Another year has come to an end at Bold, and that means it's time to reflect. This year we have so much to look back on and be thankful for.
In 2018 alone, almost as many people joined the team as we had previously hired in the last five years! That means we hired over 150 people who share our vision of empowering entrepreneurs to succeed. We smashed records, accomplished goals, launched new products, made lifelong friends, and had a ton of fun doing it all.
With that being said, if we had to look back at 2018 and think of just one word that captures it, it would be FOCUS.
At this point in our journey, we feel we have really begun to understand our why. With this new focus, we stripped out products that didn't fit, added products that did, changed how we did things, and even re-focused our message and brand. Here's more about that.
This past year was about building a foundation for the next five years at Bold that truly fits our vision.
We honestly believe a company is a product of its people. We'd like to say a very heartfelt thank you to every one of our 262 Builders who have helped make our company so great, and the tens of thousands of merchants who trust us to help them run their eCommerce stores. You all have worked so hard, gone above and beyond, and continue to amaze us on a daily basis. Bold would not be Bold without you.
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Yvan, Eric, Stefan & Jay, Bold's Co-Founders
Cha-Ching! goes live
We kicked the year off with a bang, launching our very first eCommerce podcast, Cha-Ching! (available on iTunes or Google Play), offering entrepreneurs down and dirty strategies for growing their eCommerce stores. Give it a listen!
Spirit of Winnipeg Awards
Bold was selected as a finalist for the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce Spirit of Winnipeg Awards in the Wellness and Workplace Culture category. We’re especially proud of this nomination as it celebrates our amazing employees and the culture we've created together throughout the years.
Celebrating our 200th employee
We're grateful everyday for the amazing team that we get to work with, and even more grateful for the 85,000+ merchants in more than 170 countries around the world who trust Bold to power their online stores. Check out our amazing team here.
Break the Ice: Our first (of many) hiring events of the year
Did you know we hired 152 employees in 2018 alone, bringing us to 262?!
The talent that flows through this building is amazing, and it’s through initiatives like our “Break the Ice” event held last April that we found some of those amazing people. Over 100 people came through to find out about more about what we’re working on, and to find out what Bold is all about! Interested in joining the team? We’re still hiring!
Our international recruitment takes us to Berlin
Speaking of hiring events, Bold took our first of two international recruitment trips this past spring, with the team heading to Berlin to see the amazing talent they had to offer. Fun fact: our first recruit hit the tarmac in October, with another 4 expected by the end of the year.
Our local pride was in full swing
The Winnipeg Jets lost their incredible playoff run this past May, with our team joining the Whiteout that swept the city. You can tell we were a little bit excited...
Shopify Unite 2018
Our team headed to Toronto for this year’s Shopify Unite, an annual event held for Shopify Partners to meet and find out what they’re working on to help merchants crush their goals. From a faster checkout experience, to brand new Shopify POS hardware, the announcements coming out of Shopify Unite 2018 didn't disappoint. See a full breakdown of the event here.
GDPR takes the eCommerce world by storm
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect late May of this year, and our entire Operations team worked hard to ensure all of Bold’s apps were fully compliant by the deadline. We take the security and privacy of our merchants and their customers very seriously, and you can be sure that every drop of data that we collect is safe, regardless of what country you do business in. You can read more about Bold’s GDPR compliance here.
Fueled innovation and strengthened bonds at our AGM
We rounded out a busy month by taking a little time for ourselves to look back at the fiscal year that passed, and focus on building amazing things together in the months to come. We had a blast taking over Hecla Resort, and we’re already looking forward to next year!
Bold takes off for São Paulo to continue international recruitment
We joined a host of other Canadian tech companies in São Paulo, Brazil and were blown away by the talent we found. Interested in moving to Canada to join the team? Watch the video above to see what’s waiting for you here at Bold.
Canada Learning Code workshop
We had the absolute pleasure of hosting our first Canada Learning Code workshop this year, focused on Ladies Learning Code. We were proud to showcase the talent of some of our very own Builders at the event, who helped provide hands-on, project-based experience to everyone that attended. Click here to learn more about these events, and how you can attend.
Bold Bundles gets a makeover
Bold Bundles helps our merchants boost their order sizes by creating unique bundle sales on their stores. This past June, Bundles had two major functions added to it: the ability to offer the crowd favorite BOGO-style offer, and the option to add the same product to multiple bundles. Find out more about Product Bundles on our website.
We’ve got subscriptions on the brain...
Did you know Bold Subscriptions generated 5,474,140 orders in 2018, processing just over $190,255,450 USD for our merchants!
High-growth merchants & mom and pop stores alike rely on this powerful app to scale their subscription businesses. And we found the perfect place to celebrate all that recurring revenue at SubSummit. It’s the only conference in the world that’s devoted exclusively to subscription commerce: See what our team took away from their very first event and what to expect at SubSummit in case you’re planning on attending in 2019.
Our first app launches on BigCommerce
The secret is finally out: We launched Bold Multi-Currency onto BigCommerce in September, the first of many apps that would do so by the end of 2018. We’re always looking for new and better ways to empower entrepreneurs to succeed, and expanding our apps and solutions onto new platforms is the perfect way to help a whole new wave of merchants scale their businesses.
Launched our Holiday Hustle sales guide with Shopify's top partners
Black Friday was in full swing when we teamed up with some eCommerce heavyweights to bring you the best tips and tricks on the highest-converting Black Friday sales, showing you exactly how to run them. You can still read all about buyer personas and target audiences, sales tactics and email marketing by downloading your free copy to reference throughout the year.
If you love Twitch, take a look at our newest project
A (not so) little project we've been working on launched into open Beta at TwitchCon this year. Flocker brings together eCommerce, streaming tools, and innovative features in a one-page solution built for Twitch content creators and their communities. Head over to Flocker.tv for more info!
BoldCommerce.com gets a makeover
Have you headed over to BoldCommerce.com lately? If you have, you’ll notice we have a whole new look. But it’s not just our fancy new interface you’ll notice: we also launched six new solutions for high-growth merchants, solving their biggest pain points with a combination of apps, tools, and services that address store owners' core needs.
Kickbooster joins our fleet of apps on the Shopify app store
Kickbooster is the newest app to join Bold’s ranks, and it’s the easiest way to start a referral program on your store, turning every single sale into a marketing opportunity. If you’re ready to dip your toe into the world of affiliate/referral marketing, find out what Kickbooster is all about on our website.
Our merchants had their best Black Friday EVER
Merchants worked overtime all month to prep their stores for the big day. Our AMAZING support team received over 2500 reviews (2350 of those receiving five stars!), helping 3,726 merchants over the Black Friday weekend alone.
To find out more about how Bold prepared for the big day, take a look at our blog post on Putting our merchants first: How Bold prepares for Black Friday traffic written by our CTO, Eric Boisjoli.
Upsell Funnels send sales into overdrive
We snuck in one more release before the end of the year, and it’s a big one. We gave Bold Upsell a huge upgrade, giving our merchants the ability to offer Upsell Funnels, maximizing EVERY sale opportunity possible. What’s an upsell funnel? If you’ve ever shopped with Vistaprint, you’ll know: It’s the ability to offer your customers complimentary products to their purchase, and based on whether they decline or accept, continue offering additional relevant add-ons to boost your average order value.
Loyalty Points 2.0 hits the app store
Ok, we lied. We slipped in one more upgrade before 2019 hit, and it’s been a long time coming. Bold Loyalty Points got a new look and new features to ring in the new year, along with a brand new widget that can be styled to exactly match your branding with no coding necessary.
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