At WHMCS we aim to maintain and take on the responsibility to be the hosting industry's leading billing automation platform.

Our company's mission is to simplify and automate all aspects of operations for web hosting companies and we continue to follow this mission for our core product. In 2017, we launched an extension of our platform to follow this mission and provide hosting businesses an effortless way to sell complementary products to their customers.

Here at WHMCS, we believe that web hosting consumers are looking to web hosting companies for solutions beyond just hosting. That's why we're always finding new ways for you to provide a more complete web solution to your customers - from web hosting, to SSL, to website security, email, website backup and more.

In April 2017, we launched MarketConnect which makes it easier than ever to sell value-added products all fully automated using WHMCS. Two years later, we're happy to see thousands of WHMCS users taking advantage of this powerful platform that allows them to sell more and earn more from their new and existing customers.
As a hosting business, there are many reasons as to why you're not able to easily expand your product offering. These reasons may include one or more of the following:

• I don't have time to work with more vendors.
• I can't meet minimum requirements or don't want to pay upfront fees or large deposits to get started.
• My starting pricing levels are too high and won't be able to compete with the big brands.
• I am not willing to spend resources integrating new APIs and merchandise a new product because I don't know how well it will sell or how to sell it.
• I'd rather spend development resources on my core offering.

MarketConnect is a platform built into and maintained by WHMCS and we partner with select services providers directly that meet specific requirements. This allows us to negotiate preferred pricing giving our users the ability to make as much margin as their larger competitors.

With 3 clicks a hosting company can quickly enable or disable new services to officially launch or test a service group for their new and existing customer base with minimal risk.

By default, the automated activation will:

• Offer all available services and product levels.
• Setup default recommended retail pricing
• Make available as addons to all hosting products
• Activate promotional and upsell banners within the client area
• Enable a pre-built merchandising and landing page.

All enabled features are customisable and templated so you can choose to personalise them to cater more to your target audience. For a majority of the services available through MarketConnect, resellers have direct access to partner support with that service provider, therefore resellers via MarketConnect can leverage the same support if they were a direct provider.

Finally, our integration is fully automated. Everything from the initial setup of the products/services, to provisioning, renewals, and management is 100% built-in and automated to WHMCS.

For example, when SSL is purchased for a cPanel, Plesk, or DirectAdmin hosting account, MarketConnect will:

Automatically generate the CSR > Submit the CSR to Digicert > Poll and detect when the certificate is issued > Install the certificate to the hosting account.

Selling a domain validated SSL can be purchased and installed in a matter of minutes.
After attending the 2019 WebPros Summit last September, we learned that there are some misconceptions about how MarketConnect works. MarketConnect IS a reseller platform. MarketConnect is NOT an affiliate program. You control your selling price, invoice your customers directly, and maintain the relationships with your customers.

The only requirement for any WHMCS customer to activate and begin selling through MarketConnect is to establish a FREE Marketplace account to manage a reseller balance and to enroll in any available promotions.

Here's how:To activate MarketConnect, begin by navigating to Setup > MarketConnect
Click the Login/Create Account button located within the 'Your Account' panel at the top right of the page.
Create a free Marketplace account using the Create a free WHMCS Marketplace account link OR login if you already have and existing account.
After successfully logging in and associating your account you're now ready to review and activate any product groups to start selling.
Once you have an available points balance, any purchases made from your WHMCS installation by your client or on behalf of your client, MarketConnect will automatically deduct your cost of that service from your points balance real-time.

*When depositing funds, don't forget to review and enroll in available promotions.
For full details on how to get started visit:
https://help.whmcs.com/m/68376/l/726814-quick-start-guide
In April of 2019, 2Checkout released their 2019 Global Digital Commerce Benchmark Study and highlights the continued growth of the subscription-based revenue model.

Some key points:

• Subscription-based products and services continue to rise to 77% of total sales volumes
• Average Order Value grows from $50 to $56
• Up-sells and Cross-sells make up ~15% of all sales on average.
• WHMCS MarketConnect can help your business meet or exceed these benchmarks.

We are continuing to look for ways to improve MarketConnect therefore if you have any feedback or suggestions features or other services you would like to see fully automated and made available for your business, please let us know: https://marketplace.whmcs.com/contact/connect

Or contact me directly Johnny Kim - johnny@whmcs.com .