BigCommerce Cuts Staff Amid eCommerce Headwinds

BigCommerce says it expects the “headwinds” plaguing its industry to persist into 2024.

In order to maintain growth and improve its go-to-market approach in that environment, the eCommerce platform announced a restructuring in its quarterly earnings report Wednesday (Nov. 8) that will impact 7% of its workforce.

“While headcount and non-headcount reductions impact all teams across the company, sales and marketing spending will see the largest impact as a result of the go-to market improvement,” Chief Financial Officer Daniel Lentz said during an earnings call.

Lentz said that while the company’s plans for 2024 were still in their early stages, BigCommerce is basing them on “the assumption that macroeconomic conditions remain a headwind in eCommerce,” making it “imperative to run lean from a spending perspective so that we can capitalize on the opportunity this environment presents for our business.”

The company reported total revenue of $78 million, up 8% compared to the third quarter of 2022 and slightly higher than the $75 million it recorded in the second quarter.

In his comments during the call, CEO Brent Bellm discussed where those headwinds have been felt, noting “continued tighter eCommerce order” and gross market value (GMV) growth in 2023 than before the pandemic.

“This has led to fewer orders and GMV-based pricing upgrades compared to prior years, and it has impacted partner and services revenue growth more than originally anticipated going into the year,” Bellm said. “We have also seen the effect of a tight business spending environment.”

Last month, BigCommerce debuted its B2B Edition Invoice Portal, designed to modernize invoice payments for large B2B suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers.

As PYMNTS wrote, this new functionality incorporates invoice payments into a centralized online purchasing workflow, addressing a key challenge for B2B eCommerce: the transition from offline orders to online platforms.

During the question-and-answer session on Wednesday’s earnings call, Bellm addressed the potential for B2B eCommerce.

“Something like a third of all B2B sellers have yet to adopt eCommerce, and many of those who have, have adopted it rather suboptimally, and when you just think of the potential for usability improvements for their customers, cost savings efficiency from when fully rolled out, there is a very bright future for B2B and we intend to be the leader in that,” he said.