Fluent Commerce builds up channel ecosystem

Aussie-born retail order management company Fluent Commerce is on a mission to build up its channel ecosystem. 

Fluent Commerce originally stemmed from freight business Parcelpoint in 2013 and was spun out after building its software smarts to run the Parcelpoint business.

As it decided to commercialise its technology, the company attracted supermarket giant, Woolworths as its first customer, running their Click and Collect service as well as managing their relationship with eBay. 

In August, Fluent raised $33 million in Series B funding, led by US growth equity firm Arrowroot Capital. 

In the process, it has adopted an 80 per cent channel marketing strategy, with plans to push 100 per cent of its business through the channel in the next 12 to 18 months.

“In the area of order management that we play in, we’re integrated into a range of other systems. Our business model has always been to develop a software company with an expert services model in support of that,” Fluent channel sales manager Jamie Cairns said. 

“There are many companies that are specialised in the integration area, and we prefer to focus our resources on developing a world class software product. Order management is one of the fastest growing areas of retail software.”

During the past 12 months, Fluent has built up its channel ecosystem to almost 100 partners. 

Cairns said when it began looking at establishing channel relationships 12 months ago, it had global tier one integrators in its sights such as Accenture and Deloitte, and initiated key partnerships in A/NZ and Southeast Asia with companies such as Amblique, eWave, Fair Consulting Group and logic. They’re also on the lookout for partnership opportunities in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

“Those system integrators have been typically delivering large eCommerce or omni channel projects,” he said. “We’re focusing our time and partner’s time on the value of combining their skills in consulting and retail expertise, with a cloud-based order management platform and creating interesting solutions on top of that.”

Some of it key tech integration partners include Salesforce, SAP, Adobe (Magento) and BigCommerce.

Cairns said it has developed a partner enablement stream with technical training and support.

“Our teams that previously delivered and implemented our software, have transitioned into a role of supporting our partners and developing the materials and training courses, software development kits, roadmaps and so forth,” he said. “Building a best-of-breed partner ecosystem is one of our top goals for this financial year.”