WordPress competitor, startup Deco focuses on retail and promises to speed up websites by up to 5x

A startup Deco.cx was created in October 2022 by a group of former members of VTEX (e-commerce management company) focused on optimizing the experience of using websites (front-end).

The idea was to develop a platform with a digital experience that would speed up website creation and with the ability to scale. Currently, the startup has 65 signed clients – such as Osklen, Torra, Euro Colchões and Embelleze, to name a few – and 30 under implementation.

Solve problems

“Many companies solve problems for the end customer, such as ordering, checkout, cart, connection to marketplaces, but there is a front-end part, building the website”, explains Rafael Crespo, co-founder of Deco.cx.

Rafael states that the market mainly complains about the slowness of websites, which leads users to leave quickly, as well as difficulties in customizing, especially for large retailers. Given this, he saw a market opportunity.

“Companies can continue using commerce platforms as back-end (internal processes), for business management, uploading products, for example, and the user’s digital experience can be managed by Deco’s software.”

According to the company, the solution was quickly adopted, as the market complained that projects took more than a year to proceed, “Solutions that are more incipient on the market, such as Wix, Webflow, WordPress, have a low ceiling. In other words, they work for you to start a small website, but when it reaches a scale level, it becomes limited”, says the executive.

Retail

Deco.cx started in retail, due to the members being within VTEX, and they continue with the same focus.

“We started with what we knew from the VTEX system and went to talk to brands that were closest to us. On average, we can make a website five times faster.”

Differences

In the co-founder's view, among the startup's differentiators is an easy-to-use visual editor, with unrestricted access to the code. The platform also promises greater ease for the developer, as there is a code editor in the administrator itself, as well as AI (artificial intelligence) tools integrated into the journey.

Value

The price for using the service may vary: US$8 is charged for every 10,000 pages viewed on the website.

Implementation

The company does not carry out the implementation, but appoints an agency and developers to do so, in addition to a Discord community with 2,500 developers, aimed at smaller sites.

Market

In December 2022, shortly after its creation, Deco.cx made an angel investment round of US$600,000, through leaders of e-commerce implementers. The product was launched in May 2023 and then a seed round was held between July and August last year. The startup managed to raise US$2.2 million. The company intends to earn up to US$2 million in 2024 and is also targeting the United States market.