Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Thursday, September 19, 2019.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Amazon has bought Selz, a company that makes tools that allow businesses to start their own online stores.
Amazon quietly acquired the ecommerce platform on January 15, but did not disclose the acquisition. Selz announced the deal in a blog post from the company.
“We have signed an agreement to be acquired by Amazon and look forward to working with them as we continue to build easy-to-use tools for entrepreneurs,” said Martin Rushe, CEO and founder of Selz, in the blog post.
An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed the acquisition. The spokeswoman declined to disclose the terms of the deal. Representatives for Selz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In recent months, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has turned to Shopify, an ecommerce enabler who saw his business skyrocket during the pandemic, as a competitor as consumers turn to online retailers during the pandemic for both essential and non-essential goods. .
Amazon previously operated a service similar to Shopify called Amazon Webstore that allowed small businesses to run online stores built on Amazon’s technology. However, the company closed Amazon Webstore in 2015.
The Selz acquisition comes as Amazon’s third-party marketplace of more than 2.5 million sellers continues to thrive. The segment now accounts for more than half of Amazon’s e-commerce sales and has helped Amazon achieve record sales.
By providing small and medium businesses with more tools to quickly move their operations online, Amazon can gain a competitive advantage over Shopify and ecommerce software company BigCommerce.
Founded in 2013, Selz is based in Sydney, Australia, providing a platform for small and medium businesses to start their own online stores and add online payment options to existing websites, among other tools. According to LinkedIn, the company employs less than 50 people.
In the blog post, Rushe said that “nothing will change” for Selz customers as a result of the Amazon acquisition.