Amazon continues to expand its ecommerce service offerings through acquisition, the latest example being Veeqo, a UK-based startup that provides inventory and order fulfillment tools for sellers on a variety of platforms including Shopify and eBay in addition to Amazon.
The deal closed in November but Amazon just brought it out of stealth mode this week.
Veeqo assured its customers it will continue to service them regardless of the platform they sell on, and work on building out its tools and functionality, the company noted in confirming the acquisition on its website.
“We’re excited Veeqo has joined Amazon,” a company spokesperson said. “Veeqo is an innovative company that helps sellers manage their multi-channel business and provides an outstanding experience to shoppers. We plan to continue investing in new features and improvements to help Veeqo serve sellers globally from its home in Wales, facilitate growth for sellers’ multi-channel businesses, and enhance the experience of their customers.”
A year ago, Amazon acquired Selz in similar stealth fashion. The Australian startup helps sellers set up and operate ecommerce sites, a sort of Shopify writ small.
Veeqo was founded in 2013 by Matt Warren, who also started TechHub Swansea, an incubator and accelerator designed to help Welsh tech entrepreneurs get their ventures off the ground. Before that, he founded two ecommerce brands, Blitz Watches and Jura Watches.
The company provides inventory management, order management, shipping software and reporting and forecasting tools. It claims over $1.7 billion worth of orders processed on its platform in the past 12 months, and 28 million orders shipped.
The deal signals Amazon’s ambitions to expand its base of 3P sellers beyond its own eponymous site to the vast universe of smaller companies offering up products on ecommerce platforms and marketplaces ranging from Shopify, eBay, etsy and Adobe/Magento to Walmart, WooCommerce, Wix, BigCommerce, GoDaddy and others. It already controls an estimated 40% of ecommerce sales in the U.S.
Amazon continues to battle fake review scams, while last year providing consumers an avenue to process complaints of defective products sold by third parties, who are ultimately liable for any damage awards.