How best to design/manufacture/distrubute notepad wallet?
November 21, 2005 9:01 AM Subscribe
We're looking for a wallet manufacter to work with to design and manufacturer a unique leather wallet/notepad.
Ideally, once we agree on the design, costs, etc. we need to arrange for a complete "turnkey/drop ship" distribution system to allow us to sell the finished wallet over the Internet as our primary distribution method.
How would we go about getting started with this venture.
Oh, and link possibly NSFW above. Sorry.
posted by BrandonAbell at 12:30 PM on November 21, 2005
posted by BrandonAbell at 12:30 PM on November 21, 2005
Response by poster: To geoff, we already have the design (prototype) done, a design patent is being applied for. The business plan is a work in progress, requiring additional inputs and one of the reasons we posted the question.
We're looking for a wallet leather manufacter who can produce them based on our specifications. While we will handle distribution through a number of different channels (ie. traditional retail/wholesale), we're interested in diiferent ways to distribute via the interenet. One idea is to outsource/partner with a company who has the systems in place to handle inventory, ordering, shipping, etc so we don't have to "build/buy" the necessary e-business system ourselves.
To BrandonAbel - no quite the type of wallet we had in mind ;-).
posted by TheLama at 3:38 PM on November 21, 2005
We're looking for a wallet leather manufacter who can produce them based on our specifications. While we will handle distribution through a number of different channels (ie. traditional retail/wholesale), we're interested in diiferent ways to distribute via the interenet. One idea is to outsource/partner with a company who has the systems in place to handle inventory, ordering, shipping, etc so we don't have to "build/buy" the necessary e-business system ourselves.
To BrandonAbel - no quite the type of wallet we had in mind ;-).
posted by TheLama at 3:38 PM on November 21, 2005
Best answer: Hold on. I'm going to blabber a bit, and it might or might not help you. In short, you need:
A) an automated website/store
B) an automated order-fulfillment service
I work with a publisher. We manufacture our books through a few different printers. They ship the finished cartons to our distributor, BookMasters. Although they are primarily used by publishers, their order fulfillment services aren't specifically book-oriented. Anyway, we have a website, where people make purchases. It's powered by Monster Commerce. The store software confirms that the credit card is good, then sends out three e-mails. One to us, one to the customer, and one to BookMasters. Each one has audience-specific information in it. BookMasters gets the customer's name, address, and order information. They then pack up the order and ship it out. 85% of our sales happen without any involvement from us (apart from the product development, marketing, etc.). We monitor our inventory, since our books are seasonal (they're educational, so they sell big in the summertime), but we could probably set it up with BookMasters where they would contact us when our inventory got to X, and we'd just place a re-order with the manufacturer.
So, basically, you need to find a store that can process credit cards easily, and an order fulfillment service. If you've only got one product, this should be really straightforward and easy. If you have a good order fulfillment company, it should still be pretty easy to set up.
We're really happy with BookMasters.
posted by Alt F4 at 6:00 PM on November 21, 2005
A) an automated website/store
B) an automated order-fulfillment service
I work with a publisher. We manufacture our books through a few different printers. They ship the finished cartons to our distributor, BookMasters. Although they are primarily used by publishers, their order fulfillment services aren't specifically book-oriented. Anyway, we have a website, where people make purchases. It's powered by Monster Commerce. The store software confirms that the credit card is good, then sends out three e-mails. One to us, one to the customer, and one to BookMasters. Each one has audience-specific information in it. BookMasters gets the customer's name, address, and order information. They then pack up the order and ship it out. 85% of our sales happen without any involvement from us (apart from the product development, marketing, etc.). We monitor our inventory, since our books are seasonal (they're educational, so they sell big in the summertime), but we could probably set it up with BookMasters where they would contact us when our inventory got to X, and we'd just place a re-order with the manufacturer.
So, basically, you need to find a store that can process credit cards easily, and an order fulfillment service. If you've only got one product, this should be really straightforward and easy. If you have a good order fulfillment company, it should still be pretty easy to set up.
We're really happy with BookMasters.
posted by Alt F4 at 6:00 PM on November 21, 2005
Response by poster: Thx. Alt F4, your advise is excellent. Does anyone have other recommendations for "automated website/store" & "order-fulfillment" service providers?
posted by TheLama at 9:29 PM on November 21, 2005
posted by TheLama at 9:29 PM on November 21, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by geoff. at 9:43 AM on November 21, 2005