Recently, Amazon acquired Selz, a Sydney-based e-commerce platform that aims to help small businesses create websites in a manner very similar to the one Shopify Inc. uses.

Selz Founder Martin Rushe Made the Announcement Regarding the Acquisition

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Selz, Martin Rushe, shared the news about the acquisition in a blog post. He said that they (Selz and Amazon) have signed an agreement and are looking forward to working together to continue making easy-to-use tools for aspiring entrepreneurs. He added that the acquisition would not change anything for Selz customers and promised to keep in touch with them regarding any further updates.

An Amazon Spokeswoman Also Confirmed the Acquisition

While Amazon has confirmed the acquisition of Selz, no terms were disclosed. This latest move by Amazon signals the company’s interest in allowing small and medium businesses to use their own websites instead of attempting to direct their traffic to its marketplace. While Shopify is popular among online sellers because it gives them more control over the customer experience, the Selz acquisition aims to give Amazon a competitive edge by letting businesses use even more tools to quickly move their operations online.

Selz was founded in 2013 in Sydney, Australia, and gives small and medium businesses a platform to launch online stores with online payment options to other websites. The platform has many tools and currently employs around 50 people. It will be Amazon’s third-party marketplace in a segment with over 2.5 million sellers. This accounts for around half of Amazon’s e-commerce sales and brings in record revenue for the company.

From 2010 to 2015, Amazon operated another service that was similar to Shopify and was called Amazon Webstore. It also allowed small businesses to run online stores and was built on Amazon’s technology. However, Amazon Webstore was shut down in 2016 after failing to create an appealing product for e-retailers. During its five-year lifetime, it gathered no more than several hundred active users, with competitors having tens of thousands. In addition, some users reported negative experiences with the platform.

Although many people often find it easy to criticize social media, there’s no doubt about the fact that these platforms can also work as huge building blocks when it comes to connecting people and raising money. In fact, Instagram has now made it easier for anyone to raise money through their social media platform, as fundraisers can now be hosted live for everyone to see and donate to.

Raising Awareness

For many years, social media has been a way to connect charities, organizations, and those who want to get involved. We have seen many well-known charities use their social media posts and videos to entice people to donate money, and many celebs have also jumped on the bandwagon. Normally, this has involved charitable links in their bios or swipe-up links, but things have since gotten much easier.

A Donation Sticker

In recent months, Instagram added a new feature to its platform and it came in the form of the donation sticker. Anyone could add this sticker to their story, allowing their friends, family members, or fans to click on the link and donate to the charity that had been chosen by the profile owner. This proved to be an extremely popular and successful addition, which is why it’s no wonder that they have now taken things up a notch.

Going Live

That’s because Instagram users can now use the Live function to stream a donation video. The host can choose to make their live session a fundraiser before the video starts rolling, and then they can continue to stream for as long as they want while also keeping track of the donations. They can see who donates, they can see how much people donate, and they can see just how much money is raised overall. What’s even better is that 100% of the proceeds go to the charity chosen.

How cool is this new feature for fundraisers?