How Marcos Brisson and Benoît Van Keer Are Disrupting the E-Commerce Industry

The rapid acceleration of e-commerce technology brings many exciting new opportunities to startups and businesses. Still, many small businesses continue to encounter hidden challenges that impact their growth potential. Back-end operations are just one of the essential things new companies must consider when launching and expanding.

Missing tools and lack of foresight can turn online selling into an inventory management nightmare of conflicting spreadsheets and software solutions. Entrepreneurs lose valuable time trying to input a massive amount of data manually. Even with error-free execution, an unoptimized inventory management system can weigh a small business down because, on average, inventory is the second most significant expense after payroll.

Another critical problem is that as demand scales, operations must evolve to be more efficient, and this is where manual data entry and spreadsheets break. This gets exponentially worse when a business sells across multiple sales channels, as they need to reconcile those orders and stay on top of production and raw material inventory. On top of this, these businesses are also making their own products. It’s a lot to handle, which is why inventory management falls through the cracks when done manually. 

Two young entrepreneurs, Marcos Brisson and Benoît Van Keer, co-founded Kaizntree, an AI-powered startup focused on providing operating software designed to help small business owners manage their inventories and scale their product businesses efficiently to solve these problems. Recognizing that the status quo was overdue for an overhaul, Brisson and Van Keer knew that people who manufacture their own products and sell online needed a system to keep up with the rest of their e-commerce infrastructure without wasting their valuable time. A business owner’s average number of sales channels has increased significantly in the last ten years, and no system has kept up with that.

Hitting E-Commerce in the E-Chilles Heel: An Operational Dilemma

The expansion of e-commerce has created new opportunities for businesses of all sizes. However, beneath the surface of this digital gold rush lies a significant operational challenge: inventory management.

Brisson and Van Keer first noticed this problem at NYU Shanghai in 2019 while collaborating on consulting work for small business owners and entrepreneurs who manufactured products. They examined the day-to-day struggles of small business owners in the e-commerce space, and the infrastructure problems were undeniable.

They noted that many small e-commerce companies struggled with the many different spreadsheets, software, and manual processes needed to manage their businesses. Because these processes are fragmented, they can lead to inefficiencies, inaccuracies, and, at the end of the month, lost revenue. More importantly, they saw that running out of stock, having too much stock, and having delayed shipments hinder growth and impact customer sentiment.

Ultimately, what happens is that a business will experience a rapid increase in demand and then be unable to fulfill that demand because it becomes fully focused on sales and loses sight of inventory management. As a solo entrepreneur, it is hard to keep all the plates spinning, and so Kaizntree has its back when it comes to knowing when to make more products or reorder things. 

Creating a Solution to the Organizational Problems of Today and Tomorrow

Brisson and Van Keer noted that this scattered inventory information made it difficult for business owners to make informed production, purchasing, and pricing decisions, often leading to entrepreneurs rolling the dice on costly choices that needed to be made without the surety of trusted data. This uncertainty hinders the growth of a business, increasing its risk of failing because it’s making decisions based on a flawed picture of its operations.

Both entrepreneurs in their own rights — Brisson and Van Keer co-founded Kaizntree as an inventory management solution. This software soon became the world’s first operating system to help small business owners manage everything from sales to manufacturing and raw materials on one cohesive platform.

Saying Goodbye to E-Commerce Inventory Troubles with Kaizntree

Kaizntree’s standout features are its automation and integration, which are invaluable for startups and small businesses. It eliminates the need for manual data entry by seamlessly connecting with almost every e-commerce platform and accounting software. It also does the difficult job of refining data to a single source, providing business owners with real-time visibility into their entire operation.

This automation also comes with AI-powered insights and advanced analytics that take all this organized data and help to interpret it quickly. These intelligent algorithms analyze historical sales data, market trends, and current inventory levels to provide actionable recommendations. Business owners can decide when to restock and how much to order. This predictive capability transforms inventory management from a reactive to a proactive process.

The agile responsiveness this allows is a real asset to any e-commerce brand, and staying ahead of the game saves valuable time. Kaizntree’s users report reclaiming an average of 25 hours per month that were previously lost to inventory management tasks. More importantly, they no longer get gray hairs from inventory management problems. This presents a fundamental shift for entrepreneurs who are used to inventory management being a dull and time-consuming process. Those recovered hours can be reinvested into strategic planning, customer engagement, or product development—activities that directly contribute to business growth.

Van Keer and Brisson designed Kaizntree to actively prevent stockouts through its predictive capabilities. These capabilities can forecast demand and alert business owners to potential stock shortages before they occur. This proactive approach has helped businesses using Kaizntree completely eliminate stockouts, directly translating to increased sales and improved customer satisfaction.

Kazintree has specialized tools for businesses in specialized sectors; for example, companies dealing with organic products will find that the platform automates the tracking and management of documentation required for organic certification audits. This feature saves time and reduces the stress and potential for errors in maintaining compliance, allowing business owners to expand confidently into regulated markets without fear of documentation missteps.

Preparing for the Scaling Needs of Future E-Commerce

The future of online sales will continue to evolve. Kaizntree is also ready for further improvement. Having won prestigious competitions like the NYU x Yale Pitch-off and the NYU Startup Demo Day, along with the backing of 500 Global, Kaizntree is poised for significant growth.

With this groundbreaking tool, Marcos Brisson and Benoît Van Keer aim to provide the exact kind of disruption that every industry needs from time to time. They aim to empower small business owners worldwide, providing them the tools to manage their operations more effectively. 

As e-commerce continues to evolve, solutions like Kaizntree will play a crucial role in leveling the playing field, allowing small businesses to compete more effectively with larger corporations and reach their full potential.