About Us

In 2000, Harry Chemko, Mark Williams and others built Elastic Path Software initially as a web services company. The timing couldn't have been worse, as it was right in the midst of the dot-com bust when many high tech companies were closing their doors. Harry and Mark persevered with only a small $15,000 loan from a government agency.

Elastic Path was receiving more and more requests for ecommerce engagements. Clients demanded custom ecommerce solutions because they weren't able to find what they needed anywhere on the market. Ecommerce software packages sold by large vendors required a significant investment and a long lead time. Many enterprises were frustrated with these options and were forced to build in house, which required ecommerce and expertise development resources they either did not have or could not afford to source from their own under resourced teams. Elastic Path recognized this gap in the market and set out to build an ecommerce platform that would provide enterprises with unprecedented flexibility and control.

A platform for unique requirements

So we built it. And indeed they came. Enterprises were attracted to our Java-based ecommerce platform for the easiest and most cost-effective way to deliver custom ecommerce solutions. They could benefit from the best of both worlds—the rich out-of-the-box features of a packaged solution as well as the full development environment to build in house. The Elastic Path platform was built using the best of open source technologies such as Spring, SOLR, Lucene, Eclipse, and OpenJPA. This technology stack helped speed up developer ramp up time, lower development costs, and made it easier to find IT resources. We didn't stop there. We provided our customers with full access to source code as well. This would make it easier and faster for internal IT teams to extend, customize, and integrate to the unique requirements of their business users. Finally there was an ecommerce platform that was developer friendly-source code, out-of-the-box features, APIs, integration tools, full development environment, and a developer community.

A solution for any business model

We decided to take the flexibility promise a step further. From our experience with many enterprise deployments, we understood that enterprises would differ in their ecommerce needs. Some companies may wish to start off with completely outsourcing their ecommerce operations but want to bring ecommerce in house as a core competency at a later date. Many other vendors made it virtually impossible to make this transition without great financial and technical hardship. Elastic Path offered three models: a developer-friendly ecommerce platform for those companies that wanted to take it in-house, hosted/managed services, or full ecommerce outsourcing for companies that did not have the ecommerce expertise or resources to manage their ecommerce business. Elastic Path was the first to provide all three models and the flexibility to move between these models at any time.

The ecommerce experts

Elastic Path provides more than just software. We live and breathe ecommerce. Major global brands turn to us to help guide their ecommerce strategy because we understand the challenges of growing online revenue quickly and owning the conversation with your direct customers.

We have a strong team of ecommerce consultants who can work closely with you to develop the ecommerce strategy to implement the right people, process, and technology to achieve your business goals.

Elastic Path is also a thought leader in the ecommerce industry, sharing knowledge on ecommerce best practices through our webinars and blog. Our Get Elastic blog is the most popular ecommerce blog in the world with more than 15,000 subscribers. The Get Elastic blog, maintained by Director of Ecommerce Research Linda Bustos, is the #1 ecommerce blog by PostRank Analytics, #35 on AdAge's Power150, and a SEMMY 2010 winner in the online marketing and general category. Many C-level executives, ecommerce professionals, and developers (even our competitors!) follow our blog and attend our webinars for the valuable ecommerce information.

Taking care of business

We've been taking care of business and taking care of our clients. Elastic Path has grown organically without any outside capital, earning it a spot on the PROFIT 100  ranking of Canada's Fastest-growing Companies for three consecutive years. Today, Elastic Path has a client base of more than 200 customers worldwide and more than 100 employees at offices in Reading, UK and Vancouver, Canada. And we're only getting started. Our future vision is to continue to be among the forefront of ecommerce technological innovation as well as take an important seat at the boardroom with our clients when it comes to ecommerce strategy. We have the trust of the world's leading enterprises in the digital software, telecommunications, media, and publishing industries.