The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The online payments provider said it will buy Ecwid, an e-commerce platform for small businesses, for about $500 million, and digital wholesale platform Nuorder for about $425 million.
Lightspeed, which specialises in point of sale and financial services for merchants, said it plans to integrate Ecwid and Nuorder’s services to broaden its offering for customers. Ecwid allows small enterprises to set up and market their businesses online, while Nuorder connects fashion brands with prospective buyers as a digital alternative to traditional showrooms and B2B events such as trade shows.
Both deals are expected to close during the quarter ended September 30 this year, but are not contingent on each other.
This move from Lightspeed comes amid a sustained e-commerce boom driven by the pandemic, as well as an uptick in interest in digital platforms such as Nuorder, which earlier this year closed a $45 million funding round and added Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet to its board. Nuorder generated revenues of over $20 million for the 12 months ended March 31, a 30 percent year-on-year growth, and facilitated over $11.5 billion in orders between some 3,000 brands and 100,000 retailers. Ecwid, which has similar revenue figures, has a reach of 130,000 customers in over 100 countries.
TikTok’s first time sponsoring the glitzy event comes just as the US effectively deemed the company a national security threat under its current ownership, raising complications for Condé Nast and the gala’s other organisers.
BoF Careers provides essential sector insights for fashion's technology and e-commerce professionals this month, to help you decode fashion’s commercial and creative landscape.
The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance overall operations, which would make a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely.
The app, owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance, has been promising to help emerging US labels get started selling in China at the same time that TikTok stares down a ban by the US for its ties to China.