In conversation with Venditan Managing Director, John Coyne

What's changed at Venditan in the last 12 months that customers and prospects might not have noticed yet?

We've been investing across Venditan Commerce to help clients achieve more with the platform, from automating everyday processes to improving the experience for the people using it.

That includes more flexible point of sale, a refreshed interface and work to give retailers greater control over their workflows. These developments have a practical purpose: giving teams more time, making it easier to serve customers and helping businesses handle growth.

We've also invested in the payment experience. Customers expect checkout to be straightforward, with payment methods they recognise and trust. For the retailer, that needs to connect smoothly with everything that follows, including orders, settlement and refunds. Getting those connections right can make a real difference to both sales and the workload behind them.

Alongside that, we've achieved Cyber Essentials Plus, supported by independent testing, regular vulnerability scanning and an annual penetration test. It's an important part of giving clients confidence in the business behind their technology.

Clients won't see every investment as it happens, but they should see the benefit of a platform that keeps developing with their ambitions.

If you had to describe where Venditan is right now in one sentence, what would it be?

We're building on the depth of Venditan Commerce to help retailers grow, work more efficiently and take advantage of new opportunities.

We have a strong foundation across ecommerce, stores and retail operations. The exciting part is making more of that capability accessible to clients, so they can improve how their businesses work and move forward with confidence.

What's the thing you're most proud of that we’ve developed or achieved recently?

I'm proud of the breadth of what our team has built, and the difference that connected approach can make to a retailer.

A customer sees a product, places an order and expects it to arrive. Behind that simple experience can be a considerable amount of work across purchasing, stock, stores, warehousing, payments and fulfilment. Our team understands those connections and has built a platform that supports them.

We're now building on that depth with more automation, greater flexibility and an improved user experience. That's an exciting stage to reach because it opens up more of the platform's potential to the people running the business every day.

Where do you see Venditan Commerce sitting against other platform names mid-market retailers keep hearing about?

Venditan Commerce is particularly strong when a retailer wants to connect and improve the whole operation.

A challenge might first appear on the website, but the opportunity could involve better product information, more accurate stock, faster fulfilment or giving store teams access to the right information. Being able to work across those areas gives us a broad view of what's possible.

That makes the platform relevant to an ambitious smaller retailer, an established multichannel business or an enterprise with demanding operational requirements. What matters is how they trade, where they want to go and what they need their technology to make possible.

We've had Venditan Commerce assessed alongside much larger platforms, which gives us confidence in what we've built. For clients, the value is having technology that supports their business today and gives them room to develop it.

You've talked there about the bigger platform names. Who do you think we're really competing against right now? Is it those other platforms, agencies or in-house teams?

Usually it's a combination. Retailers have choices about their platforms, their development partners and the capabilities they want to keep internally.

Our strength is the combination of retail knowledge, a broad platform and a team that can turn an idea into something that works across the operation.

If a client wants to introduce a new service or improve the buying experience, we can follow that through product information, stock, payments, orders and fulfilment. That helps them understand the opportunity and put the right pieces in place.

We're also comfortable working alongside agencies and internal teams. Many retailers have established relationships and specialist expertise they want to retain. We can complement those teams and help them achieve more together.

What’s the current roadmap priority for Venditan Commerce, and what's driving it?

A major priority is giving clients more control over how work moves through their business.

Venditan Commerce already supports sophisticated processes, including automated supplier replenishment. We're developing that further so more automation can be configured by the people running the operation.

Think about the decisions teams make repeatedly when an order arrives, stock changes or a return is received. Many follow clear rules. Giving retailers more control over those rules can reduce manual work, improve consistency and free people to focus on customers and exceptions that need their attention.

That could mean flagging an unusual order before fulfilment, changing how a product is presented when availability changes, or coordinating actions across stores, the warehouse and customer service when a return comes in.

The aim is for clients to adapt more of these processes without commissioning development for every variation. That becomes particularly valuable as order volumes increase or the business introduces new ways of trading.

We're also investing in mobile point of sale and refreshing the interface across Venditan Commerce. We want the depth of the platform to feel accessible in the middle of a busy working day.

What's changed in what UK mid-market retailers actually need from a platform partner versus two or three years ago?

Clients want a clearer connection between technology investment and business performance. They want to know how a development will help them increase revenue, improve margin, save time or give customers a better experience.

They also want ideas. A good partner should understand their business well enough to spot opportunities, bring relevant developments to their attention and help them decide where to focus.

Sometimes that's a new capability. Sometimes it's getting more from something they already have. Removing a repetitive task or making better use of stock can be just as valuable as introducing a new sales channel.

Retailers are also looking to us for a view on changes such as AI discovery and agentic commerce. They want to understand what those developments could mean for their customers and how to prepare. Our role is to turn that interest into practical opportunities they can assess and act on.

With that in mind, has AI discoverability become a strategic bet for Venditan, or is it still early days?

It's an area we're actively preparing for because it creates another opportunity for retailers to get their products in front of customers.

Our focus is on helping clients put the foundations in place: useful product information, accurate pricing and availability, and content that clearly explains what they sell. That work has value across their existing channels as well as emerging ways of discovering products.

The opportunity is particularly interesting for specialist retailers with real expertise in their categories. Making that knowledge accessible can help customers understand why a product is right for them.

As these channels develop, we'll assess their contribution through sales, customer quality and cost to serve. That gives clients a basis for deciding where to invest and how to build on what works.

Are there capabilities customers keep asking for that aren't built yet?

Agentic commerce is increasingly part of the conversation. It raises an exciting question: how can a retailer make its products and services available when an AI assistant is helping a customer choose and buy?

For Venditan Commerce, that means connecting new buying journeys to the operational capabilities clients already rely on. Product information, pricing and stock need to be reliable, and any resulting order needs to flow through payment and fulfilment properly.

We're exploring how to support those journeys while keeping retailers in control of how they trade and serve their customers.

The depth we already have across retail operations gives us a strong foundation to build on. Our ambition is to help clients participate in new channels while making full use of the systems and processes they've already invested in.

Let’s talk about Checkout Audit. The product is just over a year old now. How has it progressed?

We've developed Checkout Audit around a clear client benefit: greater confidence in what's happening on their payment pages.

It continuously monitors those pages for changes, helping identify unexpected alterations to scripts or content. Our team reviews critical findings before escalation, so retailers receive a meaningful warning and can understand what needs attention.

It began as an answer to payment page monitoring requirements under PCI DSS. Since then, we've invested heavily in automation and assessment to make the service more useful in practice.

Payment pages deserve particular attention because of the sensitive information customers enter there. Checkout Audit gives retailers an additional layer of oversight, backed by people who can help assess what a change means.

Is there a client story from the last few months that captures what Venditan does well?

A former client returning to us is a good example.

They originally moved away after merging with another business and inheriting its software. When they later went out to RFP for a replacement, they invited us to take part.

We went through a competitive process and won the business back.

They already knew our team, but we still had to demonstrate how Venditan Commerce could support the business they had become and where they wanted to take it next.

That's particularly rewarding. It shows the value of the relationship we'd built, alongside the progress we'd made with the platform. We earned the opportunity to be part of their next stage of growth.

What's a mistake or lesson from a project that's changed how we're approaching things?

As projects became more complex, we recognised that clients needed a clearer view of delivery without having to ask for one.

When information sits across schedules, emails, specifications and tickets, it takes effort to piece together what's been agreed, what needs a decision and what happens next. We wanted to make that easier.

We've brought more of that together in Venditan Insight, connecting the work, the decisions and the sign offs, while making dependencies and risks easier to see.

The lesson is that visibility helps everyone move forward. Clients can make decisions with more confidence, teams can stay aligned and projects can maintain momentum, especially where several partners are involved.