At the end of last week SaaS ERP provider NetSuite acquired privately-owned US-based Retail Anywhere who is in the business of retail management and point-of-sale applications. The acquisition will add to NetSuite’s SuiteCommerce offerings and should slot in easily as 28-year old Retail Anywhere is an existing partner who last year rebuilt its products to run on the NetSuite platform. Financial details were not disclosed.
In terms of impact, the deal will open the way for NetSuite’s channel partners to sell to retail customers. The company is also looking to recruit new channel partners with retail experience and specialisation. Retailers are under pressure to align their online and bricks-and-mortar operations, and adjust their business models to cater for reducing sales through high street stores (as the recent demise of Jessops illustrates – see Should we cry over the passing of Jessops?) so supporting both types of operation from a single system is a natural direction for application providers and retailers.
One aspect of the acquisition is concerning. NetSuite says it will continue to support Retail Anywhere applications on older platforms which could expose it to higher costs or impact resource allocation. The acquired company provides software (some on-premise as far as we can see), services and hardware so action is probably on the cards if NetSuite it to avoid diluting its pure SaaS positioning. Further details and the financial impact may be available when NetSuite issues Q4 results in early February. During Q3 it was busy expanding revenue but costs continued to rise (see here).