Tinder-Style App Aims to Transform Retail Buying Space
Volcanic Retail’s new Tinder-style app is designed to streamline the buy-sell process to make it easier for buyers to source and qualify products.
According to the tech startup, it has launched the industry's first two-way communications product discovery cloud platform, providing a cost-efficient solution for new brand marketers and product inventors to be discovered by retailers, and for retail buyers to more efficiently qualify products and businesses. Designed to transform the retail buying space, the platform introduces Volcanic Messenger, a communication app that includes live chats, predictive artificial intelligence-based analytics for curated recommendations and trends, searchable brand profile and product pages, and buyer calendars and contact windows.
At launch, Volcanic Retail is focusing on three retail categories in the United States: specialty and natural grocery; outdoor world (e.g., hiking, sporting goods and water sports); and pharmacy. Additional categories will be added to meet market demand, including consumer electronics, farm and ranch, and hardware.
"The retail purchasing industry is bogged down by many inefficient practices that limit buyers and retailers from making mutually beneficial connections in real time, and often make it difficult for buyers to qualify products as well as the brands themselves," said Jeremy Brockbank, chairman and CEO of Provo, Utah-based Volcanic Retail. "Buyers' inboxes are besieged with product submissions, and trade shows – significantly disrupted by the pandemic – are an expensive and infrequent way for brands and buyers to meet. Volcanic Retail's two-way digital communication tool provides retailers and brands with a highly customizable virtual meeting place that represents a much more affordable and efficient way to do business."
Now available at volcanicretail.com, the platform features:
- Volcanic Messenger: The two-way communication app not only enables buyers and sellers to communicate directly with each other, but also allows them to save conversations and contact information in the event of turnover or category buying reorganization. Brand marketers may receive notifications when a retail buyer is interested in their products and opt to join a chat to answer questions in real time.
- Buyer search tools: Buyers have instant access to search, save and set notifications to identify brands and products that align with their customer demographics and needs. They can also filter by margins, minimum order quantity, certifications, location and other parameters.
- Predictive analytics: Volcanic Retail's AI-based analytics ensure that retail buyers and brands receive curated recommendations that apply to their business, as well as view trending products in categories of interest to them.
- Brand profile/product pages: Brand marketers can build brand profile and product pages, searchable by retail buyers, providing the buyer with access to current information and a way to discover unique stories, features and products that set the brand apart from the competition.
- Buying calendar: Retailers can highlight the times of the year they're conducting a line review, attending a trade show, seeking new products or planning a seasonal promotion, allowing them to elicit brand pitches when they need them and reducing the number of times they have to answer the same questions.
