Core dna’s Partner Philosophy: Built to Support Agency Growth

It’s reasonable to think that the partnership between eCommerce software vendors and their partners would be based on mutual benefit, growth, freedom, and of course, the prosperity of the end client; the retailer.

Reasonable — but wrong.

Don’t believe us? Read on.

Shopify’s brazen partner restrictions

Shopify recently released some amendment to their partner terms of use and partner program. One of those amendments reads as follows:

"We now restrict partners from soliciting merchants to leave the Shopify platform. In exchange for being a member of our partner ecosystem and having access to Shopify merchants, we require that our partners don’t actively encourage our merchants to leave the Shopify platform."

At Core dna, we don’t believe in restricting what our partners say or do. We do believe in providing our clients with the best available tools to help them sustain and grow their businesses.

The software vendors gain revenue and prestige from their clients, while the clients gain access to powerful software that can help them build their business. With that in mind, it should be in the eCommerce software vendor's interest to facilitate growth for their partners.

In contrast to Shopify’s restrictions, we wanted to give our partners and clients a behind-the-scenes look at the three pillars that support the Core dna Partner Terms of Use.

Pillar 1: Empowerment

Here at Core dna, we believe that our customers should have the power to use our tools — as well as the power to choose not to — in order to make the best decisions for their businesses. After all, no one knows your business better than you do.

Our primary mission is to make sure that Core dna technology is a help to our client’s goals, not a hindrance. Our team of developers roll out over 1,200 updates every year, which is around 25 per week, to ensure that our technology is reliable, and in line with our partner's ever-changing requirements and fancies.

For instance, it’s common for agencies to rely on third-party tools and technology when developing a new project, and it’s not rare for an agency to draft in competing for software to totally fulfil the client’s demands. Rather than hinder these actions, we actively help our partners with their third-party integration needs. Indeed, Core dna already integrates with a host of CRM, ERP, and analytics tools, and can be integrated with any other tool on the market.

But our partner support doesn’t end there.

Although out-of-the-box software works in the majority of cases, some projects require bespoke solutions that you can’t grab off the shelf. Core dna works with clients to provide solutions outside of those found in traditional settings. Rather than treat the vendor/client relationship as a one-time transaction, Core dna works with clients to find the solutions they need, even if those solutions are somewhat unconventional.

Pillar 2: Stability

A major part of maintaining any relationship, be it business or personal, lies in keeping the avenues of communication open.

At Core dna, a vital component of our mission is to keep those avenues open to our agency partners. Our clients have 24/7 access to a wealth of resources, including telephone support, email communication, and live chat through our website. Not only do these lines of communication help our clients solve their short-term problems, but they also help to develop long-term relationships.

However, even the most stable and open relationships can encounter some turbulence along the way. Software compatibility, hardware issues, and network problems often come with the territory when dealing with technology. With more than 15 years of experience in the online commerce arena, Core dna has the stability and the reputation to ensure that our customers won’t be left in the lurch when problems do occur.

Many of these problems can be resolved fairly quickly, thanks to the frequency at which we already update Core dna’s product family. Our development team applies the “agile delivery” approach, which breaks down each update into an incremental and iterative process. This approach saves time, as the need for the “waterfall” approach for larger updates is eliminated. This mindset also lets Core dna work faster on smaller projects, rather than eating the entire cake in one bite, as the old saying goes (okay, okay, we just made that up!).

This incremental approach also lets Core dna get our products to market much faster. Our focus is on accelerating projects that result in actual, useful applications, not just buzzwords in a brochure or “vapourware” that will take months or years to be of use. Today, Core dna has 6 products, amde up of over 80 applications that are ready to use out-of-the-box. No plugins or additional development necessary.

Pillar 3: Competitive advantage

We realize that Core dna isn't the market leader in every area (at least not yet), and so don’t impose our family of products on our partners and their clients. Our terms promote a best-of-breed approach, allowing our agency partners to mix and match the best technologies on the market—all of which can integrate with Core dna—to build a technology stack that’s perfectly tailored to each project. Naturally, this leads to our partners having a significant competitive advantage over their competitors.

Another advantage can be found in how Core dna can deliver more functionality, faster results, and all for fixed monthly costs. While fees for platforms such as Shopify can vary from month to month, Core dna offers a fixed monthly fee. This allows our partners to know their numbers every step of the way, so they can accurately allocate cash to other parts of their company as needed.

Finally, with no third-party plugins and a simplified delivery method, Core dna also helps to keep costs down, and surprises at a minimum. We know what our partners expect from us, and what their clients expect from them, so we strive to deliver on those expectations.

An open invitation

Frankly, we would consider ourselves unreasonable and unprofessional to influence and dictate what our partners can and cannot do when it comes to technology choices.

All we can do is continuously strive to provide the best eCommerce software on the market. If there is a solution that's better in a certain set of situations, it's imperative that a Core dna partner can select the right platform for the right problem for their client.

If we attempt to tie their hands, we’re only hurting our partner and the client. And who knows, maybe one day Core dna will be the right fit again, and then we can welcome them back without the embarrassment that would come as a result of us imposing our technology on them.

For agency partners who are struggling under Shopify’s restrictions, we invite you to contact us today to experience first-hand how we work, and how we’re helping global retailers and manufacturers dominate their respective industries.