Payvment makes $6M Series B for e-commerce

Hundreds of retail storefronts added to Facebook daily, says Payvment, SF-based e-commerce platform

Payvment, a platform that enables retailers to open e-commerce storefronts on Facebook, announced Tuesday that it has raised a $6 million Series B round of funding led by Sierra Ventures with participation from previous investor BlueRun Ventures. Sierra partner Vispi Daver will be joining Payvment’s board.

The San Francisco startup raised a $1.15 million Series A from BlueRun in March of this year and a $250,000 seed round last year.

As for the service provided by Payment, the headline at the top of its product page says it all: “Over 500 million customers are waiting.”

Payvment helps over 40,000 small/medium-sized businesses, major brands and global retailers launch Facebook page storefronts. The startup doesn’t seem to have cut any corners, providing a full product management system, an integrated payment system (that accepts PayPal or credit cards), shipping features, marketing features and more.

The public beta service is currently free for retailers who register now and will remain so even when the service emerges from beta testing. Rightfully so, Payvment is adding hundreds of retail storefronts to Facebook daily.

"As we move toward a world where every industry is becoming social, major retailers are starting to see the value of social commerce. If they don't, they risk becoming irrelevant,” said Christian Taylor, founder and CEO of Payvment.

Of course, Payvment isn’t the only startup in this niche capitalizing on the popular Facebook platform. Storefront Social is another company completely dedicated to helping any business bring their store to Facebook pages. Shoutlet, a comprehensive social media marketing platform, now includes a feature called Shop & Share, which also enables clients to list all their items for sale from one single tab.

Here are a couple screenshots of Payvment-created storefronts on Facebook:

American model and actress Molly Sims’ Facebook store features Grayce jewelry items, as seen above. Yes to Carrots, a health and beauty retailer, also has a storefront on the platform, pictured below.

Other clients include Carton Network’s Adult Swim UK, Orglamix Cosmetics, Vanity Shoes, Game Intern, Claire’s Bowtique and Athehof.

The platform supports over 20 currencies and 13 languages (of which only English and Hebrew are not currently in beta).

Payvment will use the new money to hire employees in engineering, online community support, marketing, product integration, retail coordination for its new offices in Palo Alto, Calif., opening in the first quarter of 2011.