About TechForMerchant

A passion for technology, a conviction about Europe.

TechForMerchant was born from a simple idea: it should be easier to choose a technology solution in Europe without spending hours comparing dozens of websites, product sheets and contradictory reviews.

At the origin of the project, there is Camille

For a long time, Camille Potvin has followed with passion the evolution of SaaS software, artificial intelligence and new digital habits. Over the years, one observation became unavoidable: the most visible tools are not necessarily the most relevant. Search engines put forward the players with the biggest marketing budgets. Traditional comparators often favour the solutions that pay them. And vendors naturally present their products in their best light.

So how do you make a truly informed decision? That question gave birth to TechForMerchant, published by ByCM Management SRL, a communication company based in Namur, Belgium, under the editorial responsibility of Camille Potvin.

Comparing differently, with artificial intelligence

Camille wanted to build a different kind of comparator: a site able to follow the market continuously, analyse the available information and compare solutions with a common methodology. Artificial intelligence is at the heart of this approach. Claude, the model developed by Anthropic, follows vendor news, analyses public information, cross-checks sources, identifies new solutions and updates the comparisons every month.

The goal is not to ask an AI to choose in the user's place. The goal is to give it the role of an analyst: collect, structure, compare and bring out the differences that matter between solutions. Every solution is studied against comparable criteria: features, positioning, use cases, integrations, business model, target audience, geographic footprint, company maturity and recent product changes. This approach limits, as far as possible, the biases linked to popularity, marketing or the size of a vendor.

A method built to compare, not to sell

TechForMerchant rests on one essential principle: a solution should not rank higher simply because it has a bigger marketing budget. The ranking follows a common rubric, published in the methodology. We try to distinguish clearly:

• a solution's fame from its real relevance;
• its marketing narrative from its concrete features;
• its age from its level of innovation;
• its presence in search results from its value for the user;
• market trends from the real needs of professionals.

AI helps us process a large amount of information, but it does not replace the transparency of the method. Our ambition is to make the comparison criteria understandable, reproducible and useful.

Why we focus on the European Union

Camille is convinced of one thing: Europe has an exceptionally rich technology ecosystem that is still under-represented in online comparisons. Innovative vendors emerge in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and everywhere else. Yet when a professional looks for reservation software, a payment solution, a point of sale, a loyalty system or an AI-based tool, the results put forward the best-known international players. Visibility does not mean relevance.

TechForMerchant wants to help people discover European tech. We search for, analyse and compare only solutions headquartered in the European Union, so that professionals can discover alternatives that are sometimes less known but particularly suited to their needs: their fiscal and labour rules are already built in, their data stays under European law, and support speaks their language. By European we mean the European Union in the strict sense: registered seat and operational headquarters in one of the 27 member states. Companies from the United Kingdom, Switzerland or Norway are not listed, however close they are to the market. And there is a wider stake: the European project is strengthened when Europe's merchants encourage the EU market and buy from it.

Technology in the service of better decisions

The project is aimed at shop owners, restaurateurs and professionals who have to choose technology tools without a team dedicated to digital watch. Choosing a solution quickly becomes complex: understanding the features, comparing prices, checking integrations, assessing a vendor's maturity, looking at recent changes and deciding whether a technology really solves the problem at hand. TechForMerchant seeks to turn that complexity into usable information.

Continuous watch over a market that changes fast

A feature appears. A company is acquired. A new competitor arrives. Prices change. One solution drops a product. Another launches an AI feature. A comparison that is relevant today can be inaccurate tomorrow. That is why TechForMerchant works as a continuous watch system: the AI detects changes and follows the news of the companies studied, the affected pages are regenerated, and the whole market is re-read every month to add new solutions. Our goal is not only to publish comparisons but to build a living knowledge base on the technology used by shops and restaurants in Europe.

AI as a tool, independence as a principle

Artificial intelligence is a formidable tool for exploring a market this large and this dynamic. But it is not an automatic guarantee of impartiality: it can reproduce the biases present in the information it analyses. That is why our approach also rests on an explicit methodology, common criteria and a determination to separate facts, vendor statements and our own analysis. AI lets us process more information; the method gives it meaning; a person answers for what is published.

No vendor pays to be listed or moved up.

Our role: giving visibility to the solutions that deserve it

TechForMerchant does not set out to decide which technology is "the best" in absolute terms. There is no best software for everyone: the best solution depends on the context, the sector, the size of the business, operational needs, budget, the tools already in use and the goals pursued. Our role is to bring enough information and context for everyone to make a better decision. Innovation should not be reserved for the companies that are best at getting noticed; that is why we give particular room to emerging solutions and to technologies that deserve to be discovered.

A story that is only beginning

What started with Camille's curiosity for new technologies has become a wider ambition: to build a European comparator able to follow innovation instead of merely following popularity. Every new piece of software, every young technology company and every relevant innovation can bring a new answer to the problems of professionals. Our work is to find them, understand them, compare them and make them visible. Because European technology deserves to be better known. And because choosing your tech should start with understanding your options, not with clicking the first result.

TechForMerchant. Compare. Understand. Choose. A new way to discover European tech. Publisher details are in the legal notice.