Get ready for a masterclass in retail marketplace strategy from the global leader in online marketplace platforms: Mirakl. My guest for this exclusive interview is Adrien Nussenbaum, Co-Founder & CEO. Since 2012 Adrien and his team of talented and innovative technologists have worked with retailers worldwide to help them define, refine and operate state-of-the-art online marketplaces that enhance brand and their retail offerings.
Welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with CommerceNext and presented by CommX.
Get ready for a masterclass in retail marketplace strategy from the global leader in online marketplace platforms: Mirakl. My guest for this exclusive interview is Adrien Nussenbaum, Co-Founder & CEO.
Since 2012 Adrien and his team of talented and innovative technologists have worked with retailers worldwide to help them define, refine and operate state-of-the-art online marketplaces that enhance brand and their retail offerings.
From his office just outside Paris, Adrien takes us behind closed doors and shares the profoundly strategic elements behind a thriving marketplace that elevates the value proposition from a me-too offering to a clear differentiator in an increasingly competitive retail landscape.
About Adriens
An entrepreneur in all things technology and digital transformation, Adrien Nussenbaum began his career at Paribas in Hong Kong after graduating from HEC Paris. Soon after, he co-founded his first company—All Instant—an instant messaging solution that was later sold in 2003. Adrien then joined the Deloitte restructuring team where he advised many retailers who were in the throes of company turnarounds and transformations.
In 2005, Adrien left Deloitte to join forces with Philippe Corrot for the first time and found their own omnichannel marketplace—SplitGames. When SplitGames was acquired by FNAC in 2008, they worked together to support its integration into FNAC’s Marketplace and achieve 100% annual growth.
Four years later, both Adrien and Philippe left FNAC to found Mirakl in 2012 and become the first marketplace platform leading the platform revolution. Since then, Mirakl has grown to help over 300 customers launch and scale an online marketplace in more than 40 countries around the world. The company's latest $555M Series E fundraising values the company over $3.5B and places it among the most dynamic players in eCommerce, globally.
About Veronika
Veronika Sonsev is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. She also leads the retail practice for Chameleon Collective and is a contributor for Forbes on how to grow retail and ecommerce in the age of Amazon. Having spent the last 10+ years working with some of the largest retailers and direct-to-consumer brands, Veronika has intimate knowledge of the challenges facing retail and ecommerce today. She is also an advocate for women in business and founded the global non-profit mBolden, which is now part of SheRunsit.
About Scott
An ecommerce veteran, Scott Silverman has been active in the industry since 1999 and is passionate about digital retail and the innovation driving the industry. Scott Silverman is the Co-Founder of CommerceNext. Previously, he spent 10 years as Executive Director of Shop.org where he launched the Shop.org Annual Summit. Scott co-invented “Cyber Monday” in 2005 and was the founder of Cybermonday.com in 2006, a shopping site that has generated more than $2.5 million for Shop.org’s scholarship fund.
About Michael
Michael LeBlanc is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience, and has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael is the producer and host of a network of leading podcasts including Canada’s top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail, plus Global E-Commerce Tech Talks and The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. You can learn more about Michael here or on LinkedIn.
Michael LeBlanc 00:05
Welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with CommerceNext and presented by CommX.
Michael LeBlanc 00:09
Get ready for a masterclass in retail marketplace strategy from the global leader in online marketplace platforms: Mirakl. My guest for this exclusive interview is Adrien Nussenbaum. Co-Founder & CEO. Since 2012, Adrien and his team of talented and innovative technologists, have worked with retailers worldwide to help them define, refine and operate state-of-the-art online marketplaces that enhance brand and their retail offer. From his office just outside Paris, Adrien takes us behind closed doors and shares the profoundly strategic elements behind a thriving marketplace that elevates the value proposition from me-too offering to a clear differentiator in an increasingly competitive retail landscape.
Adrien Nussenbaum 00:55
We work with retailers that range from like Anthropologie, Madewell, all the way to, as you said, you pointed out, Best Buy, Bed Bath, Kroger, Macy's, (crossover talk), merge kind of larger store. So, the story you're going to tell to customers in each store about this marketplace is not the same.
Michael LeBlanc 01:13
Let's listen in now. Adrien, welcome to the Conversations with CommerceNext podcast. How are you doing this evening?
Adrien Nussenbaum 01:19
I am good. And you Michael?
Michael LeBlanc 01:21
I'm very good. And I say this evening, because I think I'm finding you closer to your global headquarters in France. Is that right? Is that where you are today?
Adrien Nussenbaum 01:30
It is. It is where I am today. It's, it's one of the beauties of building a global company,
Michael LeBlanc 01:33
Yeah.
Adrien Nussenbaum 01:34
Is that you get to be one day in Paris, one day in London, one day in Boston, New York, Tokyo,
Michael LeBlanc 01:37
Wow.
Adrien Nussenbaum 01:38
And, and only, my wife complains about my travel.
Michael LeBlanc 01:51
Now a quick question for you. How did you find that during the COVID era? Did you find yourself a little more productive? Did you, you know, how did you make connections? And are you happy to be back on the road with that kind of travel schedule?
Adrien Nussenbaum 02:04
The first few months, like many people, the intensity of a kind of secluded family experience. And being French, we obviously managed to smuggle a few, a few dinners with friends here and there. But I think overall, that was a very unique experience. I think from a, from a work standpoint, I missed the, the people,
Michael LeBlanc 02:23
Yeah.
Adrien Nussenbaum 02:24
Terribly. I'm all about people and the energy that they give you and that you give them. And I also believe that for a company like Mirakl which is defining a category, evangelizing, as I tell every new joiner we built a company that no one asked for.
Michael LeBlanc 02:50
It's hard to do that on Zoom, right? It's hard. I, I, I hear that from a lot of executives that it was a productive time, but from a company culture and in a building that was, it was not easy, right? I, (crossover talk), get that.
Adrien Nussenbaum 03:01
Yeah, and learning that I'm a big believer. You know, if you're in sales, if you're going to go and tell stories that have been pre-written by marketing and you're always telling the same. Not only is it boring for you, but also you miss out on the opportunity of the coffee chat with your customer success colleagues who are going to tell you about other customers what they're going through and, and being able to leverage the power of the team. So, I'm a big believer in like the wisdom of the crowd and,
Michael LeBlanc 03:33
Right.
Adrien Nussenbaum 03:34
And I believe that a crowd, sometimes to be a crowd you need to come together.
Michael LeBlanc 03:40
Well, let's listen, we jumped right in. Why don't we take a step back and, and let's talk about you. Let's talk about your background, your journey to starting Mirakl. I mean, I see a mix of technology and finance and, and it looks like you're starting in the marketplace space, not nothing what Mirakl is today, but give me the background. Tell me, tell us your origin story and the origin story of the company.
Adrien Nussenbaum 04:02
So, I mean, my background is, I was born in Paris and educated in, in France and, and a little bit the US. But I think to get to where I got, there's, there's a few, there's, there's kind of a, I would say three main components. The first one was I, I, I'm, I'm the son of a professor and, and doctor so high, high academic standards, great culture of, of learning and through education and, and, and work. There's also like an old good for origin stories, trying to, you know, go beyond the father. And that's kind of my finances. So, short life, which was should I be in finance, like my father and I tried a little bit and I realized This was not for me. So, once I had that kind of coming-of-age moment in the very beginning of my life.
Adrien Nussenbaum 04:59
The second big thing is I'm fundamentally an entrepreneur, meaning I love to build, I love creativity, I love doing this with people. And the idea that you can achieve things that have not been done before. And the last thing, and last but not least, is, is going through some failures and then successes. I've, I've, had key encounters, and probably the most important one is my current co-founder, who is a self-taught entrepreneur, visionary and, and a great product person. And, and I've been fortunate enough to, to find myself in a position where I could be the, the, one to start the execution of his vision. And, and if it weren't for him, I would probably be an entrepreneur, but I don't know if it would be as successful or, or not. And so I think these are really the, the, the three, the three steps,
Michael LeBlanc 06:05
The three, the three defining characteristics. What, what, in your mind, sparked this entrepreneurial spirit? I mean, you're coming from a family of, of, educators and, and doctors was it always the case. Did you? Did you learn it? Did you come to appreciate it? You know, were you, were you a young, a young man just itching to go out and start things on your own would, would you tell me a bit about that.
Adrien Nussenbaum 06:28
I think it's a, it's probably rooted in, in, in three principles. One, is refusal of authority. The other, (crossover talk),
Michael LeBlanc 06:44
Direction, right, you're going to go in the opposite direction,
Adrien Nussenbaum 06:45
The, the other one is a, is a relationship to, or hyper conscious of the fact that life is, is, is long, but short, and you only get one shot, and, and that it triggered a desire to somehow achieve some form of immortality, which is completely naïve, and, you know, psychologically, that one that (inaudible). But achieve some form of, of, of immortality through, through creativity and, and, and, and not repeating stuff that has already been done. And, and I think the last one is really, I think I, I, I like to lead because I, I, I get,
Michael LeBlanc 07:01
You enjoy it, right?
Adrien Nussenbaum 07:04
I received a lot of emotions, positive, negative, but they, they, they, they make my heartbeat. So, it goes back to relationships in life also, probably.
Michael LeBlanc 07:10
Right on right on. And that's not for everyone, right? Not everyone wants to lead and take risks. So, it's a, it is, as you say, the entrepreneurial spirit. Well let's talk about the outcome of your entrepreneurial spirit. Let's talk about Mirakl. Tell us what space you occupy, what problems do you solve for retailers? You said earlier on you, you're advocating or creating something that no one asked for to tell us all about Mirakl.
Adrien Nussenbaum 07:32
Yeah. And also, something that usually when I tell simply what we do, people have this strange look on their face. And I know that I, I got to go through another, another route. But long story short, Mirakl is a a software company. And what we offer to the market is a SaaS platform that allows organizations such as retailers, distributors, manufacturers, to launch and operate an online marketplace.
Adrien Nussenbaum 08:25
And by that, we need, we need a platform on which they can sell products, but by connecting customers and, and third-party sellers. So, not by owning or making the products themselves, and, and so really creating this kind of an Amazon of their own, where if you if you're familiar, like everyone is with Amazon, you know that more than 60% of the products that people buy on Amazon are not owned by Amazon, but they're sold by third party sellers. So, the vision behind Mirakl is that the reason why Amazon has been so successful, it's thanks to this marketplace of third-party sellers because the marketplace has allowed them to achieve scale and flexibility, and, and meet this kind of new expectation from customers around anything anytime, anywhere. How do we serve customers with what they want, when they want and where they want? It's not by trying to make or buy every single product and, and resell them have factories all over the world distributions.
Michael LeBlanc 08:54
Right.
Adrien Naussenbaum 08:55
And it's about creating this, this system where, whereby you, you allow third parties to come and, and, and sell through you in a curated way in a controlled way. And so what Mirakl is, is basically the leading technology solution to that to power this business model for, for online merchants?
Michael LeBlanc 10:05
Well, you know, it's a great coincidence that we're here talking today. Last week, I was on a stage at a conference here in Toronto with the leadership of Best Buy Canada. And one of the things they wanted to talk about was their marketplace. And you know, we were talking about a number of things, as you would imagine, on the main stage, but they, you know, Ron kept coming back. And Matt kept coming back to the marketplace and how proud they were basically (inaudible) and the strategic role that it played within the organization.
Michael LeBlanc 10:31
We talked about everything from being able to distribute inventory during, you know, weird inventory shortages during the COVID era. Very popular, right? Lots of people and lots of retailers now are adopting marketplaces. How do you, what's your advice, when you talk to retailers about how their marketplace can become a differentiator, instead of just becoming table stakes? If you know what I mean? Like everyone needs to have one. So, I guess I'm going to have one. Strategically when you talk to retailers around the world, how do they inform you and you inform them around making it truly a differentiator for their business?
Adrien Nussenbaum 11:07
It's funny, because I was having this conversation earlier today. And I was telling people, if, if kind a, if Microsoft Word is out of 100, 100 in terms of everybody understands what it serves, why it's there, and how to use it more or less. When we started Mirakl, marketplace was, at best a one, or maybe a two,
Michael LeBlanc 11:32
I call them drop shippers at the time, like when I ran (crossover talk) retail. How do you drop ship, right, (crossover talk),
Adrien Nussenbaum 11:38
In retail, and, and even. And so, I think now we're 10 and a half years old with almost 400 customers, if you ask me where I see ourselves, I'd probably put it like a 25 out of 100, in terms of massive acknowledgement of the importance of the marketplace. And, and most importantly, to your point, that it's, it is and has to be a natural evolution of any business. And I think it's interesting that you pointed out to Best Buy Canada because they've been a customer of Mirakl for, for seven years. And, and for six, seven years, and they've seen really tremendous growth. But they've been through a lot of the questions that, you know, go back to your point on, what should executives think, think of them, they went through? Do we open it to all categories or only core categories? Or not core categories? Fear of cannibalization? Do we compete against ourselves?
Michael LeBlanc 12:41
Do we curate? Do we, do we, do we, (crossover talk),
Adrien Nussenbaum 12:44
How can we reconcile scale and automation with a high degree of curation? If customers are going to find something cheaper on the website next door? Do we allow a seller to compete against ourselves or just by principle, we say no to that, because we'd rather not sell something more expensive than sell something at a, at a lower price. So, all these questions, and this tells the story, it doesn't tell the story that there's a good way and a bad way. It tells the story that marketplace is a journey people did not understand retail overnight, they did not understand eCommerce overnight. So, all things that are here to last require major iteration over time.
Michael LeBlanc 13:36
If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure and hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcast platform so you don't miss another great episode. We'll be right back with our interview with Adrien Nussenbaum for a Mirakl right after this message. (
Michael LeBlanc 13:51
After two years of unprecedented growth, some think eCommerce has hit its peak. So, what comes next? As businesses look to enter the next year of eCommerce growth. Commx serves as a guide to get there. Led by best-in-class technology providers across the commerce ecosystem including Bloomreach, Miracle, Cinch, ShipBob and Avalere. CommX offers exclusive research, benchmarking, data and more empowering businesses to deliver a commerce experience that drives measurable revenue growth. Learn more at commerceexperience.com. That's commerceexperience.com.
Adrien Nussenbaum 14:21
And, and that's really important. So, when I tell, you know, executives, and I mean (inaudible) there's like three big principles, one, it has to come from you. If you're not the number one sponsor of, of, of the initiative, and you know, having Ron the President be there talking about the marketplace. In Canada, we worked with The Bay and recently I was telling the story of the CEO of The Bay himself getting on calls to talk to potential sellers for the marketplace. So, one, it has to come from the top. Two, it has to be fully integrated into your core experience. There were a moments in the past where companies would put marketplace on a separate tab,
Michael LeBlanc 15:07
It becomes more ancillary, right?
Adrien Nussenbaum 15:09
At the bottom page, if you click out and,
Michael LeBlanc 15:11
If you find it, you know, maybe, you, (crossover talk),
Adrien Nussenbaum 15:14
So, two it has to be fully integrated, which also means that from the search engine perspective. And we recently bought a company just to make sure that search engines can index equally marketplace and non-marketplace products based on what matters the most, which is what customers are searching for. So, I'll give you an example: you're selling apparel and suddenly lifestyle and suddenly you de-, you decide to complement with like sporting goods, and someone is, is searching basketball on your website. If you have not integrated the marketplace in the search engine, well, you're going to surface five pages of basketball T-shirts or,
Michael LeBlanc 15:38
Right.
Adrien Nussenbaum 15:39
And then, the actual basketball might show up on page six, which will result in those. So, two, is fully integrated and three scale, scale, scale, meaning that launching a marketplace to start with, like five vendors for the first two years. Well, you know, just as well, you may as well not launch a marketplace.
Michael LeBlanc 16:11
Let's, let's, talk about how retail marketers should think about their marketplace, right? The leadership, a lot of our audience are CMOs of retailers. So, let's step back. And, you know, we talked about there's a, you know, there's the strategic advantage of a dist-, a distributed inventory, for example, which, which continues as an advantage. But how should, how should the retail marketers be thinking about positioning? Because they think about brand, brand positioning, you know, alliance, adherence to the brand, how far can I stretch it out? You know, what are those marketing strategic initiatives? Do you think? Do you think retailers need a, a marketplace and retail media to survive in the world of, of Amazon to survive in a world of, of the infinite shelves? How does, how do you talk to the marketing folks after the decision has been made?
Adrien Nussenbaum 16:55
So, I think the, the, I mean, the marketing folks have, I mean, they have many, many things to do. But when it comes to marketplace, if I, if I kind of focus on two, I think there's one which is around acknowledging the power of the marketplace. And what the good thing is, is that today, we, we have now more and more data. And for example, at Mirakl, it's the second year in a row that we publish a report called the Enterprise Marketplace Index, where we have in through independent firms, independent survey of more than last, the first time was around 60. Now it's almost 100 retail organizations across the world that have launched a marketplace. And we look at conversion rates, increase, search ability, in-, increase of SEO, and basically on all these, these levels, we see an increase in, in, in traffic by 34%, we see improvement of SEO, because there is you know more products to index more, more things to search, there is more conversion because less, sorry, item not found type.
Michael LeBlanc 17:19
Yeah.
Adrien Nussenbaum 17:20
So, marketers need to really embrace the marketplace as something that's going to help them save money in a, in a growingly, highly competitive, you know, marketing cost world and just also increase conversion and retention. Then I think what's interesting for, for marketers is, how do you tell the, the marketplace story to your customers,
Michael LeBlanc 17:38
Right.
Adrien Nussenbaum 17:39
Do you, do you hide it, and you just hope they, they just buy and, and don't notice or don't ask questions? Do you put it like front and center, oh, we're sorry, we apologize? On this website you may encounter products sold by other people don't be afraid. I mean, obviously I am being sarcastic,
Michael LeBlanc 17:52
Yeah, yeah.
Adrien Nussenbaum 17:54
Or do they actually integrate it into the story that they carry? And I think obviously that's the right way to do it. And we work with retailers that range from like, Anthropologie, Madwell all the way to as you said, you pointed out, Best Buy, Bed Bath, Kroger, Macy's, so, (crossover talk), kind of larger store. So, the story you're gonna tell to customers in each store about this marketplace, is not the same. Madewell frames it into a brand's love story. And even as part of their 15% pledge towards minority owned and black owned businesses. And there's a real highlight on the, the curation, the inclusiveness of, of, of new, new makers that get a shot at selling their products and showcasing them to the world for Madewell. On, on, on a bet-, on the Best Buy Canada for example. It's more about we basically want to make sure that you find what you want when you come to us. So, we've selected, and we work with carefully vetted partners in the 1000s,
Michael LeBlanc 19:16
Yeah.
Adrien Nussenbaum 19:17
That are here to provide the products you may be looking for, but expect the same level of service. Whether you're, you're buying Best, Best Buy, marketplace on Best Buy or hybrid of Best Buy items and marketplace. So, that's also where marketers have a role, to, to play.
Michael LeBlanc 20:20
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And I guess, I guess the whole organization as well because you know, once, what regardless, you know, Best Buy, for example, who says marketplace seller or something right? They tag products to make it clear, in, in their communication. But the impetus is on the organization, I guess on, on you as well, to make sure and the vendors, to make sure that experience is similar, if not better, or comparable to if you were buying direct from the retailer, right. So that's, that's, a pretty important tentpole for marketer’s customer service. Yeah.
Adrien Nussenbaum 21:32
So, I like what you said, if not better, because actually all the surveys we do show that it's, it's most of the time, better, why? For a couple of reasons. First, for a marketplace seller to sell on a marketplace, it's very strategic for them, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a very unique chance. It's like if your brand and you know, you couldn't get into physical Macy's because of space constraints, if you can become a marketplace seller selected by Macy's, suddenly you have potential business, that, that will arise from that, which is very important. So, we do see that sellers are very careful and, and, and, and, and, and, and well behaved. You know, there was, when we started, there was a lot of this imaginary around all sellers, dangerous.
Michael LeBlanc 22:02
Yeah.
Adrien Nussenbaum 22:03
And it's true that marketplaces like Amazon, which in a way are (inaudible) more open and less selective with millions of sellers. They have given rise to some sellers that don't necessarily follow the same guidelines. But then the second element is and it's a core to what Mirakl does. It's the technology and the business processes that, that are built in the platform. So, for example, we work with companies that range from pharmaceutical companies all the way to high-end luxury fashion. So, for them the, the, the vetting of sellers is very important, but they don't want to do it one-by-one, manually, etc.
Michael LeBlanc 22:29
Right, right, right.
Adrien Nussenbaum 22:32
So, the platform has built a lot of tools based on AI and, and also enforcing prerequisites so that sellers, it's like going into, getting into Harvard or Yale to, to, to be admitted. And then once you are on the platform, there is a tool within Mirakl called Mirakl Quality Control. Where basically it's, it's, it's it's a number of, of KPIs from time to accept an order, time to (inaudible) satisfaction of the seller. If you receive and if you refuse orders, that kind of builds up a score, which triggers a lot of automated vetting and, and, and (inaudible) promotion of sellers.
Michael LeBlanc 23:46
That's, it's, it's, it's really interesting because what it does is takes a basic service level agreement or SLA, and then adds that kind of meat to the bone, right? That kind of ongoing, (crossover talk), constant, constant measurement and it's fantastic. You know, this podcast is actually sponsored by CommX, Mirakl is a member of CommX, which is focused on bringing research and benchmarking data, best practices. You've talked about how you publish that information to the industry, to drive business through better experiences. Can you tell, talk to us a bit about how the mission of CommX aligned with Mirakl what brought you two together to join up together and move the industry forward? What was your, what, what caught your eye and what caught your attention?
Adrien Nussenbaum 24:27
Yeah, I think, you know, as I've mentioned, Mirakl is a company that has been built around trying to convince the world of what's coming and in a way sometimes what's coming is already there. And, and, and I think there's, so there's a bit of a futuristic element, but there's also a bit of like, clear eye opening on, the, the impacts of anything, anytime, anywhere. Reality and how it impacts commerce. And I think that in the CommX mission, there is this idea of like, through a combination of, of research, data, best practices, customer experiences, it's, it's, it's really, it's really to, I don't know, it's to be an eye opener. And, and so for us it's, it's, it's, it's clearly like being a partner is clearly a way to, to bring to, to open more eyes wider and for a longer time. And, and that's kind of a purpose that we feel you guys are served really well.
Michael LeBlanc 25:36
Right on. So, you're basically partnering with like-minded firms as a force multiplier, right, that there's more, you know, one, (crossover talk),
Adrien Nussenbaum 25:42
The power and the wisdom of the crowd.
Michael LeBlanc 25:46
Yeah, fantastic, which you mentioned right off the top. Listen, the last couple of questions. This isn't a finance podcast, but you, you know, I just wanted to touch on you've had you know, you had an impressive run of fundraising, which brings up in my mind, what's next? What does innovation look like? You, you know, you've established yourself, what, in your entrepreneurial spirit, what's next? What are you going to do with those resources behind you? And how are you marshaling the team for whatever comes next?
Adrien Nussenbaum 26:14
You know, in French, and I'm going to translate it into English, but there is this saying that basically goes by, appetite grows with eating, or while eating. Which is obviously a very French approach, to, to life.
Michael LeBlanc 26:31
A little gastronomic (inaudible), gastronomic,
Adrien Nussenbaum 26:34
I think, I think, you know, when you're, as an entrepreneur, you, you, you have an idea or vision, which is either comes out of your imagination, or in our case comes out of having already had a marketplace ourselves and seeing it work and say, why won't we do, we build a software that would allow others to benefit from that? So, you, you, you start with this vision? And, and you don't really set goals? I mean, the only goal you said is can I be alive in one year, can I be alive in two years and ideally, if I can really build a great company, that will be amazing. And, and, and as you find yourself going through the, the, the, growth stages, you realize that the next chapter of growth always requires you to evolve your value proposition, you need to stay true to your DNA and to your mission.
Adrien Nussenbaum 27:01
But I think in our case, we've had those moments, we started as a marketplace solution for retail-, retailers. And then we said, you know, in the B2B space, or procurement space, there's a manufacturer's distribution group buying organization. They also have needs of, of this kind of one stop shop or (inaudible). So, we had to evolve our product, because you don't do a B2B marketplace where the end buyer wants to have a kind of a single invoice for whether they buy it from 50 different centers, or one.
Adrien Nussenbaum 28:29
So, we've had a lot of evolutions to do to the product to serve multiple use cases that all are a flavor of the marketplace. So, we call them different platform models at Mirakl. And Drop Ship is one of them, Marketplace is one of them. One we call, One Creditor for B2B. And we are the only technology today that allows a business to operate each of them or multiples of them with the same platform. Then what happened also is we realized that the marketplace connects supply and demand. And in a way Mirakl itself, we were put to positioning ourselves in the middle between the third-party sellers and the channels that we were powering with our technology. So, we realized that we had an opportunity to eliminate even more friction in creating these relationships and improving those relationships and leading them to more business growth.
Adrien Nussenbaum 28:41
So, we launched our own marketplace called Mirakl Connect. And so a lot of the funding we've received is being put into scaling Mirakl Connect into a true technology powered and enabled ecosystem, serving as the entry point to the marketplace economy for sellers,
Michael LeBlanc 28:50
Interesting.
Adrien Nussenbaum 28:51
And also a, a, a central point of, of connection creation for businesses who are launching the marketplace and want to go faster with the best sellers and then welcoming technology vendors. There's, there's, billions of dollars that have been put into technologies, from fulfillment to pricing to,
Michael LeBlanc 28:57
Sure.
Adrien Nussenbaum 28:58
Payments, to serve specifically the needs that arise from marketplaces. And we also serve now as the anchor for those technologies to reach the players in, in the space. So, our vision is to kind of, to constantly expand our business into becoming a platform business itself. And making sure that by that we also help our customers to evolve in their marketplace journey from being a marketplace to also becoming more of a platform business that can also offer other services and solutions to the participants on their marketplace.
Michael LeBlanc 30:13
Yeah, it's really interesting instead of powering the ecosystem, becoming the ecosystem, basically, right, the market, (crossover talk),
Adrien Nussenbaum 30:14
Exactly. It's the combination of both actually you become the ecosystem by powering the creation of a lot of the ecosystems.
Michael LeBlanc 30:27
Well, listen, It's been a great discussion and I learned a lot and I think our listeners are going to love your perspectives on, on the important role. So, where can folks go and get in touch? Are you, are you a LinkedIn person? Can they get in touch with you? What's the best way to learn more about Mirakl?
Adrien Nussenbaum 30:41
Yeah. I mean, you know, Adrien, at Mirakl dot com. And it's not spelled like Rocky' wife. It's spelled A, D, R, I E, N, mirakl.com, LinkedIn. Yeah, these are probably the and we do and we host a lot of great conferences, and our marketing team produces a lot of great content.
Michael LeBlanc 30:59
Fantastic. (Inaudible). Thanks so much for joining us on Conversations with CommerceNext. And thanks for being part of CommX, a sponsor of the podcast. It allows us to reach, reach wide and, and far and tell great stories like your own and, and open the eyes of marketers from coast-to-coast and across the world. So, once again, thanks for taking the time to chat. And I wish you continued success.
Adrien Nussenbaum 31:23
Thank you, Michael. Thanks for the invite. It was a great pleasure.
Michael LeBlanc 31:26
Thanks for tuning into this episode of Conversations with CommerceNext. Please follow us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music or your favorite podcast platform, where we will be sharing career advice and marketing strategies from eCommerce and digital marketing leaders at retailers and direct-to-consumer brands each and every episode.
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Have a fantastic week everyone.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
marketplace, sellers, retailers, crossover, inaudible, eCommerce, third party sellers, retail, Adrien, products, buy, technology, customers, talk, people, platform, marketers, company, podcast, sell