Amazon Goes Down Under To Acquire Shopify Rival Selz

Amazon has closed a deal to acquire 7-year-old Australian startup Selz, a company that assists eCommerce firms in advancing digital sales.

The deal aligns with the eCommerce giant’s focus on third-party sellers. Amazon acquired the firm, a competitor to Shopify, in January but did not announce the acquisition. The deal was first noted in a blog post published last month by Selz CEO and Founder Martin Rushe.

“We have signed an agreement to be acquired by Amazon and are looking forward to working with them as we continue to build easy-to-use tools for entrepreneurs,” Rushe said in the blog post. “Nothing is changing for our customers at this time, and we’ll be in touch with customers as and when we have further updates.”

Launched in Sydney, Selz has received $11 million in funding to help small businesses process payments and sell merchandise. The market is led by Canada’s Shopify, which saw third-quarter 2020 profits soar $767 million, an increase of 96 percent. 

Shopify helps power more than 1 million businesses across 175 countries, and partners with other large platforms and retailers.

A spokesperson for Amazon said the deal with Selz closed but did not say anything about the acquisition terms. 

Main Street businesses struggled for survival amid the global pandemic. PYMNTS data  indicated that at the close of 2020, businesses were more optimistic about their odds of survival, however. 

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in a recent survey said they are more confident about their survival than they were when the pandemic began. In June, fewer than half of SMBs surveyed by PYMNTS said they would survive into summer 2022.