Lightspeed POS, a Montreal-based point-of-sale platform for retailers and restaurateurs, announced the acquisition of Amsterdam-based ecommerce company SEOshop. As part of the acquisition, Lightspeed is launching Lightspeed eCom, a new ecommerce platform.
The platform features predictive analytics, full-design customization, and complex inventory management. Lightspeed plans to integrate Lightspeed eCom with its cloud-based Lightspeed Retail POS solution.
“This is an enormous step in the evolution of our company. We set out to help independent retailers grow and thrive by giving them a POS with the same back-office tools used by big retail in a user-friendly, mobile package,” said Dax Dasilva, CEO of Lightspeed POS. “With the industry rapidly digitizing, online-only merchant demand has grown exponentially. Bringing SEOshop into the Lightspeed family gives us additional scale, and allows us to help store owners create a global shopping experience and sell smarter—all from an iPad—no matter how their customers choose to shop.”
Lightspeed eCom is already shipping in Europe, with an initial preview available immediately in the U.S and Canada. The full version of Lightspeed eCom, as well as the integration with Lightspeed Retail for U.S. customers, is expected to launch in early 2016.
The acquisition of SEOshop positions Lightspeed in a good position to go global, as SEOshop the fastest-growing ecommerce platform in Europe. Its clients include Heineken, the Van Gogh Museum and National Geographic Amsterdam. It’s another significant step forward by the company following its $61 million USD funding round in September of this year.