A Letter from the CEO: 2018 In Review

Overall, retail averaged 5.2% year-over-year growth in 2018, reaching $6.0T in total US revenue. Driving that growth for the past decade has been ecommerce, and growth remained strong with ecommerce now representing 10% of total retail. Year-over-year growth for ecommerce in 2018 was 11.2% and reached an impressive 19.9% growth rate during the holiday shopping season. 

What’s driving all this growth and excitement? Two words…omnichannel commerce. 

Technology continues to transform consumer shopping behaviors, blurring lines between physical and digital channels. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 67% of retail sales are researched online prior to purchase, with multi-channel consumers spending 1.3x more than single-channel consumers. 2018 showed an impressive trend towards cross-channel experiences, as 27% of shoppers opted to order online for store pickup during the holiday shopping season. 

Retailing leaders, such as Walmart and Target, are investing heavily in “pick-up hubs.” While ecommerce leader and traditional retail disruptor, Amazon, continues to invest in physical stores, opening seven Amazon Go stores and projecting their physical retail model to drive an additional $4B in revenue by 2021. 

Enter Deck Commerce… the market leader for omnichannel order management. 

With all this exciting industry change comes increased operating complexity. Connecting front-end shopping channels with back-end distribution networks is a challenge, yet critical to delivering a high-quality, modern shopping experience. Deck Commerce simplifies the process through its SaaS-based platform.  The platform streamlines system integrations, optimizes order processing, and delivers tools to support the full life cycle of an order, including shipping and processing returns from online orders within traditional retail stores. 

In 2018, we expanded our partnerships with Microsoft (cloud computing) and Salesforce (Commerce and Marketing Cloud) and added new partnerships with leading ecommerce vendors including Magento, Moneris, Affirm, and Afterpay. Our ecosystem of pre-built commerce integrations now exceeds 30 and continues to grow rapidly. We also released several key features to our platform, including an innovative tool for leveraging retail stores as fully integrated fulfillment and service centers. 

These strategic differentiators are undoubtedly key drivers of our rapid growth, both in terms of winning new customers and helping existing customers exceed their sales projections. In 2018, we welcomed a steady stream of new brands including NYDJ, Clairol, Uncorked.com, and Pharmaca. These join our already impressive list of customers that include New Balance, Rawlings, and Build-a-Bear. But perhaps the source of our greatest pride is the amazing success of our customer base; in 2018 our customers experienced an incredible year-over-year growth rate of 50.3% in online revenues. 

Looking ahead, we’re expecting big things in 2019. 

We have several exciting features planned for release in the upcoming year including enhancements to our Store Fulfillment Tools, additional integrations with key vendors, such as Salesforce Service Cloud and support for single sign-on. As we continue to innovate and add new customers, we’ll also be expanding our team and offices. We’re hiring… apply today! 

So, let me wrap by thanking all those involved in this amazing journey to date…employees, partners, customers, and everyone else who has contributed large and small. We have established ourselves as the leader in omnichannel order management.  We help retailers deliver direct-to-consumer shopping experiences better than anyone else, and we are well on our way to helping transform retail into the digital era. Buckle up, the fun is just beginning!

Chris Deck

CEO