Page 15 - CB12_all pages

~ Practicology ~

Chris Vincent is Chief International Officer at Pattern, a US marketplace seller that
expanded into Europe in late 2018 with the acquisition of e-commerce consultancy,
Practicology. Since then, Chris has been working to bring the very successful Pattern
business model—Pattern is one of the 10 largest third-party Amazon sellers—to the
rest of the world. Having lived and worked in the US, Australia, China and now the
United Kingdom, this Canadian-born e-commerce expert is on a mission to make
selling in marketplaces easy for big brands.

incent was previously the Global CEO of ‘At the same time, we work with the brand to monitor
Practicology, and a cross-border e-com- unauthorised sellers in marketplaces who often damage
V merce and marketplace evangelist, having the brand’s perception in the eyes of the end customer;
led the consultancy’s expansion from the United and may be sourcing their product from the grey-market.’
Kingdom to Australia, China and the United Arab This dual focus provides a low-risk model for brands who
Emirates (UAE). For him, the acquisition by Pat- want to grow their sales in marketplaces without resorting
tern made total sense for both businesses. ‘We’ve to heavy discounting and while still controlling how their
always wanted to be where our clients needed to be brand is presented.
online; whether this is us opening in new markets,
or now selling their products on global marketplac- US pricing protection
es for them,’ he begins. In North America, Pattern has been able to work with
its brand partners to reduce the activity of unauthorised
‘In a traditional service model, there is a never-ending sellers by ensuring that the brands enforce their Minimum
challenge,’ Vincent explains. ‘As an agency, a service pro- Advertised Price or MAP policy, which prevents discount-
vider, it does not matter how good you are and how well ing beyond the minimum price. Once unauthorised sellers
you perform the services you offer. There will always come are unable to discount a brand’s products, they become less
a time that your client will change their vision, see changes interested in them, which makes it much easier for Pattern
in leadership or meet someone new. All of these changes to clean up the brand’s product listings on the marketplace
can be the end of that relationship.’ and pursue a full-price selling strategy.

Pattern has changed that traditional service model by Vincent explains the problem: ‘Pricing is so transparent
buying stock from the consumer brands it partners with; online. If one third-party seller offers a discounted price,
which include Panasonic, Skullcandy, Popsockets and Pure other sellers will reduce the price they are selling the same
Encapsulations. ‘We want to work with brands in this way
across the world,’ says Vincent. ‘So Pattern and Practicol-
ogy are now operating as a third-party seller on Ama-
zon’s European, Australian and UAE sites. Plus, we have
adapted the business model to offer the stock-buy model
for brands who want us to represent them on Tmall’s
cross-border and domestic sites, and other Asian market-
places too.’

Vincent explains how the model works: ‘We agree which
products the brand wants us to sell in which markets and a
wholesale price for each product in each market, and then
place regular orders for the product with the brand. We do
everything else, from managing the marketplace listings,
creating premium-brand content, managing marketplace
advertising, logistics and customer service. We use Fulfil-
ment by Amazon, so the marketplace handles delivery to
the end customer and all of our products are then eligible
for Prime delivery.’

15