15 eCommerce sites launched
126 dog-years in business
271 days working remote
4 new fur babies adopted
10+ months working remote
The year 2020 will not soon be forgotten. The events of the past year have dramatically affected how we live, communicate and work (and shop!), perhaps in more permanent ways than we know. Despite the challenges, there’s a lot to be grateful for – and eCommerce certainly didn’t slow down for the pandemic! As a company that just celebrated 18 years in business, we’ve been reflecting on many things as we enter the new year, including what we’ve accomplished and what’s yet to come.
Next year is going to be interesting for eCommerce with new business challenges for brands. We think we’ll see accelerated investment in eCommerce systems as legacy systems become too outdated and costly, as well as investment in marketing technology and headless architecture so brands are positioned to scale in new, exciting ways in the future. Also, stay tuned for more subscription programs and mainstreaming of voice commerce/voice search, AI and augmented reality/AR.
The future is definitely exciting, but there’s also something to be said about learning from the past and appreciating what’s been accomplished. What can we take away from the last 12 months? Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been thinking about.
What made our hearts sing in 2020
“Growth of the team and being able to provide job stability, growth and new opportunities during the pandemic.” – Chris
“I'm really proud of how much our team has grown, not only by adding new team members but the progress we made to tweak and adjust our processes. We also had the opportunity to work with some great brands that pushed us to learn more and grow our UX knowledge.” – Rhiannon
“The team transitioned to fully remote without missing a beat. I’m proud to go to work each day with a team that just gels.” – Hartwell
“Our pets!” – 95% of the team
Great work to be proud of
“We worked with great clients to roll out 18 uniquely branded sites with an innovative buy box solution for PURE Fishing.” – Zoya
“Solved the Shopify 100 variant limit!” – Hartwell
“I think advocating for accessibility on the Floradix site was a win. It can be easy to want to choose aesthetics over color accessibility, but in advocating for all users, it's important to find a way to do both.” – Cora
“As a new employee, jumping in and creating a new standardized QA process and working on a new build with the team.” – Crystal
“We provided the ability for customers to monogram their Zero Halliburton products!” – Zoya
What we’re thankful for
“So much! HEALTH, family, friends, a great team, trust, faith, peace, resources, a comfortable home, choices, adaptability, the right to vote, change, a sunrise and sunset every day.” – Chris
“I'm thankful to be working with a team that values family first, including the work family. We've supported each other through family hardships, celebrated new additions to the family including babies and fur babies, celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, as well as general life accomplishments.” – Rebecca
“My team. Having the opportunity and responsibility to solve unique problems every single day.” – Cam
“When I was hired I came in knowing I was going to be a part of a dynamic team working at a very high level. Moving here was the best thing that happened!” – Enrique
New wisdom
“I've learned that good things still happen even when the world feels really off balance and at the end of the day, the majority of people are trying to do what they think is best. Things can be rough, but they will get better. Ya just gotta keep drinking the coffee and know tomorrow is a new opportunity.” – Rebecca
“The only constant is change and we work in a fast-paced industry, so I needed to change my mindset from a jogger to a sprinter to keep up. That being said, I worked really hard to use that to get me in ‘great condition’ and not burned out. So much of how we feel is our mindset, so keeping a positive outlook goes a long way for me.” – Chris
“To not take things too seriously (although this is always a work in progress).” – Steph
“Nobody has all the answers. We’re all just doing our best, and that’s okay.” – Cam
“When making decisions in uncertain times: take a breath, involve more people, make the critical small choices, do the best that you can with the time you have.” – Hartwell
Onward!
While interacting via Slack and video chat has been adequate (and sometimes fun – we love the Question of the Day!), we’re all looking forward to when we can safely be back in the office, spending time in person with co-workers, colleagues and clients. We also can’t wait to bring Modern Commerce, our industry-leading merchant-only conference, back in the future (we’ll keep you posted). Here’s to a safe, healthy new year and to doing more exceptional work!