BigCommerce, a leading global Open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established brands, today announced it has extended its European presence from the U.K. into Italy, as well as France and the Netherlands. With BigCommerce, merchants in Italy now have access to a flexible, enterprise-grade ecommerce platform built to sell on a local and global scale. This latest growth phase comes almost a year since the company’s IPO in August 2020 and three years since the company first put down roots in EMEA with an office in London in 2018.

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“Our Open SaaS platform provides our users with a flexible and auto-scaling solution, which offers agility within a platform designed to grow alongside their business. ”

Over the past year, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to ecommerce and led to significant growth of ecommerce markets within the Eurozone. In the U.K. as well as Italy, France and the Netherlands, the volume of ecommerce sales is growing year on year. In Italy, Covid-19 has caused mixed dynamics in the B2C ecommerce landscape. On the one hand, online sales of services collapsed as a result of the crisis in the tourism and transport sector, while sales of products soared. Especially in the first months of the lockdown, Italians have been using online commerce to purchase a variety of goods, from food to clothing and also after the end of the most critical phase of the pandemic, ecommerce has taken centre stage and the integration of online and offline is becoming more and more concrete. Initial estimates for 2021 point to stronger growth, with a consolidation of products and a partial but important recovery in services.

In particular, in 2020 product ecommerce in Italy grew by 45% to reach a 9% penetration of total retail purchases, and an increase of 18% is estimated for 2021, which will bring products to reach €30.6 billion in transactions.

BigCommerce’s expansion will create new roles in Italy to work directly with merchants in the region. As part of this fully localised experience, local merchants will be able to use the BigCommerce platform to manage their store in their local language, as well as create a fully localized website experience for their shoppers, with their local payment methods and currencies.

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Commenting on the expansion, BigCommerce VP and GM EMEA, Jim Herbert, said: “BigCommerce powers over 60,000 merchants worldwide and this latest phase of our EMEA expansion underpins our ongoing commitment to the region and retailers within it. Our presence in Italy will enable us to provide tailored programmes and services specific to our customers and partners across Europe.

“Since our EMEA launch three years ago, we’ve helped retailers of all sizes enhance their digital presence and boost sales through our platform. We’ve also established a strong local partner network both across Europe and within its respective markets to ensure merchants have the freedom to work with technology and agency partners that best fit their specific business needs.”

MashFrog is one of a growing list of existing local technology and agency partners, which also includes Nexi, Intesys and Open Mind.

Edoardo Narduzzi presidente di Mashfrog commenta: “Nel nostro paese ricco di piccole e medie imprese, BigCommerce rappresenta la tecnologia ideale per accelerare l’adozione di strategie eCommerce. Crediamo che BigCommerce sará un punto di svolta per la digital transformation in Italia e per questo Mashfrog supporterá BigCommerce con le sue digital skills.”

Additionally, BigCommerce has already built an established customer base in Italy with recognised brands such as La Perla, Pro-Bolt and riCompro.

Jim Herbert concluded: “Our Open SaaS platform provides our users with a flexible and auto-scaling solution, which offers agility within a platform designed to grow alongside their business.

“This, coupled with our extensive local partner network, will provide the right combination of support to allow merchants to build and establish their online presence locally, with local partners. In turn this will support those retailers to enhance the ecommerce offering for their end customers.”

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