Seattle-based SoundCommerce has closed a $15m series A funding round to optimise real-time data and predictive decisions for retail brands.

The data platform can help consumer companies use cloud infrastructure to think and act like Amazon.

The funding coincides with SoundCommerce’s commercial acceleration across the global consumer retail industry, fuelling the company’s expanded hiring, platform capabilities and customer engagement.

The SoundCommerce data graph spans omnichannel shoppers, digital marketing campaigns, product assortment and merchandising offers, distributed inventory management, supply chain and fulfilment operations, wholesale channels, and unit variable revenue and cost accounting.

“We’re obsessed with data but our knotty web of proprietary applications, SaaS and past-their-prime legacy systems makes working with our data hard,” said Matt Powell, CTO at FTD Proflowers, a SoundCommerce customer. “The SoundCommerce platform helps us bring order and consistency to the chaos, so we have fast, easy access to the data we need to optimise product, channel and customer strategies.”

Consumers spent $861bn online with US merchants in 2020, up 44% year over year, according to Digital Commerce 360. That’s the highest annual US ecommerce growth in at least two decades. It’s also nearly triple the 15.1% jump in 2019.

Yet 25 years into the ecommerce revolution, most consumer brands still struggle with the operational and financial realities of direct-to-consumer commerce. Decisions rarely align with profitable growth. Orders and customers can generate huge profits or losses from nominal changes in variable costs. From ad spend allocation to doorstep delivery routing, addressing the real-time complexity of the digital commerce model requires dedicated decisioning technology.

The SoundCommerce platform integrates, validates and orchestrates lossless, granular transaction and event data into cloud data warehouses including Google BigQuery and Snowflake. Dynamic data models accommodate constantly changing systems and data, with actionable views available for orchestration to any downstream system, function or partner. It integrates with more than 90 software platforms including Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Amazon, Google Analytics and NetSuite as well as common EDI formats and parcel post carriers.

Built on flexible data models, SoundCommerce offers out-of-the-box analysis that makes it easier to answer questions fundamental to omnichannel and direct-to-consumer success, including:

• What’s driving and detracting from our customer lifetime value (CLV)?
• What’s driving and detracting from our profitability?
• Are assortment, inventory and promotions aligned with demand?
• Which markets, channels and customers should we prioritise?
• How should we treat this shopper to balance profit with experience and CLV?

SoundCommerce was founded by CEO Eric Best and CTO Jared Stiff, industry veterans with previous exits to Amazon, Liberty Interactive and the public equity markets.

“The goal of every consumer brand is to align marketing, operations and customer experience with the unique lifetime value potential of each shopper,” said Best. “With every business decision informed by real-time and predictive awareness of operational state, unit economics and CLV, SoundCommerce provides a comprehensive commerce data graph to achieve this goal. We are so excited to start this next chapter of our journey.”

The financing was led by enterprise SaaS venture firm Emergence Capital with participation from existing investors Defy Partners and Voyager Capital.

“Against the backdrop of 2020, competitive pressure is greater than ever for consumer brands, and data capability means competitive advantage,” said Joe Floyd, general partner at Emergence Capital, who joins SoundCommerce’s board of directors. “SoundCommerce is the easiest way for consumer brands to leverage modern cloud data warehouses configured for their specific industry and needs. I’m excited to partner with Eric and the team as they transform and enable disruptive brands in this dynamic industry.”

SoundCommerce works with retailers’ existing technology stack to transform customer experience across marketing, merchandising, supply chain, fulfilment, delivery and customer service. The data platform tracks real-time operational events, profitability and customer lifetime value to drive decisions and actions fundamental to cross-channel and direct-to-consumer success. Founded by Amazon veterans and backed by venture capital investors, SoundCommerce is headquartered in Seattle.