Does anyone have experience adding wholesale to a DTC model

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November 08, 2022

by a searcher from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in St. Petersburg, FL, USA

This might be off-topic for this website but at the moment I am working with a company that currently on sells only direct to the customer but is growing to the point where others are asking about being distributors for us. One problem we face is that a significant portion of the orders are custom-made and require interaction with the customer to get exact dimensions. Any guidance and this transition would be appreciated.

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Reply by a searcher
in Winston-Salem, NC, USA
Are they asking to be distributors for the custom-made portion of the orders? Or do they want you to make a new category that could be one size that would work for a typical distribution model? And could you do that without cheapening the value of the custom made products which sound like might be your biggest revenue stream?

Or if you think the extra marketing bandwith of having partners to sell your whole line would grow your margins, you could offer a drop ship model. If there is human to human interaction with customers to get the right dimensions, is there a way that could be systemitized where a customer can understand how to measure and input dimensions when they place an order?
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Reply by a searcher
from Missouri University of Science and Technology in Perth WA, Australia
The engineer in me tells me that it depends on the information you're getting from your direct interactions. If it's dimensions to account for materials, that's one thing that you could almost factor in to pricing. (I build a tool and it's estimated accuracy is 5-15%....modify pricing and material needs to account for this and offset losses with growth).

.But if it's something more intricate like specific angle of connections or bolt pattern arrangements to support welding or connection designs....that may be harder to build in, and could possibly be done with an online configurator to support a CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) tool.
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