E-commerce software company BigCommerce Holdings (BIGC +0.00%) dealt rival Shopify (SHOP +2.29%) a blow on Tuesday, unveiling an online-shopping checkout tool for Facebook's (FB +4.39%) instant-messaging platform Instagram. With this option, consumers can buy products directly from brands within Instagram's messaging interface rather than being redirected to a separate e-commerce page.
BigCommerce isn't a household name yet. The company, which offers e-commerce tools to small and medium-size businesses, only went public early this month. It also facilitates a fraction of the online shopping business Shopify handles, and Shopify has already inked a similar deal with Facebook to offer a checkout option within Facebook's messenger app.
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As of June, Facebook had 2.7 billion monthly users of its flagship social networking platform. The company doesn't divulge many Instagram specifics, but it does cite more than 1 billion regular monthly users. Instagram's smaller size and BigCommerce's late start as a messenger-based checkout solution suggest it may never catch up with Shopify on this front.
The newcomer doesn't have to catch up with Shopify to grow, however, nor to disrupt Shopify's growth. Simply by leveraging the Instagram checkout tool with its other e-commerce solutions, current and prospective Shopify users could instead choose BigCommerce as the backbone of an online store.
BigCommerce will announce its first quarterly results as a publicly traded entity after the market closes on Wednesday, Sept. 9. It will provide an important look at how much the company has benefited from demand for e-commerce solutions in the midst of crimped in-person consumerism and lockdowns related to the pandemic.
