Moonfruit Targets US Consumer Sellers with DIY Storefront Builder

Moonfruit, a do-it-yourself ecommerce storefront builder based in the UK, has opened its new U.S. headquarters. Since its launch in 2000, Moonfruit has helped merchants create 4.5 million sites. Ten percent of them are paid sites, and about 35 percent of its customers are already based in the U.S.

Moonfruit launched ShopBuilder in October, an out-of-the-box ecommerce solution that lets individuals and small businesses sell instantly on the Web, via mobile phones or on Facebook. Moonfruit offers several plans, including a free one ("Have a play before you get serious. Great for first timers").

Within the first 3 months of ShopBuilder's launch, Moonfruit added more than 120,000 Web, Facebook and mobile shops, supporting transactions in 15 currencies. About 15% of those are paid shops.

Wendy Tan-White, co-founder and CEO of Moonfruit, said ShopBuilder allows merchants to accept PayPal, but it is looking into adding additional payment services. Moonfruit is also about to add eBay integration and has plans to add Amazon and Etsy integration as well.

ShopBuilder allows sellers to add Twitter and Facebook buttons to listings, and will soon be adding Pinterest Pin-it buttons.

Tan-White said the service is aimed at smaller sellers who are looking for an easy to use service that allows them to set up extremely well designed shops. She sees the rise of "the consumer seller," and says keeping it simple and fun is important.

In conjunction with the opening of its U.S. headquarters, Moonfruit appointed Robbie Vann-Adibe its General Manager. He was most recently Vice President of Sales and Business Development of cloud computing company 3Tera before its acquisition by CA in 2009. He previously served as CEO at Method, a branding, Web development and experience design firm, and he was cofounder of Viant, one of the original pure play internet consulting firms.

The company has received a $2.3 million investment from Stephens (US) and 500 Startups, Dave McClure.