Tech Advisors Get Hands on AppDirect Storefronts

APPDIRECT THRIVE- AppDirect introduced a beta program for its technology advisor partners to create their own branded storefronts based on the company's marketplace platform.

The subscription commerce platform provider announced early access to its advisor-branded storefronts program at its Thrive conference. AppDirect will build on a partner's website a customized marketplace containing SKUs from the AppDirect marketplace that are all directly tagged to that partner. Participating partners say they are using their own storefronts to monetize their websites and generate leads from customers searching their catalogs.

US Network's Mark Venuto

“There's a lot of advisors that probably thought about developing their own marketplace, but in order to go out and physically hire, a code writer is about a deep six figures. You have to update your website – another deep six figures – or you can do it for a nominal fee with Builtfirst with AppDirect," said Mark Venuto, chief operating officer at US Network, which was a member of the program pilot.

AppDirect has opened approximately 100 spots for early access.

Building on Builtfirst

AppDirect in May acquired fellow subscription commerce provider Builtfirst. Builtfirst co-founder Michael Julve said his team's first task after the acquisition was to build a program for advisor-branded storefronts.

Related:Ingram, TD Synnex Partnerships Propel AppDirect's Convergence Thesis

AppDirect CEO Nicolas Desmarais said that while Builtfirst and AppDirect technically both play in the same marketplace market, Builtfirst was known more as a "deals marketplace," a whereas AppDirect is known for powering "commerce" marketplaces like that of ADP. Some companies may operate both types of marketplaces, but may start with deals/referral and graduate to commerce.

AppDirect's Nicolas Desmarais

"A way to think of is, we were more like the SAP; they were more like the Intuit. Intuit doesn't really compete with SAP, but they're both accounting software," Desmarais told Channel Futures.

The storefront builder program fits more into the deals/referral category, although Desmarais said some advisors may also choose to expand to a commerce marketplace.

"We didn't have the referral deals type store. And what we found is that we didn't have the appetite to build that. Builtfirst were already dominant in that space, and we thought there'd be good cross selling, but also good journey where often people will start with the referral-type deals marketplace, and then they want to graduate to more of a commerce marketplace. So therefore we could have more of the entire lifecycle," he said.

Partners Talk AppDirect Storefronts

Related:AppDirect Buys Builtfirst in Marketplace Team-Up

Several AppDirect partners have already completed pilot storefront builds with AppDirect. They shared their experience and endorsements in a panel Wednesday afternoon at AppDirect Thrive conference.

Many of the channel partners in AppDirect's base are technology advisors, formerly known as telecom agents who predominantly sold voice and data services from carriers in previous decades. AppDirect has acquired multiple tech services distributors that work with advisors/agents. Part of the thesis of that acquisition strategy was that advisors would evangelize AppDirect's platform to their customers and set up "digital vending machines" withing those customers. Another part of the thesis was that advisors would move "up the stack" to adopt software as a service (SaaS) as part of a multi-technology offering.

While some advisors have held off on adopting SaaS, others are entering the fray.

"It's a new motion that we'll have to learn, but, the more attempts, the more at-bats we get, the better we get at it," said Stephen Hancock, president of Socium Consulting.

Hancock noted that advisors' customers are already buying SaaS products.

"They might as well buy them through us, right? They might as well buy through a centralized portal where they can go and access hundreds of applications, sign one agreement that allows them to access all of those applications and then ultimately get a single bill," Hancock said.

Related:Tech Advisors Saw Big Cloud, Security Growth in Q2

Willow Pfahler, CEO of WX Technology Group, said selling applications to customers has opened up opportunities for sales around infrastructure, internet, managed services and cybersecurity – all of which advisors commonly sell.

"By getting involved in some of those cloud applications, we're setting ourselves up to naturally sell all of these other items along with it. That's not cross selling. That's not even upselling. That's just pure solution selling across the board. And it makes it really simple to go farther and wider with your customers," Pfahler said.

Advisors learn when website visitor searches for a particular technology or vendor on the advisor's website storefront. That can function as a lead generation strategy.

"You'll pay for leads, rights? So use this as a lead gen tool and put it in that budget segment," said John Schwarze, founder of Tin Can Distributors

Overnight Sales

Some advisors say they've generated passive sales from the storefronts.

"Once you get a customer in there, you will get sales without knowing," said Shwarze, who pointed to the rise of digitally-savvy millennial and Gen Z IT purchasers who prefer to purchase online.

US Network trained one of its customers to navigate its marketplace, and that customer continues to expand its Adobe footprint through the marketplace. And US Network is getting a piece of each of every addition, Venuto said.

Bill Patchett, CEO of P2 Telecom, said customers are asking for P2's help in building a marketplace.

 “I have a nationwide customer with 6,000 stores that's looking to build their own marketplace, so their employees can go in and buy all of those services," Patchett told Channel Futures.

Customization

Participating advisors tend to tweak and down-select the list of products and vendors they include from the AppDirect marketplace in their own storefront. They can also input their own proprietary services and software into the catalogue. E78 Partners, for example, provides its own technology expense management (TEM) and thus will insert those services in place of TEMs regularly offered in the AppDirect catalogue.

“The amount of SKUs is just astronomical, so I cut my down," Venuto told Channel Futures. "I focus more on cybersecurity and any SaaS. Anything with a license is my key area of focus in the marketplace. So you can make it any way you want or have the 29,000 SKUs, and that's the beauty of it.”