News
ChannelEngine raises $50M to help retailers sell through marketplaces
ChannelEngine, a platform that helps retailers connect with and sell through more than 200 marketplaces, raises $50M for an operating system that helps retailers sell through marketplaces, Today.
This funding will be used both to continue expanding the number of marketplaces it works with, the number of retailers that it connects to and to build out what the next generation of e-commerce will look like for all of them.
Atomico is leading this round with new investor General Catalyst, plus previous backers Inkef and Airbridge Equity Partners, also participating; Stephan Schambach, the founder of Demandware, Intershop, and NewStore, coming on as an angel investor.
The company was founded in 2013 raised only around $7 million before this round, most recently doubling revenues in the last year on a base of over 450 retailer customers, with the list including the likes of Bugaboo, Staples, JBL, Polaroid, Hunkemöller, Brabantia, Reckitt Benckiser, Bosch, JDE, Electrolux, Philips Domestic Appliances, Signify, Diadora, Glanbia, Oneill, and Safavieh.
ChannelEngine came just when e-commerce became a necessity as the pandemic drove many companies and people to sell and buy online. Amazon has made a massive success in the world of e-commerce by aggregating millions of retailers in one place creates a one-stop-shop for those looking for goods, and retailers can lean on Amazon’s economies of scale not only to sell to those shoppers but to distribute and deliver those products, too.
There is also eBay, Walmart, Zalando, Mercado Libre, AliExpress, Back Market, Shopee, Lazada, Mirakl, Bol.com, Allegro, CDON, Cdiscount, Catch, and even Macey’s is another example of the many other generalists and more localized storefronts out there for retailers to leverage when targeting consumers.
ChannelEngine founder and CEO Jorrit Steinz commented, “They are all becoming marketplaces.”
ChannelEngine is trying to tackle with its platform to set up relationships with each marketplace by providing a set of tools that will help retailers adjust pricing based on the site and audience and what’s selling for what (automated repricing in the vocabulary of the trade), handle their content, stock and order management; and connect with third parties to manage other analytics and delivery.
The company is managing distribution for some 6 million products from 8,100 brands across more than 200 sales channels; in the world of e-commerce, there have been other ways to help smaller retailers navigate growth amid the choppy waters of marketplaces, for example, the rise of Thrasio-style aggregators, e-commerce roll-up plays that promise better economies of scale to smaller brands by way of scooping them up and working with them as a more cohesive, scaled-up group to better leverage sales data, as well as manufacturing and distribution networks.
Steinz mentioned that a number of these are ChannelEngine’s customers: many promises to help their brands sell better on marketplaces, but in a lot of cases, their expertise is more in identifying the most successful retailers and helping them on specific marketplaces like Amazon, not working across multiple platforms: that is the technology they often buy-in, working with the likes ChannelEngine to fill out that business opportunity.
That also potentially makes a company like ChannelEngine, combined with other tools like headless commerce builders and those that help companies design and run their storefronts, an alternative to selling up to a bigger brand.
The e-commerce market is being projected to reach $5.9 trillion by 2023; Steinz noted that other opportunities on the horizon would likely include not just more marketplaces but more non-commerce platforms for selling that become de-facto marketplaces, such as Instagram and TikTok, as they integrate more direct selling tools and better ways to discover what is being sold on their platforms beyond algorithmic inline ads.
Joining the board with this round, Atomico principal Luca said, “The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically accelerated the adoption of e-commerce, which now accounts for 20% of all global retail sales. The global e-commerce market is expected to grow by over $500 billion between 2022 and 2023 alone,” resume “By building the largest e-commerce operating platform, ChannelEngine is set to capitalize on this opportunity by giving brands and retailers instant access to the global marketplace.”.
Larry Bohn, managing director, General Catalyst, who is also joining the board, along with GC’s Max Rimpel, commented, “As the use of e-commerce continues to accelerate, retailers and brands have to meet consumers where and how they shop. ChannelEngine has built out a complete, tech-first platform that’s both robust and global. General Catalyst is excited to invest in ChannelEngine as they help leading e-commerce companies sell on marketplaces worldwide”.
After the success of the previously shared overall analysis of Sherine’s new album “Ana Keter” and her social media presence, we decided to fulfill your requests with more details and additional insights.
The report is from Jan 15 through Jan 31, 2014; however, starting Feb, we noticed that Sherine’s team has enhanced and developed how they engage with fans on Facebook.
Still, there’s more to do; please review the slides below to know what exactly they are missing with recommendations.
Check out the report:
Key take-outs in 15 days after the launch:
- Album gained 11 million views in 2 weeks on YouTube
- YouTube Channel subscribers boosted by 90K subscribers in 15 days out of 127K total subscribers overtime
- Buzz reached 15K tweets/RTs since the launch on Twitter
- How do people talk about the album/Sherine on Twitter?
- People are sharing songs from YouTube & SoundCloud
- +90% positive sentiment on Twitter
- Sherine’s Twitter account is excellent at spreading the news about the album’s success.
- People are tweeting the song’s lyrics.
- Sarcastic tweets about Sherine & few songs (regular) - Almost zero negativity about the album
- Album teasers on Facebook created credibility for Sherine’s page, reflected in the page results after the album’s launch in the next 15 days with 92K Interactions & 312K New Likes.
- The album received tremendous engagement on the launching date of Jan 15. However, no posts for four days after the launch negatively affected the interactions.
Recommendations:
Sherine Abdel Wahab’s Facebook page would have received double or maybe triple new likes and interactions if the improved posts’ quality; please find below the points taken:
- Long updates with no extra value-added will lead to losing your fans’ interest
- The text-only format isn’t preferred, as it is well-known that they generate less reach than other content (Facebook announcement)
- A call to action is essential to generate leads & increase engagement
- Each post has to have its visual, audio, or video so you can attract/engage your audiences
- Understand the situation and act upon it, always be relevant to the time and avoid posting irrelevant content at the wrong time.
- Revise the tone of voice in future activities.
To recap - Overall performance is average to good - Enhance your content formatting - Improve the tone of voice on all networks - Be creative to engage your fans better - Be Consistent - Start your SoundCloud account.
News
Putin, Obama war on social media starts with unfriend on Facebook
New stage of the cold war, is it?
The Social media war between Putin and Obama started with UnFriend, this is the action taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Facebook diplomacy with American president Barack Obama.
The unfriending comes after an official White House update about the possibility of a US-Syrian war. President Putin revealed that Obama’s updates about the Congressional debate on a possible war with Syria have annoyed him.
After unfriending, President Putin update status on profile “Something I should have done a long time ago”
Also, He said to Russia’s Pravda News Service “President Assad and I, we are the Facebook friends. We like the same pages, we share pictures of cute women and all that. Obama needs to lighten up on there, it’s not for serious stuff,”
President Obama’s latest posts about the possibility of the war in Syria have been reported by someone and he received a warning from Facebook that he will be prevented from posting on his profile for 24 hours.
He has also commented “Really, Putin needs to grow up. If he didn’t like that [post], he could have just hid it from his news feed instead of creating all this Facebook drama,”
JOE BIDEN “Vice President of the United States” announced to reports that President Obama has signed into his Twitter account to unfollow Putin.
The turmoil generated between Putin and Obama over their dispute on the Syrian crisis. Expanded to reach the social networks
Putin and Obama on social Networks
The question now is, are we witnessing a new stage of the cold war between the two countries, will they continue the war online instead of the military tactics and old spy war?
It’s obvious that social media is really changing the game in everything, and now it’s taking over on a very high level.
Keep an eye on Digital Boom and we will keep you posted with more news and updates on the cold war and even more…
News
Amr Diab Gets Hacked on Twitter
Amr Diab’s Facebook page has announced that his twitter account has been hijacked by anonymous and now tweeting political.
Update: Amr Diab’s Facebook Page announced that “Amr Diab’s Twitter account has been restored successfully and you can follow Amr’s tweets normally now”
Amr Diab got hacked on Twitter
On Thursday 9th of Jan, Amr Diab’s Facebook page announced that Amr Diab’s Twitter account has been hacked by anonymous and now tweeting politics!
Amr Abdul-Basset Abdul-Azeez Diab (born 11 October 1961) is an Egyptian singer and composer of pop music. He was awarded the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle East Artist, three times: 1998 for the album “Nour El Ain”, 2002 for the album “Aktrr Wahid Byhbak 2001” and 2007 for the album “El Lillady”. Amr Diab also won The African Music Awards 2009, Big Apple Music Awards; Life Achievements Awards: Best Singer of The Year in 2009, and Best Male Act in African Music Awards 2010.
He is known as the Father of Mediterranean Music He has created his own style which is often termed “Mediterranean Music” or “Mediterranean Sound”, a blend of Western and Egyptian rhythms.
In The Mediterranean in Music, David Cooper and Kevin Dawe referred to his music as “the new breed of Mediterranean music”.According to author Michael Frishkopf, Amr Diab has produced a new concept of Mediterranean music, especially in his international hit, “Nour El Ain”.
In his analysis of The Very Best of Amr Diab album, Victor W. Valdivia of All music said: “His music melded traditional Arabic sounds and textures with Western rhythms and instruments. The mesh was dubbed Mediterranean music, and The Very Best of Amr Diab displays Diab’s superb skill in creating it.”
In 1997, he won three awards at the Annual Arabic Festival: one for Best Video, for Best Song, and for Best Artist of the Year. Diab received a Triple Platinum Award for the sales of Nour El Ain and a World Music Award in Monaco.
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