Venzee Technologies (VENZ:TSXv) has recently announced another channel partnership. And as Company continues to execute these technology partnerships I thought it was important to sit down with Peter Mackay, President of Venzee, to discuss who their channel partners are and what Venzee does to enhance the existing digital supply chain software.
The digital supply chain is an enormous business and continues to grow at a rapid pace. Venzee positions itself as a last mile technology solution that helps relieve the $100B pain retailers and brands are currently facing due to inaccurate online product information.
Arlen Hansen: Peter, I see that Venzee has signed a second Channel Partnership agreement with another PIM/CMS software company, for those that don’t know, what exactly is a CMS?
PM: That’s a great question. PIM (Product Information Management) is product information technology or otherwise known as Content Management Solution (CMS) and these are the technology companies brands, manufacturers and distributors use to centralize product information within their organization. They organize product information, such as size, weight, color, price, image and other product information that consumers demand. Venzee is the last mile solution that can upload that product information off to the retailer and ultimately the end customer. For the most part, people couldn’t name one CMS company in the world, yet they are the backbone of the worlds digital supply chain that sits behind the consumer-facing brands.
AH: So if the CMS is already the backbone of the digital supply chain, is Venzee trying to disrupt this?
Peter Mackay: Not at all, we position Venzee as a way to enhance the value of a CMS. These systems are very good at organizing and maintaining product information within an organization. However, Venzee is the critical element in helping that well-curated information get distributed to retailers and ultimately the customers. Our technology automates the distribution workflow allowing brands to move content to more sales channels with less labor.
Instead of competing, we sit in between the content management system and the retailer ensuring the brand and the retailers are speaking the same language. We believe Venzee is the best solution in the world to ensure accurate and consumer-relevant product content is efficiently delivered to retailers.
AH: But don’t the CMS’s do this already? You would think that they offer this solution for their clients as part of their service now.
Peter Mackay: Content Management Systems are complex and are the right tool to help companies pull together an accurate and complete record of a product. But sharing that product record with dozens, hundreds, or thousands of retail channels is a different task altogether. To be exceptional at delivering the last mile to the retailer, is not an easy task. So ultimately, it’s easier, much easier to partner with a proven tech than try to build yourself and this is where Venzee steps in.
AH: Can you dive a little more into the partnership strategy further?
Peter Mackay: One, the CMS’s will recommend Venzee as the last mile solution for either a referral fee or commission, this was the announcement we made this week with a European based content management service.
Secondly, a CMS partnership will sell the Venzee technology as a white label solution to their clients. Their clients won’t even know that Venzee exists yet Venzee will receive a percentage of the monthly fee the CMS sells the solution for.
Lastly, Venzee has a pay per use model, whereas we integrate Venzee API mesh and sit in between the CMS and the retailer. Venzee will get paid every time they use the Venzee plugin to upload the data, and this would be an enormous win for Venzee shareholders. With over 500M products being sold by Amazon alone, you can imagine how many millions of SKU’s are uploaded daily to online retailers around the world.
AH: Does this mean you are abandoning the SMB SaaS model the Company originally built its business around?
Peter Mackay: No, not at all. CMS software is typically enterprise grade and can be very expensive to use. There are still hundreds of thousands of smaller manufacturers and distributors that can benefit from Venzee. In addition to our partnerships, our client base and revenue continues to grow every month, and we believe we have found our sweet spot in positioning Venzee to this SMB market.
AH: Thanks Peter, I think this gives investors a much better understanding of the Venzee technology, but can you wave your arms and tell them what the market opportunity is?
Peter Mackay: Statistics show that incorrect online product content costs retailers close to $100B a year and we understand we are the only one of few if any, automated data syndication solutions in the world that can address this enormous issues that retailers are trying to solve.
Venzee has a very special piece of technology and we are confident, by working with these channel partners, and onboarding SMB’s, we believe Venzee will be a game changer in the world’s digital supply chain.
What’s that worth to someone who is losing $1B a year because of incorrect product data? You tell me.
