AppDirect Platform Enhancements—Driving Digital Commerce Forward

Companies today are increasingly turning to cloud marketplaces for technology solutions and services. The latest enhancements to the AppDirect platform empower our customers to further harness digital marketplaces to drive growth. With these updates, customers can expand their ecosystem strategies through third-party developers and integrated data management.

In this blog, we’ll explore how these platform upgrades, which will be fully available soon, support every phase of the digital subscription journey. Let’s dive in!

Read more about how top-performing companies are driving success in our blog How to Thrive in the Digital Economy—The 4 Digital Keys to Success. Also, learn how technology advisors and channel partners can apply these principles to drive growth in the blog Build, Expand, and Future-proof Your Business.

Enhanced marketplace experiences

We’re building major improvements to our platform to create greater experiences thanks to customization capabilities. As part of that, we introduced Extensions, a powerful new feature that allows you to host custom pages and functions directly on the AppDirect platform—no off-platform setup required—allowing businesses to build custom forms and workflows for integration with tools like Salesforce or Calendly. This functionality automates cross-platform workflows. Soon, businesses will also be able to run custom code directly on the AppDirect platform, making workflows even more adaptable. This functionality is in addition to our rich APIs and builders already available. This upgrade unlocks new ways to tailor your marketplace directly on the AppDirect platform.

Upgraded Storefront Builder

AppDirect Storefront Builder includes tools, guides, and a component library to customize the look and feel of your marketplace store. With Storefront Builder, customers can make changes to marketplace navigation, header and footer, home page, product profiles and other store settings. One of the biggest enhancements to Storefront Builder is the Customizable Login page. Now there are more options to achieve unique and tailored experiences for marketplace users.

Developer Center 2.0

To sell and bundle third-party services, companies need an efficient way to engage with their partner developers. AppDirect streamlines this with a Developer Center that empowers non-technical program managers to design custom, self-service flows, creating a tailored experience from the first login. Features like Developer APIs, Storefront Builder, invoice editors, notification editors help partners build a strong developer ecosystem that drives revenue growth and boosts customer retention.

Check out key functionalities that will soon be available within Developer Center 2.0:

1. A smooth developer onboarding flow—Marketplace owners will be able to onboard developers directly in-platform thanks to customizable applicant survey functionality. Managers can easily gather applicant information and use the Applicant Management tool to approve or reject each candidate. With Developer Center 2.0’s no-code interface, the program manager can have a self-managed approval process.

2. Marketplace managers maintain control—Once finalized, marketplace managers have the ability to publish the customized dashboard, delivering a unique experience to every developer within their ecosystem.

3. Personalized developer dashboard—Marketplace managers can welcome new developers to their ecosystem using a personalized developer dashboard. Admins can add widgets, including links, videos, and documents. They can also rearrange UI elements—menus, icons, widget placements—to create a unique, user-friendly experience.

A new Product Distribution Experience

Building a technology product is demanding, but getting it to market is even more challenging. AppDirect’s vast network of marketplaces simplifies product distribution making it simpler for companies to access larger markets, monetize first-party products, and overcome traditional distribution limitations.

AppDirect is working on a new experience called Product Distribution Experience that makes it easier for technology providers to onboard new products into the central network catalog and subsequently syndicate them to other marketplaces. 

How does it work?

When the new Product Distribution Experience is fully available, technology providers will first onboard their product on the AppDirect’s Platform using the web interface or GraphQL APIs or Product Uploader tool. Then they'll be ble simply click a button to initiate that process of distribution. They can choose from a list of eligible marketplaces powered by the AppDirect platform. Requests are then sent to the marketplace operator who can then either approve or reject the request. Once the request is approved, the product is immediately available on their storefront, for the end customer to purchase. Stay tuned for more! 

Resellers have two monetization options

As resellers strive to meet the growing demand for modern commerce experiences, they face a major hurdle: populating and maintaining an extensive catalog of third-party services. These integrations can be costly, often exceeding $100K each, and can take months or even years to build.

To help resellers overcome these challenges, AppDirect provides two monetization pathways. 

• For resellers with a direct agreement with a provider, the AppDirect commerce platform enables seamless billing and provisioning right out of the box, offering access to hundreds of providers and thousands of SKUs. 
• For resellers without a direct provider agreement, AppDirect’s Tier 2 Distribution offers a revenue-sharing model, making it easy to tap into new revenue streams.

TD Synnex and Ingram Micro integrations: Simplifying how resellers introduce and manage products

We are excited to announce that we’re developing seamless, out-of-the-box integrations with top distributors like TD Synnex and Ingram Micro. These integrations will empower resellers to effortlessly access extensive distributor catalogs featuring hundreds of thousands of third-party SKUs. With this robust selection, resellers can offer their customers an unmatched range of technology products to meet every need.

“When it comes to building your commerce stack, the AppDirect platform simplifies how resellers introduce and manage products. Soon, you'll be able to offer virtually any product with just a few clicks, thanks to our upcoming integration with top distributors like TD Synnex and Ingram Micro. This means resellers can quickly expand their marketplace catalog, enhance customer relationships, and increase retention and lifetime value—all while scaling their business efficiently.”—Peush Patel, VP Product Management, AppDirect

Creating a personalized experience for users

To build an optimal customer experience, companies must seamlessly integrate key components of their B2B marketplace, such as billing, payments, identity and access management, and data management. AppDirect’s latest updates enhance the platform’s digital hub capabilities, enabling more unified and personalized interactions.

AppDirect platform customers can enable their IT department to curate the catalog, ensuring users only access vetted products. Even the login URL is personalized, showcasing the user's company name and logo for a tailored experience.

Channel-first: Helping advisors embrace the power of digital marketplaces 

AppDirect’s channel-first approach is built on a powerful referral and reseller platform that simplifies every aspect of selling and customer onboarding for partners. Recent updates help channel partners, including resellers and technology advisors, deepen their customer relationships and expand their indirect go-to-market strategy. With innovative tools designed to acquire new customers and scale operations, channel partners can now offer more streamlined, tailored marketplace experiences—driving growth and success.

• Builtfirst marketplace —Advisors and other partners can now create a custom storefront using AppDirect Platform to showcase their full catalog—curating products from AppDirect, your offerings, and other suppliers. Track everything from clicks to quotes. Watch the video for more!

• Advanced quoting—The AppDirect enhanced and optimized SaaS quoting experience makes it intuitive and easy for advisors to discover the right products, perform price inquiries, and efficiently generate quotes for customers

• Gen AI powered Quoting Assistant—Coming soon, this tool will seamlessly integrate with the marketplace data. It will be equipped to make API calls and create a quote, download a quote PDF, and send the quote to the end customer for approval based on the natural language. Stay tuned for more!

The number one digital subscription platform

The AppDirect platform now better supports each stage of the digital subscription journey.

• Inform and engage—The journey begins by informing users about available products, pricing, and capabilities. The AppDirect platform delivers clear product details, deals, and comparisons, helping users make informed choices.

• Purchase and provision—The platform supports seamless purchasing and provisioning, creating a streamlined start to the user experience.

• Manage and support—Throughout the subscription lifecycle, AppDirect manages invoicing, commission calculations, and recurring payments, ensuring smooth, automated billing and financial transactions.

• Grow and expand—As the journey progresses, users can upgrade subscriptions, add seats, and explore complementary products, increasing lifetime value and engagement.

For an in-depth look at how AppDirect is widening its distribution sources to give channel partners more flexibility transacting on its platform, check out the Channel Futures article, Ingram, TD Synnex Partnerships Propel AppDirect's Convergence Thesis, by James Anderson. 

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