Re:Platform Podcast: Why Supplier Enablement Is Critical For Marketplaces And Dropship Programs

It’s not often that you get to sit down with podcasters who have a deep understanding of e-commerce, DTC, and retail. My co-founder Chris and I were fortunate to speak with James Gurd and Paul Rogers of Re:Platform, a podcast about ecommerce replatforming and site optimization. 

James runs Digital Juggler, an ecommerce consultancy focused on replatforming and ecommerce strategy. Digital Juggler has been operating in the ecommerce and retail industry for over ten years. They’ve done work for clients like House of Fraser, Victoria Beckham, Vashi, and more. 

Paul is Managing Director at Vervaunt, a highly respected ecommerce consultancy and paid media agency that supports ambitious retail brands in growing and scaling their online business. Vervaunt’s recent clients include Pangaia, Muji, The V&A, and Bulletproof. Vervaunt regularly posts some of the most informative writing on ecommerce technologies for brands on their blog.

Chris and I enjoyed this conversation. Paul and James deeply understand retailers and brands, and so they were able to dig into topics that we don’t usually get to discuss publicly. While we covered a lot of ground, the core theme of the episode centered around the purpose of supplier enablement — why it’s critical for retailers looking to scale their marketplace and dropship programs. 

Here’s an overview of the topics we discussed: 

• The bottleneck to seller onboarding before and after Convictional.
• Where supplier enablement sits in the retailer-supplier relationship.
• The history of EDI and how EDI affects trade today.
• The different business cases for Convictional
• When marketplace and dropship programs make sense for retailers

Our sincere thanks to James and Paul for having us on their show. Please check it out here or on your favorite podcast app and let us know what you think on Twitter or Linkedin.