Acquisition To Accelerate Growth by Adding Significant B2C Expertise and Platinum Klaviyo Partner
SmartBug Media® — a leading Intelligent Inbound® marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads, increasing awareness, and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, revenue operations and public relations — today announced that it has acquired Worth eCommerce, a digital marketing agency that provides sophisticated email and SMS marketing campaign services to e-commerce clients.
The e-commerce market presents a massive opportunity for accelerated growth in the post-pandemic era. According to Digital Commerce 360, U.S. consumers spent $861.12 billion in 2020, up 44% compared to 2019, while Forbes estimates that COVID accelerated e-commerce growth by four to six years. Furthermore, eMarketer believes that e-commerce will represent more than 20% of all retail sales in the next few years, excluding gas and auto sales. Aiming to capitalize on that growth and be positioned to support companies that have a significant e-commerce presence, SmartBug’s® acquisition of Worth eCommerce creates a powerful and market-leading combination that offers the most attractive services of inbound marketing through SmartBug and owned e-commerce marketing through Worth.
Worth provides services that help drive e-commerce sales and repeat customers by reducing shopping cart abandonment, activating unengaged subscribers, empowering repeat and VIP customers with personalized communication and content, and increasing average order value through upsells. Like SmartBug, Worth’s business model is based on recurring revenue, with more than 80% of its revenue coming from retainers. Worth has been able to help its clients realize up to 40% of their e-commerce revenue from email.
“We are thrilled to acquire a successful company that shares our business and cultural values,” SmartBug Founder and CEO Ryan Malone said. “As many organizations are looking to add an e-commerce component to their business model, Worth’s e-commerce/B2C focus is complementary and adds depth to our traditional focus on B2B customers, enabling us to offer another top platform in the space.”
Worth is a platinum partner of Klaviyo and is part of Klaviyo’s Partner Advisory Council. Worth’s strong reputation as a Platinum Master Partner of Klaviyo brings another high-quality strategic partnership to SmartBug. “In the HubSpot ecosystem, where we are the highest-rated partner in HubSpot’s global partner directory, our customers benefit from our deep expertise in the platform and our ability to deliver ROI for our clients. We expect our new e-commerce customers to realize that same value through Worth’s successful partnership with Klaviyo,” Malone said.
“We are equally excited about becoming part of the SmartBug family,” said Worth CEO and Co-Founder Dean Dutro. “One of our core shared values is growth, for both our clients and our employees. Worth will greatly benefit from SmartBug’s operational excellence, enhanced marketing services, and strong sales and marketing capabilities.”
Based in Portland, Oregon, Worth has approximately 40 employees and 80 active clients. The company will also operate in a fully remote model and will continue operating under its name, which will now be Worth eCommerce, a SmartBug Media® Company. This is the first acquisition for SmartBug.
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