

Question number 2: how do you make changes to my existing website?

If your developer wants to be able to work for you, he needs to have a copy of the website on his own computer (called, a "local machine") where he makes his or her own changes. Can they make it display on their laptop (or desktop computer) as a complete copy of your website?

Question number 3: how will you manage changes?

Are you able to control the changes you make? I.e. anything that gets produced as work would either be functional or not. This narrows down to being able to use version control - a tool that enables a developer to revert their changes if they do not work. Git is currently the industry standard. Can they use it? If not, you should let them go.

There is a lot more to running a successful web store in the post-AI age. Contact me if you need help. Vaidas G on LinkedIn