OpenStore’s 2023 Year-in-Review

OpenStore Staff

Dec 27, 2023

In 2023, we moved closer to our goal of supporting more entrepreneurs and bringing the joy of product discovery to online shopping. We greatly expanded our offerings for entrepreneurs, giving them more choices as they consider starting a new business or taking a break. And we set many new records as we scaled our brands to new heights.

Let’s dive into some of the highlights:

Tripling our offerings for Shopify entrepreneurs

This year, we had the privilege of working with more entrepreneurs as we welcomed additional Shopify brands into our portfolio.

After acquiring brands and giving people instant liquidity to start something new, we found that some founders weren’t quite ready to sell their business entirely, but still wanted to take a break or start another business. This led us to design OpenStore Drive which allows founders to receive monthly passive income and retain ownership of their brand while our team of e-commerce experts handles everything from inventory and marketing to shipping and support.

We also wanted to work with an even broader set of businesses on Shopify, especially smaller but promising brands. We launched OpenStore Boost, giving brands generating $50,000 and $500,000 access to some of the same tools and marketing expertise we use to scale our brands.

In October, the popular gym bag and backpack brand, KNKG, joined as an OpenStore Drive brand. KNKG’s founder, Stefan, shared: “What I liked about [OpenStore Drive] was, first of all, KNKG is my baby, so I wasn’t ready to hand it over entirely. Then also the OpenStore advantages of specialists in all the different areas—supply chain, operations, advertising, and marketing.” Our teams were able to achieve KNKG’s biggest month ever in terms of net sales and contribution profit after achieving a blowout BFCM in November. Stefan’s starting up his second e-commerce brand with his newfound time and passive income from OpenStore Drive.

Ian, the founder of supplement brand, Regen Health, also decided to transition his brand to OpenStore Drive, calling his decision a “no-brainer.” In July, we shared that OpenStore Drive helped increase Regen Health’s new customers by 50% month-over-month and new orders by 35%, while reducing cost per acquisition (CAC) by 5%.

Last month, we hosted OpenStore Live, our first in-person event for Shopify entrepreneurs to talk about company building with other successful founders. We invited some of the biggest names in e-commerce, including Shopify’s COO and VP of Product, and founders from Bonobos, Hims & Hers, Glow Recipe, Gilt, and more. (You can watch the talks here).

Bringing our brands to new heights

2023 also marked several firsts, new records, and technology unlocks:

Scaled Jack Archer’s revenue from $1M to $10M: In only nine months, our team scaled our menswear brand Jack Archer from $1M in revenue to $10M in revenue, through testing 600+ video ads, developing pants and tees, and running pricing tests.‍
First-ever retail expansion: Last month, we started selling a brand we acquired in 2022, EXO Drones, at over 100 Best Buy stores and on BestBuy.com.
Record-setting BFCM: We also recently wrapped up an enormous BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) for our brands: we had a record-breaking Black Friday, with our best day in daily net sales, contribution profit, and ROAS (return on ad spend). Throughout that weekend, we increased contribution profit by 180% and year-over-year sales by 28%.
Built 20+ automation tools: Our Engineering teams continued investments in technology and tooling, building 20+ automation tools including AI-driven Customer Support, Promo Engine, SEO Page Generation, and more.
Automated influencer marketing & UGC: We also launched our creator app, gumdrop, which connects content creators to product collabs across our portfolio. This helps creators easily access collab opportunities — and helps us automate influencer marketing and generate UGC.

Welcoming new faces, a new office, and a new look

To support our new offerings for entrepreneurs and our growing portfolio, we expanded our team, moved into a beautiful new HQ, and designed a new brand identity for our growing ambitions. The new look celebrates e-commerce entrepreneurs and spotlights the unique products and brands that millions of people love.

Sushil Sharma joined OpenStore as the General Manager of the Consumer Products team. Bringing vast experience from companies like Match, Better, and Lending Tree, Sushil is leading the development of our upcoming shopping app and oversaw the rollout of the OpenStore Department Store, our unified storefront that lets people shop from our brands in one place.

To accommodate our growing team, we doubled the size of our headquarters in Miami. Located in the Wynwood Arts District, our new office is designed to inspire employees to do their best work and collaborate in person, living out two of our Operating Principles: Compress Time and Play to Win.