With U.S. e-commerce activity approaching 10% of all retail sales, more merchants are shopping around for easy-to-use platforms that get them selling online quickly.随着美国电子商务交易相似零售总额的10%,更加多的商家开始找寻既好用又能老大他们较慢售出商品的电商平台。Plenty of technology companies are angling for a piece of the action, from established players such eBay’s Magento , IBM , and NetSuite to smaller developers including Shopify and Volusion. But relative underdog Bigcommerce is stealing mindshare and market share, fueled by more than $75 million in venture capital, including $40 million from entrepreneur Steve Case’s Revolution Growth firm.从eBay的Magento电子商务系统、IBM和NetSuite等知名企业到规模较小的Shopify和Volusion等,很多科技公司都期望借此分一杯羹。
但比较冷门的Bigcommerce正在悄悄引起注目并盗取市场份额。它更有了多达7,500万美元的风投资本,其中4,000万美元来自企业家史蒂夫o凯斯的Revolution Growth公司。
In the past six months alone, the Australian-born company fortified its senior executive ranks with high-profile hires from Amazon, PayPal, Google, and Twitter. It brokered a high-profile deal with Magento, the market leader, that promises to bring thousands of new customers to it. And it broke the lease on its new San Francisco office because it is hiring so quickly that it now needs triple the space it originally anticipated.仅有过去6个月,这家问世于澳大利亚的公司大大从亚马逊(Amazon)、贝宝(PayPal)、谷歌(Google)和Twitter挖角,其高管团队的实力由此大大强化。同时,它还与行业领导者Magento公司签订了一项倍受注目的协议,后者允诺将为该公司引进数以千计的新客户。它最近撤消了旧金山新的办公室的租约,由于人员扩展十分慢,如今公司必须的办公空间已是当初预期的3倍。“It’s eerie how similar this space is to CRM when Marc Benioff launched Salesforce.com,” said Mitch Harper, who co-founded the company in 2009 with co-CEO Eddie Machaalani. “The parallels are uncanny.”“有些怪异的是,这跟马克o贝尼奥夫创办Salesforce.com时的情形十分相近,这点地方显然过于专门从事客户关系管理(CRM)用于,”米奇o哈珀回应。
他与联席CEO艾迪o马查拉尼在2009年创办了这家公司。This year, online storefronts will generate an estimated $294 billion, or approximately 9% of all U.S. retail sales, according to forecasts by Forrester Research. By 2018, e-commerce will account for more than 11% of the total, or approximately $414 billion, with transactions made with tablets and smartphones accounting for about 20% of the online total, Forrester projects.根据弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester Research)的预测,今年美国网络商店的销售额将超过2,940亿美元,大约为全国零售总额的9%。据弗雷斯特预计,到2018年,电子商务将占全美零售总额的11%,大约4,140亿美元,其中通过平板电脑和智能手机展开的交易大约占到线上销售额的20%。
Until now, the appeal of Bigcommerce’s eponymous technology has been simplicity and its ability to scale along with merchants as they grow. “To some, this will mean the difference between success and failure,” said Steve Case, who as a board member advises Bigcommerce on U.S. entrepreneurial trends. “Even just five years ago, if you wanted to create a compelling offering, it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, you can get up and running in hours for less than $100 per month.”迄今为止,Bigcommerce同名技术的吸引力就在于其非常简单性,以及与商户实时茁壮的能力。史蒂夫o凯斯说道,“对于一些人来说,胜败即系由于此。”凯斯以公司董事的身份为Bigcommerce获取美国创业趋势方面的建议。
“就在五年前,如果要打造出一家有吸引力的网店,你必须花费几十万美元。如今,几个小时就可以搞定,每月成本还将近100美元。”Bigcommerce does particularly well among small retailers generating $1 million to $2 million in annual revenue, although its following with those in the $20 million to $30 million range is growing quickly. Roughly 70% of its existing customer base also runs a bricks-and-mortar store. For the past year, the developer has worked hard on responsive storefront templates that work equally well on mobile platforms and desktops—design is the number-one consideration for small e-commerce merchants, it says—and on relationships with partners of “adjacent” cloud services from the accounting, payments, customer relationship management, and payroll management worlds.Bigcommerce在年销售额100万到200万美元的小零售商中大受欢迎。
如今年销售额2,000万到3,000万美元的零售商群体也在很快重新加入Bigcommerce。它约70%的现有客户同时享有线下实体店。过去一年,Bigcommerce大力研发可同时应用于移动平台和桌面电脑的自适应店铺模板(Bigcommerce指出,设计是小型电子商户的头等考量),并大力扩展“邻接”云服务的合作伙伴关系,比如会计学、缴纳、客户关系管理和薪酬管理领域。
“It comes down to answering these questions: how do you continue to iterate the platform, how do you continue to augment the team, and how do you build a tapestry of alliances with partners that will accelerate your growth?” Case said.“这可以归结3个问题:怎样推展平台大大升级,怎样之后增强团队,怎样打造出与合作伙伴的一系列联盟,以加快自身茁壮?”凯斯回应。As of mid-July, there were about 50,000 stores running on Bigcommerce, which have collectively sold close to $4 billon using the platform. The developer has typically added new customers one-by-one. However, a deal it struck in early July with eBay positions its service as the preferred migration path for two Magento products that will be discontinued in February 2015, Go and ProStores. Bigcommerce previously migrated more than 5,000 merchants off ProStores, and the deal could potentially bring up to 10,000 more.截至7月中旬,大约有50,000家商店在Bigcommerce上运营,平台总计销售额近40亿美元。Bigcommerce的客户一般来说是一个一个积累一起的。
但7月初,它与eBay签订了一项协议,eBay从2015年2月将停止使用的两款Magento产品Go和ProStores优先迁入至Bigcommerce。在此之前,ProStores有数5,000多家商户迁入至Bigcommerce。
此项协议有可能再行带给多达10,000家商户。Although the timing is purely a coincidence, it can’t hurt that Magento’s first product manager, Tim Schulz, just joined Bigcommerce as senior vice president of product management. Most recently a strategic partnership and business development executive for Google for services such as Shopping Express and Wallet, Schulz will be sharply focused on ensuring Bigcommerce offers an integrated experience that better straddles the e-commerce and physical retail worlds. “Consumers just want a seamless experience,” he said.也许纯粹是凑巧,但Magento首位产品经理蒂姆o舒尔茨也刚重新加入Bigcommerce,兼任产品管理高级副总裁。
舒尔茨近年来兼任谷歌Shopping Express、Wallet等服务的战略合伙和商业发展高管,未来将专心于Bigcommerce的一站式体验,将电子商务和实体零售更佳地融合一起。“消费者想无缝化体验,”他说道。For co-founder Harper, a top priority for the next 12 months is shoring up Bigcommerce’s internal technical talent and creating services that help merchants build closer customer relationships. One example is offering data that helps store managers track “abandoned carts” and offer deals that help turn browsers into buyers. This can help merchants quickly add 15% to their monthly sales, he said.对于联合创始人哈勃,未来12个月的第一要务是增强Bigcommerce的内部科技人才队伍,获取需要协助商户建构更加密切客户关系的服务。一个例子是提供数据,协助店铺经理跟踪“被弃置的购物篮”,以及获取需要将浏览者改变为买家的交易。
这能推展商户的月销售额很快减少15%,他说道。“If we can identify someone who buys in both places, there is huge value there. You know who they are, what they bought, what they spent,” Harper added. “You can give them a more personalized experience.”“如果我们能寻找在两个地方都购物的人,那就十分有价值。你告诉他们是谁,他们卖什么,他们哪些方面花钱,”哈勃补足说道。
“你可以给他们更为个人化的体验。”Entrepreneur Pat Crowley, the hydrologist who invented the Chapul cricket protein bar, used Bigcommerce to validate early interest in his products and build the momentum to negotiate deals with health food stores and supermarkets. The team recently recommitted toBigcommerce, despite a compelling opportunity to switch to the Shopify platform for far less money. “We don’t think we will outgrow them anytime soon,” he said.曾发明者Chapul蟋蟀蛋白篮的创业家帕特o克劳雷通过Bigcommerce来检验产品的早期市场兴趣,积累市场人气,并且与身体健康食品商店和餐馆协商达成协议交易。
虽然该团队有机会能以较低得多的价格转到Shopify平台,但最近自由选择又一次与Bigcommerce续约。“我们指出,短期内我们的增长速度会多达Bigcommerce,”他说道。
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