While COVID-19 gets a lot of credit for the radical restructuring of the retail environment, the reality is the digital restructuring of retail was already well underway when the pandemic period started.
The headlines about the imminent death of the mall at the hands of eCommerce have been around for years, and the pace of the market was already accelerating rapidly as consumers — enabled by digital — were increasingly in constant discovery mode when it came to finding new products.
The same goes for trade shows (pre-pandemic) and virtual shows and marketplaces (current model). In 2019, trade shows were a $34 billion business. The 2020 numbers aren’t in yet, but everything after April became a virtual event, which brought in revenue, but nothing on the order of the previous year.
Virtual shows have become the runway of choice for the fashion industry, and so has the marketplace concept. It’s a trend that was in motion, but as Bill Shope, co-founder and CEO of B2B wholesale marketplace Abound, told PYMNTS, he believes the fashion business is changing the way it buys.
“The trade show model was never built for the kind of inventory velocity modern consumers demand around constant product discovery, whereas eCommerce is a natural fit towards that,” Shope said. “That is what we think is the prime driver of why the industry is heading in this direction. The pandemic was only accelerating a trend that was already in place.”
He said the new world of retail for most players is predicated on having the right products and an ever-rotating supply of them on their shelves and available to consumers. The shopper who comes into a boutique on a Sunday expects that if she makes that trip again the following week, she will have a host of different items to choose from in much the way she would if she had gone shopping online.
Relying on trade shows is simply too time-consuming, and Abound was created to offer a digital alternative for retailers and product vendors looking for a space to meet and transact, he said. The bottom line is to leverage the power of connected technology to make product sourcing and discovery that much easier for shop owners by enabling direct connections between thousands of retailers and vendors on the site.
“Our prime focus is on making sure that the best products are shown to retailers, and the best products have the best chance to succeed,” Shope said. “We spend a lot more time than our competition on curation, on making sure we’re discovering and only accepting the best brands for our platform. We still turn down over 60 percent of the brands that apply each day. We want everyone to succeed, but we also need to make sure that we’re offering the best products, so the retailers are taking less inventory risk, and they’re able delight their customers with the products they discover.”
Beyond providing a host of curated production options for purchase, Shope said, Abound is also involved in enabling the transactions between the buyers that want them and the sellers that have them. Abound offers qualified retailers on its platform net 60 payment terms and the ability to return inventory for free after 60 days if it has not sold.
Shope said both programs exist to take anxiety off retailers when it comes to making inventory decisions. Uptake, particularly in the context of net 60 payment terms has been high. It’s something that Abound can be comfortable with because the selection process for the program is extensive — meaning it doesn’t present undue risk to the platform while providing demonstrable value for their users.
About expects to carry on with this option, he said, and add elements to it that make it even easier for retailers to minimize their inventory risk.
New features will be easier to add as Abound is coming off a nearly $23 million funding round. That money will largely go toward a hiring spree to bulk up the company’s engineering team so it can continue expanding its service offerings to a retail world that is clearly going to need it, he said.
Retail is a space that is going to keep changing, and the expectations are higher than they’ve ever been, he said. What a platform like Abound can do at its best is make that new retail velocity manageable for retailers, and even more accessible for those who’ve always wanted to jump in, but until recently haven’t been able to find an entry point.
“In a year, I’d like to be talking about how this tool has enabled more makers to come into existence, right?” he said. “Folks that maybe have had a dream of owning a business or their own retail store need better access to wholesale eCommerce. We have been able to lower the barriers to entry and make it an easier decision to enter. That means we will have more shopping choices as consumers, and we’re going to have better products. And so that’s the goal. That’s the goal at the end of this year. And that’s the goal in five years, frankly.”
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