An open letter from Dirk Hoerig

To the commercetools community, 

Having built global tech companies and products within the last 20 years, I've witnessed the dynamic journey of the market unfold over the last five years. On one hand, we've celebrated the remarkable surge in adoption across businesses of every scale. Large companies now understand the unique benefits of flexible cloud-based solutions, which are more convenient, cost-effective, and scalable compared to traditional models like SAP, Oracle or Salesforce.

Yet, amidst these triumphs, the whole tech industry encountered its fair share of challenges. Economic fluctuations and geopolitical complexities have occasionally cast shadows. But through it all, commercetools’ commitment to innovation and resilience has remained unwavering, driving us forward to overcome obstacles and seize opportunities in new markets and industries.

We’re beginning to see a return to “normal,” where businesses have again opened up their budgets for innovative IT projects, however, it's not the same market we were in prior to the pandemic. Budgets are understandably more constrained, and there’s a shorter runway expected for showing a return on investment while the need for innovation remains at an all-time high.

Despite the hurdles that the broader tech industry faced over the last four years, I’m proud to share that commercetools has made great strides over the past 18 months.  

Today, I am thrilled to share our positive business performance in 2023. We've achieved remarkable milestones, including a staggering 65% growth in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in the Americas and a remarkable 45%+ year-over-year increase in global gross merchandise value (GMV), surpassing $30 billion. Particularly noteworthy is the exponential 45% YoY growth in B2B-specific GMV. These impressive achievements underscore the value our customers derive from commercetools, and they are a testament to the dedication and hard work of our exceptional global team.

In the fiscal year 2023, we rolled out over 200 new product releases, among them being six fresh additions like commercetools Connect. Connect facilitates seamless integration between the commercetools platform and external solutions such as ERP, Logistics, Payments, or Loyalty systems. Notably, these pre-built connectors not only enhance efficiency and cut costs but also offer flexibility for tailored configurations. Our ecosystem of connectors, including partners like NewStore, Klaviyo, and Talon.One, is continually expanding with the aim of becoming the largest enterprise-ready ecosystem in the market. Beyond off-the-shelf connectors, customers have the flexibility to develop custom solutions to meet their specific needs.

The flexibility with Connect is unmatched. While I may be biased, I strongly believe Connect is a game-changer for the industry. In addition to expediting time to market, Connect handles all aspects of integration hosting, including maintenance, execution, monitoring, and security, freeing up businesses to concentrate on core innovations. 

As we’ve seen time and time again with the likes of Blockbuster, Borders and RadioShack, if a brand can’t adapt to the changing preferences of their buyers or broader changes in how we live, engage and work –– they’ll die. This is why businesses of the future need the flexibility and scalability to be able to modify without breaking the bank, and they cannot do this on outdated legacy platforms. Composability is a business imperative in 2024. 

In addition to our significant product releases, other product-related highlights include:

I’m incredibly proud of the products we’ve built and the success we’ve had at commercetools, and none of this would have been possible without the team behind the scenes.

It feels like just yesterday when commercetools was a small team in Germany. Now, in just a few short years, I'm thrilled to say that we've built an adaptable global culture, boasting a team of over 650 employees situated across 12 offices. With team members representing 66 different nationalities, we bring a rich tapestry of cultures, experiences, and perspectives to the forefront of our operations.

In last year alone we:

As we look ahead to the remainder of 2024 and beyond, we stand ready to strengthen our groundwork, extend our reach to more businesses across the globe, and further define the trajectory of composable commerce with unmatched agility, boundless innovation, and a steadfast sense of camaraderie. With bold ambitions and an exceptionally driven team at our helm, we're committed to realizing this vision. commercetools remains at the forefront of the composable commerce realm, consistently speeding up our pace of innovation. Our customers reap the rewards of that by being able to easily tackle intricate challenges through our user-friendly and adaptable software solutions.

Our aim is clear: to continue to power the evolution of commerce innovation, enabling a unified shopping experience by building the world's leading enterprise commerce platform.

Best,
Dirk