A slightly different format for the roundup this week with Roy away. Coverage this week included a partnership between BigCommerce and NetSuite. Also in the news were 8fig, Acquia, CJ Logistics, commercetools, Mercatis, Yotpo and Oracle.
8fig
8fig has raised $140 million in a Series B funding round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies. Existing investors Battery Ventures, Localglobe, Hetz Ventures, the Jesselson family, and Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank, also participated.
Yaron Shapira, Co-Founder and CEO of 8fig, commented, “During this period of economic uncertainty, eCommerce businesses are struggling to reach their full potential. The global macroeconomic challenges we are experiencing make it difficult for eCommerce business owners to access the resources they need to succeed. 8fig provides these online sellers with the financial support and tools necessary to thrive in any economic climate. The latest funding round has proven that the market has great confidence in 8fig and the important role 8fig continues to play in the ongoing growth of eCommerce.”
With the investment, 8Fig aims to invest in small to medium-sized eCommerce businesses. 8fig’s unique AI CFO technology provides fast, continuous funding and serious financial tools for supply chain management, financial planning, and freight and logistics coordination. To date, 8fig has provided online sellers with over $500 million. It increased its client base by 900% and its annual revenue by 800% in 2022. The company has tripled its workforce to 90 people last year.
Isaac (Itzik) Sigron of Koch Disruptive Technologies commented, “8fig’s innovative approach to eCommerce, combined with its strong technology platform and experienced team, gives us great confidence in its potential for growth and success. As eCommerce continues to expand rapidly, we believe that 8fig is well-positioned to address the evolving needs of entrepreneurs in this space. We look forward to working closely with 8fig to support its mission of helping eCommerce businesses thrive and scale.”
Acquia
Acquia has appointed Jennifer Griffin Smith as Chief Market Officer. In this newly created role, Ms Griffin Smith will focus on the needs of customers and partners in the ever-changing digital world, ensuring that Acquia solutions deliver exceptional value today and in the future and that all programs and communications address the unique needs of customers.
Before Acquia, Smith was CMO at Brightcove, Alfresco (acquired by Hyland), Software AG, and Progress Software. Acquia President and CEO Stephen Reny commented, “Jennifer has already established herself as an integral part of the Acquia community as a thought leader at Acquia Engage and as a judge for our Engage Awards.
“Her point of view on how today’s marketing teams can drive business growth, paired with her extensive experience as a B2B marketing practitioner, make her a natural choice as a Chief Market Officer for Acquia. We can’t wait to see the impact she will make on our customers’ success, our own team development, and the market leadership opportunity at Acquia.”
Adobe
Adobe published the Adobe Digital Price Index (DPI), powered by Adobe Analytics, for April 2023. Online prices in April 2023 fell 1.8% year-over-year (YoY). It is the eighth consecutive month of YoY price decreases. Eleven out of eighteen categories tracked by Adobe saw falling prices annually. On a month-over-month (MoM) basis, online prices fell 0.7% in April.
Notable categories for April 2023 include:
- Groceries: Prices rose 9.3% YoY (up 0.4% MoM) but have slowed in the past seven months, rising 10.3% YoY in March, 11.4% YoY in February, 12.6% YoY in January, 13.5% YoY in December, 13.7% YoY in November and 14% YoY in October. Consumers are increasingly buying more groceries online, and this category has generally moved in lock step with the Consumer Price Index.
- Personal Care: Prices were up 3% YoY (down 1.1% MoM). In February 2023, prices for the category rose substantially at 6.1% YoY. This category has seen persistent inflation on a long-term basis, with only a single month since September 2020 that saw prices fall YoY – November 2021 (down 0.9% YoY).
- Appliances: Prices were down 7.1% YoY (down 2.1% MoM), a record YoY drop for the category since Adobe began tracking online prices in 2014. Appliance prices have fallen YoY for seven consecutive months after rising for 29 consecutive months starting in May 2020.
- Sporting Goods: Prices were down 6.4% YoY (up 1.5% MoM), marking 12 consecutive months of YoY price declines for the category. Before this, sporting goods prices rose for 28 consecutive months, starting in January 2020. Price increases peaked in September 2020 at 15.8% YoY, as more consumers stayed home during the COVID-19 pandemic and invested in products such as fitness equipment.
CJ Logistics
CJ Logistics plans to build a Global Distribution Center (GDC) in Saudi Arabia by 2024. It will be located in Riyadh’s Special Integrated Logistics Zone, which the Saudi Government established at King Khalid International Airport to become a global logistics hub. C J Logistics claims it will be KSA’s first dedicated eCommerce logistics facility.
Kang Sin-ho, CEO of CJ Logistics, commented, “The Saudi e-commerce market has the richest growth potential in the Middle East and the geographical advantage of connecting Africa and Europe. We will spare no support for state-of-the-art logistics technology and infrastructure so that the GDC can become a logistics hub that leads the Middle East e-commerce market.”
Commercetools
Commercetools launched commercetools Checkout, a fully customizable payment solution that enables retailers to build fast, easy and customer-preferred checkout experiences without implementation risks.
Ivo Bronsveld, Director of commercetools Checkout, commented, “Almost 70% of consumers abandon their online shopping cart. The checkout experience is distinctly the most critical yet complicated part of the customer journey for businesses to manage. Not only do businesses have to provide an intuitive user interface, but they must also integrate a variety of payment providers and shipping methods, and effectively manage various sales tax regulations. commercetools Checkout reduces this complexity by providing a checkout that has all of the aforementioned components built in. This allows merchants to fully focus on the things that matter the most — building a great shopping experience.”
Commercetools Checkout is quick to implement and includes integrations with payment service providers Worldpay and Adyen. It plans to add more integrations shortly.
Ana Milosevic, Product Lead Payments, Adyen, said, “We are delighted to move forward with this partnership and see this as a great opportunity to bring our advanced payments technology and commercetools’ Checkout to even more merchants. With our combined expertise, we can create a seamless checkout experience that is not only easy for customers to implement, but also helps businesses grow and succeed in the competitive e-commerce landscape.”
Oracle
WH Smith North America (WHSNA), incorporating Marshall Retail Group, is leveraging Oracle’s retail cloud platform to better manage planning and inventory across its 300+ speciality airport and casino stores across the US and Canada.
With Oracle’s AI-backed cloud solutions, the WHSNA planning team can deliver a more accurate inventory plan with optimal assortment, styles and size recommendations, providing the right merchandise in the right brands and locations to create and meet customer expectations.
Josh Bellendir, Chief Information Officer of WHSNA, commented, “We have a great track record of fast and successful implementations with Oracle Retail. We engaged Columbus Consulting to evaluate planning solutions to replace our aging technology, and we chose Oracle and RetSci for their combined retail expertise and speed to market. By choosing a modern, AI-supported platform, we can expand our planning capabilities and streamline business operations while increasing customer satisfaction.”
With the help of Oracle partner BTM Global, WHSNA implemented in-store technology to Oracle Retail solutions in 100 days. It now leverages Oracle Retail Merchandise Financial Planning Cloud Service, Oracle Retail Artificial Intelligence Foundation Cloud Service, and Oracle Retail Analytics and Planning Cloud Services, all hosted by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI).
Mike Webster, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Oracle Retail, commented, “WH Smith North America is one of the first customers to deploy our Oracle retail cloud platform with AI Foundation. With these applications, WH Smith North America can scale data models across its operations and benefit from powerful predictive and prescriptive analytics to better forecast demand, improve inventory accuracy, and reduce markdowns and over-stocks to help increase customer satisfaction and profits.”
Mercatus
Mercatus announced a strategic partnership with Eagle Eye. The combination of Eagle Eye’s customer engagement platform and the Mercatus industry-leading grocery eCommerce platform aims to help grocery retailers deliver more personalized and targeted digital promotions.
Sylvain Perrier, President and CEO of Mercatus, commented, “Mercatus is committed to providing our clients with the best tools and solutions to drive online revenue growth and enhance customer relationships. By partnering with Eagle Eye, we are able to offer our clients cutting-edge customer engagement solutions that will revolutionize their eCommerce experiences and help them stay ahead of the competition.”
Tim Mason, CEO of Eagle Eye, added, “We are excited to collaborate with Mercatus and bring our customer engagement solutions to their impressive roster of grocery clients,” said. “Together, we will enable grocery retailers to build deeper connections with their customers and capitalize on the rapidly evolving first-party eCommerce landscape.”
Yotpo
Yotpo has launched the Yotpo eCommerce Retention Marketing Platform. The full platform consists of Yotpo Reviews, Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals, Yotpo SMS & Email, and Yotpo Subscriptions. Brands can now seamlessly connect these solutions all under the same data and experience stack and leverage innovations to drive, track, and optimize retention.
Tomer Tagrin, Co-Founder & CEO of Yotpo, commented, “If you look at each product standalone, they are all marketing solutions that impact goals beyond retention. The magic happens when you bring these solutions together, and design comprehensive strategies that are anchored around customer loyalty and engaging return buyers. The greatest advantage to our platform is isolating these retention efforts and providing marketers with the ability to measure retention success. Our mission is to help all brands reach 50% of revenue driven by repeat shoppers.”
