Partners and contracts
Found, shortlisted and selected the local partners, and negotiated contracts with the payment gateway (HyperPay), buy-now-pay-later (Tabby) and delivery (Swftbox).
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Case study · JTI, UAE
Ploom.ae: a D2C store from zero to launch.
Ploom needed its own direct-to-consumer store in the UAE. There were no local payment or delivery partners, no order management system and a fixed launch date. As business owner I set the requirements, chose the partners and kept every party moving to one date.
- On datelive as planned, no delays
- EN + ARthe whole store in two languages
- 3partners selected and contracted: payments, instalments, delivery
- 2people run the store today
The setup
Many parties, one date.
The project brought together Accenture as the global agency, JTI global and local IT, partner companies and their developers, and internal legal and brand teams.
My job was to turn the brand's goals into requirements people could build from, make the decisions nobody else owned and keep everyone on one plan.
- Accenture (global agency)
- JTI global IT
- JTI local IT
- Partner developers
- Legal
- Brand team
What I did
Owned the launch end to end.
Order management from scratch
Designed the OMS together with a developer: how orders flow, what every screen looks like, which reports and functions operations need.
Integrations
Connected the Adobe Commerce store with the OMS, payments and delivery, working between global IT, local IT and partner developers.
Arabic version
Ran the translation of the whole store from English into Arabic - a large volume of product, service and legal content.
Store features
Configured login, checkout and the rest of the storefront with IT and Accenture.
Processes
Set up how orders, deliveries and customer questions are handled day to day, so a small team can run the store.
How the pieces fit
- Storefront Adobe Commerce English and Arabic
- Payments HyperPay · Tabby cards and instalments
- Orders OMS designed from scratch
- Delivery Swftbox delivery partner
Beyond the brief
What I proposed and pushed through.
Improvements that were not in the original scope:
- Tabby instalments at checkout
- Abandoned-cart recovery by email, SMS and WhatsApp
- Promo codes for abandoned carts and unfinished orders
- Order-status emails sent from the OMS, which the platform did not provide out of the box
- Custom OMS reports by order and by SKU
- Google Maps listings for the brand's shop-in-shops in malls
- Dozens of smaller process and site fixes
Global programmes such as Ploom Club loyalty and Refer a Friend came from the brand's global team; I helped configure and test them for the UAE.
Result
Live on the planned date.
The store launched on the date set at the start of the project, with no delays. Today it runs with a two-person team, and since February 2026 I also own the brand's paid media.
What the project team says
I had the pleasure of working with Mikhail on the launch of the Ploom.ae website in the UAE, where he served as the business owner for both the website and e-commerce scope. [...] He consistently provided clear business direction, made well-informed decisions, and paid close attention to detail across configuration, features, and content.
During our collaboration, he has always demonstrated a strong sense of ownership, ensuring that deliverables were completed on time and with high quality, even under demanding deadlines. [...] He brings a solid understanding of digital best practices and is able to balance business needs with practical, user-focused solutions.
As an engineer, I really valued how clearly he framed requirements and how well he understood the technical side, including the OMS and integrations. [...] The site was fully ready and launched on time. A strong, technically literate business lead I would gladly work with again.