Nowadays, every brand is an e-commerce company.
At least that’s the way Tomer Tagrin, CEO of e-commerce marketing startup Yotpo, sees the COVID-19 era, as more companies turn to online to fuel sales amid the quarantine.
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The next few years will be defining for e-commerce as many people opt to stick with online shopping for the long term, Tagrin said in an interview with Crunchbase News. And that means Yotpo needs to be aggressive in some areas–something its new $75 million Series E funding round will certainly help with.
“I do expect e-commerce to continue its trajectory,” Tagrin said. “I do think we’re at the point of no return.”
The new funding was led by existing investor Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from returning investors that include Access Industries and Vertex Ventures. New backer Hanaco also participated in the Series E round, which brings Yotpo’s total funding to $176 million.
The top challenge for commerce brands is making sure consumers have a great experience while shopping, according to Tagrin. With so many applications as part of the e-commerce experience, the problem is things like on-site search don’t work well with email marketing, the review platform, the engagement platform, etc. That disconnect makes it harder for consumers to have a consistent experience.
Yotpo aims to simplify it all by consolidating all those elements on its e-commerce marketing platforms. Brands can use Yotpo to handle marketing elements like SMS marketing and reviews and ratings. As Tagrin put it, Shopify manages a business, while Yotpo manages customers.
The company plans to use the new funding to invest in product and engineering, along with promoting customer success, Tagrin said.
“We wanted to make sure; I think some kind of recession is coming in some shape or form, and we want to be ready for it,” Tagrin said. “We want to be a big company that will last, and on the other hand we want to be aggressive in some areas.”
The company saw its customer base grow 300 percent last year, and its annual recurring revenue grow 250 percent since it last raised money with its $51 million Series D in November 2017, according to Yotpo. The company expects to reach $100 million in annual recurring revenue by early next year, Tagrin said.
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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