JulienJ
Member
DNW: Weebly Cloud launched in early 2015; so we are coming up on the third anniversary of the platform. Tell us about some of the highlights.
CS: It has been a very busy and exciting three years. In looking back at the evolution of the Weebly Cloud platform, I see three key developments/highlights:
1. The website market opportunity remains very big. There is strong demand for fully featured, easy-to-use web building platforms. We are supporting 200+ web hosts, registrars, and telcos as of today. These partners are leveraging our Cloud platform to capture their fair share of the 50% of SMBs that still do not have a web presence. It is really a great time to be in the website market. In addition to the offline market, we also see a lot of clients looking to switch website providers (most being driven by mobile) and this also provides a huge opportunity for our channel partners.
2. The website “product” has really evolved. When we launched in 2015, we focused on providing a solid Editor experience that was powered by our drag and drop tools. Fast forward today, the Weebly Cloud platform is now supporting Resellers with custom app integration, custom theme integration, and extended API commands like “sub-reseller” support. So, the level of engagement from channel partners with the Cloud program is increasing and becoming a more critical platform for them.
3. Ecommerce is becoming more a strategic focus for our Partners. This is a key change from 2015. It’s no longer good enough to just provide a high quality web building solution – it is now more critical for Partners to take a larger role in providing ecommerce solutions and catering to the needs of ecommerce sellers. Ecommerce customers are a higher value customer as well – they will spend more for the right ecommerce solution and they will also utilize more services from the Hosts, Telcos, and Registrars – specifically domains, security solutions, and more “selling” tools like SEO, SEM, and email marketing services.
DNW: What are the key trends you see in 2018 for the Hosting and Domain space?
CS: The underlying trend coming out of 2017 is that the “website builder” is no longer viewed as a “product” or a “feature”. It is viewed as a platformthat customers will utilize to run their entire business and manage their customers. This is a huge difference. Platform vs. Product. Based on this I see two trends in 2018:
Source
CS: It has been a very busy and exciting three years. In looking back at the evolution of the Weebly Cloud platform, I see three key developments/highlights:
1. The website market opportunity remains very big. There is strong demand for fully featured, easy-to-use web building platforms. We are supporting 200+ web hosts, registrars, and telcos as of today. These partners are leveraging our Cloud platform to capture their fair share of the 50% of SMBs that still do not have a web presence. It is really a great time to be in the website market. In addition to the offline market, we also see a lot of clients looking to switch website providers (most being driven by mobile) and this also provides a huge opportunity for our channel partners.
2. The website “product” has really evolved. When we launched in 2015, we focused on providing a solid Editor experience that was powered by our drag and drop tools. Fast forward today, the Weebly Cloud platform is now supporting Resellers with custom app integration, custom theme integration, and extended API commands like “sub-reseller” support. So, the level of engagement from channel partners with the Cloud program is increasing and becoming a more critical platform for them.
3. Ecommerce is becoming more a strategic focus for our Partners. This is a key change from 2015. It’s no longer good enough to just provide a high quality web building solution – it is now more critical for Partners to take a larger role in providing ecommerce solutions and catering to the needs of ecommerce sellers. Ecommerce customers are a higher value customer as well – they will spend more for the right ecommerce solution and they will also utilize more services from the Hosts, Telcos, and Registrars – specifically domains, security solutions, and more “selling” tools like SEO, SEM, and email marketing services.
DNW: What are the key trends you see in 2018 for the Hosting and Domain space?
CS: The underlying trend coming out of 2017 is that the “website builder” is no longer viewed as a “product” or a “feature”. It is viewed as a platformthat customers will utilize to run their entire business and manage their customers. This is a huge difference. Platform vs. Product. Based on this I see two trends in 2018:
Source
