Martin Pech (CSO, Upgates): Foreign sales is an area where we are ahead of the competition
Unrivalled e-commerce tool for selling abroad, deep customization options in appearance or public API for custom connections. These are the 3 main reasons why the purely Czech e-commerce platform Upgates is growing in popularity.
Who is it primarily for, how long does it take to complete the launch process, or how high and what is the final price based on? Read on for an interview with Martin Pech, Sales Director at Upgates.
Introduce us to the Upgates e-commerce platform in a nutshell. How long have you been operating on the Czech market and what is your corporate vision?
We are a platform for renting online stores. This means that in exchange for a monthly fee ranging from hundreds of CZK to thousands, we provide our clients with a platform that is the centerpiece of their online business. This is how our vision could be summed up. You don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands or millions on a bespoke online store to start an online business. We make it possible for everyone to offer their products on their own online store.
We have been in business for 12 years. We have gathered more than enough experience with the e-commerce segment. Currently, we have more than 1,500 clients running or preparing their online stores and this number is growing rapidly. For our clients we develop a platform that is the most advanced on the Czech market and offers them the most tools for their growth. And the constantly growing number of our customers shows that we are moving in the right direction.
In terms of references, you won’t find the biggest online store giants here. Of course, they run on their own solutions. Nevertheless, renting an Upgates online store is also suitable for online shops with annual turnovers in the order of hundreds of millions CZK per year. We have several such clients. However, Upgates will serve equally well for a entrepreneur who is starting his online business in his spare time.
Who is the Upgates platform suitable for, what is your ideal customer profile?
Thanks to a number of advanced features and automations, Upgates is perfect for mid-sized online stores or for established companies that want to try e-commerce as a secondary sales channel. Thanks to the platform’s openness and public API connection, it is no problem for such companies to connect Upgates to their own systems and seamlessly embed online sales into their existing internal processes. However, as I said in the introduction, Upgates is perfect for complete business beginners, where the online seller will only use a fraction of the features offered. Then, when the business grows, they don’t have to deal with a platform change. Upgates will simply grow with it.
Why should online store operators be interested in running their online store on Upgates? What are the advantages of your e-commerce platform over your competitors?
There are three main ones. These are unrivalled opportunities for selling abroad, the ability to customize the look of the online store and a public API for custom connections. Thanks to the latter, it is possible to connect your online store to various warehouse, accounting or marketing tools. We currently have more than a hundred ready-made bridges. If the online seller does not find the one he needs in our catalogue of add-ons, he can create a new connection on his own thanks to the public API.
Among the advantages, you mention the unrivalled possibilities when selling abroad? What specifically do you excel at in this area?
Yes, foreign sales is another area in which we have escaped the competition. At Upgates you can run a foreign version of your online store from just EUR 49 per month, even on a separate domain. Especially in the case of Western European markets, you wouldn’t do much good with a domain like: mystore.cz/de. With Upgates it is no problem to sell directly on: mystore.de. Customers won’t even know they have come to a foreign online store. But multilingualism means much more than that. In the online store, you can determine exactly which products and categories are displayed in which mutations, as well as adapt tax legislation and accounting requirements. In short, everything you need for a fully-fledged foreign sale.
Similarly, our multilingualism can be used to manage multiple online stores in one language from one administration. We also have clients who manage several related online stores from one administration. Orders come from different online stores, but they are processed in one place. This saves not only time and nerves, but also finances.
Why should online stores pay attention to their visual appearance? How big a role does it play in the customer’s decision?
This area is also extremely important to us. Renting an online store, and I’m talking in general now, is by far the best way to get started with internet sales. But the typical malaise of box solutions is blandness. This is because rental platforms will, in the vast majority of cases, give you several templates to choose from. The most you can change is the colour. Just put this fact in context with the fact that two thirds of Czech online store run on rent. This means that online shops are confusing, dull and actually boring.
Nowadays, when almost 50 thousand online stores are competing for the favour of customers on the Czech market, the grey of the average is the last value that you should stand for. An online store must stand out and differentiate itself from the competition. With Upgates it is possible. Pre-made templates are just the beginning. Thanks to the Designer module, online sellers can further customize the look of their store and create a truly unique store. The best part is that even a complete beginner can do it. Moreover, we are constantly improving our Designer module. We want our graphic configurator to offer maximum customization possibilities. But the level of customization is already unprecedented with Upgates.
What else is possible in your online store customization?
Yes, it doesn’t end with Designer. Even it has its limits. They are absolutely sufficient for most online sellers. But we also have a solution for the more demanding ones. The Code Editor is still above the Designer. Thanks to this, online stores can interfere directly with the HTML and create the look of the online store completely their own. Here, only the skill of the coder is the limit. In addition to this, we should also mention the already mentioned public API for custom connections. The administration of the online stores can also be customised to a certain extent via custom fields.
What is the approximate timeframe for launching a full online store on Upgates?
We give our clients one month free as standard. During this time, it is perfectly manageable for a layman to get his online store ready for launch. We have also seen record-breakers who have launched their online stores on the second day after their establishment. However, we recommend that you set aside enough time to build your online store, debug and test everything. However, projects that take more than a year to prepare are no exception. These are clients with their own online store design, who want to launch fine-tuned e-commerce projects. Whether it takes a day or a year, during the preparation the online store is in test mode, the first month of which we provide free of charge. When the client feels that everything is ready, they simply fill in the domain they wish to move the online store to. After setting the necessary technical parameters, he can start selling.
Upgates and integration: what is your corporate strategy and pricing policy?
As mentioned earlier, we have a public API and currently over a hundred ready-made add-ons. Among the new additions, by the way, is Skladon, which we’re very excited about. We want to offer our clients a connection to a reliable fulfillment partner. We don’t want any API fees from our clients. But of course we always have to take into account the costs of the connected service. Some of our partners also charge for the deployment of the bridge itself. But everything is always transparently listed in our add-on catalogue.
Many online sellers appreciate our connection to the accounting systems Pohoda and Money S3, which allow effective connection to the most widely used economic software. We manage these connections ourselves and provide them to our clients free of charge.
How much does it cost to run an online store on Upgates?
We try to be as transparent as possible in our pricing. We offer four tariffs where the maximum number of products plays a major role. Our cheapest plan, Bronze, with 100 products, costs EUR 19 per month. In case the online store wants to use more languages, it is necessary to use at least the Silver tariff for EUR 49 per month. The most expensive Platinum will cost EUR 139 per month and allows almost unlimited business with up to 50,000 products. All features are always included in the price of all tariffs. The easiest way is to look directly at our price list, where everything is clearly listed.
Is there a full trial version? If so, for how long and under what conditions?
Each of our trial versions is full-featured. We unlock everything our clients need to start their online store. Only its live launch is conditional on switching to paid mode.
What innovations are you planning for your clients in the future? Are you planning to expand the service further?
We are constantly trying to improve our system. We are working on changes to the Designer module to allow a much greater range of customization than we do today. Based on suggestions from our clients, we are adding new features and expanding the ecosystem around Upgates with more add-ons. Of course, we constantly have to keep an eye on new developments in the legislative and tax area so that we can implement them in a timely manner.
Who to contact if I’m interested in cooperation?
The ideal way to get started with Upgates is to set up a test online store with us where you can try everything out. You can ask us specific questions in chat, over the phone, or through a question sent to technical support. Last but not least, anyone interested can join our Facebook advisory board, where more than 2,000 members share their experience not only with Upgates, but also with the day-to-day management of the online store.
