A Toronto-based startup is trying to make it easier for companies to conduct e-commerce.
ShopLocket re-launched Thursday with a revamped website and updated e-commerce offering for small to medium sized businesses.
ShopLocket also announced it is partnering with WordPress to offer the first e-commerce integration for WordPress.com, the pro version of the content management system serving paid enterprise users. Prior to the partnership, WordPress clients, including large organizations like the New York Times, Reuters and the National Football League, would have to drive users shopping on their sites to another site to pay for their purchases.
Using ShopLocket’s system, companies with WordPress websites can now sell items on their own sites instead of sending users to a third party e-commerce site. The new version of Shoplocket’s system also comes without any branding, meaning the look and feel won’t change when a consumer moves from a company’s site to its online store.
Though the service is available for all VIP and enterprise WordPress users, ShopLocket founder Katherine Hague said it’s aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses, as many larger brands have existing systems for e-commerce that are difficult to integrate with new technologies.
“It could be a brand that’s doing hundreds if not millions of dollars a month, but one that’s not using a legacy system,” Hague said. “A lot of large brands have very old systems that integrating with would take weeks or months. We’re not doing that process right now to hand hold large brands through the transition.”
The startup also debuted new branding and a redesigned version of its website as part of the re-launch. Founded in the spring of 2012, ShopLocket was one of the first startups to go through the Extreme Startups accelerator program, a tech incubator backed by the BlackBerry Partners Fund and Extreme Ventures Partners – the firm behind the mobile shop Xtreme Labs.
