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[MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, my name is Amy Welsman and I'm going to be leading this course on building a wholesale channel for your business. As an entrepreneur myself, I spent the past four years building the wholesale division for Toronto based startup, Knix Wear. Each lesson was informed by my experience scaling a business from the ground up, which included successes and failures. Many of you watching these tutorials have already grown successful online businesses.
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So hopefully, I'll be able to provide some insight into what the advantages of wholesale are, and how you go about launching a wholesale channel for your business. By the end of this course, you should be armed with some thoughts starters and the tools to get going. In today's digital economy, e-commerce offers many advantages. The obvious one being higher margins, accelerated growth, and most importantly, the ability to control and shape your customer experience online.
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There are so many marketing and customer acquisition strategies that can be implemented at the click of a button. And it's often difficult to justify investing money and manpower in physical retail, a very traditional and old paradigm form of commerce. Brick and mortar standalone retail can require a lot of overhead and capital, that most emerging brands just don't have. So wholesale can be a great alternative, especially in the early lifecycle of a brand.
1:17
If executed properly, wholesale can be a brand building and revenue generating sales channel. And in my experience, here are the key advantages. First off, let's face it, there is something very powerful about feeling touching and trying a product in a store before purchasing. While this is especially the case for apparel, it also applies to many consumer goods. With the proper merchandising and brand presentation, and of course, the right retail partner, you can use wholesale as a means of bringing your brand to life in the physical world.
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The right retailer can be a brand ambassador and an advocate for your products and what you stand for as a brand. This is a very powerful marketing tool. The second major benefit of wholesale is strategic marketing. There are many retailers who are considered specialists and influencers in their market, and acquiring them as a retail partner can offer strategic marketing advantages as you launch your brand in retail. While these accounts may not always sell big volume like department stores, they are tastemakers and leaders in their market, and add legitimacy to the curated brands and products that they offer.
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For example, at Knix Wear, we sought strategic marketing partnerships with boutique gym chains, which gave us exposure to the target customers and the cool factor in the fitness industry. While we didn't always move tons of volume with these partners, they offered other advantages that made the partnership well worth it. Lastly, partnering with influential specialty retailers can get you valuable insight into what the market is demanding and what the trends are, as you are dealing with buyers and retailers who are experts in the market you are going after.
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They need to be tapped into the needs and wants of their consumers, and can offer valuable insights as you grow your brand and design your products. Over the next six lessons, I will be sharing a number of tips and strategies for building a wholesale channel for your business. These lessons include, getting started, where we go over planning and key considerations. Next, we'll look at the importance of market research in generating retail target lists.
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After that, we'll dive into pricing and balancing your wholesale business with your direct online business. Then, we'll cover the all important merchandising. Then, we'll review everything you need to consider for exhibiting a trade shows. And lastly, I'll help you determine what your approach will be and what resources are required to start your wholesale channel. [MUSIC PLAYING]
