Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Bolt CEO Justin Grooms (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: So, Bolt started with a software product for online checkouts and sold it to small retailers. Small retailers came on board and used Bolt as their e-commerce checkout system. Then when consumers were buying through the Bolt checkout process, they were offered the opportunity to join the Bolt network.

This is how Bolt developed this network of consumers and then gradually went upmarket and got larger and larger retailers to come into this checkout system and also access the consumer base of Bolt. That’s the story that you’re telling.

Justin Grooms: Basically that’s it, except the only difference now is that the network itself is Bolt’s leading product. Checkout software, while we still have it, is something that larger retailers don’t need.

Sramana Mitra: Of course. It’s interesting because what you have created is a marketplace and now you’re offering access to the consumer side of that marketplace to larger retailers who would then set up shop in that marketplace and sell to this consumer base.

It’s a very interesting strategy of building a marketplace because there is now a whole category of marketplaces that are SaaS-enabled marketplaces where people not only have a marketplace, but the marketplace vendors sell SaaS products to both sides of the marketplace or to one side of the marketplace. And there is not only a marketplace transaction business, there is also a subscription software business. In your case, it seems like you started with a software business, got the consumers on the software, and then turned that into a marketplace.

Justin Grooms: It is a network of shoppers that any online retailer can access in a fully opt-in way for the shopper. It’s actually a reasonably simple sale process at this point, right?

Sramana Mitra: Today, selling a large network of consumers to retailers is a very simple value proposition and a very attractive value proposition.

Justin Grooms: It is. I think what is working so well is that from the very beginning, Bolt was always a proactive opt-in network. So these are shoppers who have opted into the Bolt network. Before any of the shopper information is shared with any new individual retailer, you go to the website, say Saks Off 5th and enter your email address, we will check and see if it’s in our database. If it is, we will push back an OTP interstitial to you saying, do you want to share your information with Saks Off 5th? And if you say yes with the proper credentials, we will share it. Then you will have it, they’ll be part of your universal shopper profile.

It’s fully permissioned. There’s nothing that happens in the background about shoppers being aware of exactly who it’s being shared with. I think what was just so amazing for the Bolt team, ten years ago was having the foresight that this is where privacy was going. This is where identity was going in the future. So now we provide this fully opt-in, very clear communication of what we’re sharing information to shoppers. That’s exactly what retailers want right now with identity. They want to know who their shoppers are.

Then the retailer’s privacy teams also want this, which is full opt-in by shoppers saying, “I understand you’re sharing my information. Thank you. “

This segment is part 4 in the series : Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Bolt CEO Justin Grooms
1 2 3 4 5 6 7