Attention, SaaS enthusiasts, executives and professionals: FE International this week announced the official launch of SaaS Mag, the world’s first quarterly print magazine for the SaaS industry. The first edition, which features exclusive interviews with DocuSign founder Tom Gonser, Drift CEO David Cancel, pricing expert and PriceIntelligently founder/CEO Patrick Campbell, and personalization consultant and RightMessage founder/CEO Brennan Dunn, is free! Visit SaaS Mag.com to request your copy and be entered in our giveaway contest for a chance to win high-value rewards like an all-expenses paid trip to LTVConf Winter 2018, US edition.
In other SaaS news, founder Thomas Smale attended Shopify’s Unite conference this past week, where Shopify confirmed that the highly anticipated new App store layout will be rolled out in the next month. The new layout is said to give more opportunities for niche Apps to gain exposure and grow. Shopify also announced that it will launch a brick and mortar store to provide on-site consultation for store owners to help them expand their businesses.
In other e-commerce news, Walmart confirmed it is to invest $16 billion in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart. Of the $16 billion investment, $2 billion is reserved for growth initiatives. The partnership as it currently stands would grant Walmart a 77% stake in the company and Flipkart a $20.8 billion valuation when the deal is finalized. Amazon, who had also demonstrated an interest in Flipkart as recently as last week, has invested billions in Indian operations, heightening the rising importance of India on the global e-commerce scene. Walmart will maintain Flipkart as its own distinct brand with the aim of eventually making it a publicy-traded company.
In social media news this week, Instagram quietly launched a beta native in-app payments feature, allowing a select group of users to input credit card information to their profile and make purchases directly within the app. This beta function is Instagram’s first move towards giving business profiles the option to let users book services directly in the app, a feature which was first announced in March of 2017 and planned for the end of the same year.
Finally, in digital marketing news, Google has updated their image publishing guidelines with tips for how to optimize websites for image search. Among the key advice provided is placing images nearby the relevant content when possible, as well as optimizing for mobile.
New in SaaS business listings this week we have a $5.5M B2B social media aggregation software business, with continuous year-over-year revenue growth generating earnings reaching a 175% CAGR, a notable customer base including numerous Fortune 500 customers, over 57,000 users on free plans and over 3,100 paying customers and white label option to move upmarket and target enterprise customers. If you are interested in this business, follow the link to request a prospectus.
In events news, Founder Thomas Smale had a great time with the FE team attending Sellers Summit in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from which he went straight to Shopify’s Unite in Toronto, Canada. Thomas has now just finished wrapping up LTVConf Spring 2018 and is headed to Business of Software EU in London on May 21-22. Be sure to send us an email to schedule a meeting if you are in the London area!
Continue reading below for more on Walmart’s investment in Flipkart, Instagram’s beta payments feature and Google’s update to image posting guidelines.
Listings
New:
SaaS – B2B Social Media Aggregation Software – $1.6M ARR
- Continuous year-over-year revenue growth with earnings reaching a 175% CAGR
- Over 57,000 users on free plans and over 3,100 paying customers
- Notable customer base including numerous Fortune 500 customers
- Well-known brand with a leadership position in the lucrative social media marketing niche
- White-label option to move upmarket and target enterprise customers
Yearly net profit: $1,407,000
Asking price: $5,500,000
Sold:
E-Commerce – Lifestyle & Activities – $35K gross/mo
Affiliate – Health Administration – $1.9K gross/mo
Affiliate – Clothing & Apparel – $600 gross/mo
In The News…
Walmart Invests $16 billion in Flipkart
Walmart confirms announcement that they have invested $16 billion in e-commerce giant Flipkart.
The $16 billion investment will grant Walmart a 77% share in the online retailer, making it the biggest-ever investment in Walmart’s history. Previously, the UK’s Asda held this title, though last week Walmart partially divested it. Despite such a large stake in the company, Walmart intends to keep Flipkart its own distinctive brand with the aim of working towards the company being a “publicly-listed, majority-owned subsidiary” in the future. Investing in Flipkart is likely to give Walmart a boost in Asia, as India is the region’s second-largest market. While the company already has a heavy presence in the region, with 21 BestPrice stores and one fulfillment center across India, this investment will give Walmart a boost in e-commerce for the region as well as generally, as the company seeks to rival Amazon which has also invested heavily in India.
Walmart has stated that they are currently in talks to open the investment to other partners, which may lower the stake Walmart has in Flipkart, but Walmart will keep a clear majority ownership.
Instagram Tests Native Payment Feature
Instagram has confirmed that it is testing a beta in-app payments feature for a select group of users.
The new feature allows users to add credit or debit card information and house it natively so they can make purchases directly in the app. For added security, payments require a pin code. Following initial setup ò the payment account, the feature can be used to make purchases directly in app and book appointments at spas and restaurants through a third-party dinner reservation app Resy. In March of last year, Instagram announced their intention to create a native in-app payments feature, with plans to roll out the feature late 2017. While the release never happened at that time, this recent testing appears to be the beginning of rolling out the feature.
Given the number of retailers and influencers on the social media platform, the option to pay directly could prove to be a crucial revenue stream for many e-commerce businesses.
Google Updates Image Search Guidelines
Google updated their Image Publishing Guidelines document on Tuesday with added details around structured data, page speed and user experience.
In the updated guidelines, instructions for creating a valuable experience for users are given and include adding useful context, optimizing image placement, embedding, device-friendly sites and best practice for URL structures on your site. The new guidelines aim to help publishers create images optimized for search. Among the new advice is providing good context, which means ensuring that visual content is relevant to the topic on the page and adding images only where they add “original value on the page.” Along these lines, Google recommends placing images only next to relevant text, near the top of the page when possible, and avoiding embedding text in images. Google reiterates that relevant, high quality content is used to generate a text snippet for the image, so creating a website that is high quality and actionable is one of the best things publishers can do. Additionally, since Google uses the URL path along with the file name to understand images, it’s best to organize URL structures logically. Finally, one of the most important: make sure your site is optimized for mobile, since most Google Image searches happen on mobile.
With images becoming an increasingly important aspect of content marketing, it’s important for publishers to stay up to date on methods to optimize their pages for Google search.