Online wholesale platform JOOR has launched a key development that it says is a “ground-breaking new solution [that] simplifies the process for fashion brands to successfully build new retail partnerships and drive repeat business by leveraging JOOR’s exclusive data and global network of vetted retailers”.

Called Discover, it’s a “first-to-market tool” that helps fashion brands identify and connect with “well-suited partners”, a tough process that can be a major hurdle to business expansion.

It’s essentially a “data-driven professional wholesale matchmaking service” for global fashion brands and retailers and comes as the firm’s latest industry survey shows 66% of retail buyers are looking for new brands all year round.

JOOR Discover allows brands to search and filter its exclusive retailer directory “to find the right prospects before reaching out via a buyer-approved template”. It said these “highly visual outreach messages provide buyers with all the information they need to accurately and efficiently assess whether the brand is right for their evolving merchandise mix”. 

Embedded functionality then monitors engagement and responses “so prospects quickly convert to connections and then to clients”.

It’s also claimed to help brands tap into the fast-growing global independent retail sector. That comes as the past five years have seen the percentage of total wholesale transaction volume on JOOR attributed to independent retailers increasing significantly from 47% to 59%.

JOOR said the offer makes prospecting more “like fishing in a carefully curated and stocked pond rather than fishing in the vast ocean, eliminating the guesswork and risk associated with finding new partners”.

The tech has been extensively tested and the company also claims that using its service, “brands experience a 9x higher success rate in acquiring new retailer clients compared to traditional methods, with 78% of new clients ordering again and placing on average over five orders within the first year”.

Through beta testing JOOR Discover, one fashion brand is said to have “recorded 55 new retailer connections and seven new orders in its first four months trialing the new functionality”.