You’re rebranding Office Power to Power Marketplace. Why now, and what does this evolution represent?
Richard Sinclair: The Office Power brand served us brilliantly for many years, but it was created at a time when we were primarily supporting office products resellers in the B2B supplies sector. The reality now is that reseller communities don’t neatly fit into a single vertical.
End customers buy everything from hygiene products to tech accessories to snacks. They expect depth, range and reliability, and they don’t care which supplier it comes from as long as it’s seamless.
Power Marketplace reflects our identity: a two-sided platform where suppliers and resellers meet, trade and grow. We’re not constrained by category. We’re not a static directory. We’re a fully managed marketplace designed to help both sides thrive operationally and commercially.
There are other marketplaces out there; some are cheaper, some have wider product ranges. What makes Power Marketplace different?
Mark Heath: The biggest misconception in our industry is that “marketplace” means simply putting catalogues online and letting people fend for themselves. That’s not who we are. The most significant pain points for suppliers and resellers have always been operational friction: PIM and data quality, price management at both cost and sell levels, handling customer service, stock accuracy, product attribution and maintaining coherent merchandising.
We remove all of that. Our operations team manages the entire workflow end-to-end. Suppliers can focus on fulfilment and product quality and resellers can focus on selling. That’s what makes Power Marketplace different: it’s a full-service, data-led ecosystem, not a simple listing platform.
That sounds more like a buying group meets a tech platform. Is that fair?
RS: It’s far more than that. Traditional buying groups were built for an era of fixed price lists and manual rebates. They relied almost entirely on negotiation power. Today’s market needs something different. We combine technology, operational scale, supplier depth, live pricing, commercial intelligence, professionally merchandised content, data-led segmentation and centrally funded marketing. We also streamline the commercial engine behind it, including trade credit and financial flows, so transactions run smoothly regardless of the reseller model.
We don’t just offer resellers better prices – we help them convert the sale. And we don’t simply give suppliers access to thousands of dealers – we help them serve those customers efficiently and at scale. We often talk about creating a “happy family”: a community where suppliers and resellers genuinely benefit from each other’s success.
Let’s talk about suppliers. What exactly do you offer them?
MH: For suppliers entering a reseller ecosystem, the real challenge isn’t just the demand – it’s operations. Every reseller has different pricing terms, ordering preferences, customer expectations, catalogue structures, credit arrangements and shipping rules. Managing a handful of those is a challenge; managing tens of thousands of end customers is unrealistic for most, unless you’re Amazon.
Power Marketplace changes that. Suppliers gain a centralised operational team, automated order flow, credit and payment compliance, returns management and clear visibility over volume trends. Their role becomes simple: deliver and fulfil. We handle everything else. The benefit flows both ways: because operations are standardised and professionally managed, resellers receive enterprise-level service regardless of the supplier’s size.
And for resellers, how does this help them compete?
RS: Big players like Amazon, Staples and Viking don’t win because their products are superior. They win because they eliminate friction for buyers. Power Marketplace gives independents the same capability by offering automated buying processes, an integrated supplier network, low fees,
large-scale EDI connectivity, unified customer service, reliable fulfilment and strong negotiated terms.
This allows resellers to expand into new verticals – whether hygiene, medical, catering or beyond – without operational overwhelm. There’s no lengthy onboarding, no supplier chasing, no renegotiation. They plug in and go.
Diversification is now essential, and the businesses that succeed will be those that deliver range, reliability and repeatable buying experiences.
You mention merchandising and segmentation. Why are these important?
MH: In a digital-first market, the way products are presented matters more than the catalogue size. You can list hundreds of thousands of products, but without strong photography, clear descriptions, complete attributes, easy filtering and correct pricing, they simply won’t convert.
That’s why we fully merchandise and enrich every supplier catalogue, ensuring content is accurate and ready to sell. Our segmentation models then surface the right products to the right customers at the right moment. It’s highly effective for seasonal cycles, tenders and sector campaigns.
A cleaning contractor doesn’t need office chairs; they need the consumables and compliance items relevant to their world. That’s the level of precision Power Marketplace delivers.
How does this compare to other software platforms?
RS: Software alone doesn’t solve commercial or operational challenges. Other tech platforms help businesses run their operations, but they don’t actively grow them. Power Marketplace is different because it includes a service model, a managed growth engine.
Instead of just providing a storefront, we provide access to supply, pricing leverage, merchandising, marketing campaigns, customer service and fulfilment orchestration. Resellers who join us aren’t asking which plug-in they need. They’re asking what they can sell, who will buy it and how they can scale. We answer those questions.
You launched this new vision at the Dealer EYE event in Coventry. How was it received?
MH: The reaction was remarkable. For the first time, suppliers and resellers saw themselves not as opposing forces but as part of the same ecosystem. Many suppliers told us that if we could remove the operational burden, they would confidently expand their ranges. Resellers said that without the admin of managing multiple suppliers, especially the complexity of split baskets as the industry moves away from a single-wholesaler model, they could finally diversify into new verticals. That sense of shared ambition is the core of Power Marketplace.
Your final message for businesses considering joining Power Marketplace?
RS: If you’re a reseller looking for stability, range and margin, without becoming an operations centre, you should join us. Suppose you’re a supplier with brilliant products but limited bandwidth and tight margins. In that case, we can help you scale without needing a large customer service team or paying the high fees associated with platforms like Amazon.
This industry is changing rapidly. Amazon isn’t your competitor because it’s cheaper; it’s your competitor because it’s frictionless. Power Marketplace brings that same frictionless experience to independents. This isn’t the old model reinvented, it’s a new model entirely.
