下一個電商巨頭 Bigcommerce

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.

隨着美國電子商務交易接近零售總額的10%，越來越多的商家開始尋找既好用又能幫他們快速賣出商品的電商平臺。

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.

從eBay的Magento電子商務系統、IBM和NetSuite等知名企業到規模較小的Shopify和Volusion等，很多科技公司都希望從中分一杯羹。但相對冷門的Bigcommerce正在悄悄引發關注並竊取市場份額。它吸引了超過7,500萬美元的風投資本，其中4,000萬美元來自企業家史蒂夫o凱斯的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.

僅過去6個月，這家誕生於澳大利亞的公司不斷從亞馬遜（Amazon）、貝寶(PayPal)、谷歌（Google）和Twitter挖角，其高管團隊的實力由此大大增強。同時，它還與行業領導者Magento公司簽署了一項備受關注的協議，後者承諾將爲該公司引入數以千計的新客戶。它最近撤銷了舊金山新辦公室的租約，由於人員擴張非常快，如今公司需要的辦公空間已是當初預期的3倍。

“It’s eerie how similar this space is to CRM when Marc Benioff launched ,” said Mitch Harper, who co-founded the company in 2009 with co-CEO Eddie Machaalani. “The parallels are uncanny.”

“有些詭異的是，這跟馬克o貝尼奧夫創立時的情形非常相似，這點地方根本不夠從事客戶關係管理(CRM)使用，”米奇o哈珀表示。他與聯席CEO艾迪o馬查拉尼在2009年創立了這家公司。

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.

根據弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester Research)的預測，今年美國網絡商店的銷售額將達到2,940億美元，約爲全國零售總額的9%。據弗雷斯特預計，到2018年，電子商務將佔到全美零售總額的11%，約4,140億美元，其中通過平板電腦和智能手機進行的交易約佔線上銷售額的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.”

迄今爲止，Bigcommerce同名技術的吸引力就在於其簡單性，以及與商戶同步成長的能力。史蒂夫o凱斯說，“對於一些人來說，成敗即繫於此。”凱斯以公司董事的身份爲Bigcommerce提供美國創業趨勢方面的建議。“就在五年前，如果要打造一家有吸引力的網店，你需要花費幾十萬美元。如今，幾個小時就可以搞定，每月成本還不到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在年銷售額100萬到200萬美元的小零售商中大受歡迎。如今年銷售額2,000萬到3,000萬美元的零售商羣體也在迅速加入Bigcommerce。它大約70%的現有客戶同時擁有線下實體店。過去一年，Bigcommerce大力開發可同時應用於移動平臺和桌面電腦的自適應店鋪模板（Bigcommerce認爲，設計是小型電子商戶的頭等考量），並積極拓展“相鄰”雲服務的合作伙伴關係，比如會計、支付、客戶關係管理和薪酬管理領域。

“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.

“這可以歸結爲3個問題：怎樣推動平臺不斷升級，怎樣繼續強化團隊，怎樣打造與合作伙伴的一系列聯盟，以加速自身成長？”凱斯表示。

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，約有50,000家商店在Bigcommerce上運營，平臺累計銷售額近40億美元。Bigcommerce的客戶通常是一個一個累積起來的。但7月初，它與eBay簽署了一項協議，eBay從2015年2月將停用的兩款Magento產品Go和ProStores優先遷移至Bigcommerce。在此之前，ProStores已有5,000多家商戶遷移至Bigcommerce。此項協議可能再帶來多達10,000家商戶。

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.

或許純粹是巧合，但Magento首位產品經理蒂姆o舒爾茨也剛剛加入Bigcommerce，出任產品管理高級副總裁。舒爾茨近年來擔任谷歌Shopping Express、Wallet等服務的戰略合夥和商業發展高管，未來將專注於Bigcommerce的一站式體驗，將電子商務和實體零售更好地結合起來。“消費者想要無縫化體驗，”他說。

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.

對於共同創始人哈勃，未來12個月的第一要務是強化Bigcommerce的內部科技人才隊伍，提供能夠幫助商戶構建更緊密客戶關係的服務。一個例子是提供數據，幫助店鋪經理追蹤“被丟棄的購物籃”，以及提供能夠將瀏覽者轉變爲買家的交易。這能推動商戶的月銷售額迅速增加15%，他說。

“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.”

“如果我們能找到在兩個地方都購物的人，那就非常有價值。你知道他們是誰，他們買什麼，他們哪些方面花錢，”哈勃補充說。“你可以給他們更加個人化的體驗。”

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.

曾發明Chapul蟋蟀蛋白棒的創業家帕特o克勞雷通過Bigcommerce來驗證產品的早期市場興趣，積攢市場人氣，並且與健康食品商店和超市協商達成交易。雖然該團隊有機會能以低得多的價格轉至Shopify平臺，但最近選擇又一次與Bigcommerce續簽。“我們認爲，短期內我們的增長速度不會超過Bigcommerce，”他說。