B2C and B2B eCommerce and Shops for SMEs and Agencies in 24h

Lukas Hertig, SVP BizDev @ Plesk, Strategist, Startup Advisor, Speaker
B2C and B2B eCommerce and Shops for SMEs
and Agencies - in 24h
SIMPLIFY THE LIVES OF WEB & IT PROFESSIONALS

AGENDA
Intro 3
Market Trends 5
B2C + B2B Shop Setup 28
Technology Enablers 46
Working with an Agency 56
Case Study & Demo 63
Theory: 60min
Practice: 20min
Questions: 10Min

A Few Words About Me..
Working with a few startups to
support them on their journey,
mostly in the blockchain,
Cloud/SaaS & eCommerce space.
18+ Years in int. Sales, Management,
Digital Marketing & Business
Development with 120M$+ ARR
Subscriptions
near Zurich and Barcelona
Advisor, Investor, SpeakerPlesk | cPanel | WebPros
Enabled millions of $ subscription
and cloud revenues at many global
service providers
Cloud Computing | Digital
Transformation
Blockchain
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukashertig/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/LukasHertig
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lukas.hertig
Built up our digital marketing
growth team from scratch with
30+ people
Built many global Partnerships
with Amazon, Microsoft, Google,
HP, IBM, DigitalOcean, Linode

• In the market since 1999
• 900’000+ servers and 70M+ Websites
• 550+ employees
• Many global offices
• 3,000+ Reseller Partners (Hosting
companies)
• 40k+ WHMCS partners w/
billing/provisioning
• Available on all Hyperscale cloud providers
such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, MS
Azure, DigitalOcean, Linode and many
others.
• Serving >100 million SMBs in 130 countries
• 3 M+ WordPress installations – growing
50%+ YoY. 500k+ WooCommerce Shops
• 80M+ Linux Mailboxes
• Industry leading 24x7 support in 6 languages
Plesk, cPanel and WHMCS are the leading software platforms for simplifying the lives of developers and Web
Professionals/Agencies and MSPs.
- AROUND THE GLOBEWEBPROS.COM

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Challenges in global commerce

The traditional way how commerce works
Distributor
-- Your brand --
Reseller
● Low value add of Distributors
and Resellers
● Super expensive to manage
● High dependency on
Distribution network
● Highly unreliable value chain
● Going global almost impossible
● High entry barriers

2017-2020 - The Years of Retail Bankruptcies & Changes
(Switzerland)

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Market Trends

Profit from the cloud™ | 15
Provided by Prof. Dr. Marc K
Peter, Head of Digital
Transformation.
www.marcpeter.com
Includes eCommerce

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Customer Centricity,
Customer Experience

A lot of companies are not thinking
holistically about the customer’s
experience
Jeff Jacobs (McKinsey)

A consistent customer experience prevent
users from leaving a brand.
Sean Downey (Researcher at Google)

By 2020 customer experience will overtake
price and product as the key brand
differentiator.
Walker (Research firm)
Today’s customers – and those of the future – expect more

“GIVE ME
MORE VALUE in
real-time”
“Make it easy”
“Engage me”
“Be
Consistent”
“Know my
history”
“earn my trust”
“understand
my needs”
“reward me”
Generation Y and Z (Digital Natives)

WHAT’S REQUIRED
TO MEET ALL THOSE
EXPECTATIONS?

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eCommerce Market Trends

What is the opportunity with eCommerce?
Traditional commerce companies must embrace digital transformation
eCommerce is growing but is
only 16.1% of retail today
eCommerce is growing
15-20% year-over-year
eCommerce
automation is an
accessible reality
Small retailers may see up to
30% higher mobile conversion
rates compared to large
retailers.
International
eCommerce remains
largely untapped
On average, millennials
now make 54% of
purchases online (versus
49% of non-millennials).

eCommerce Market Trends 2020-2025
eCommerce
D2C
Direct Online
Eliminate
Middlemen
B2B
Wholesale
Marketplaces
Multi-Channel
Online
Offline/Retail
Sell on Amazon(Voice)
(Centralized
Warehouses)

Technology Trends influencing eCommerce
Controlled, Managed,
Private Cloud
Environments
Security, Privacy,
GDPR, etc.
DIY and DIFM w/ and
w/o platforms
Hyperscale, Edge,
Multi, Hybrid Cloud
Generation Z and
related UX/CX

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How to get started

Keeping track of stock, and when
to reorder items that have run
low
Paying shipping fees
and following security standards
Paying ongoing checkout or
payment gateway fees (so that
you can accept payments online)
Maintaining and market your
online presence
1
3 7
5
2
4
6
8
Running an online vs an offline retail store
If you already run a physical location, you should be aware of the unique demands that go along with operating an online store, including but not
limited to:

Check your existing setup
Selling online might require to review your existing business setup
DO I NEED TO REGISTER MY ECOMMERCE
BUSINESS OFFICIALLY?
If you offer stuff for sale, and accept money - yes, you
have to be a legal entity. You can't open a bank
account to accept funds without having a tax id
number, and you need to file tax forms (income, sales,
and otherwise).
TAXES…
First, know that every state and country has different
expectations and standards when it comes to taxes.
That means you have to conduct some research and
understand your target market.
TRADEMARKS, PATENTS, AND COPYRIGHTS.
Trademark: A word, phrase, symbol, and/or design
that identifies and distinguishes the source of the
goods of one party from those of others.
Patent: A limited duration property right relating to an
invention, granted by the United States Patent and
Trademark Office in exchange for public disclosure of
the invention.
Copyright: Protects works of authorship, such as
writings, music, and works of art that have been
tangibly expressed.
PAYMENT GATEWAYS
When you’re vetting payment gateways, just be sure
to ask if they have any limitations around certain
products.
LICENSES AND PERMITS.
Depending on which product you decide to offer, you may
need a license to sell it.
Many online sellers are having their products removed or get
sued as a result of compliance or lack of compliance with
FINMA, FDA or other regulations.

Market
Research
01 Personas, needs, values,
interests, be specific!
Target Customers
03 New niches, new
generations, new
demands, micro
opportunities
Market Needs
02 Past, present, future,
macro opportunities
Industry Trends
Market Research &
re-thinking your business
model(s)
Some of your competitors might be already
online…

Research your competition (online – often via Google!)
Who is the clear dominant player in the space?
How many competitors are in your market?
What are your competitors' biggest strengths?
What are your competitors' biggest weaknesses?
What do I miss in our business?

Develop a Messaging/Positioning Framework- BE DIFFERENT
Word1
- Supporting Agrument
Word2
Word3
Plus:
- About us in 50 words (twitter friendly)
- About us in 100 words
- About us in 250 words

Develop a Messaging/Positioning Framework – EXAMPLE: WINE SHOP
Exclusive
- Only high-quality suppliers
- Special selection process
Organic
- Zero chemical components
- Only certified wines
Reliable
- Delivery within 2 days guaranteed
- Discounts through Subscription
Plus:
- Short: Our wine shop delivers exclusive,
organic wine from only high-quality suppliers.
Reliable with 2 days shipping guaranteed
- Longer: Our wine shop delivers exclusive,
organic wine from high-quality suppliers. A
special selection and certification process
ensures zero chemical components. We
deliver within 2 days guaranteed and also
offer attractive subscriptions.

Creating a Brand Guide
KICK OFF YOUR BRAND STYLE
GUIDE WITH A GREAT BRAND
STORY
Mission Vision Core Values
USE LOGO GUIDELINES TO
CREATE A RECOGNIZIBLE
BRAND SIGNATURE
Outline proper usage
¨ of logo to ensure it's instantly recognizable. It's a good idea to include:
•Clear space rules
•Acceptable color variations
•Minimum logo sizes
•Logo "don’ts"

Specify the type hierarchy used by your brand, including what styles, sizes
and weights are used for what specific purpose.
INCLUDE YOUR BRAND'S COLOR
PALLETE
FIND YOUR
BRAND VOICE
OUTLINE YOUR TYPOGRAPHY
SYSTEM
Make it easy for designers to find your core
brand colors by includin the color palette with
hex codes and RGB values, and add shades
and tints if they're used often.
Ensure you create messaging that resonates with your audience. Give some
examples of appropirate writing tone, and contrast some "words you like"
with "words you don't like".
Creating a Brand Guide
INCLUDE YOUR IMAGERY
GUIDELINES
If your brand uses illustrations and photographs, make sure to give some
examples for style, concept and composition in order to keep your
imagery on-brand.

Branding: Color Palettes
Color is very important in branding and marketing because it is where first impressions of customers are based.
Emotions are powerful and (whether we like it or not) drive our decision making. As a brand, you want to cultivate a strong emotional connection
with your customers.
Here are the most common areas you’ll be using your branding colors:
•Logo
•Website
•Storefront
•In-Store-Design (offline)
•Advertisement
•Visuals
•Social Media Presence
•Staff Uniforms
By using the same colors in all your business ventures, you strengthen your brand’s association with those colors, and by extension strengthen
brand awareness as a whole.
Choose potential color palettes

Branding: Typography
This is another form of non-verbal messaging you are
sending out about your brand. Your typographic
palette helps to tie all communications together, from
the copy on your website, direct mail through to your
logo; creating brand consistency and memorability.
Remember:
• Less is more
• 1 Font type only
• Just a few font size variations, not many!
• Be consistent! Offline and online/digital!

Think about a name for your online store
Keep it short and simple
• Try different combinations of short words
• Make up a word or tweak an existing one
• Use a word with personal meaning
Be different
• Conduct market research to
discover which names are taken
• Pick a name that reflects your niche
and the type of products you're
selling
Consider your online presence
• Find out if your chosen domain is available to be registered
• Check your business name idea on popular ecommerce sites to make sure
the names are available to you

Pick an eCommerce platform
Similarly to how iOS or Android are the operating systems of your phone, an eCommerce platform is the operating system of your store.
There are two major types of eCommerce solutions/platforms available in the market:
• Strong vendor lock-in, highly dependent on the platform
• No coding knowledge required
• No web hosting required
• No technical team required (limited)
Top 5 SaaS-based eCommerce platforms:
• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• Squarespace
• Volusion
• MyCommerce (Switzerland)
SaaS (shared cloud) based eCommerce platforms
• Get absolute control over your site and business, no lock-in
• Less recurring charges as in SaaS-based solutions.
• Get higher scalability and customizability on the website and
shop
Top 5 open-source & self-managed cloud
eCommerce platforms
• WordPress & WooCommerce plugin – clear winner
• Shopware
• Magento
• PrestaShop
• Opencart, XT Commerce etc.
• Drupal Commerce plugin
Open-source & self-managed cloud eCommerce platforms
More on that later and how you can get up and running together with an agency..

Everyone knows WordPress, more know WooCommerce
35% of all websites run on WordPress
60% of CMS market belongs to WordPress
Huge ecosystem with 55,000+ plugins and a
vast community of developers and users
And over 1M Developers/Designer (Agencies) – in case you need to switch to a new one…
40% of all Shops run on WooCommerce
100% open source – run it wherever you want
Huge ecosystem with 6,000+ plugins and a vast
community of developers and users

What to look for in any eCommerce platform you choose
The decision to choose between the two platforms depend
entirely on your needs and skill level. But, if you ask me, I would
rather go for WordPress with WooCommerce.
SEO Friendliness
Platform Scalability
Mobile friendliness
Product Management System
Security features, Compliance to Swiss Market
and Data Protection (GDPR or Swiss or both)
Order Management System
Return Management System
Multi-channel Integration – B2C, B2B,
Offline
Pick an eCommerce platform

A few words on compliance, especially GDPR and PCI…
GDPR is short for General Data Protection Regulation.
Adopted in April 2016, GDPR creates rules for how all
European residents’ data must be managed. GDPR took
effect in May 2018 and impacts the handling of data
pertaining to everything from medical history to financial
records to internet activity.
Regardless of where you are based, GDPR applies to all
companies that offer products or services to consumers
in Europe.
Make sure to get clear consent.
be easily accessible from
every single page of your
website;
Collect only the necessary.
be visible and not obscured
by with coloring or
positioning
Be open about your
GDPR compliance.
use a commonly used
term such as
‘Privacy Policy’ or ‘Privacy’
or ‘Data Protection Notice’.
Be transparent and honest.
1. Lawfulness, fairness and transparency
2. Purpose limitation
3. Data minimization
4. Accuracy
5. Storage limitation
6. Integrity and confidentiality (security)
7. Accountability
GDPR and Data protection
The Seven Principles of the GDPR
GDPR Compliance Checklist Privacy Policy
If you operate an ecommerce site, PCI compliance is
mandatory.
The PCI Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) includes general
practices, such as restricting cardholder information and the
need for creating safe, non-default passwords, as well as more
in-depth practices like encryption and the use of a firewall.
The PCI Security Standards Council is a global organization
formed by major credit card companies, including Visa,
Mastercard, Discover, and American Express.
It is not dictated by the volume of transactions or restricted solely
to storage, transmission, and processing;
it applies to any business that allows credit card payments.
Even if you leverage third-party services like Stripe,
Recurly, PayPal, or another secure payment option, you
have an obligation to follow the requirements as set forth
by PCI DSS.
PCI Compliance
Checklist of important items to be compliant to:
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
• Personal Data.
• Transport Layer Security (TLS), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and
HTTPS authentication.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA), 2-factor authentication (2FA), or 2-
step verification (2SV).
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).
• Malware and ransomware.

Extend your business with more functionality like B2B
Remember there were 6000+ Plugins available for WooCommerce alone! Here an example for the German/Swiss market and even
B2B markets!
Plugin

Or subscriptions… e.g. a wine subscription maybe?
Remember there were 6000+ Plugins available for WooCommerce alone! Here an example for building up subscriptions:
Plugin

Few words on managing your logistics and warehouse
WAREHOUSE
• Think about a centralized warehouse – especially if you have multiple retail stores. It will be your center for
your online shop and all your retail stores.
• Only put the best-selling items in your retail store – the rest is available from the central warehouse only
• Offer combinations of shop online -> pick up in store or shop online -> return in store or vice versa.
• Consider a highly digitized warehouse & shipping provider. Most shop solutions have ready-made
gateways to integrate with them.
• Make sure your online store, retail store and ERP (if any) use the same database and are in sync!

Your
Brand
Your Future:
Multi-Channel

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The right Cloud &
Technology for
eCommerce

..sold to you as a subscription or in a consumption model.. Pay only for what you use. Private and self-managed environments available. Many studies
proof that hyperscale cloud based models are more secure and more scaleable than on-premise approaches.

Depending on your existing knowledge, you might decide for how much you want to manage yourself vs what others are
managing for you – based on a cloud computing based approach that consists of:

CPU
RAM
98%
100%
SHARED SERVER
99% of today’s webhosting companies are trying to sell you a so-called shared hosting account..
…where you sit on the same machine as 999 other customers or even more! This is not
recommended for eCommerce!

SHARED HOSTING CLOUD
× On the same server with
100s or even 1000s of
others
× Usually sold by so-called
“webhosting companies”
× Often limited in
performance if you have
peaks in number of users
(f.e. during corona)
× Price is between 10 and 25
CHF/month
× Better for simple websites
and blogs, but not for
eCommerce
✓ Use global cloud platforms
with your own server and
f.e. Plesk at one click
✓ Examples are Amazon AWS,
Google, Microsoft or
DigitalOcean
✓ Google & Microsoft have
also Swiss Data centers
✓ Between 25 and 100
CHF/month, virtual private
server
✓ Optional up-scale to
complex infrastructures for
high traffic sites
✓ Often manage by an agency
or MSP, not «webhosting
companies»

WordPress & WooCommerce Shop lifecycle from technical perspective in 2020
Auto-install WordPress
+ plugins & themes
Secure Create Content
Create Staging
Update Content
Sync to Production
Update
first on staging, test, then
sync to production

The Plesk WordPress Toolkit
One-click
& automatic deployment
with custom set of plugins
Automatic securing
with ability to apply additional
security measures to many
instances at once. And at all
levels.
Quick staging & sync back
+ easy configuration of the
staging: password protection,
debug, search engine indexing
Automatic smart updates
that verify that update won’t
break the website

Plesk WordPress Toolkit (also available for cPanel soon)

Security by design and by default is at the core of all our platforms

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Selecting an agency

Become successful as an agency to drive eCommerce at SMBs
10s of Millions of SMBs
100s of 1000s of Web Professionals
(Agencies, small MSPs)
SMB Website & Shop
(Digital Transformation)
Content, SEO, Paid
Ads, mobile
Social Media,
Events, Offline
need Digital Marketing & Digital Transformation for their business. The
website is one of the last places where you have «control».
I need easy to use cloud based tools
I need to build a website or shop for my SMB customer
I need website hosting – fast, secure, scaleable
I have no time as I need to focus on marketing services
I need to make money, so I need to automate as much as
possible and can’t spend time on «tech stuff»
I may want to grow my hosting business (divison) through
automated tools.
consume/manage
Self-Service Website Creation Platforms as SaaS Services from Webhosting companies Hyperscale Cloud + Tools
Requirements:
consume/manage
Tools on Marketplaces
(SMB IT
Services)
????? - limited ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

in-house VS the agency model
Why partner with an agency or web professional for your eCommerce business
VS
higher costs
Building up a digital marketing team
can be very cost intensive
long ramp-up
Digital marketing and selling on
online are taking years to learn
higher risk
in case your products are not selling
well, you sit on a large cost block
lower costs
think big, start small and scale fast,
at very low costs
scale fast
With our team of specialists, you
can scale from day 1
low/medium risk
Long experience in product research
on Amazon and will make sure, you
only sell the products that actually
sell.

Make sure the agency does not (only) charge for the time..

Costs
Ideally, an agency is ready to share the risk but also a small part of the reward – to build a
long term partnership.

Often, a Build-Operate-Transfer Model is ideal to have a smooth learning
curve. E.g. 1-year agreement, after that – smaller maintenance fees and
cancel anytime
Build Operate Transfer

Costs
Ideally there is a reasonable balance between price and value

Case Study + Demo
(happened to me personally over the Easter Weekend)

CASE STUDY – Base Line
A Small Wine shop in Zurich, Switzerland:
- 4 employees full time, including owner and wife
- Few Million CHF Revenue per year with 300+ Products
- Selling in a small retail shop in the city center
- 80% of revenues are sold through restaurants - B2B
- Most of B2B customers order via telephone, fax or sometimes
eMail – very time consuming and error-prone
- Have a website, but it looks like 1999
- Lost 100% of the business during Corona Crisis. Retail shop
closed, Restaurants also. 

CASE STUDY – Results
Setup:
✓ a new WordPress & WooCommerce based Website, took over existing limited data
✓ Plugins used: WooCommerce (free), B2B Market, WooCommerce Subscriptions, Elementor Pro
Page Builder, Caching Plugin, Hosted on a Plesk virtual machine on DigitalOcean (Frankfurt),
Payment via Datatrans (inclues Twint, CC, Apple and Google Pay). Used One of 3 pre-defined
wine shop templates (no need to re-invent the wheel)
✓ Costs: ~ 5k Setup, 5k recurring per year
New business processes:
✓ Educated in WordPress and WooCommerce
✓ Both, B2C and B2B customers can order online
✓ B2B Customers have pricing on per customer level and tiered pricing, all online
✓ Launched a Wine Subscription for B2C and B2B (was not there before)
✓ Time to prepare: 12 h
✓ Time to implement: 12 h
✓ Model: Build – Operate – Transfer, can take over management after education

(almost) survived corona – but for sure the next one ☺
Sells online more than before!
Now invests in scaling the business
through digital marketing ☺

Zero to Digital Transformation in 24h ☺

Thank you!
www.linkedin.com/in/lukashertig lhertig@plesk.com

B2C and B2B eCommerce and Shops for SMEs and Agencies in 24h

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