Dive Brief:
- WordPress parent company Automattic scooped up WooThemes -- a popular maker of blog themes and creator of WordPress-built, e-commerce plugin WooCommerce -- in a deal estimated at more than $30 million.
- The buy marks the first time WordPress has taken any direct action towards e-commerce. Although, Automatic Co-Founder Matt Mullenweg says there are no immediate plans to integrate the plugin into WordPress.
- The WooCommerce plugin current has 7.6 million downloads, more than one million active users, and is in use in 25% of all sites with e-commerce functionality.
Dive Insight:
E-commerce has become a driving force of the digital world. Digital shops, for example, are seeing expotential growth from e-commerce operations -- and as such, requests for e-commerce marketing services have trippled.
The beauty of e-commerce is it creates a direct line from digital marketing and content efforts to a revenue stream, exactly like the blogs and websites created on WordPress. Automattic recognizes the value of having an e-commerce plugin in the WordPress aresenal and the company's CEO says users have been pushing for e-commerce capabilities. VentureBeat points out WooCommerce competes with Squarespace and Shopify, which recently filed for IPO.