Google‘s Site Kit WordPress plugin has officially come out of beta after six months and is now available for widespread use. Since the tool’s initial introduction, Google has addressed bugs in the system, polished main user flows and significantly simplified the set up. Users of the Site Kit 1.0 plugin are able to access data aggregated from Google products like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, AdSense and PageSpeed Insights, straight from their site’s dashboard. Google notes the tool is especially useful for people working on sites for clients, as other teams can easily view the site’s data via the WordPress dashboard. Statistics provided by the tool can help users discover trends and identify opportunities for high engagement.
Walmart‘s investment into e-commerce is paying-off, as the retail giant is outperforming Amazon according to recent surveys conducted by First Insight. Reports reveal of those polled, the frequency of people buying goods on Amazon six times per month (or more) has decreased from 80% to 40% from 2017 to 2019. This year, 55% of shoppers prefer Walmart over Amazon for their online purchasing needs. The two companies have heavily competing delivery services with Amazon’s recent roll out of free 2-hour grocery delivery to Prime members and Walmart’s InHome grocery delivery membership program. Efforts by Walmart and Amazon to out-compete one another will increase as the holiday season approaches.
Coveo, a Canadian cloud-based SaaS company, recently closed a funding deal for C$227 million ($172 million). Led by Omers Capital Private Equity Group, this latest round boosts the company’s valuation to “well above $1 billion, Canadian or US” as stated by CEO Louis Tetu. The company sits in the search and personalization industry, valued at over $100 billion. Coveo’s platform offers discoverability and customization to 500 customers ranging from commerce-based organizations, web and service-facing businesses and enterprise solutions. Head of Equity at Omers, Mark Shulgan, made a statement claiming Coveo is the market leader in leveraging data and AI to personalize at scale.
Salesforce has announced the appointment of Adam Blitzer as CEO of Marketing Cloud. In 2013, Salesforce acquired ExactTarget, leading to the development of Marketing Cloud’s suite of digital marketing tools. Under Blitzer’s leadership, the company plans on introducing a customer data platform next year that will be a fundamental component of Marketing Cloud’s strategy towards creating a single advanced marketing hub. According to TechCrunch, the new CEO also aims to further incorporate Salesforce’s Einstein AI into digital marketing.
New in FE exclusive listings, this week we have a B2B SaaS business in the Shopify Drop Shipping Automation niche listed at $613,000. Launched in 2016, this business offers Shopify merchants a software solution which automates drop shipping operations and has processed more than a million orders. The successful plugin has been used by more than 2,000 users and has achieved a 4.5-star rating. With strong margins at c.93% and over 700 lifetime customers, this drop shipping automation SaaS business presents a lucrative opportunity for a new owner. If you are interested in this business, please follow the link above to request a prospectus.
In events news, members of the FE International team are currently attending the Mediavine Conference in Austin, Texas to connect with experienced bloggers from around the world working to sharpen their sales and marketing strategies. Please get in contact if you are in the Austin area and would like to meet with an FE team member. Next week, Founder Thomas Smale will be in Thailand for the 2019 Chiang Mai SEO Conference meeting top marketing experts in the SEO capital of the world. If you will be in the area, feel free to reach out to set up a meeting with Thomas. Last week, SaaS Mag launched its third edition titled; Gaining Your Marketing Advantage. Be sure to subscribe on the SaaS Mag website to receive your free copy.
Continue reading below for more on Walmart, Amazon, Coveo, Salesforce and Google!
Listings
New
SaaS/Affiliate – Shopify Drop Shipping Automation Software – $17K gross/mo
- B2B SaaS business firmly positioned in the lucrative drop shipping automation niche
- Over 1 million orders processed through the Software
- Successful plugin with more than 2,000 users and a 4.5-star rating
- Regular customer base with hundreds of active users
- Low owner involvement with strong margins at c.93%
Yearly net profit: $189,000
Asking price: $613,000
E-Commerce – Footwear & Apparel – $32.7K gross/mo
- Portfolio of two complementary e-commerce businesses firmly positioned in the footwear and apparel niche
- Impressive revenue growth with earnings rising c.27% between 2018 to (e)2019
- Effective dropship model allowing the business to sell thousands of SKUs over the LTM and greatly reducing product concentration risk
- Steady ARPO of c.$89 in the LTM
- Strong traffic with over 358,000 visitors throughout the past year
Yearly net profit: $125,000
Asking price: $339,000
Affiliate – Electronics & Accessories Review Portfolio – $2.7K gross/mo
- Growing content portfolio with 5 years of operational history
- Dominant SEO presence for the portfolio with keyword rankings for c.32,000 keywords
- Steady traffic profile with over 225,000 visitors over the L12M
- Lean cost structure driving high net margins
Yearly net profit: $31,000
Asking price: $100,000
Sold
SaaS – Website Design and Development Software – $5.2K gross/mo
Advertising – 20 Y/O Tourism Blog – $1.9K gross/mo
In the News…
Google’s WordPress Plugin Comes Out of Beta
Google‘s 1.0 version of its Site Kit plugin for WordPress is now available for widespread use after being in beta for the last six months. The newly launched version has a revamped setup and Google has fixed system bugs and cleaned-up user flows. From the WordPress dashboard, users of the plugin can see data and insights gathered from various Google products including Google Search Console, Google Analytics, PageSpeed Insights and AdSense. Based on Google’s data the tool will offer improvement recommendations as well as providing insights into top performing pages.
Walmart Out-Competes Amazon
Amazon is losing shoppers and customers are favoring Walmart as revealed by a new survey conducted. The frequency of individuals buying item on Amazon six times or more a month has decreased significantly from 80% in 2017 to 40% this year. The analytics firm, First Insight, conducted three surveys by polling 1,000 consumers in December 2017, September 2018 and September of this year. People with and without Prime memberships were included in the study. According to the survey, last year 47% of people said they preferred Walmart over Amazon, today Walmart has the majority at a reported 55%.
Coveo Gains $172 million in Funding
Coveo, the Canada-based company building AI-powered customization and search services has closed a recent funding deal for $227 Million Canadian dollars which equates $172 million U.S. dollars placing the SaaS business at a well-over $1 billion valuation in Canadian and US currency. This round is a major financial step forward for the SaaS company in terms of funding as its last round resulted in a post-money valuation of $370 million as reported by Pitchbook data. This has been a result of the market’s increase in popularity and Coveo’s promising business trajectory.
Salesforce Appoints New Marketing Cloud CEO
Salesforce has officially appointed Adam Blitzer as CEO of Marketing Cloud. In a statement, Blitzer said there is opportunity to further implement artificial intelligence into digital marketing, specifically Salesforce’s Einstein AI technology. Salesforce is known for being the market leader in B2B enterprise marketing but according to TechCrunch, Blitzer made it clear he wants to focus on, “bringing that together with all our [consumer marketing]-focused solutions” as many business providing B2B solutions are now facing competition from brands selling direct-to-consumer.