BigCommerce Asks Us To Hold Several Contradictory Beliefs In Our Mind At The Same Time

BigCommerce continues to make progress on B2B, and profitability. But all is not rosy, and some of the story elements just don't add up. Let's get to the stats first:

* BigCommerce B2B GMV grew 78% y/y. This is a huge bright spot and differentiator for the company.

* ARR growth is up 8% across the business, with "enterprise" up 9%

* Big progress on profitability over the year (26 point improvement in non-GAAP margin is actually impressive progress) , now want to deliver growth against that better unit economics.

But in terms of a 2024 outlook, the company expects 6-8% revenue growth. Not exactly what you want to hear from your "growth-oriented" 2024 plans.

And now, here are some of the biggest WTF statements I took out of the call, with a little humor mixed in. 😜

* Proprietary AI is bad, except when we put it in Feedonomics, then it's good.

(this one really puzzled me)

* We have great customer support wait times. This was touted for several minutes on a profitable-growth oriented call. Just let that sink in for a moment.

I can't recall the last vendor I heard talk about this on an earnings call. Imagine Amazon doing this.

What's that you say? At Amazon you only talk to a robot and yet they still deliver industry-leading growth?

* We have the best products. And the lowest prices. Did I mention Shopify raised their prices? They did, just check it out.

* Despite our low low prices, customers are coming to us to downgrade their Enterprise commitments. That is hurting our Net Revenue Retention, especially since we are friendly and are working with them. Did I mention Salesforce tells customers who ask to downgrade to go pound sand?

Not us. We want to be loved.

* All of this will power us to growth! However....

* Growth will come when consumers feel comfortable, then businesses feel comfortable, THEN we might have some decent growth. ETA is TBD.

If all this is true, it seems like BigCommerce is following the market, not leading the market. In other words, if they were taking significant share they would be bucking these trends right? This was not mentioned.

Which does not sound great for 2024 because there is a lot of "hope" for the second half of 2024.

Meanwhile, Shopify is growing 3x+ faster than us. Despite higher prices. And what we think are worse solutions. And their customers don't seem to be downgrading.

I'm sure there is a pony in here someplace (?!)