Last Flight of the Aggregator: OpenStore Valuation Burns

eCommerce
Written By Rick Watson

OpenStore, the DTC aggregator darling has finally crash landed. Their valuation was cut in a recent funding round from (get this) 1 Billion. Did I say 1 billion? I meant 50 million. 95% haircut. Woof.

And did I mention that we said we would acquire more than a brand a week? Actually only one brand in all the time was halfway worth a damn, Jack Archer.... so...

Yes friends, it seems like the last bits of hairball has made its way through the proverbial eCommerce cat and has been coughed up: the idea that anyone can and should acquire as many eCommerce businesses as possible is now officially dead. And only a year and a half after Thrasio the Amazon Aggregator declared bankruptcy.

CAPITAL CHEAP

DTC GREAT

MOAR DTC BETTAR

Instead we should be thinking more like:

Most acquisitions fail, across all industries and geographies and time.

Retail is hard, because inventory.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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