TradeGecko, a cloud sales and inventory management tool, hopes to empower DIY creators

Fashion labels, like tech startups, have a valley of death. Once sales picks up, designers will have the unpleasant task of managing an ever burgeoning inventory and customer database. It saps their creativity, takes time away from what they do best, and could ultimately destroy the business.

To help designer-entrepreneurs like these, a trio of Kiwis has today launched TradeGecko, a cloud-based customer, sales and inventory management tool that aims to fill the gap between spreadsheets and enterprise tools like SAP, Netsuite, and SalesForce.

One of the founders, Carl Thompson, understands the challenges first-hand. He owned a fashion label called Crowded Elevator, which died under the weight of wholesaling demands.

“I couldn’t find a solution to pull it all together. Spreadsheets and manual data processing turned into an absolute nightmare,” he said.

TradeGecko is also designed for importers, distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturers. Users can do things like create invoices, consign orders, generate sales reports, and send shipping documentation.

In the near future, the service will feature integration with Shopify and Xero. E-commerce integration and sales analytics are coming soon.

TradeGecko generates revenue from a tiered subscription model. The most affordable plan, for startups, costs USD59 a month. The other tiers cost USD149, USD299, and USD599. All plans come with a 21-day, cancel-anytime trial.

The startup, which also counts brothers Bradley and Cameron Priest as co-founders, graduated from the hundred-day JFDI bootcamp in May this year. They received some seed investment from the incubator, and are now in the midst of closing their next round of funding.