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Blockchain has the potential to fundamentally change the way organizations communicate and do business. 🤯

In the retail sector, blockchain is finding a lot of applications: from revolutionising loyalty programmes and digitising product warranties to potentially allowing for the development of peer-to-peer marketplaces that could compete with the likes of eBay or Airbnb. 

So, concretely, this technology can:

• Digitise your supply chain

• Accelerate and improve contract management

• Minimise paperwork and administrative activities

• Make provenance of products transparent

• Reduce compliance cost

• Automate all controls, reporting and payments involved

Can blockchain technology enable all this? Is it possible to empower your sales, increase sales velocity and at the same time increase compliance through contract automation? 

The short answer is YES. And “smart legal contracts” are a key part of the solution to this problem. 

But first things first, let’s explain how this works

Ok, now what is a smart contract?

A smart legal contract is a legally binding contract in which some or all of the contractual obligations are defined in and/or performed automatically by a computer program. Smart legal contracts are frequently (although they need not be) deployed on a distributed ledger. Smart contracts, including smart legal contracts, tend to follow a conditional logic with specific and objective inputs: if “X” occurs, then execute step “Y”.

Law Commission

As explained by The Law Commission, the terms of the legal contract (e.g. for the shipping of products from A to B) are reduced to their simplest form, typically based on a formula of “if X happens, then do Y”.

For example, “If the products are delivered by X date, then pay the supplier £Y without penalty”. 

This simple formula is then translated into computer code and stored on the blockchain. The blockchain will be updated as the products are delivered and accepted and payments will be made automatically, based on the performance of these contractual triggers.

To discover more advantages of smart contracts for sales, Read this article!

Now that the contract and a record of all the actions performed by the parties have an immutable copy on the blockchain, there’s not much space left for disputes about a task being performed before or after a date or the contract terms. There is no need to say what a great advantage this is for your company. 🥳

So now you know how a smart contract works. Great. Now what happens?

Well, to achieve all the real advantages you have to use a smart legal contract management platform. This means that the whole process, from the template drafting up to the signing (and why not, even the contract renewal), is covered end to end. All without writing one single line of code. 😎

Let me clarify!

A smart contract by itself is nothing more than a program, but thanks to Trakti, a smart legal contract management platform, all of your legal contracts are united with the functionalities of a smart contract. The legal prose is connected to the smart contract that implements a specific logic after the legal contract has been negotiated and signed. All necessary steps are laid down, followed and tracked by the platform.

Basically, we take your contracts, make them “smart”, and ensure they are legally binding and compliant.

This way the process is seamless, connected, experience-focused, and provides a single version of the truth for both parties to share.

The peer-to-peer implementation of the platform makes sure that changes will only be committed if all contracting parties agree to them. Thus, leading to streamlined agreements and a way to empower your sales through compliance and automation of contracts. 

In addition, all templates used on the platform are compliant by design. This is due to the fact that a template can only be published and made accessible to everyone after it has received authorization by the legal team.

Imagine how nice it would be to have all your contracts ready to use and nearly fully automated, so you can dedicate your time to what’s really important: taking care of your customers.

Now that you know what smart contracts and a management platform can do for your sales, how about having a look at the platform? ( Hey, it’s free to start! 🤫 )

Discover what Trakti can do for your retail business!

Contact us now to discover what smart contracts can do for you!