E-commerce management platform CommerceIQ raises $60 million, looks to launch India operations by 2022

摘要： CommerceIQ, a tech platform that helps businesses make entry into e-commerce, has closed its Series C round at a $60 million. The round was led by Shopify-backer Insight Partner, along with participation from Trinity Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Madrona Venture Group.

▲圖片標題(來源：businessinsider)

The California and Bengaluru-based e-commerce management platform helps 2200 consumer brands -- like Kellogg’s, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive and more -- manage their e-commerce operations. Though many of its clients do have their own marketplaces and direct-to-customer (D2C) operations, they only account for a minor portion of their sales.

Therefore, CommerceIQ solely focuses on helping them with sales through established third-party e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Walmart, Shopify and more, which can bring them better results. It ties and automates multiple functions like sales, advertising, supply chain operations, and also drives large scale automations across the e-commerce operation.

Indirect e-commerce sales take on D2C approach

“Most e-commerce happens through indirect commerce [third-party e-commerce platform]. You never go to Colgate.com or Huggies.com or places like that to buy toothpaste or a diaper. You are essentially going to Amazon.com, Walmart.com or in India’s case Flipkart.com. About 85% of the total e-commerce in the US happens through indirect, only 15% happens on direct platform," Guru Hariharan, chief executive officer (CEO) of CommerceIQ told Business Insider.

He further explained that CommerceIQ’s clients use it as a data store for all the necessary data points across sales, marketing, supply chain and more. The company also applies its machine learning algorithms to figure out the trends, apt pricing and anomalies in terms of the business. “We are essentially a machine that plugs into the Amazon and Walmart machine, and drives the growth of these brands on these platforms,” Hariharan added.

The company earns its revenue by renting out its softwares to its customers. It also claims that its software helps its clientele get a 40% boost in their e-commerce sales and 20% higher profits. Hariharan believes that the growth of D2C, which gained momentum over the last year, is going to be capped compared to indirect e-commerce competitors.

Where does India come into play for CommerceIQ?

CommerceIQ was founded in 2012 and has raised about $100 million to date across three funding rounds. It had raised $12 million in Series B and $8.5 million in Series A in 2014.

Majority of CommerceIQ’s operations currently lie in the North American continent, however, it is looking to expand into European as well as Asian markets with the latest fundraise. It is also currently working on some pilot projects in India and plans to launch a holistic operation in the country by 2022, Prasoon Kumar, CommerceIQ’s vice president of engineering and head of India operations, told Business Insider.

All these algorithms and softwares are built in CommerceIQ’s development centre in Bengaluru, Karnataka in India. The centre has a workforce of around 110 people who look into engineering, analytics, data science, machine learning and more. The Bengaluru office also handles product, customer operations and support.

A part of the funding will also be used to double its workforce in the Bengaluru office in the next 18 months. “India is a key and strategic centre for us. We are going long in our investments in India,” Hariharan added.

Besides this, it is also planning to expand its go-to-market by both organic and inorganic means. It will look into setting up operations across international markets in order to boost its sales. On the other hand, it is planning mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to expand its product offerings as well as value for customers.

Talking about CommerceIQ’s integration with its sales process, Surabh Pokhriyal, worldwide director of global digital commerce at Colgate-Palmolive, said automation of its indirect sales has helped the company move forward from manual processes and streamline its e-commerce operations, driving market share and profitability.

轉貼自： businessinsider

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