E-commerce is a tricky business. You need to know what kind of inventory to buy, how much of it to buy and in what assortment. You also have to be aware of your competition, and, perhaps most importantly, how much you can charge for your wares.
It’s a lot to keep track of — or at least it used to be.
Feedvisor is an Israeli company that recently opened offices in New York City. The company describes themselves as an ‘algo-commerce’ company because they use complex algorithms to achieve the sorts of things retailers have been struggling with for years.
“We collect a huge amount of data, both from our customers and the market,” Victor Rosenman, CEO and co-founder of Feedvisor said. “And then we use this data to enable our marketplace sellers to make better decisions. We really want to be the brain behind retailers.”
Their software helps online retailers understand what sort of inventory to buy, what pieces of inventory are selling, how to extend their assortment, and how many items they should restock. It will even adjust their pricing in real-time.
Feedvisor's technology isn't new to big retailers, and chances are you've bought something from a company that uses their service. Feedvisor's technology currently manages over $2 billion in annual Amazon.com sales — around 2 percent of all sales in the U.S.
That's a lot for a company started by three people just five years ago in Tel Aviv. Feedvisor's grown a lot since then, and today employs over 100 people.
The company is currently building teams in Seattle and New York. New York will serve as a hub for account management, putting boots on the ground to keep their existing U.S. customer base happy and resubscribing. The longer term plan, however, is to move their entire sales and marketing teams to the United States.
Next time you're on Amazon.com, keep in mind that the real shopkeeper is very likely a smart computer that's dead-set on getting you to pay top-dollar for that pair of socks. And then say screw it, and click 'add to cart.'
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