How Wix Is Growing Its Business by Helping Small Businesses Grow Theirs

Why it matters:

• Just as small shops rushed to get online during the pandemic, website creation for service businesses like personal trainers, teachers, and therapists also surged.
• In turn, it’s become increasingly important for all businesses, not just stores, to be able to operate both online and offline.
• Against that backdrop, website builder Wix is creating new ways for both entrepreneurs and SMBs to manage and grow their businesses — from offering payment solutions and marketing analytics to e-commerce fulfillment services.

In today’s world, omnichannel isn’t something that only retailers have to worry about.

Fitness trainers, math tutors, wedding photographers, restaurant owners – virtually every small business out there – must be able to book appointments, take payments, and operate their businesses both online and in person.

Wix, one of the first companies to give entrepreneurs and small businesses free tools to create their own websites, believes that the investments it has made over the past decade to create products for a vast array of enterprises will fuel its growth in a post-pandemic world.

Since going public in 2013, Wix has grown its revenues from $80 million to $1.3 billion last year. It saw a spike in registrations and website creation in 2020 and 2021, as the pandemic pushed more business to add an online presence.

New user activity has slowed this year to pre-pandemic levels, but the company believes there still are vast opportunities for growth. CEO Avishai Abrahami noted in a recent call with investors that almost 50% of small and medium-sized businesses still are not online.

‘The economy is shifting more and more towards small businesses’

“The economy is shifting more and more towards small businesses,” David Schwartz, Vice President of Product at Wix, told CO—. Wix’s mission, he said, is to offer tools beyond website creation that enable new businesses to grow.

“Imagine if you had a small business and standing next to you was an amazing VP of marketing, an amazing VP of e-commerce, and an amazing online designer, and they were all there to grow and manage your online business,” Schwartz said.

“We want our product to be all of those people for your business,” he said.

While online stores are still the biggest part of Wix’s business, the services business is growing rapidly and has the potential to become a lot bigger, he said.

Just as small shops rushed to get online during the pandemic, website creation for service businesses like personal trainers, teachers, and therapists also surged.

With tools like Wix Bookings, and the ability to connect to Zoom through their websites, “we made it super easy for them to move what they used to do offline to the online world,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz outlined for CO— some of the tools Wix offers to address key needs of small businesses:

• Payments: In addition to enabling users to accept payments by credit card, PayPal, or other online methods, Wix has a point-of-sale system for businesses that need to be able to accept payments in person as well as online. It also can provide a mobile point-of-sale solution for taking payments on mobile devices.
• Shipping and fulfillment: Wix this year announced an integration with Amazon that allows Wix e-commerce merchants to use Amazon’s fulfillment services, whether they sell on Amazon or not. This tool allows users to display delivery times at checkout and offer order tracking, among other services.
• Customer Retention: Wix offers several ways for users to communicate with customers, including via chat and video demonstrations. In 2021, it acquired gift card and customer loyalty company Rise.ai to make it easier for users to offer gift cards and other programs to drive sales.
• Marketing: In addition to helping businesses do email and social media marketing, Wix offers analytics that tell businesses where they should be spending their marketing dollars, and where they are most likely to reach potential customers.

[Read: 5 Tech Trends Changing the Way We Buy Fashion and Food to Home Goods and Travel Jaunts]

Granting business owners guidance akin to ‘a very smart and experienced Uncle Joe’

Schwartz likes to think of the Wix tools as giving a business owner the equivalent of “a very smart and experienced Uncle Joe” who can offer guidance.

For example, he said, an Uncle Joe would advise a new online business that cart abandonment is a big issue and point out things that a seller can do to engage with a customer who has abandoned an online shopping cart.

“Acquiring a new customer costs about six to seven times more than retaining a customer. If you’ve already brought in a customer and they’ve shown interest in your product, it makes no sense not to continue the dialogue with them,” Schwartz said.

Wix enables the online seller or service provider to send a follow up email or ask if a buyer wants to chat about a product, or send a video demonstrating the product or service, he said.

During the pandemic, “the businesses that survived were the businesses that talked in all sorts of ways with their customers,” Schwartz said. “[If] you stop the discussion, you’ve lost the customer.”

Talking to at least three Wix users a day to better understand their needs

As Vice President of Product, Schwartz said he has set a rule for himself of talking to at least three Wix users a day to better understand their businesses and their needs.

The Wix philosophy, he said, is that “the company will grow if we serve the best needs and interests of our customers.”

“If we do the work to make the user more successful, we will succeed as well,” he said.

[Read: 6 Winning (and Adaptable) Customer Acquisition Strategies From Growing Brands]

CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

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