Garden Centre Retail speaks with Berdia Qamarauli of Artisio to find out how their white-label auction software can help garden centres trade and dispose of unused stock whilst contributing to the green circular economy.
Founded in 2020 and launched in 2021, Artisio is a full suite of auction management software & online bidding platform that helps businesses run online auctions & manage auction back-office activities.
Berdia Qamarauli, the CEO of the business, speaks of the launch: “one of the reasons why we have had success is because our stakeholders had the powerful combination of experience and expertise in auction software and technology. Other auction software products have been created by companies who were primarily auctioneers and had little technical background, or had strong technical backgrounds who decided to create auction software but didn’t know how the auction business functioned.”
Qamarauli himself has 13 years’ experience as the head of IT at one of the largest auction houses in London and, since launching Artisio, has experienced a number of surprises. “We thought the first client we’d sign would be from the traditional, fine arts industry, but it was actually a large business from the industrial/commercial/retail sector” he explains.
After exploring the retail sector in more detail, more businesses have come onboard and use Artisio’s online auction software. Artisio is represented in multiple countries, across the world.
The inner workings of Artisio’s auction software
So how does Artisio auction software work, and how can businesses in the garden retail sector take full advantage and benefit from it? Firstly, it comes down to managing stock.
“Artisio platform allows companies in the retail sector to quickly manage, process and trade their excess stock through various auction options. One of the key reasons why auctions remain so popular across all industry verticals, is that items catalogued and presented online in the traditional auction model versus the ‘buy it now’ retail option, will yield 30-40% more in value, as a direct result of the competitive element”.
“The reason why we felt so confident moving into the retail sector was in early 2022, when we received a call and product demo request from Unilever.”
This took Berdia and the team by surprise – Unilever was looking for both B2B and B2C software which would allow them to quickly create an auction for the dispersal of excess stock, push it online and sell it at auction, which is exactly what the Artisio software delivers.
The software supports a white-label auction platform which integrates into a client’s current website and enables businesses to host an online auction to a marketplace of bidders and buyers within 10 minutes.
“We have found that larger warehouse-based businesses are cataloguing a pallet of assets on the system as one lot, but you can also create a lot for a single item” explains Qamarauli.
Artisio creates a code script, which can be dropped into the back end of a client’s website, and, in essence, it creates your auction environment presented as a timed, or eBay style, auction.
A circular economy
One of the key benefits, from a garden retail sense, with regards to this system, is the reduction of waste to landfill. Creating an auction of unsold stock, or excess product, means products have a chance at a second life with an end user who may not be a regular customer to a garden centre.
“Garden centres now do not have to dispose of excess stock – they will not have the cost of someone coming and collecting unsold items to throw them away or recycle. This is perfect if you think about it – take the big garden centres. They may have excess pallets they need to move on. Wherever you’re based in the country, smaller businesses or retailers could buy that stock, and because they’d be buying in bulk, it’s cheaper, and they can sell it within their own business networks” Qamarauli explains.
He’s known smaller retailers and business concerns to come together and create an unofficial buying group, share the cost of a pallet of products and split the pallet between each outlet, reducing costs, waste and haulage costs for the benefit of everyone.
You can visit Artisio on stand D22 at The Garden Centre Expo. Register for your free ticket now and visit the Artisio stand for further information.
