ChannelAdvisor (NYSE:ECOM) checked out of the fourth quarter with $20.5 million in revenue, a record for the e-commerce software company and a 30 percent increase over fourth quarter results a year ago. The company also continues to hire at an aggressive pace.

The results exceeded the Morrisville company’s expectations and marked the first time its sales had ever topped $20 million in a quarter. CEO Scot Wingo attributed the results to the company riding the broader trends of consumer behavior.

“More and more consumers are choosing e-commerce over traditional retailing,” he said on a conference call with analysts to discuss financial results.

ChannelAdvisor’s “core revenue” in the quarter was $20.1 million. The company’s measure of core revenue excludes two legacy acquisitions that are not key to the company’s core business providing cloud-based software that helps retailers manage sales over the Internet. And that business is growing. ChannelAdvisor added 500 new customers in the fourth quarter alone, a period that has historically been slow for customer acquisition.

By comparison, ChannelAdvisor added 32 net new customers in the fourth quarter of 2012. Wingo attributed the customer growth to the company’s investment in its sales and marketing efforts.

For now, ChannelAdvisor is choosing growth over profitability. Excluding certain items, ChannelAdvisor reported a $4.8 million net loss in the quarter, or loss of 21 cents per share, compared with net income of $900,000 in the fourth quarter of 2012, or 5 cents per share.

But ChannelAdvisor beat analyst estimates. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters on average estimated the company would report $19.8 million in revenue and a loss of 28 cents per share.

For the year, ChannelAdvisor reported $68.0 million, up 27 percent compared with total revenue of $53.6 million in 2012. Core revenue for the year was $66.2 million, up 29 percent year over year. The company’s 2013 net loss, excluding certain items, was $15.4 million compared with a $4.3 million net loss in 2012.

CFO John Baule said that ChannelAdvisor finished the year with 2,429 total core customers, up 26 percent year over year. The company is also bringing on a lot of new hires. The company started 2013 with about 400 employees. By the end of the year, headcount had grown 50 percent to top 600.

ChannelAdvisor does have plenty of cash to invest in its growth strategy. In November, the company completed a secondary stock offering that raised more than $31 million. Baule said that with the offering complete, ChannelAdvisor has $100 million in cash and cash equivalents and no debt.