Lightspeed POS acquires SEOshop to launches new ecommerce platform

For retailers who need to compete in an increasingly competitive, global retail environment, Lightspeed eCom offers a localised, multi-lingual, multi-currency ecommerce platform. Lightspeeds first offering for online-only merchants also features predictive analytics, full design customisation and the ability to manage complex inventory needs.

Lightspeed will integrate Lightspeed eCom with its Lightspeed Retail cloud-based POS solution, bringing multi-channel retailers an even more robust set of tools to run their entire business from one place. SEOshop is an ecommerce platform in Europe, doubling revenue every year and growing more than 1000% since receiving VC investment from henQ in 2011.

SEOshop currently serves more than 8,000 online merchants including Heineken, Philips Lighting, National Geographic Netherlands and the Van Gogh Museum, all of whom will become Lightspeed eCom customers. As part of the deal, SEOshop CEO Ruud Stelder will join the Lightspeed leadership team as director of global eCommerce revenue, and CTO Dennis Cuijpers will become Lightspeeds director of eCommerce development and architecture.

This news comes in a banner year for Lightspeed. In September 2015, Lightspeed announced US D 61 million in funding. With the acquisition of SEOshop, the company now serves 34,000 businesses in more than 100 countries, processing US $12 billion in annual transactions.

Lightspeed eCom is now an all-in-one ecommerce solution on the market for independent retailers. Merchants now have a customisable solution that enables them to launch their online stores with minimal technical requirements. They can market their products, sell to anyone from anywhere, adapt to international requirements, and analyse customer and store performance data for insights that help drive sales. Features include:

• Advanced Inventory Management: Offers the inventory tools independent retailers need to compete, including the ability to bulk import and export items; set up product variations, bundles and promotions; and feature products by brand or collection.
• Global Sales Capabilities: Supports sales in 14 languages and all currencies; manage inventory, product set-up and currencies across languages with a few clicks. Lightspeed eCom also offers integration with international payments providers and automatically calculates international tax.
  Marketing Suite: Provides a complete set of marketing tools, including SEO optimization, social sharing and a built-in blogging platform.

Lightspeed eCom is now shipping in Europe, with an initial preview available immediately in the US and Canada, whereas the full version of Lightspeed eCom as well as the integration with Lightspeed Retail for US customers is expected to launch in Q1 2016.