The rise of DropCommerce

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Welcome to this week’s Thursday Feature, brought to you by Switchboard PR. In this issue, there’s a large local merger and a trio of innovators to learn more about. But first, let’s dive into a company looking to build off a year of impressive growth in 2022.

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Despite the name, there is no fall in sight for DropCommerce

Building a company is rarely a journey from point A to point B to point C. But, sometimes, it’s very much “we wanted to help X do Y, so we built Z.” Take DropCommerce as an example. It’s a Victoria startup that helps business-savvy individuals create sustainable U.S. dropshipping businesses. The company was co-founded by Spencer Bonthoux and Patrick Kelly (yes, that Patrick Kelly) in 2018. The x’s and o’s er… the X and Y?

"DropCommerce was created because we wanted to help entrepreneurs build businesses online, and we noticed that all of the mainstream options for dropshipping revolved around selling cheap goods from overseas,” Kelly explained. “Even though these options allowed for the merchant to earn some profits, the end customers would ultimately receive inferior products after weeks of waiting.”

Simply put, the co-founders wanted to provide a better experience to merchants, customers, and suppliers, and become the number-one platform for businesses to dropship from North American suppliers along the way. Fast forward to 2022, and DropCommerce is well on its way. By June last year, the firm’s merchant base had grown by 11 percent that month alone, and by 53 percent so far that year. It also registered an additional 25 U.S.-based suppliers. “Stoked on how much the team has been crushing it, and very excited for what's ahead,” Bonthoux said at the time.

“What’s ahead” turned out to be continued growth. By the end of 2022, that merchant base on Shopify grew by 89 percent, while the new suppliers stats entered the triple digits. In crunching the year-end numbers, Bonthoux had a trio of takeaways:

“1. A growing number of people are looking to start their own entrepreneurial journeys

2. Many see the value in U.S. and Canadian-sourced products

3. The [DropCommerce] team is killing it at helping with those journeys, and at sourcing those products.”

He then teased that the team is going into this year as hungry as ever and has some exciting new updates on the way this quarter. Perhaps those are Point D.

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📰 More Victoria innovation news

🤝 Big news from Tiny: For over a decade, Tiny has been known for its deal-making. On Monday, it revealed details of perhaps its biggest deal yet: going public by merging with TSX-V traded WeCommerce. Read in Victoria Tech Journal.

🌊 Land and sea: Open Ocean Robotics’ co-founder Julie Angus joined the Vital Victoria Podcast to talk about how Open Ocean Robotics started and the importance of monitoring and protecting our oceans with cleantech. Listen now.

🏆Go amateur to truly become a pro: Jason Warner, the managing director of Redpoint Ventures, has some unique advice on how to cultivate management skills. Get his insights.

🔐Lock and key(note): Femke van Schoonhoven, design lead at Gusto, was announced as the 2023 Vancouver UX Awards keynote speaker. Learn more.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Events Coordinator at South Island Prosperity Partnership

• Applications Software Developer at Polaris Motion

• Software Developer, Custom Implementations & Managed Services at VertiGIS

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February 1: Pitch in a Castle

February 22: Mid-Island Tech Meetup

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