Upgates – modern e-shop for rent (Review)

Read this review about the Upgates e-commerce solution and learn what it has to offer and how to create your own e-shop in it.

Currently, there is an incredible amount of e-commerce solutions for your future e-shop.

From services such as Shoptet , through Eshop- rychlo, to giants such as Shopify .

Whether you are a complete beginner or, on the contrary, you are very experienced in creating e-shops, you will surely quickly understand how one platform can differ from another.

In this article, I decided to take a closer look at the Upgates platform – a professional e-commerce platform that has been competing with e-shop solutions both in Slovakia and the Czech Republic for years.

In the following lines, we will therefore take a closer look at what exactly Upgates is, why it is considered a professional tool, as well as its price list along with its additional bonuses that it hides.

At the end, of course, I will also show you how this platform looks in practice, what kind of interface it has and what you can do with it.

What is Upgates?

Upgates is one of the popular platforms for creating e-shops in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which currently boasts more than 1500 active e-shops (and this number is constantly growing every day).

It is about the so-called “hybrid” among e-shop providers, as it offers its clients both tailor-made solutions and so-called “box solutions”.

In practice, it is an e-commerce solution for every entrepreneur who does not want to be limited by anything with his e-shop.

Upgates as a platform is often referred to as an e-shop solution without compromise, which can offer its clients everything they need – from an assortment of web themes , through a pleasant user interface, to technical equipment that you can set exactly according to your wishes.

In addition, Upgates boasts favorable tariffs, or price packages), which contain everything you need to start an e-shop – whether it is web administration and operation, marketing, accounting and invoicing or various add-ons that you can install on your website as part of Upgates.

Upgates was founded by EVici webdesign s.r.o. (based in Ostrava) back in 2003, when this company started creating websites.

Since then, as a brand, it has been trying to develop a reliable e-commerce solution that would serve as a mainstream platform for e-shops at a reasonable price.

Why should you try Upgates?

In general, Upgates is suitable for anyone – whether it is a completely new entrepreneur or a seasoned webmaster of e-shops.

One of the immense advantages of this e-shop platform is the fact that you do not necessarily need to have technical or programming knowledge to start a functional e-shop.

Upgates will solve such problems for you.

It should be noted, however, that Upgates focuses more on medium and larger e-shops, as its price packages may not always be suitable for starting online entrepreneurs.

However, it compensates for its price levels with a perfect system that works 100% even after its purchase.

Upgates price list

Upgates offers 4 packages in its price list – each of them contains all the functions of the platform without restrictions.

The only thing that makes these price packages different from each other is the number of products you can have in the e-shop and the number of language mutations:

• Bronze – you can have 100 products on the e-shop together with 1 language and for 1 user who can manage the e-shop
• Silver – 1000 products with 2 language mutations and for 5 users
• Gold – up to 5000 products, with 5 language mutations with an unlimited number of users
• Platinum – up to an incredible 50,000 products, with an unlimited number of languages and users

In addition to the packages, you can also purchase extra services for an additional fee, such as:

• Multidomain Multishop – for an additional fee you can manage your e-shop under more than just 1 domain
• Regular import of products – this is the possibility of regular import of products from your suppliers and third parties
• Advanced emailing – you can send more than 10,000 messages for a fee
• SMS messages – this is the activation of sending SMS messages from the system
• Paid add-ons – thanks to this service, you can activate add-ons to connect to other services

In addition to paid services, Upgates also offers various bonuses for all tariffs – up to €530.

These are bonuses for platforms such as:

• heureka.sk
• zboží.cz
• glami.cz
• piano
• … and many more

One of the big advantages is the opportunity to try Upgates for 30 days completely free – you simply create an account and for 1 whole month you can play with the settings and see for yourself how this platform looks in practice.

What does Upgates provide?

As Upgates is considered a hybrid e-commerce solution, it is important to remember that it tries to offer e-shop solutions both for individual needs and as a boxed solution that can be used by more than one person.

In principle, Upgates works like a puzzle – you simply assemble an e-shop from its individual parts with a pleasant design, structure, products, etc. – without being a programmer

Of course, if you know CSS, HTML or JS, you can transform your e-shop into a form that suits only you.

Now let’s take a look at some of the great features that Upgates has to offer.

User interface

Upgates mainly focuses on the functionality of its platform, not so much on the appearance and user-friendly interface.

You should also approach the administration of your website with this mindset – the main menu itself is one big table full of information and numbers that inform you about the general state of your e-shop.

For the less experienced, you always have a hint at your disposal that will explain what the given part of the interface is for.

One of the big pluses is how Upgates has solved the part with products – you have each product classified into a certain category, which you simply unzip.

You can create categories yourself and combine products together according to your requirements.

As for optimization for web browsers (SEO), Upgates of course covers basic settings such as URLs, title tags, descriptions (meta description) and so on.

In addition, this platform can also help you with automatic SEO optimization , thanks to which you can save a lot of time.

Appearance and “Designer” module

Designer is a module that can help its user quickly and easily create a graphic design for a given website.

Thanks to this, you can create your own unique e-shop look that will stand out from the rest.

Within the Designer module, you can configure practically everything – from appearance, colors, visual elements, etc. – everything depends (and falls) only on your imagination.

Upgates basically offers 10 themes , or looks that you can apply to your e-shop.

With the help of these variants, you can also create a countless number of your own versions of the design.

Thanks to this, you can stand out from the competition and create an appearance and šablón for your website exactly according to your ideas and imagination.

Editing šablón for the e-shop is very easy for the user – you just choose one, decide on its layout on the website, and you can start transforming it.

If you have at least a little creative imagination, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to create a beautiful and useful šablón that will make your e-shop look great.

If you’re worried that your edits would turn a nice šablóny into a clumsy monster, don’t worry – Upgates has also thought about the user experience when creating your own šablóny and won’t allow you to over-decompose the šablón .

After creating the šablóny , you can of course always see how your e-shop would look in it on different devices – from smartphones to computers.

Linking with third parties

However, an e-shop as such is not just a closed website on some platform – it is also a connection with other add-ons, activities and systems that are necessary for the operation of the e-shop and which facilitate its management.

Based on this, it is also necessary to look at how Upgates solves compatibility with other tools – we can say that it dealt with this problem perfectly.

Upgates will help you easily connect to practical services that are associated with e-shops, such as complaints, importing goods (courier and other services) or even connecting the e-shop to your bank.

It goes without saying that the e-shop is compatible with payment gateways, accounting services, etc.

As for online marketing and measurement tools, Upgates does not forget fundamental tools such as services from Google (Google Analytics, GSC, etc.), affiliate services, comparison services, etc.

Dropshipping service

If you don’t know what dropshipping is, we can first briefly explain it:

Dropshipping is a way of doing business, thanks to which you as an entrepreneur do not take full responsibility for the products on your e-shop.

In dropshipping, you basically send a document or a file from the product supplier that contains all the necessary information about the goods that you will sell on your e-shop.

However, the goods themselves are kept in stock by the supplier (not you), who also packs and ships the goods, or handles the complaint.

If a customer buys such goods through your e-shop, you as an intermediary will receive a certain share of the sale (margin) – that is, your only task is to ensure that the potential customer gets to your e-shop and buys the given product.

Upgates also covers this way of selling, as it is possible to import files with products to your e-shop.

However, a small minus is that you can import files with products from suppliers for free only once, regular product imports are already a paid service.

A wide spectrum of transport

Since Upgates is an e-commerce solution that was created in the Czech Republic, you will have no problem connecting your e-shop to the electronic record of sales (EET) in the Slovak and Czech languages as well as to various types of product transport.

As part of transport, Upgates covers all fundamental carriers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, such as:

• ppl
• GLS
• Slovak POST OFFICE
• Czech Post
• DPD
• … and many more.

Legislation and marketplace

Upgates does not forget e-shops, which have a really wide coverage and send their goods outside the Czech and Slovak Republics.

Within the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic, Upgates provides modules for issuing EET receipts, as well as solves the GDPR problem on websites.

We should also not forget the Upgates Academy – it is an educational center that tries to help entrepreneurs grow together with their e-shops using various advice and tips in the field of online trading, marketing or even exporting and storing goods.

In addition, Upgates also provides so-called Marketplace – an advertising service where you can hire specialists from various online industries – be it SEO, marketing, graphic design or consulting and support – in this place you can find the people you will definitely need for your e-shop.

customer support

Upgates provides its clients with very good support – whether it is direct contact with support, or through the help center or even through help.

In this regard, we can say that Upgates really cares about its customers.

In case of any problems or ambiguities, you can contact support through several media:

• Chat – you can write directly to support, which is available during working days.
• Consultation – in certain cases, you can schedule a video call and consultation with specialists who will train you and guide you through the settings on the e-shop, or help you with technical problems.
• Support form – a system with tickets, which you can use to establish contact with technical support.
• Facebook advice – a Facebook group where you can exchange advice and experiences about e-shops on the Upgates platform with other members.

Apart from these media, however, you also have a variety of video guides and hints available.

Upgrades vs. competition

Upgates is a very strong opponent compared to competing platforms, and it is quite difficult to evaluate which of the e-commerce solutions is the best:

• Shoptet – as a popular e-shop platform, it features excellent UX at very similar prices to Upgates (in addition, Shoptet offers a few more šablón than Upgates). In this case, it is rather important to look at whether you are comfortable with a simpler interface for beginners (Shoptet) or if you need an all-in-one solution specific to a large e-shop (Upgates)
• Eshop-rychlo – compared to Upgates, I have slightly lower price plans, which may discourage some people from buying a plan in Upgates. In addition, when it comes to appearance, Eshop offers over 25 responsive šablón .

Instructions on how to create an e-shop through Upgates

If you want to try this platform before buying, the procedure for creating an e-shop is very simple – go to the Upgates home page and click on the ” Create e-shop ” button.

Subsequently, a window will appear where you just fill in the name of your e-shop and the registration email:

After registration, you will go to the page where you will have to fill in basic data about you and your e-shop (such as e-shop name, language, password, contact information, etc.):

After filling in the data, you will be able to log in to your account and the administration menu for the first time:

In the administration menu, you will have everything about your e-shop available – from a daily overview of orders, sales, etc. right down to the menu with products, settings, marketing, etc.

Let’s take a look at some important items and settings that you will need when starting your first e-shop.

1. Basic settings

In the administrative overview, click on the item ” Settings ” in the menu on the left – this will take you to the basic settings for your e-shop.

In this section you will be able to play with several important things such as:

• Cookies
• VAT
• Watermarks
• Languages
• Currencies

In the case of orders, you will be able to deal with payments and invoicing as well as order status and shipping in this section.

In addition, you will be able to set data about products, categories or certain information for customers, etc.

2. Appearance and šablóna

When choosing and creating a design for your website, go to the menu on the left in the administration window and click on the item ” Graphics ” – from there you can go to the “Designer” section, where you will set the appearance of your e-shop:

When you start this tool for the first time, you will see a welcome/help window with a video – after clicking it, you will get to the preset graphics.

Here you can choose the u šablón you like the most and start editing it:

Editing šablóny in the Designer module is very user-friendly and intuitive – you can simply select any block from the šablóny and edit it by clicking.

Once you’ve created your custom šablóny , simply click the “ SAVE ” button in the lower left corner and your šablóna will be ready!

3. Product settings

You can access the product settings in Upgates in a similar way to the šablóny settings – in the menu on the left, click on the item ” Products ” – you will then see a general overview of the products:

If you would like to add a new product, simply click on the “NEW” button on the right side of the screen.

In the new window, you can then fill in all the necessary information about the product (such as name, manufacturer, condition, EAN, product description, etc.) – finally click on the ” SAVE ” button:

4. Online marketing

In the main menu on the administration page, you also have access to complete online marketing management.

As part of Upgates, you have the opportunity to set various aspects of the promotion of your e-shop, such as:

• Email marketing
• Discounts and coupons
• Rating and reviews
• SEO and social networks
• Guard dog
• … and many more

In the case of SEO, you have at your disposal basic optimization of your products for web browsers (such as optimization of titles, descriptions, headings, categories and URLs) but also technical aspects of SEO such as sitemap or settings in robots.txt

5. Transition to the sharp version

If you decide that you want to start your e-shop “live” and actually start using it, you will first have to fill in the billing data along with some other information.

In the ” My Account ” section of the administration menu, go to the item ” Wallet and finalization “:

Fill in the billing information in this section and choose the tariff that suits you:

Then top up your wallet and go to the domain settings. After completing all the necessary steps, you will be able to start using your e-shop for real.

Tip: Don’t forget that in case of any problems or ambiguities, you always have a help for the available items, where you will learn the details of the Upgates section.

Upgates review – final rating

Upgates is essentially a top e-commerce platform that will suit medium and larger e-shops in particular.

Thanks to its unique functions and the possibility of customizing the website in certain circumstances, it can be recommended especially to professional marketers, or in short to entrepreneurs who are serious about their e-shop.

At the same time, however, it can be a slightly more challenging platform for complete beginners, as its UX interface is not entirely friendly.

As for the Upgates price list – in principle, it can compete with other e-shop solutions such as Shoptet.

Although Upgates is a few euros more expensive, it compensates for its price with a professional approach and accessories.

Perhaps the only minor negative, which will hopefully be resolved in the future, is the very appearance of the interface – compared to Shoptet or Shopify, it looks too technical, almost like a spaceship – which a budding entrepreneur could be a little scared of 🙂

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