Workflow Labs, a Seattle startup that helps Amazon sellers, recently raised a $1.3 million seed round.
Founded last year by e-commerce veteran Justin Leigh, Workflow acts as an e-commerce assistant for online retailers selling on Amazon, monitoring product descriptions and automating parts of the listing and billing processes.
Leigh, a former product manager at Amazon, said sellers often lack the necessary teams and resources for effectively managing their daily tasks on Amazon.
Workflow, which rolled out its public platform in October, has about 50 customers and plans to expand to other e-commerce platforms. It currently works with Amazon Vendor and Seller Central accounts.
The company has grown revenue 300% year-over-year.
“We started with a team that has the deepest understanding of how Amazon’s catalog, merchandising and supply chain systems work,” Leigh told GeekWire. “We then used process mining to understand what actions need to be done in order to manage those systems on behalf of brands. The result is a software platform that provides brands an ‘easy button’ to all the most challenging aspects of dealing with Amazon.”
The 8-person startup is among a flock of companies that exist to help sellers reach customers and manage operations on Amazon and other major platforms. Other Seattle-based startups in this area include InsightLeap, Stackline, Downstream, Gradient, and SoundCommerce — all of which were founded by former Amazon employees.
Leigh said primary competition comes from customers sticking with the “old way of doing it,” using either in-house or outsourced labor to upkeep their Amazon stores. He said it can be “very challenging for anyone to be an expert on all Amazon task types.”
Amazon has been expanding services and products for third-party merchants in recent years. Revenue from third-party seller services was up 18% to $32.3 billion in the second quarter. Third-party sellers accounted for 60% of units sold for Amazon in Q2, a new record.
Leigh previously founded Ideoclick, which also built a business around assisting sellers on Amazon. He led the Seattle company until stepping down as CEO in 2021.
Ideoclick went into receivership last year and had its assets swooped up by CommerceIQ, a Silicon Valley e-commerce company that helps retailers boost online sales on Amazon and Walmart.
Emerson Group, Flywheel Digital, Tapas Capital, and Tacoma Venture Fund participated in Workflow Labs’ seed funding round, as well as other individual backers. Total funding to date is $2.8 million.
