Meet David Wiltshire, Founder and CEO at Retail Integration Platform: Patchworks

I started Patchworks in 2012 after noticing a few distinct issues in the ecommerce industry from my past experience running an agency. We were the first cloud middleware for integration globally.

Patchworks, first and foremost, is an ecommerce integration provider – which means we build seamless, reliable data connections between core business systems and software. It could be linking someone’s ecommerce platform to their warehouse management system (WMS), or helping them put in place different payment options to better satisfy their customers.

We’ve worked with hundreds of up-and-coming and established brands across the globe. That includes varied and inspiring companies such as Huel, Gymshark, Lounge Underwear, and Bluebella.

But it’s not just our clients we like to work closely with. Our mantra is connections matter, and that includes our software and agency partners, too. Part of the experience we offer to our clients is the enormous range of systems we can integrate, as well as our knowledge and expertise to help them pick the right partner for their needs.
 
 

 

What do you think makes this company unique?

 
It’s difficult to narrow down what makes our clients and partners flock to us instead of our competitors – and I’m not just saying that as the founder and CEO!

One major appeal, however, is our powerful integration platform. Our team of developers have poured their passion for tech and ecommerce into building and developing it, and it shows. Our platform is flexible and scalable, meaning no matter how big a client of ours gets, they’re always prepared for peak trading periods; just ask our client Lounge Underwear, who last year saw a record breaking Black Friday go off without a hitch, supported by our platform.

It’s easy for us to go on about Patchworks’ integration platform – but that would be doing the company a huge disservice. One of the unique things which draws people to Patchworks is that we’re more than just an iPaaS.

For example, we’ve recently released two exciting products. One of those is Patchworks BI, a business intelligence solution designed specifically with ecommerce in mind.

The other is called Stockr, a stock control service which unifies a company’s Shopify stores so that when items sell out in one, the website can draw from a single pool of stock to avoid overselling and underselling.

Outside of the tangible, unique products we offer, we’re also often praised for how we treat our clients and partners. Connections matter, so we always strive to give them the best experience possible; and our status as a remote company uniquely positions us to be able to provide technical support and advice round-the-clock.
 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 
It’s been an exciting decade. In fact, it’s hard to believe I started Patchworks a decade ago! We’ve expanded exponentially year on year, with various rounds of investments and a growing team of over 90 people.

Of course, like many companies working within the ecommerce industry, our journey has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to 2020, Patchworks worked out of an office in my hometown of Nottingham, with no remote staff.

But the pandemic changed our way of thinking. The wellbeing of our staff and upholding a positive culture has always been a top priority for the business, so the only sensible decision was to shut our physical offices and let our staff work from home.

It’s been a roaring success. It dawned on me that, working in an industry which is fundamentally online and digital, making our company remote was a natural evolution. We’ve been able to employ people from all over the world, and with Gresham House Ventures investing £3.3m into the business last year, we’re continuing to dedicate ourselves to building innovative and powerful products whilst promoting a flexible and inclusive work culture.
 

What can we hope to see from Patchworks in the future?

 
We’ve got a lot in the pipeline, from new products to new approaches to the way we support clients and partners.

One of those approaches is to expand our headless offering by becoming a MACH enabler.

In case you’re not familiar, that means microservices based, API-first, cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. In other words, it’s a way of doing ecommerce which focuses on best-of-breed and composable commerce, allowing our clients to have flexibility and a wider, more personalised selection of software and apps to integrate with their platform.

We’re also looking to rapidly expand our self-serve integration platform, providing companies with even more low-code/no-code integrations for them to quickly connect to their business.