Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com Inc., speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on Thursday, September 19, 2019.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Amazon bought Selz, a company that makes tools to help companies launch their own online stores.
Amazon quietly acquired the e-commerce platform on January 15, but did not disclose the acquisition. Selz announced the deal in a company blog post.
“We signed an agreement to be acquired by Amazon and look forward to working with them as we continue to build easy-to-use tools for entrepreneurs,” said Martin Rushe, CEO and founder of Selz, in the blog post.
An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed the acquisition. The spokeswoman declined to reveal the terms of the deal. Selz representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the past few months, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has focused on Shopify, an e-commerce enabler who saw his business skyrocket during the pandemic, as a competitor as consumers turned to online retailers for essential and non-essential goods during the pandemic.
Amazon previously operated a service similar to Shopify, called Amazon Webstore, which allowed small businesses to operate online stores built using Amazon technology. However, the company closed the Amazon Webstore in 2015.
The acquisition of Selz comes as Amazon’s third-party market, made up of more than 2.5 million sellers, continues to thrive. The segment now accounts for more than half of Amazon’s e-commerce sales and has helped Amazon generate record revenue.
Providing more tools for small and medium-sized businesses to move their online operations quickly can give Amazon a competitive advantage over companies like Shopify and e-commerce software company BigCommerce.
Founded in 2013, Selz is based in Sydney, Australia, and provides small and medium-sized businesses with a platform to launch their own online stores and add online payment options to existing websites, among other tools. The company employs less than 50 people, according to LinkedIn.
In the blog post, Rushe said that “nothing is changing” for Selz’s customers as a result of the acquisition of Amazon.