Singles’ Day: China’s Biggest Online Shopping Festival

If you’re in ecommerce, you’ve most likely heard of the rising category of brand partners: ecommerce accelerators. Since the term is still fairly new across marketplaces, CEOs may question the true benefits of partnering with an ecommerce accelerator.

The impact of ecommerce accelerators is evident in the success brands are experiencing. Notable brands like Thorne are experiencing significant success with ecommerce accelerators in high online shopping  regions like China. Alone, Thorne lacked the right resources to increase brand awareness throughout Asia and successfully launch their products on Tmall. By partnering with Pattern, an ecommerce accelerator, Thorne was able to access all of the marketplace tools and expertise they needed to grow their brand in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions. 

Ecommerce Accelerator Amplify Brands on Marketplaces

Many brands simply don’t have the bandwidth to do ecommerce the right way—it takes multiple teams of experts, which could increase staffing charts by hundreds. An ecommerce accelerator layers on top of and amplifies a brand’s current efforts in whatever marketplaces and channels are part of its ecommerce strategy.

As the world’s leading ecommerce accelerator, Pattern understands the issues facing your brand, so you get the benefit of extensive experience across multiple marketplaces, regions, and industries with one partner.

How an Accelerator Makes a Big Difference for Brands

1. Provides an Outside Solution to Execute an Ecommerce Strategy

Time and time again, we see brands don’t have the resources they need to succeed on ecommerce marketplaces. And it’s no surprise—the ecommerce space is crowded, competitive, and vastly different from a traditional, brick-and-mortar sales model.

To execute your strategy correctly, you need to have SEO experts, creative resources, data analysts, brand control experts, fulfillment specialists, help to maintain price consistency… the list goes on. 

So, brands have the choice to either ignore issues they’re experiencing or find external  support . We don’t recommend the first option—issues that seem small now will get out of hand fast, and the further problems develop, the more difficult it is to contain them. It’s definitely doable to reverse damage due to loss of brand control, price stability issues, issues with brick and mortar distributors, and the dreaded profitability death spiral. But it’s better to avoid them as much as possible in the first place.

2. More Cost Effective and Maintain Brand Control Better than Agencies or Aggregators

As you move forward in taking advantage of the ecommerce opportunity and gaining control of your strategy now, it is possible you may not be able to justify building out large teams to do that. So, brands are opting to partner with an agency, aggregator, and/or an accelerator. Here’s where the first two options are falling short:

Ecommerce agencies may not be the preferred option for a few reasons. For one thing, the price you pay to hire one may not reflect the value you get out of the agreement. Agencies aren’t paid based on your success, they’re paid from you, a fixed rate (and possibly more), regardless of how your products perform. So, they’re not as invested in making a large impact for your brand. Agencies typically specialize in one aspect of ecommerce, such as SEO, making it necessary to hire multiple agencies to execute all aspects of your ecommerce strategy. Once again, this inflates your costs, may lead to alignment issues within your ecommerce plan, and breaks up your data sources.

Aggregators aren’t a great solution either. They’re interested in purchasing and growing brands, which sounds like a compelling idea, but, since all brands are unique, what works for one may not work for another. Therefore, the aggregator's universal brand playbook often leads to poor product performance for brands. Brands acquired by aggregators often lose all control and ownership to the buyer as well.

3. Amplifies Brands to Grow Revenue

That leaves brands with the option to partner with an ecommerce accelerator. In our opinion, this is the best way to gain control of your strategy and experience the healthiest and most profitable growth for your products.

Accelerators work because they layer on the top of systems, processes, and teams you’re already using, without adding internal headcount. If you’re experiencing success in your D2C efforts and specific marketplaces, an accelerator won’t “rip and replace” what’s already working. Instead, they’ll add the resources you’re missing in your strategy to fix issues, accelerate your brand, and expand your presence across global marketplaces.

An accelerator is also paid differently—they agree to a profit margin with your brand, then take ownership of your products and strategy by buying your inventory. As your profitability grows, theirs does, too. By structuring their success this way, they’re truly invested in fixing ecommerce issues at their core and ensuring your long-term gains.

Accelerate your Ecommerce Strategy with Pattern

As a pioneer in the ecommerce accelerator space, Pattern knows the ins and outs of great ecommerce strategy for global marketplaces. We’re fanatical about great data and obsessed with growing our partners’ ecommerce profitability. With pioneering technology, vast expertise, and highly capable internal teams, we have the resources you need to establish and grow your ecommerce presence, brand control, and profitability. 

Ready to explore an accelerator partnership? Contact us today.

Having a good trade partner who you can trust makes all the difference in helping your brand grow both locally and globally. As a global ecommerce accelerator and trade partner, Pattern often hears global executives’ frustrations with trade partners who aren’t transparent in sharing information with the brands they represent–everything from sales figures and marketing spend to inventory levels and ordering data. 

Learn why transparency is a must-have for brands: 

1. Transparency in Reporting and Data

A lack of transparency in reporting and relevant data is not only frustrating, but also potentially damaging to your business. A lack of data-driven details leads to poor decisions across the business based on little to no actual results. For example, a trade partner who cannot give you a clear idea of what your ROI is, gives you no insight into how to accelerate your product on marketplaces.

A transparent trade partner will provide useful and game-changing data because they are invested in a brand’s success. For brands entering new marketplaces and areas of the world, it’s imperative they’re provided accurate information to inform their expansion decisions. It’s harder for brands to create or evolve their ecommerce strategy, analyze the opportunities forecast, and grow their presence globally without clearly, concretely understanding what’s really going on.

2. Transparency in Ordering and Inventory

Optimizing your supply chain is key to driving revenue and accelerating your business. Making logistics and operations decisions is hard enough, but without the right data, it’s virtually impossible. 

Lack of transparency in ordering and inventory management leads to issues such as stockouts, fulfillment delays, and more. These issues are headaches for executives and subtract possible revenue from their business.

A transparent trade partner ensures their brand partners are given the correct information so they can make sure inventory stays in stock during promotional and high-demand periods. With the right technology, trade partners provide their brands with data and guidance to optimize all areas of their supply chain.

Finding a Transparent Partner

Trade partners have a reputation for shielding their brands from information, but that doesn’t have to be the reality in your relationship. As you move forward in your decision making, transparency and accountability should be a key factor in choosing the right trade partner.

A great first step is to pay attention to what they’re willing to disclose while you’re considering your partnership. Such as:

• Have they been successful with other brands? And how was that measured?

• Who else are they working with?

• Do they sell products that could compete with yours on the same marketplaces? 

Discover How Pattern Can Help

Data powers everything we do at Pattern. As a certified trade partner, we share insights and brand performance with our partners and provide brands with access to proprietary real-time dashboards with complete access to review their data to know what’s going on with their products. 

Whether you want to know how much inventory to keep for Christmas or how much to put into your advertising budget for the coming year, the combination of Pattern’s marketplace experts, experienced trade partners, and Pattern’s acceleration technology platform will help.

Discover how Pattern can become your trade partner. Contact us.