Bigcommerce Acquires Checkout And Inventory Software Startup Zing

TECHCRUNCH: E-commerce platform Bigcommerce announced today that it has made its first acquisition, point-of-sale and inventory management software startup Zing. The value of the deal was undisclosed. Bigcommerce has raised $125 million so far from investors including General Catalyst, Softbank, and American Express, and is pursuing rapid growth in the U.S. and Asia. It faces formidable competition, however, from other e-commerce platforms like Shopify (which recently filed for a $100 million IPO) and Magento, as well as marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon that target smaller vendors.

In its announcement, Bigcommerce said the purchase of Zing will allow it to give retailers better tools and APIs to manage inventory and sales across multiple channels, such as an online store and brick-and-mortar location.

At the time of Bigcommerce’s last funding round, when it received $50 million, founder and CEO Eddie Machaalani told TechCrunch that its growth plans revolve around attracting the estimated 7 to 10 million retailers in the world who still do not have an e-commerce site by making it simple for them to launch an online store and integrate it with their existing offline operations. It also offers tools from several partners, including Poynt, Square and Lightspeed POS.