Commonsku, a cloud-based CRM, order management and social collaboration platform for the promotional products industry, announced this week that its customers have collectively surpassed $750 million in annualized sales.

“We have seen steady growth for some time, but the surge we see now is a response to the vastly improved buyer experience at every touchpoint in the supply chain,” said Catherine Graham, commonsku’s co-founder and CEO. “Whether the experience is from a supplier, distributor or end-buyer, everyone wants a streamlined workflow.”

Commonsku’s Chief Platform Officer Mark Graham and CEO Catherine Graham

Commonsku principals said that new features such as Shops, the platform’s approach to the company store market, and the integration of ePOs through PromoStandards, have helped drive success. “The new developments are certainly playing a role in growing our distributors’ sales and in overall growth,” said Graham, “but it’s the end-to-end workflow experience where we’re finding the strongest response.”

Mark Graham, commonsku’s co-founder and chief platform officer, cited “new market forces” as helping to shape the growth with the help of commonsku. “The modern buyer wants silent systems that expedite the buying process without friction, and if they don’t experience speed and simplicity, they are moving on,” he said. “More and more distributors understand they need to invest in connected systems so they can wow clients and free their time to sell more.”

Commonsku began as a software the Grahams and their team developed to power RIGHTSLEEVE (asi/308922), a Toronto-based distributorship that Mark Graham founded. The Grahams recently sold RIGHTSLEEVE to Top 40 distributor Genumark (asi/204588) so that they could focus efforts on commonsku. Mark and Catherine Graham once again appear on this year’s Power 50, a definitive ranking of the most influential people in the promotional products industry.