WPTavern: AJ Morris Acquires iThemes Exchange
In 2013, iThemes released Exchange, an e-commerce platform that aimed to make selling online as simple as possible. Today, the company announced that AJ Morris, Product Manager at Liquid Web, has taken over the project.
“When approached about taking over iThemes Exchange early this year, we wanted to be sure the project and our customers went into very competent hands, someone who will love and care for them as much as we do,” Cory Miller, founder of iThemes, said.
“Having spent four and a half years investing in the project and in you and your success, we did not take this lightly.
“After numerous conversations over the past several months, we believe the best home for Exchange is with ExchangeWP LLC led by AJ Morris.”
Everything iThemes Exchange related will transition to ExchangeWP.com. Toolkit, Plugin Suite, Exchange Pro Pack, and iThemes Exchange Add-on customers will be given accounts for free support and upgrades through August 2018 at ExchangeWP.com.
Beginning today, customers will no longer be able to purchase Exchange or its add-ons through iThemes as the company transfers licenses and products to ExchangeWP. However, iThemes will continue to provide customer support until the transition is completed, expected to happen in early August.
Morris says he’ll continue to focus on making e-commerce simple and will provide regular updates to customers to provide insight into what goes into transition a product from one company to another and where the product is heading.
“These days, it’s very easy to get WordPress up and running so you can start blogging,” Morris said. “But when you want to add e-commerce to the mix, it’s a bit different.”
“With big players like WooCommerce out there, it becomes too much too quickly for the average content producer to get their store up and running.
“Exchange is going to continue focusing on the independent publishers that want to keep the revenue they can, while providing a simplistic experience in an easy-to-use e-commerce plugin that will help get their stores online quickly.”
Allowing Morris to take over the project frees up resources for iThemes to focus on three of its flagship products; BackupBuddy, iThemes Security, and iThemes Sync. In addition to their core products, the company says it will soon release a new project.
“My job as CEO is to be a steward of the time and resources we have at iThemes in order to serve you best,” Miller said.
“We’ve realized for a while that it was past time for us to refocus our finite resources on the projects that have the most growth and potential for our company and you.
“That meant we either needed to find a new home for Exchange or sunset the project. I’m thankful we didn’t have to do the latter.”
Morris is a long-time member of the WordPress community and has spoken at several WordCamps. With Morris taking over the reigns, existing customers won’t have to worry about finding a replacement.
Source: WordPress
