Everstores, an OpenStore-style D2C Shopify aggregator out of Europe, emerges from stealth with €18 million
Summary
The company has now raised 20 million in total, including an earlier pre-seed round.If Everstores business model sounds a little familiar, thats because its not only similar to the earlier aggregator model, but nearly identical to the newest variation on the idea, which is also being pursued by OpenStore, a U.S. startup that launched in 2021, which itself announced a hefty tranche of funding only last week that catapulted its valuation to nearly $1 billion.OpenStores rapid growth speaks of competition, but also validation for others in the same field like Everstores. There are thousands of businesses building Shopify-based storefronts, in aggregate approaching $200 billion in GMV annually (Shopifys GMV last quarter was $46.9 million), and many of them have hit the wall when it comes to scaling.The pitch here is that Everstores (or OpenStore, or others) can provide capital to the owners of those D2C brands, and apply economies of scale to all the different, and potentially costly, aspects of running an e-commerce business supply chains and logistics; big data analytics; personalization and other technology to do what the smaller, individual stores would have found challenging if not impossible to do on their own.Herskinds reference to how much data his company has already amassed is notable for a couple of reasons. It would be hard for us to do something to improve operationally, he said.On the other hand, taking a series of Shopify-based businesses, a lot of them are still using a mix of services to meet marketing, supply chain, inventory, and logistics needs. This speaks to the demand among them in looking for an exit, but surprisingly how open these companies seem to be to the idea of sharing data about how they are doing.Herskind notes that even in the cases (most of them, as it happens) where Everstores is not interested enough to enter into an M&A process, it suggests keeping the data streams open so that it can continue to assess the situation.This opens the door potentially too to the company building other products using that, which brings to mind companies like Xeneta, which has also turned third-party crowdsourced data into a thriving business in the world of shipping pricing.Its worth watching whether Shopify merchants are really all keen to sell up, though, or whether thats just a hangover from the previous incarnation of roll-up plays. Were proud to support Everstores founders on their mission to unlock the D2C asset class at scale through their leading tech platform, noted Tim Rehder, a partner at Earlybird, in a statement.
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