Foundation
The Only E-Commerce Platform For Wholesalers

Foundation was launched less than a year ago but is already making waves as the only e-commerce platform for wholesalers. The success it has achieved in getting wholesalers interested in its services, which include order management, product catalogs, and online storefronts, is due to an experienced leadership team focused on saving customers the valuable time often spent communicating with vendors to fulfill orders from retailers.

Before starting Foundation, CEO Shiv Agarwal was the founder of Fabric, a B2C e-commerce platform now valued at over a billion dollars. He has spent over 15 years in all forms of commerce and now has an eye on archaic and inefficient wholesale commerce. He has built a strong leadership team to tackle this trillion-dollar market.

Foundation’s progress has exceeded everyone’s expectations. Although Foundation has not started its go-to-market customers, they already have paying customers. All of them came through existing customer referrals.

“We have not spoken to a single wholesaler who did not want to buy our product as soon as they heard about it,” says Anton Kay, Foundation’s Head of Engineering. “Wholesalers are stuck in the past when it comes to e-commerce. We are giving them a tool to streamline operations through automation.”

Wholesalers can use Foundation’s platform to save time for sales reps as they don’t have to communicate individually with multiple vendors that have varying delivery terms and payment methods.

Partnering with Foundation, wholesalers can create an online storefront with a catalog of all the products they offer and invite retailers to order what they need. The platform automatically sorts those items and sends each vendor individualized orders relevant to them. Retailers scan a QR code when they receive their orders, so both the wholesaler and the vendor know the right items got to the right place.

In its initial product development phase, the Foundation team made strategic choices regarding which wholesalers to target.

The first vertical it focused on was pet supplies because the pet supplies market is very fragmented, with many wholesalers and small brands making niche pet products. Foundation also has a few customers selling to gourmet grocery stores and novelty and gift shops.

Wholesalers aren’t the only ones Foundation targets as potential customers.

“The next thing we are working on is the vendor portal,” says Kay. “We are in the final stages of developing this capability, where a vendor can manage their catalogs on our platform and update details like seasonal discounts and newly added products. This is automatically communicated to wholesalers, making the process hassle-free and time efficient.”

Wholesalers are stuck in the past when it comes to e-commerce. We are giving them a tool to streamline operations through automation

For example, if a pet supply vendor sells a new style of dog bed, they can list it in their product catalog, and it will be visible to multiple wholesalers. This is much quicker and easier than the traditional method of individually communicating with each wholesaler.

Now that Foundation has created e-commerce solutions for wholesalers and vendors, it is building integration with retailers' POS systems so wholesalers know which products are in high demand and anticipate what retailers are likely to order from them soon. Wholesalers can also share this information with manufacturers to give them insight into which items they should ramp up in production.

With its initial success and ability to see the big picture regarding wholesale e-commerce, Foundation is poised to grow even more in the years to come.