Lightspeed invests in sales force and software improvements to increase consumer reach

Lightspeed Commerce Inc. is investing in it’s sales force and tailoring its software to raise the company’s economic outlook in North America and Europe, the CEO says.

The Montreal-based e-commerce company says it is undertaking a ‘very disciplined transformation’ to prioritize growth by hiring more people to reach new establishments while improving software to connect retailers with consumers.

“We’ve been investing in outbound sales, salespeople in North America retail and European hospitality,” says Dax Dasilva, adding Q3 revenue is up from a year ago.

He says investments in personnel are directly tied to the company’s recent acceleration in expanding operations to more stores. He says expansions have increased five per cent in the first quarter to seven per cent.

“European hospitality is more field reps going restaurant to restaurant in major European centres, and in North America retail, it’s outbound remote reps calling into key verticals like apparel and footwear and sport and outdoor businesses, leading with our wholesale platform that’s called NuOrder. So those reps are a big investment,” says Dasilva.

He says 150 reps were hired to ramp up productivity and plans are in the works to hire more, particularly in retail businesses.