It's been a long journey in getting to where we are today; both personally and as a team. JIBE is onto its 12th year of business, and yet it feels just as exciting and intense as if it was our first week. Like any service agency has most definitely experienced, we've cycled through eating dirt out of a trough to riding high on waves.
These last 4 years have been exceptional for our positioning of eCommerce services, our growth, but also the level of skill and maturity of our team. We've been extremely privileged to have long-standing team members and to have worked alongside some amazing better-life brands like Arc'teryx, 7mesh, Grouse Mountain, Organika, Sugoi, and Covalent. We have punched above our weight-class more often than not – for a team of our size. I'm fortunate to work so closely with every one of our team members.
We have shown time and time again, that playing the long-game and truly focusing on our people, relationships, and partners drive significant results. I'm immensely fortunate to be aligning with brands that care about their communities, the environment, their impact on the world, and providing exceptional human experiences for their customers.
As if it wasn't evident enough over 2020, I see a rise in the tide. Consumer behaviour has begun to dramatically shift to digital at a rapid pace. In the US alone, B2C eCommerce sales reached $794.50 billion in 2020, up 32.4% year-over-year. During the same period, global eCommerce sales hit $4.2 trillion (from a predicted $3.5 trillion in 2019).
eCommerce is here to stay – but how do we make a larger impact? How do we ensure we don't fall into the trap of materialistic values and feeding consumerism? We build better-life brands from the ground up.
I'm excited to announce we have closed a significant investment with OvareGroup, a Los-Angeles based holding company, with deep roots in growing highly successful, and independently operated agencies and D2C better-life brands. OvareGroup's shared values and desire to work within the better-life ecosystem of social, environmental, recycled goods and outdoor industries put JIBE's team squarely in the spotlight as a key ingredient for helping accelerate the growth of both OvareGroup's existing portfolio brands, but also future venture investments. Equally beneficial, OvareGroup brings a talent ecosystem of paralleled services to disposal of JIBE's existing client portfolio. We intend to remain hyper-focused in building the future model of sustainable, environmentally focused, digitally native better-life brands.
You'll expect the same level of professionalism, respect, speed, and efficiency that you already receive from our team. In fact, I expect to see improvements to resourcing dramatically over the coming months. We are aggressively hiring senior-level and seasoned eCommerce professionals, both technical and creative, to our already highly-experienced team. Take a look at our job openings. Stay posted for announcements of key hires in the coming months.
We have ambitious goals in contributing heavily into community over the next 5-10 years by building on top of our eComSquare community group, which currently holds over 2,200 members in Vancouver. Our first step is to incubate and help grow a lasting legacy of stable, profitable, and highly skilled D2C business operators here in Vancouver. We will be announcing a significant investment in spring of 2021.
Our goal is to become industry thought-leaders in contributing across North America along the conference and event circuits. Once travel becomes a thing, expect to see us around.
We have ambitious goals, and we're looking for sharp entrepreneurial minded individuals to join us on this journey.
Find out more on our job openings or drop me a line on LinkedIn.
I want to end with one big massive thanks to every member of our team, our customers, the community, and every relationship we've made along the way. You have helped bring us to where we are today. Thank you for for trusting me in leading the journey we're about to go on together.
It's going to be one hell of a ride.
JIBE is a Vancouver-based, all-service eCommerce agency with specialization in technical integrations such as ERPs, OMSs, IMSs, and eCommerce platform builds from strategy and design to implementation, delivery, and growth. In addition, JIBE operates a sister growth performance eCommerce marketing agency, RISE, whose compensation model is based on shared revenue growth. Both JIBE and RISE focus on long-term customer relationships with D2C focused better-life brands in the outdoor, adventure, environmental sustainability, organics, health and wellness verticals. For project or general contact inquiries, contact us. For career opportunities at JIBE, visit our careers.