Case: Weebly makes creating websites easy

1. (continued)
INSIGHT ON BUSINESS
WEEBLY MAKES CREATING WEBSITES EASY
With so many big companies domi-
nating the e-commerce scene, you
may wonder if there’s a chance for
the little guy anymore.The answer is
yes: there are still billions left in poten-
tial online retail sales, with additional
money to be made from advertising revenues. In
fact, there’s an e-commerce frenzy going on that
nearly rivals the dot-com era with one exception:
the startups have access to cheap technology and
social media that can provide inexpensive market-
ing and sales.
Weebly provides valuable website solutions
for smaller businesses and entrepreneurs. Founded
in 2007 by Penn State University graduates David
Rusenko, Chris Fanini, and Dan Veltri, Weebly
provides templates that allow small businesses
to create their own websites with a full suite of
features, including blogs, online stores, and mobile
compatibility. Weebly’s customers have built 40
million sites, which together have 300 million
monthly unique visitors. Users create sites using
a drag-and- drop, widget-based tool that works
within a web browser. Weebly’s typical custom-
ers are the “little guys” without website coding
experience, and who are hoping to harness the
site tools traditionally available only to bigger
websites and retailers.
Weebly is just one option in an increasingly
crowded marketplace for website creation services.
Today’s offerings are a far cry from early services
like GeoCities and Angelfire, which look crude by
today’s standards. Weebly and its competitors,
including Squarespace,Wix, and WordPress, offer
a much more polished product than their predeces-
sors. The company has a free option with basic
features as well as premium plans starting at $8
per month and increasing to $49 per month for its
high-end Power Sellers plan. Over the course of its
growth,Weebly has added Google AdSense moneti-
zation features, CSS/ HTML editing support, and
the ability to generate a mobile version of each
website automatically. Weebly is a strong player
in this marketplace, boasting 40 million registered
users, though it does not disclose how many are
paid subscribers. By contrast, Wix has 82 million
registered users, but less than 2 million of those
are paid subscribers.
Weebly has increasingly focused on improving
its e-commerce services, such as a mobile store
and checkout capability, integrated shopping cart,
and filtered product search. It also offers basic
support for PayPal, Google Checkout, and Square.
By revamping its e-commerce tools,Weebly hopes
to better compete with Amazon, as well as similar
user-friendly marketplaces such as Etsy and
Shopify. Sixty percent of Weebly users identify
themselves as entrepreneurs hoping to create an
online presence for their business.
The inventors of the Dharma Yoga Wheel, Dov
Vargas and Raquel Vamos, fit this description.The
two yoga instructors developed the wheel, which
helps new yoga practitioners learn to improve the
flexibility of their back, chest, shoulders, abdomen,
and hip flexors, release tension in those areas, and
perform other exercises, in 2014. After launch-
ing their site, their sales grew to over $1 million
within a year.Wheels are hand-made in the United
States, and start from approximately $80, with
options of both environmentally-friendly plastic
and wooden wheels.The Dharma Yoga Wheel store
also offers yoga apparel and other equipment like
handstand canes and yoga straps.The two found-
ers credit Weebly with the ability to reach Canada,
Europe, Asia, and other markets that would have
been unreachable without a website.
Although Weebly doesn’t disclose its revenue,
the company is profitable and has been since
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2009. This is an attractive quality for a
startup company, many of which have histori-
cally sought growth first and profitability later.
In 2014, Weebly received $35 million in venture
capital funding that valued the company at $455
million. As of 2016, the founders have yet to spend
the money, though they expect to use it to drive
future growth. The company’s hiring of a former
Google executive to serve as chief financial officer
suggests it plans to begin using its venture capital
actively.Weebly is one of the more valuable com-
panies to graduate from the technology incuba-
tor Y Combinator, which its founders attended in
2007.
Because so many businesses still don’t have
an online presence,Weebly’s prospects for growth
are bright. Less than 40% of restaurants have
online menus, for example. Although its competi-
tors are also growing fast, there appears to be
enough room in this market for several companies.
In 2013, Wix launched an initial public offering,
but the response was lukewarm, with investors
expressing concern over its lack of profitability.
So far, that’s an advantage for Weebly, but when
Weebly begins an aggressive push for growth, the
company’s profitability may suffer.
Weebly has continued adapting its plat-
form. In September 2016, it released Weebly
4, the fourth generation of its website creation
platform, focusing on integrating website design
with e-commerce functionality specifically aimed
at small and medium-sized businesses, together
with marketing solutions such as an easy-to-use
e-mail marketing module. For example, sites can
now incorporate abandoned cart functionality,
which allows stores to message customers when
they leave the site without completing a purchase,
as well as functionality that allows stores to more
easily calculate taxes and real-time shipping
prices.Targeted e-mail campaigns, such as to cus-
tomers who have not purchased an item within a
specified time period, can be easily implemented.
Weebly hopes the new platform will enable it to
better compete with other e-commerce platform
providers, such as Shopify, as well as its traditional
website creation competitors. The new features,
which are also available for mobile devices, build
on the functionality of Carbon,Weebly’s third gen-
eration platform.Weebly launched Carbon, which
necessitated a complete rebuild of its platform,
in 2015. Carbon focused on mobile development,
providing users with new mobile apps for iPhone,
iPad, and Android that allow users to update
their sites on the go. Carbon also included an
App Center, which allows customers to quickly
and easily choose from over 40 partner apps to
improve their sites, as well as a Dashboard that
gives customers a detailed analytical view of their
business.
Weebly is just one example of a larger trend
toward leaner business models that rely on outside
help for many business functions. Although hard-
ware has become less expensive over time, many
startup firms have found that cloud computing
and social marketing greatly reduce the costs of
starting a company. Market intelligence, public
relations, and even design services can be found
online for a fraction of the cost of traditional
service firms. It’s never been cheaper to start an
e-commerce company.
SOURCES: “Weebly Updates Its Website Builder with a Focus on E-commerce and Marketing,” by Anthony Ha,Techcrunch.com, September 21, 2016;
“HowWeebly 4 Is Leading an E-commerce Revolution,” by Stephan Rabimov, Forbes, September 21, 2016;“Weebly’s Online PlatformAdds Email Marketing,”
by David Rusenko, Venturebeat.com, September 21, 2016; “Raquel & Dov,” Weebly.com/stories, accessed May 2016; “Why Weebly Is the Warp Drive of
Website Building,” by Murray Newlands, Forbes, November 24, 2015; “Tech Startup Weebly Hires Former Google Executive Kim Jabal As Its First CFO,” by
James Kosur, Businessinsider.com, November 13, 2015; “Weebly Targets Europe with Localized Services for Its Drop-and-Drag Websites,” by Paul Sawers,
Venturebeat.com, October 27, 2015; “Weebly Introduces Carbon,” Weebly.com, October 1, 2015; “Website Builder Weebly Gets a Revamp and Its First App
Center,” by Anthony Ha,Techcrunch.com, October 1, 2015; “About Weebly,”Weebly.com, accessed September 21, 2015; “Weebly for Apple Watch,”Weebly.
com, April 28, 2015; “Weebly Brings Industry-First App to Android Tablets,” Business Wire, March 11, 2015; “Weebly and Square Bring Simple, High-Quality
Business Solutions to Stores Looking to Get Online,” Business Wire, February 25, 2015; “Looking Back on a Very Special Year,” Weebly.com, November 30,
2014;“Weebly DebutsAn iPadApp for Building and ManagingWebsites,” by Ryan Lawler,Techcrunch.com, October 9, 2014;“NewWeeblyApp LetsYou Build
a Website Using the iPad,” by Michael Muchmore, Pcmag.com, October 9, 2014; “Weebly Valued at $455 Million Amid Website-Building Boom,” by Douglas
Macmillan, Wall Street Journal,April 22, 2014.
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