00 Introduction

1INTRODUCTION

For the first time in human history, all aspects of manufacturing, marketing, selling, and distribution can be managed by small, intelligently organized teams employing the latest ecommerce toolkit. A product’s total journey from concept to unboxing can be imagined without limits, executed flawlessly. With no big box retailer or fee-gouging online marketplace to siphon off margins in the middle, every company now has the power to achieve true market control.

Businesses which don’t leverage ecommerce tools for brand independence will be subject to increasingly impossible distributor margins, and may find themselves unable to remain competitive or stay in business at all.

Lets explore the developing

case for why every manufacturer

and every brand needs to fight

the tide by re-orienting to direct

omni-channel sales, today.

The Upside The Downside

I N T H I S DO CU MEN T

Across every key metric, we are seeing a seismic shift in the way brands are running shop. The total digitization of conventional business practices, once an intimidating and expensive hurdle, has now become the do-or-die requirement for every brand, economy-wide.

The case for brands going direct has never been stronger

01

These businesses combined have contributed $2.17 trillion to the US economy, and represent a fifth of total manufacturing output worldwide. This powerful employee-to-output ratio clearly reflects the growing ability of smaller teams to produce more – and they’re only doing it with the help of advanced management systems and software.

Workflow

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses

98.5%of all US manufacturing firms have fewer than 500 employees.

75%of all US manufacturing firms have fewer than 20 employees.

Smaller, leaner firms are carrying more of the nation’s manufacturing.

T R A N S F O R M Y O U R W O R K F L O W :

By letting modern, fully-integrated ecommerce platforms automate key tasks in the planning and management of your inventory production, you’ll have more time and resources to invest in expanding the distribution of those products to the world.

Sophisticated automation empowers every team member to accomplish more.

2WORKFLOW

Inventory02

To manage this growing backlog, warehouses are launching a triple-digit

increase in digital technologies for inventory management and pick & pack. More than half of US manufacturers have already begun to employ efficiency-boosting inventory tools like OMS software and flexible mobile devices with voice-directed control.*

Goods that sit in warehouse awaiting external agents to market, sell, and distribute are quite literally “leaving money on the shelf.” This ties up manufacturing capital, and bogs down production. Forward thinking businesses aren’t waiting for distributors to pick up the slack.

At least $1.43 is held in US warehouses for every $1 sold.

Manufacturers are holding more inventory than ever in history, and the ability to warehouse goods is increasingly cost-effective.

Source: ScDigest

T R A N S F O R M Y O U R I N V E N T O R Y :

Achieve real-time visibility of the status of every product at every moment, then use this global view to drive planning, adjust pricing, and offer customers up-to-the-minute availability.

3INVENTORY

Stored in warehouse

Dollars sold

$1.43

$1.00

*Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce/National Association of Wholesale Distributors

Distribution03

T R A N S F O R M Y O U R D I S T R I B U T I O N :

While wholesale distributor revenue has grown by 55% over the past decade, the total amount of revenue that wholesalers have contributed to the US has “stalled” at $7.2 trillion dollars.*

What we are seeing here is a “catch-up” lag as inefficient, outdated wholesale

business practices are starting to take a noticeable hit from new direct sales

channels. The question for every business is, which side of this equation do you want to be on?

Slowing growth in wholesale revenue is not a red flag, it’s an opportunity.

TRIL

LIO

NS

2 0 0 7 2 0 1 7

8

Close the gap between manufacturing and wholesale profits by using an

integrated ecommerce platform to open direct sales to all available channels, including both B2B and B2C.

By using integrated ecommerce software to manage and facilitate all levels of the supply chain, you can offer a unified omnichannel brand experience while collecting all profits from your product’s entire journey.

4DISTRIBUTION

6

4

2

0

Marketing04

According to Internet Retailer, ecommerce software spending will double in the US by 2019. At the same time, the cost of implementing sophisticated digital marketing strategy has plummeted, opening up the field to top level manufacturers who previously couldn’t connect with customers directly.

The ubiquity of digital communication has led to stunning developments in the way all consumers find, research, and purchase products.

Source: Google

51%of smartphone users

have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on

their smartphone. Source: Social Media Examiner

92%of marketers say that

social media is important to their business.

Source: Statista

86%of consumers would like to receive promotional

emails from companies they do business with at least monthly, and 15% would like to get them daily.

T R A N S F O R M Y O U R M A R K E T I N G :

5MARKETING

Manufacturer-brands no longer need the marketing muscle of retailers or ad agencies to converse directly with all types of consumers about their products. This direct feedback loop will enable better product development, more nimble marketing, and the ability for every manufacturer to hone a finely sculpted brand identity in the minds of consumers.

1 Source: US Dept of Commerce Census Bureau

Sales05There were 38.5 billion global ecom-

merce transactions in 2015, an all-time high which still represents less than 8% of total retail sales figures. But this per-centage is climbing exponentially.

Ecommerce shipments are now approaching 4 trillion dollars per year. Wholesale business is a huge portion of this output, with ecommerce sales comprising 22 percent of the total sales of merchant wholesalers.*

While online business, both wholesale and retail, has experienced explosive growth, the trend is just beginning, with trillions yet to be untapped.

Online selling is becoming the dominant force in the world’s economy, but there’s still a tremendous amount of growth ahead.

T R A N S F O R M Y O U R S A L E S :

Brick and mortar and point-of-sale transactions can now seamlessly meld with online sales at the wholesale and retail level, all drawing upon the same live

inventory data.

Special price rules, volume discounts, subscriptions, and merchandising galore can be dialed in for every sale.

Payments can be processed through safe and easy transaction portals across banks and currencies.

Manufacturers can now manage it all from a single easy-to-use interface.

6SALES

<8%

22%

Retail Sales

Wholesale Sales

**Source: Panorama ERP report

*Source:SuperOffice

Customer service and marketing automation will rank highest among new tech spending for businesses in 2017. Cloud-based CRM is experiencing a major

expansion, with nearly 90% of businesses abandoning on-premise for SaaS models.* Manufacturers are leveraging the ability to use data from other channels to thoughtfully schedule and budget. However, only a minority have been able to satisfactorily get the most out of this sophisticated software so far, with 60% reporting that ERP has not yet delivered the advertised benefits.**

So, while adoption rates are skyrocketing, only a minority of businesses have yet to leverage the true power of data software integration.

ERP and CRM integration is on the rise.

DATA

T R A N S F O R M Y O U R D A T A :

Superior integration and laser precise data will be the fuel which powers next-level planning.

The right ecommerce platform makes maximizing this data effortless – and invisible – by connecting all operations to every elite backend system for leveraging information.

Data06

No longer the invisible producer behind the scenes, the modern manufacturer is leveraging digital tools to become a household name.

Tech, automotive, and apparel have led the way for manufacturer-owned brands. The complete market control exerted by Apple, Ford, or H&M goes beyond supply chain management to the level of intrinsic branding which is inextricable from product design and customer experience.

Manufacturers now have the power to create global brands which generate recognition, engagement, and lifelong loyalty.

Brand07

BRAND 8

1 , 3 5 7 BN / Y E AR 425 BN / Y E AR 3 , 0 0 0 BN / Y E ARTECH AUTOMOTIVE FASHION

T R A N S F O R M Y O U R B R A N D :

Brand awareness and brand relationships are at an all-time high. The extent that a manufacturer can control and articulate its brand via customer experience will dictate its total control over the marketplace.

The unified expression of the brand’s personality, usefulness, functionality, competitiveness, and value is expressed through every aspect of how it does business, how it makes its products, how it communicates with all of its customers.

More and more manufacturers are realizing that they now have the power to sell their products direct to wholesale, direct to retail, and it’s easier than ever before in history.

Today’s manufacturers can design and control bespoke ecommerce platforms to manage all aspects of branding, production, sales, marketing, inventory, fulfillment, and customer service. Opening up direct channels for customers at the B2B level, at the B2C level, in all venues, on all devices, linking every warehouse with every consumer all over the world.

While it used to require an army of workers and a major cash investment to master this level of sophisticated control, today a small team with a big vision and the right ecommerce platform can pull it off for a tiny fraction of the expense of an old fashioned distribution and sales apparatus. There is only one choice to make for the enduring health and growth of your brand.

The power is in your hands.

Your brand is more than just a product on someone else’s shelf.

Case Closed

Conclusion08

9CONCLUSION

Going direct is the future of all manufacturing, and the beginning of a new paradigm in global commerce.

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