Our new tool provides easy access to data insights that are custom-designed for Amazon vendors with large, complex assortments.
We are proud to announce Catapult, Finc3’s new tool and the first Amazon software designed specifically for large brand manufacturers. We developed the features of Catapult while working with hundreds of large-scale clients such as Unilever, Paulmann, Sennheiser and Bosch. While doing so, we faced many challenges posed by our clients’ complex assortments that could not be solved with existing Amazon tools. Our response was to overcome these challenges by developing our own technical solutions. Now, we’ve combined those solutions to create Catapult, a versatile tool for Amazon vendors.
So, what differentiates Catapult from other tools? Its navigation mirrors classic sales software, making it easy to keep an overview of thousands of products. Assortments can be sorted by region and categories or groups, instead of only by individual products as in other tools.
“For many companies, Amazon represents both a potential goldmine and a black box,” explains Tim Nedden, founder and managing director of Finc3. “The channel offers opportunities for extreme growth, but many companies find it difficult to take advantage of them.” The reason for this struggle is that Amazon data often does not fit into the classic business approach to measuring success.
“Amazon offers vaster and deeper data than other retail channels. But only those who really make use of it can also earn money.” A classic example of such data points, Nedden says, are key performance indicators (KPIs). “Most manufacturers measure success in terms of outbound goods to the retailer. With Amazon, they can see how much merchandise actually goes out to the end customer and how high the search volume is for their products. When this information is utilized properly, out-of-stock products that manufacturers would otherwise end up having to sell off can be almost completely avoided.”
Other available Amazon tools also make it possible to dive into this variety of data. However, because they are designed for smaller manufacturers with more manageable assortments, they usually only do so at the individual product level. Catapult, however, deliberately takes a different approach. Nedden explains: “Manufacturers of LED lamps, batteries, tools and many other products sometimes offer thousands of product variations across multiple countries. Tools that allow you to analyze data at the individual product level do not help these companies.” With this in mind, Catapult offers a bigger-picture approach: when users log in, they first see how the company is performing in a particular region and then, directly after that, their product groups.
Catapult was developed by our Business Intelligence (BI) team, led by Benjamin Weyrich and Lukas Moors. Their team has created dashboards for hundreds of customers, and in recent years they have become sought-after experts in Amazon BI solutions. “From our close exchange with brand manufacturers, we know their challenges and were able to align Catapult exactly to their needs,” Benjamin Weyrich explains. As Catapult launches, Weyrich and Moors will take on new roles as the managing directors of Finc3 Technology GmbH, a new division of the group responsible for software solutions such as Catapult.
Although Catapult is Finc3’s first tool released to external users, our agency has been using the features of the software for many years to support the core of our consulting services. Catapult runs on the Microsoft product “Power BI”.
For Lukas Moors, this represents another advantage of the tool: “Almost all large brand manufacturers use Microsoft365. By using Power BI, we can utilize existing setups and save ourselves time-consuming IT audits. The login for Catapult is the same one that employees use for Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. Once commissioned, our software is ready for use within hours.”
Is your company looking for Amazon data analytics software that can keep track of large-scale, complex assortments? You can learn more about Catapult at www.catapult-analytics.com. Pricing starts at 750 euros per month.
About Finc3
Finc3 was founded in 2014 and is one of the major European e-commerce agencies. In addition to the newly founded Finc3 Technology, the group of companies includes the brands Finc3 Commerce, Finc3 Marketing Services and BizMut Marketing. They offer digital marketplace marketing, CRM, data analytics and business-to-business (B2B) performance marketing, among other services. The agency group recently partnered with U.S. marketplace accelerator Fortress Brand, which means clients now also benefit from broad expertise on U.S. platforms. Clients include brands such as Unilever and Bosch, global services companies, and some of the world’s fastest growing technology companies such as Mailchimp, asana, and Pipedrive. Finc3 customers turn over more than one billion euros per year on online marketplaces.