«Technology shouldn't replace the human element, but rather set it free,» on the future of wholesale with NuORDER by Lightspeed and Mandatory And because innovation can open up even more opportunities for creativity
Innovation leads to more innovation, and so NuORDER by Lightspeed, the digital platform dedicated to brands and buyers to interact in real time and optimize the sales process, continues to reshape the international wholesale market. With more than 4,000 brands and over 100,000 curated retailers, the platform is significantly simplifying both online and in-person operations, omnichannel sales, expansion into new markets, global payments, financial solutions, and supplier network connectivity.
The teams at NuORDER by Lightspeed and Mandatory, the Copenhagen trade event that has long partnered with Canada's Lightspeed, are distributed globally, and thus have a uniquely privileged perspective on the state of the international wholesale market. That's why we took the opportunity to sit down with four professionals from both companies (whose team is spread out around the world) to better understand how these changes are influencing the market, and which tools brands, buyers, and investors can now leverage to stay one step ahead.
At the moment, as Mandatory co-founder Mads M. Petersen explains, the biggest challenge for the buying and wholesale market is finding the right balance between the digitalization of processes and the human side of sales, which remains essential. «When we started, it was important not to be a classic trade event - Petersen recalls - we are a hybrid between the physical, the digital, and the human aspect». This is precisely the most demanding challenge that trade events like Mandatory must tackle today: «creating a strong, curated presentation of a show or showroom digitally, but finding the right structure so that brands get the visibility they actually deserve». This is where NuORDER by Lightspeed comes into play: a platform designed to innovate the market with new digital tools while always preserving the human relationships between investors and companies.
«Brands that are winning understand the technology should strengthen the relationship and not replace them», explains Isabel Pimentel, Enterprise Account Manager at NuORDER by Lightspeed based in Paris, when discussing the role technology should play in the promotion and development of emerging brands. Not as a tool that numbs the relationship between buyer and brand, but rather as a space that supports and accelerates its growth. «The stronger partnerships are built in transparency - Pimentel adds - when you remove the operational friction, you create more space for really matters, which is collaboration, creativity and shared growth».
The NuORDER team places particular emphasis on the importance of protecting human relationships between brands and partners. New technology tools such as the company's platform—which supports the entire wholesale lifecycle of a brand and enables all stakeholders to interact in real time—were created to take those relationships to the next level, explains NuORDER by Lightspeed's Strategic Business Development Representative EMEA in France, Matteo Serieis Roques, by «anticipating demand rather than simply responding to it, and planning purchasing and sales strategies intelligently through data-driven insights».
This is a view also shared by Lara Celeste, Account Manager EMEA at NuORDER by Lightspeed in Italy, who says: «Today, buyers have very little time and an overwhelming number of options, so operational simplicity is essential». And if a lasting relationship between investor and brand is built on trust, Celeste continues, «technology doesn't replace the human side of the relationship—it frees it». By bringing everything together in one place, NuORDER's platform provides a solution to the fragmentation of ordering and inventory processes that has long complicated wholesale, leaving more space and time for what truly matters today: innovation and creativity.