Lightspeed Buys NuORDER To Link Merchants, Suppliers

Lightspeed point-of-sale platform is acquiring B2B eCommerce platform NuORDER and software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce company Ecwid in a move to fuse the commerce ecosystem and advance the launch of new businesses.

“By joining forces with Ecwid and NuORDER, Lightspeed becomes the common thread uniting merchants, suppliers and consumers, a transformation we believe will enable innovative retailers to adapt to the new world of commerce,” Dax Dasilva, co-founder and CEO of Lightspeed, said in a press release on Monday (June 7).

Dasilva added that the Montreal-based commerce platform wants to help entrepreneurs succeed by providing the necessary solutions to streamline and scale as the world gets back to a post-pandemic normal.

Lightspeed, dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange, snapped up Ecwid for $500 million, and NuOrder for $425 million. The acquisitions will give Lightspeed clients expanded inroads to take advantage of the digital economy and enhanced supply chain management and customer experience abilities, per the release.

By incorporating the California-headquartered Ecwid, users of the combined entity can quickly create standalone businesses and find shoppers wherever they are and extend flexible, omnichannel experiences.

Lightspeed’s acquisition of fashion wholesale platform NuORDER will create a connection between businesses and suppliers. The tie-up also will help boost the Lightspeed Supplier Network while accelerating the growth of Lightspeed’s financial services offerings, including Lightspeed Payments and Lightspeed Capital. It also cements the firm as a global distribution network for top brands, including Canada Goose, Converse and Arc’teryx.

Lightspeed launched the Lightspeed Supplier Network in January, initially with merchants in the pet, jewelry, outdoor sport and bike sectors. Dasilva said the new feature gives independent business owners a streamlined process to find new products, sell digitally and maximize the efficiency of how their capital can be put to work to increase orders.

Heath Wells, co-founder and co-CEO of NuORDER, told PYMNTS in a February interview that the business-to-business (B2B) landscape is now up to speed with the business-to-consumer (B2C), which has been a revolution percolating for 15 years. Wells called B2B eCommerce is the new frontier.