One year after its NuOrder acquisition, Lightspeed enhanced an ecosystem where apparel brands and prospective buyers can connect, fulfill transactions and share insights.
Launching for North American fashion, outdoor and sports retailers, the solution integrates wholesale processes from B2B ordering to point of sale (POS). Thousands of international brands including Tom Ford, Coach, Theory, Black Diamond and Outdoor Voices will have a presence on the platform, where retailers can purchase product for their stores and e-commerce sites.
Retail buyers can browse a brand’s digital catalog or visit its virtual showroom, adding items to their cart along the way. They order through the Lightspeed platform, which immediately updates the retailer’s POS with inventory information, product details, and photography assets. The process means retailers don’t have to manually catalog the inventory or photograph products for their websites, Lightspeed said.
“We saw an enormous opportunity to transform how retailers work with their brands,” Lightspeed CEO JP Chauvet said. NuOrder’s B2B technology and expertise has helped create “a truly transformational, integrated brand supplier network for the retail industry,” he added. “We’ve completely re-invented the buying and inventory process for brands and retailers, and Lightspeed B2B is bringing them a robust, high-end brand network.”
The platform caters to brands that have long relied on print catalogs, physical showrooms and trade shows to connect with buyers and showcase their goods. Lightspeed B2B allows them to curate their digital storefronts and virtual showrooms with photos, videos and other collateral, and share that information across the platform’s network of buyers. They can manage orders from all retailers in one virtual space, instead of manually cataloging them in spreadsheets or managing paper purchase orders.
“Wholesale retail ordering is a broken industry and we have always felt a responsibility to solve for both sides of the brand and retailer equation,” said Heath Wells, NuOrder co-founder and general manager for the new Lightspeed B2B platform, which enables businesses to discover new products, gain valuable insights, and do their browsing and buying all in once place.
“The disruption of the last two years has cemented the need for independent retailers to leverage technology to remain agile,” he added. The new Lightspeed B2B Network will help them “strengthen their operational resilience” amid ongoing operational and logistical hurdles.