June 25, 2010
By the ZippyCart Ecommerce Software Reviews Content Team
Vendio Services Inc has been in business for over 10 years, helping merchants sell online with their ecommerce solutions. The company, which is headquartered in California, now has over 80,000 merchants using their multi-channel ecommerce platform. Vendio provides merchants with a FREE online store with a great list of features, but they also offer Vendio Marketplace which allows merchants to easily expand their reach with eBay and Amazon selling. This success caught the attention of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.com who plans to purchase Vendio so that they can expand their presence in the United States. 
However there are some US connections, with Yahoo owning roughly 40 percent of the company. Alibaba and their network of sites allows merchants and suppliers to connect via their massive business-to-business e-commerce marketplace. Vendio and Alibaba operate very similar businesses, so this acquisition will benefit anyone using either platform, as they will now have great reach to more buyers and sellers.
This acquisition is part of a larger US$100 million investment plan that Alibaba started work on in April, as they continue to provide value for small business online all over the world. Vendio COO Mike Effle seems to be very confident in the vision as well, as he said in the press release that “integrating Alibaba.com’s extensive supplier base will allow Vendio’s merchants to earn higher profit margins while providing unique and competitively priced products from around the world to their customers.” Alibaba is also very excited about this acquisition, with CEO David Wei stating in the press release that “Vendio is our first acquisition in the U.S. and a strong strategic fit across all three areas, and I am confident that our complementary businesses will create enhanced opportunities for our customers.” The deal between the two companies is expected to close in July, at which time Vendio will become an Alibaba business unit.
Nick was born and raised in California, but has been working the dot com scene in Seattle for many years. He co-founded ZippyCart back in 2009, and now works here full-time. Nick wears many hats at ZippyCart, including producing content for our Ecommerce News blog. Nick loves photography and the outdoors, so when not working on ZippyCart you can find him out and about in Seattle.
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