QuickBooks Upgrade Gives SMBs Access to eCommerce Marketplace

Familiar tools are showing up in new places as software vendors roll out features aimed at helping small and midsize businesses overcome automation obstacles quickly and inexpensively.

One of the latest entries may be betting heavily on name recognition as it makes a move from back-office mainstay to integrated software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. Intuit’s QuickBooks is probably familiar to anybody who’s ever balanced a ledger at a small business, and its latest offering, Trada, is aiming directly at segment of a market that’s been notoriously slow to digitize: wholesale trade.

“We know that product-based businesses face challenges and opportunities in discovering customers and growing their businesses,” said Shilpa Reddy, vice president, QuickBooks commerce at Intuit in a company blog post. “Trada by QuickBooks simplifies the customer and product discovery experience for retailers and wholesale sellers. It also automates order placement and provides rich business insights for growth.”

Platforms such as Trada play an important role in helping resource-constrained SMBs adopt payment digitization and automation practices with SaaS solutions.

Trada is the latest offering from an independent software vendor aimed at bringing a metaphor popularized by consumer giants like Amazon into the B2B world. It uses a marketplace model — where buyers and sellers meet online to do business. Intuit/QuickBooks can power the payment and credit and integrate directly into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, giving users visibility into bank balances and flows and the health of businesses, all of which is valuable credit underwriting data.

The new marketplace from is specifically designed to connect U.S. and Australian independent buyers and sellers while helping them navigate the complexities of eCommerce, find new customers, and grow their businesses, according to the post.

Out of the Box, Outside the Box

Trada is designed as a tool for SMB sellers to grow their business through customer acquisition and transform their digital journey to automate order placements and payment processing. Functionality includes automated marketing, order processing, and payment. Sellers just confirm and ship the resulting orders.

According to the company, Trada delivers “rich insight reports give small sellers access to data traditionally reserved for the biggest brands.” This includes wholesale data to help manage their business. Arguably, the firm has more perfect information than a straight eCommerce platform like an Amazon, Shopify or PayPal since they see all the flows, not just those that move across their network.

See also: Transcard Integrates SMART Hub With QuickBooks Online to Streamline SMB Payments

Trada also promises sellers vetted buyers.

On the front end, Trada advertises streamlined storefront set up. Sellers simply share their product catalog. QuickBooks handles the rest

Benefit Promise for Buyers

SMB retailer buyers have access to what the company calls “unique product filters allow retailers to curate inventory in alignment with their brands’ values.” Retailers can use selection criteria, such as handmade and/or eco-friendly.

Retail buyers also benefit from a curated marketplace with a wide selection of products at wholesale prices, with free shipping, per the post. Similarly, the seller community’s benefits include free membership, a unique storefront, vetted buyers, and. And for small businesses that use QuickBooks Online, they can easily access and sign up for Trada by QuickBooks with their QuickBooks single sign-on credentials.

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