Global commerce leader pioneers direct integration of small and medium-sized businesses with industry-leading suppliers

Lightspeed, a leading provider of cloud-based, omnichannel commerce platforms, announced the initial availability of the Lightspeed Supplier Network for North American retailers. The launch of the fully integrated stock ordering solution transforms supply chain management for SMBs, democratizing access to the strategic inventory visibility once reserved predominantly for enterprise retail and eCommerce giants as the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to place pressure on supply chains in 2021.

This direct integration between businesses and brands provides merchants with an automatically updating supplier catalog system, easy order management tools and automated shipment handling directly within Lightspeed’s cloud-based platform. Lightspeed’s Supplier Network enables SMBs to more easily adopt a demand-focused inventory model to remain nimble, placing independent businesses on equal footing with large chains while providing suppliers access to a ready-to-buy customer base and real-time sell-through data.

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“Connecting SMB retailers directly to their suppliers through the Lightspeed Supplier Network is nothing short of revolutionary. This new tool enables independent businesses to discover new products, more easily sell online and make better use of their capital to strategically increase order frequency,” said Dax Dasilva, Founder and CEO of Lightspeed. “The disruption of 2020 cemented the need for SMBs to use technology to remain agile and the Supplier Network is deeply in line with Lightspeed’s mission to strengthen their operational resilience.”

“With the growing demand for bicycle-related products and supply being lean, product curation and inventory visibility are key to success for SMBs,” said Charles Bisaillon, Retail Success Leader for Specialized Bicycle Components. “The direct integration our brand has with Lightspeed creates an ecosystem that ensures our retailers have full visibility of Specialized products to satisfy that growing demand, a critical capability in 2021.”

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Key Advantages of the Lightspeed Supplier Network:

• A harmonized marketplace. Provides the same direct supplier access and inventory visibility as the big box stores, easily managed through a single platform.
• Automates manual ordering and consolidates supplier portals in the POS. Improves transparency of when a shipment will arrive and what goods will be included, shortening the receiving cycle and getting items into consumers’ hands more quickly.
• Makes new suppliers and products more discoverable. Product details, including photos, are imported into the POS with a click of a button, eliminating a barrier to selling online.
• Increases control of supplier branding. Easy import workflow for retailers ensures merchants are using brand-approved names, product descriptions and high-quality imagery.
• Provides suppliers aggregated and anonymized sell-through data in real time. Brands are granted unprecedented visibility of goods sold by independent merchants.

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