Successfully building a global brand requires finding the perfect match (distributor) in every country or region where you intend to do business. This can be a daunting and tedious task because, unlike the front end of the beauty business, the back end of the industry has been largely untouched by technology. The global distribution network is a little old school and best navigated through a lot of research, networking, trade shows, and referrals. This process can be time consuming, expensive, and certainly not efficient.

Distribution and building a global beauty brand is about to get a whole lot easier. Dennis Buis and Simon Hurst had the same idea at the same time—the competitors decided to join forces and launched Pandda, a digital platform that connects beauty brands with distributors around the globe.

As trade shows and conferences have all been canceled or postponed until the second half of the year, the launch of the Pandda platform couldn’t come at a better time. Distributors can sign up for free and brands get a 10% discount—just tell them “BeautyMatter” sent you.

You launched a similar digital platform called Cosmatch in 2017. How did you and Simon come to merge your companies and launch Pandda?

That’s kind of a funny story: I was informed by a business partner about Simon, who had the same idea at the very same moment. Simon had founded a platform named Which Distributor, which, in general was similar to Cosmatch. The only difference was that Cosmatch was limited to the health & beauty industry, whereas Which Distributor was covering multiple industries. I reached out to Simon, after which we had some interesting conversations. Even though we were fishing in the same pond, we clicked immediately. When we met, we raised the idea to develop a platform together to combine both our know-how, take the best practices and everything we had both learned from our previous platforms. From this moment, Pandda was born.

Traditionally the matching of brands and distributors happens by reputation, referral, or trade shows. How does Pandda fit into that ecosystem and what are the benefits of using the platform?

Nowadays, we think that the traditional trade show has an important social aspect. Many brands use trade shows as an occasion to meet with existing distributors to evaluate their progress, to present their novelties, and to discuss plans. It is much more efficient for brands to meet with their partners in one central spot, rather than traveling around the world visiting each and every distribution partner individually. Distributors get many impressions during trade shows due to the overload of products displayed. This might distract them, making it difficult to distinguish what is interesting and what is not. We have been there ourselves. Example: as an exhibitor, we had collected 250 leads during 4 days. The majority were very much interested in our brand. After extensive follow-up, we finally started a partnership with one distributor which didn’t even cover the expenses for the trade show participation. This is not a self-contained example. Pandda can be used at any time and only suggests matches based on criteria of interest which have been provided by both brand and distributor.

What is the vetting process for a distributor to be listed on the Pandda platform?

First of all, distributors can sign up FOR FREE to Pandda. Signing up is very easy, due to our “Quick Sign Up” option. Once the Quick Sign Up has been completed, distributors (as well as brands) receive a login which enables them to complete all the compulsory fields. The more information, the better the chance to find a “perfect match.” We have our team of account managers ready to assist any company that is signing up. Our account managers can help those companies through the full sign-up process. Of course, distributor profiles will be carefully checked and validated to ensure that our database remains qualitative and clean.

How many distributors do you currently have on the platform and how many do you ultimately expect to onboard?

We launched Pandda in March 2020 and we are currently filling our distributor database. Many of your members or followers might have received our mailing already. We possess a fresh active database of 10,000 + brands and distributors involved in beauty and personal care. These companies have attended at least one major trade show in 2019. Currently, more than 250 distributors have subscribed and this number is growing daily. So far, we have only received a small percentage of our database, so we expect that we may welcome many new companies in the upcoming weeks, especially as it is completely FREE of charge for distributors to register—it’s a no-brainer! As soon as we have reached a “critical mass” (with a satisfactory geographical spread), we will open up for brands as well. This is likely to happen by the end of April.

You describe Pandda as the only AI automated smart platform matching brands and distributors globally. How does it work exactly?

Pandda is a smart solution connecting the right brands with the right distributors for the maximum outcome based on matching criteria.

Our AI-based system collects information from both user groups and, based on the combination of match data (such as industry, sub-categories, target territories, retail or professional or both, exclusive or non-exclusive, the minimum capital investment required, e-commerce presence, marketing spend and so on …), generates suggested matches that meet the right credentials and allows both parties to enter a matching process.

Due to data protection, brands can only view limited information about the distributor and their existing product portfolio at the first milestone, “suggested match.”

Once both parties agree to a “match,” they can view each other’s full profiles showing their full company and personal details, portfolio and other data, and a conversation leading to a business partnership begins.

As the platform user base grows and we open up to new industry verticals, the system will continue to learn, and the matches across industries will become even more accurate.

Indie beauty brands have exploded. Do brands need to be fairly established to benefit from Pandda or is it also suited for indie brands?

Pandda is very much suited for indie beauty brands! There are many innovative indie beauty brands nowadays that have a wonderful product with great potential and ambitions but lack the connections or budgets to attend trade shows. Pandda will be a massive lifeline to these companies as unlike trade shows there are no huge upfront costs. Usually, the more established brands have less difficulties finding distribution partners since they have a proven track record and are being approached by local distributors frequently. However, also the more established brands are kindly invited to sign up, since we might help them find distribution partners in markets where they are not yet represented.

What trends are you seeing among global distributors?

Whilst the larger global brands will always claim their position in the personal care and cosmetic industry, many are pivoting towards technology. There is an industry-wide push towards customized beauty products and experiences—technology-backed cosmetics brands continue to transform the sector.

We are also seeing the rise of many small- to medium-sized niche and indie brands; this is a fast-growing product category. They are becoming a “must have” with retailers and professionals and are influencing key trends in markets across the globe.

What can we expect next from Pandda?

Since we have just launched, there is still a lot to expect from Pandda! As founders of Pandda, with a combined 30+ years’ experience in the health & beauty industry, we understand the pain point for both brands and distributors. For this reason we have opened this industry as our first vertical. Once this business unit is up and running, we intend to open more verticals. It is not without a reason that it is our mission to match brands and distributors across industries globally. It is our aim to be the leading virtual global trade show platform across industries helping brands and distributors grow their businesses globally. Scaling up requires considerable investment, therefore we are currently raising investment and keen to connect with the right potential investors in the beauty tech industry.