Retail Channels
15 December 2022
BigCommerce lays off 13% of workforce amid enterprise shift
The open SaaS platform is reducing sales and marketing activities on non-enterprise accounts.

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash
The open SaaS platform is reducing sales and marketing activities on non-enterprise accounts.
BigCommerce became the latest ecommerce platform to announce layoffs on Thursday.
The open SaaS ecommerce platform said it will reduce its workforce by 13% across employees and contractors by the end of the calendar year as part of a restructuring plan that is designed to speed up the path to profitability. As of Dec. 31, 2021, BigCommerce had 1,337 employees, according to an SEC filing reported by Marketwatch.
On its recent earnings call, company executives signaled that they will shift sales and marketing dollars to enterprise sales, where it said it sees “the strongest unit economics and the opportunity for long-term, profitable growth.” On Thursday, the company said the reduction of non-enterprise marketing expenses is part of the restructuring plan.
“This focusing of our spending and resources, which impacts all of our teammates, was an incredibly difficult decision to make,” said CEO Brent Bellm, in a statement. “We are implementing changes that will enhance the strength of our financial profile against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment. It will also drive focus on the areas we view as having the strongest product market advantage and best long-term financial performance,” said Brent Bellm, CEO of BigCommerce. “We are sadly parting ways with some incredibly talented people whom we have grown to cherish as friends and colleagues over the years. We will do our best to support them through the transition to find their next opportunities.”
The company said the cost associated with the layoffs will range from $4.2 million to $4.6 million.
BigCommerce cast the move as necessary to achieve profitability quicker, which follows a pattern of prioritizing sustainability over growth heading into 2023. The company said the restructuring shifts its adjusted EBITDA breakeven timeline from mid to late 2024 to the fourth quarter of 2023. It also reiterated guidance for the fourth quarter and full year.
BigCommerce follows Amazon, Shopify and Meta among the platforms that provide the infrastructure for ecommerce to make layoffs this year. In their announcements, those other companies said they had over-hired during a pandemic ecommerce boom that did not see growth pull forward as expected.
For its part, BigCommerce said the enterprise focus and profitability were the main forces behind the reduction.
The move toward running ecommerce for more established brands and retailers can require longer sales cycles and could mean choppier growth month-to-month, but it also holds out the potential of more sustained revenue, with frequent opportunities to add features. In Q3, BigCommerce said its enterprise accounts were up 16% year-over-year, while annual recurring revenue (ARR) for this segment was up 35% year-over-year. Clients who launched new stores using BigCommerce in the quarter included One Kings Lane, Hungry Harvest, Music Direct and Dippin’ Dots.
“We are actively shifting our demand generation budgets, both in people costs and variable spending towards the superior economics delivered by enterprise accounts,” Bellm told analysts on the recent earnings call. “We have tested this increased spending prioritization over the past two quarters, and we are moving full speed on this now across all teams and budgets.”
Coming out of the swings of the last two years, Shopify has also voiced a priority on signing more enterprise clients. With a more difficult environment for startup brands as a result of the tightening economy and more difficult performance marketing following Apple's privacy changes, don't be surprised to see more ecommerce SaaS companies focus on bigger stores in 2023.
A key indicator of consumer demand is still running hot.
The U.S. economy continued to post job gains in May, even as the unemployment rate ticked up.
Data released for May 2023 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the following:
Employers added 339,000 new jobs this month. The gains crossed the 300,000-mark for the first time since January. That’s in line with the average of 341,000 jobs added over the last 12 months.
Retail employment remained relatively unchanged for the month.
The unemployment rate ticked up by 0.3 percentage points to 3.7%. It remains within the historically low range of 3.4%-3.7% seen since March.
Average hourly earnings rose by 11 cents, or 0.3%, to $33.44. Over the last 12 months, earnings have increased by 4.3%.
What it means for brands and retailers: The job market is a key indicator of consumer demand. If people have job stability, it means they are likely to feel more confident about spending. In the prior three months, there were signs that job gains were beginning to decelerate after months of growth over the last two years. But this report shows that the robust labor market remains intact. Even though unemployment ticked up to its highest point since October 2022, it is still historically low. When it comes to jobs, this was a bounceback month to the roaring upward trendline.
What it means for the Fed: As it has raised interest rates repeatedly over the last year in an effort to contain inflation, the Fed has focused on rebalancing the booming labor market as a key priority. This report doesn’t deliver the data that would show progress on that front, creating an environment where it could choose to raise interest rates that have the side effect of curtailing demand. Still, the Fed has maintained that it may pause the rate hikes when it meets later this month, and that option will remain on the table. The central bank has slowed down interest rate hikes in recent months, even as the labor market continued to show strength. The decision will likely be down to the wire, as key inflation data in the Consumer Price Index will arrive just as Federal Open Markets Committee members are gathering for their meeting on June 13.