BigCommerce operates as a doorway to digital payments for large tech firms, and its scale is coming to Walmart just as the retailer expands deeper into financial products.
The challenge in tying advertising, shopping, payments, fulfillment and financial together is these activities often happen in different channels, so merely offering these services isn't enough. By partnering with Ribbit Capital and BigCommerce, Walmart is trying to build bridges that make all of its services operate as one.
"The likelihood that shoppers will stop at one channel and just use that is very low now," said Sharon Gee, a senior director and general manager of omnichannel at BigCommerce. "There has been a move to invest in channel management and back office operations."
The Austin, Texas-based BigCommerce has built a client base by serving as a connection between brands, technology firms and online sellers. Its clients include Ben&Jerry's, S.C. Johnson, Sony, Vodafone and Woolrich.
BigCommerce has connected
BigCommerce will add the Walmart Marketplace as a channel in BigCommerce's Channel Manager, which appears as a menu on the BigCommerce control panel. Channel Manager connects online sellers to other sources like Facebook, Pinterest and eventually eBay as BigCommerce looks to expand its own network against rivals like Shopify and Salesforce.
By connecting natively to all channels, merchants can list products in different venues, accept orders and process payments, instead of routing users for different tasks, Gee said.
"It's a different strategy than we took a few years ago," Gee said, adding the change comes from a need for faster sales and fulfillments for sellers' ad placement. A single cross-channel portal is designed to enable that speed. "The sellers who list their products may have to meet a fulfillment guarantee," Gee said.
At Walmart, sellers and third parties that apply for access to the Walmart Marketplace through BigCommerce are offered shorter review processing and use of Walmart.com to track products, orders, inventory and fulfillment through the same portal. The integration also provides access to cloud technology providers and other firms that support listing, order, inventory management and fulfillment.
The pain point for sellers is the need to get in front of shoppers in a variety of venues that may not be easily available or known to those sellers.
"At Walmart there's a huge opportunity to reach new customers in a place where they are already shopping," Gee said.
Like most retailers, Walmart has added more options to help consumers avoid contact inside stores as it
"There has been a move to invest in channel management and back office operations," said Gee. "There's a need for a unified digital channel strategy for emerging use cases like [buy online/pick up at store]."
Walmart, which did not return a request for comment, recently hired high-profile executives from
"Walmart has offered check cashing and bill pay for years, and it is looking much bigger now," said Ginger Schmeltzer, a senior analyst at Aite Group, adding Walmart's huge store network gives it an advantage over e-commerce-first companies, providing what amounts to branches combined with a growing digital footprint. "Walmart has the ability to build products that can go to a very broad base."
