Interview with Olivia Skuza

Olivia Skuza
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
NuOrder

NuOrder creates transparency by creating real-time moments between brand and retailer

NuOrder, a tech platform and app, provides advanced digital solutions to conduct business in real-time by fully integrating ERPs from the brands to retailers. This allows full visibility into products that are currently available, products that will be available in the future, anywhere in the world, transforming the buying and merchandising process through the use of their digital catalogues, online ordering, and visual assortments. Co-Founder and Co-CEO Olivia Skuza speaks on how the industry is embracing a new way of doing business.

A very timely pitch linked to a world order hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. How is it going to help businesses in locked / quarantined towns and cities?

NuOrder's platform is designed to digitise the entire market-to-order process. Within this centralised digital environment, retailers and brands can work together in real-time to make product selections and finalise orders anytime and anywhere, removing the physical barriers of face-to-face. NuOrder serves as an on-demand tool to power smarter selling, better buying and insight-driven assortments. This platform is essential for managing this current supply chain crisis-creating previously unthinkable capabilities such as 24/7 connectivity, enhanced visibility, and efficiency. NuOrder transforms the traditional retail buying process through the use of digital catalogues, online ordering and visual assortments.

Reading about NuOrder gives one the sense that it connects with the consumer too. Could you explain how, more so for the B2C consumer?

Now more than ever it's critical for both brands and retailers to present the best product offering to consumers, and that includes the online experience. Retailers need to assort their products and ensure that they have compelling offerings, whether it's a physical store or an online environment. Essentially asking themselves, "Are we capitalising on all the white space opportunities or avoiding duplications?" NuOrder is a B2B platform that creates a more seamless and collaborative communication between brands and retailers, by creating a better buying experience for retailers through the use of the assortment tool. It allows retailers to browse products by season, delivery, division, category and availability, ensuring they are buying the right products for their customers.

How does it impact work along the supply chain?

NuOrder 's digital wholesale platform and app provides advanced digital solutions to conduct business in real-time by fully integrating ERPs or inventory management systems from the brands to retailers. This accelerates orders, impacting the speed at which product gets from wholesale to market. It also allows full visibility into products that are currently available and products that will be available in the future-anywhere in the world, transforming the buying and merchandising process through the use of their digital showrooms, linesheets and assortments. NuOrder allows for data and information to flow seamlessly from end-to-end, with better decision-making for both retailers and brands, creating meaningful efficiency to keep supply chains moving effortlessly.

Transparency, sustainability, circularity all key buzz words today and critical to the health of the planet. How does NuOrder check all of that?

NuOrder creates complete transparency by creating real-time moments between the brand and retailer.

Buyers are able to see new products as soon they become available for wholesale buys. Historically, retailers would have to physically call brands to ask what products they have on hand to purchase.
Brands are able to boost orders as they see what buyers are interested in from their live inventory which drives immediate business. This would not be possible in the traditional method of selling in which retailers are looking at physical catalogues from brands.
Brands are able to view buyer activity, order history, seasonal comparisons, best sellers and inventory reports, as well as view daily order logs and year-over-year comparisons.

NuOrder's digital technology helps generate sustainable business improvements for both retailers and brands.

This B2B ecommerce platform eliminates non-essential paper waste through digital linesheets and catalogues that can be updated real-time and viewed online. This stops brands from spending dollars on printing line sheets and catalogues. Many of the brands that join NuOrder are on a "Go Green" mission, wanting to stop wasting paper.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), domestic air travel represents 12 per cent of transportation-related carbon emissions. The NuOrder platform generates less face-to-face interaction and the need for samples; which can reduce transportation-related carbon emissions.

What is the cost of this software? How easy or difficult is it to install / implement it?

The cost of the software depends upon the user, as it is a subscription-based annual license fee. NuOrder couldn't be easier to install. It's as simple as a drag-and-drop excel to get started. This can range anywhere from days to weeks depending on the brand's needs. We work with brands' existing formats and templates to support easy onboarding. NuOrder suggests four weeks to onboard and train teams to use the platform and has interacted with over 100+ systems.

How different is this from the other softwares in this space?

There are many reasons NuOrder is different, but some include:

Multi-vertical platform: We are the only platform that operates across many verticals (10+). Our technology supports that unlike others in this space. Think of a typical department store - e.g. luxury, apparel, footwear & accessories, sports & outdoor, beauty, consumer electronics and more. We've been able to support over 500,000 retailers and 2,000 brands and support the intricacies and nuances required within each vertical.
Exclusive retail partnerships: Unlike other software, we have exclusive relationships with major retailers in the states and quickly expanding globally. We signed our first key partnership in 2018, with Nordstrom to launch the industry's first collaborative assortment planning platform to streamline the market-to-order process. We are expanding our retailer network quickly and it's unlike anything that exists in the industry today.
Depth of features: We are a technology led company first and have always been the leader as it relates to driving feature functionality that drives meaningful ROI back to brands and retailers. Brands choose us because we can best support their business globally, across multiple categories with large teams, and can support complex pricing and customer segmentation, etc.

In the current lockdown situation, online players would be worried about logistics. Does NuOrder address that?

NuOrder is an online wholesale solution designed to digitise the entire market-to-order process. In terms of logistics, we sync directly with brands + retailers' back end systems (over 300+ ERPSs) which surfaces shipping information to the rep and retailer. However, we do not directly impact this part of the process.

A portion of this interview was first published in the June 2020 edition of the print magazine.

Published on: 06/07/2020

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.