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| Today's e-commerce briefing digs into: - BigCommerce's new multi-vendor marketplace capabilities
- ByteDance's efforts to sell its gaming assets
- Mercari's announcement that it will start accepting Bitcoin payments
Enjoy! Gregory
p/Gregory_Bridgman |
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| 1 | | BigCommerce will enable its customers to turn their digital stores into multi-vendor marketplaces. The new offering stems from a partnership between BigCommerce and Marketplacer. More: - BigCommerce and Marketplacer jointly developed BigCommerce Marketplace Connector.
- The partnership combines BigCommerce's software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-commerce platform with Marketplacer's platform for building and expanding online marketplaces.
- BigCommerce Marketplace Connector enables BigCommerce customers to allow third parties to sell products on their websites.
- Marketplace Connector also provides cross-border scalability and offers customers multi-currency and multi-site capabilities.
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| 2 | | ByteDance said it is talking with prospective buyers about selling its gaming assets. The move comes as the Chinese social media company pivots away from the Gaming industry. More: - ByteDance, which owns TikTok, may sell game assets to Tencent, the world's largest video game company.
- The companies are exploring a deal that involves games produced by ByteDance's Nuverse gaming division.
- ByteDance also seeks buyers for Moonton, a gaming unit it acquired in 2021.
- ByteDance announced in November that it would shift away from the gaming industry to refocus on its core businesses.
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| 3 | | Japanese e-commerce platform Mercari will start accepting Bitcoin payments. The platform, one of Japan's largest C2C marketplaces, already provides crypto-related services and products. More: - Mercari will enable users to purchase items with Bitcoin on its platform in June.
- Sellers and vendors will receive Bitcoin payments in local fiat currency.
- Mercari previously rolled out a service that allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin using proceeds from sales on its platform.
- Mercari launched in 2013 and posted a profit of $19.4M (2.8B yen) for Q3 2023.
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| 4 | | Shein's annual revenue is "a lot more" than $30B, according to Authentic Brands Group (ABG) CEO Jamie Salter. Shein does not currently disclose its financials but may soon need to after confidentially filing to go public in the U.S. More: - Salter is familiar with Shein's financial details after ABG entered a partnership with the fast-fashion giant last summer.
- The deal saw ABG acquire a third of Sparc Group, a joint venture that took a minority stake in Shein.
- Sparc operates Forever 21, which is owned by Authentic.
- Salter made his statement about Shein's financials at the ICR conference in Orlando, Florida.
- If Salter is correct, Shein's sales may be larger than those of Zara owner Inditex, which posted revenue of $34.98B (€32B) in 2022.
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| 5 | | What the numbers say: Mercari's gross merchandise volume (GMV) reached $6.01B in (881.6B yen) in fiscal year 2022, a more than three-fold increase from its GMV in fiscal 2017. Founded in February 2013, Mercari operates one of Japan's largest consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplaces. The company's flea market app has over 22 million monthly active users. The company recently announced that it will leverage its crypto exchange subsidiary Melcoin to start Accepting Bitcoin Payments. | | |
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| 6 | | John Merris will step down as CEO of Solo Brands on Jan. 15. Merris will be replaced by Christopher Metz, who previously served as CEO of Vista Outdoor. More: - Metz worked at Vista for over five years and was responsible for its strategic repositioning.
- Vista saw record revenue, profits, and cash flow generation during Metz's tenure.
- Metz takes his new CEO role after Solo failed to meet its direct sales projections in Q4.
- The D2C outdoor lifestyle brand lowered its full fiscal year guidance and now expects revenue of $490M to $500M.
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- Etsy revealed that it uses third-party service provider Vertex to calculate its sellers' sales taxes in different jurisdictions.
- Steve Deckard, Dollar General's executive vice president of growth and emerging markets, is set to transition into an "expanded role."
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| | Gregory Bridgman Writer / Editor | | Gregory Bridgman is a politics and e-commerce researcher with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Master of Science from University College London and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Cape Town. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or drop him an email at [email protected]. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield |
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