When you think of commerce platforms, big names like Adobe Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud are likely the first to come to mind. Large companies that process millions of orders already have technology solutions to manage their operations.
But small businesses with $5 million or $20 million in annual revenue don't really have the right tools for their size. They already use an ERP system, but spend a lot of time processing orders and entering information.
That's why a French startup called Catalog wants to build a software-as-a-service product that seamlessly manages B2B sales across multiple sales channels. This is best suited for companies with annual revenues of approximately $5 million to $100 million.
“We integrate very tightly with the existing technology stacks of our target companies, which are companies that manage many of their B2B activities with ERP,” said Julien Bellemare, co-founder and CEO of Catalog. he told me. “Unlike Shopify, we didn't have to build a fancy management system that allows us to manage inventory, set pricing rules, etc. Because it would be the same as being there.”
At the same time, companies can't simply use something like Shopify for B2B sales with ERP on the backend, since a lot of the interactions happen via phone and email. Catalog customers can't just say, “Now I need to go to our website and order from there.”
Catalogs support these channels in a variety of ways. We have an online portal for clients who want to directly select products and check prices without any interaction. However, some customers choose to order some products after meeting with a sales representative.
In that case, the catalog becomes a companion tool for your sales team, where they can access the catalog, see past and ongoing orders, and see prices.
Image credit: Catalog
Finally, Catalog wants to be the single source of truth for incoming orders, and the startup uses AI models to scan incoming emails and convert free-form conversations into orders within the platform. The original email will also be displayed next to the automatically generated order.
marketing opportunities
A less obvious benefit of Catalog is that it can be used as a marketing platform for existing customers. For example, if your company is running a sales campaign, you might want to encourage customers who normally buy products in this category to confirm whether they want to order more items.
B2C companies using Shopify already have a number of martech products they can use for activation campaigns and other sales-driving processes. But these tools don't always work well for his B2B company.
“Salespeople also focus their meetings based on customer priorities. . . . Low-priority customers, what you might call the long tail and medium tail, salespeople don't do anything for them. “I don't want to do that,” Bellemare said.
Catalog has just raised a funding round of €3 million (approximately $3.3 million at today's exchange rates) with LocalGlobe leading the round. The startup was originally founded at Paris-based startup studio Hexa, which has helped launch many popular B2B Software-as-a-Service startups, including Front, Aircall, and Spendesk. Helloworld, Kima Ventures, Motier Ventures, and ATI are also investors in Catalog.
Currently, the catalog focuses only on a few areas: Home & Decoration (La Compagnie Dumas, Elitis…), Baby & Kids (Babymoov, Gamin Tout Terrain…) and Fashion (Rivedroite Paris).
Catalog decides to charge customers a monthly subscription fee. This means that if your customers start using more Catalog to process their orders, they won't have to pay any extra fees. With this, the company hopes to be able to fulfill the majority of his B2B orders for companies that decide to use the catalog.
The startup competes with Djust, another French commerce platform startup I covered. But Catalog's CEO told me that Djust is more effective for large companies and enterprise customers who want a full-fledged platform.
Catalog could then add other features such as payment reconciliation, customer support integration, and optimization in new customer onboarding. By focusing on small and medium-sized businesses, Catalog could begin offering a wide range of services specifically for these small manufacturing and commercial companies. And it's interesting to see the pain points in the industry by looking at vertical SaaS like Catalog.
Image credit: Catalog