Who they are
Hewlett-Packard sold direct through two e-commerce businesses: hpshopping.com, the direct-to-consumer brand, and a separate platform serving the small-and-medium-business market.
This is where the e-commerce half of AHM Technology's record begins: the early 2000s, when the patterns everyone now takes for granted had to be worked out first-hand — at the scale of one of the world's largest technology brands.
The challenge
In the early 2000s, selling direct was new ground for HP — and for everyone. The consumer business and the SMB business needed commerce platforms that could carry a global brand's volume, grow as fast as the channel did, and hold through every peak, at a time when almost none of today's e-commerce patterns, tools or vendors existed.
Growth made the problem harder in the best way: hpshopping.com scaled from nothing toward a billion dollars of annual revenue in five years, and the SMB platform grew rapidly alongside it. Two successful channels, built separately, eventually posed the strategic question every multi-channel retailer now recognizes — should this be one platform?
What we did
The platforms were built and run from the inside, by the two people who now lead AHM Technology. Neil Markey was Director of Engineering for hpshopping.com, HP's direct-to-consumer brand; Steven Lopez was Director of Engineering for the SMB e-commerce platform. They ran the two channels as colleagues — and then joined forces on what came next.
Consumer E-commerce: hpshopping.com
HP's direct-to-consumer commerce business, built and operated at global scale — catalog, pricing, promotions, fulfillment and the storefront itself, carried through every retail peak. Within five years of launch it exceeded $1B in annual revenue.
Zero to $1B+ in five years
SMB E-commerce
The platform serving HP's small-and-medium-business market, built and operated in parallel — a different buyer, different catalog dynamics and different commerce logic, growing rapidly alongside the consumer channel.
A second channel, scaled in parallel
One Go-Forward Platform for Both Channels
As both businesses scaled, the two directors worked together to define a go-forward e-commerce platform to run the DTC and SMB channels on one architecture — and then architected and built it together. The same commerce foundations, serving two very different businesses without forking.
Two channels, one architecture — and a working partnership that lasted
Building the Engineering Organization
Behind the consumer platform, an engineering organization was built from scratch to more than 200 people, spanning San Francisco and Bangalore — global, follow-the-sun delivery for a platform that could never be down.
200+ engineers across two continents
hpshopping.com went from zero to more than $1B in revenue in five years — carried by an engineering organization built from scratch to more than 200 people.
Results & impact
Enterprise e-commerce experience that predates AHM Technology and underpins it.