"Distributor"?

So I've got my invention far into the development stage and is soon ready to market. I'll be selling it from my website only probably. The thing is, how do I get those things, from some warehouse in the Netherlands, to the customer?

>physical inventory

Yeah.. A lot of things are physical..?

The factory that is going to produce them don't do anything else. They haven't even got any products of them selves. They produce, and ship it to you.

whats your "invention"?

It's a little gadget with minor functionality you attach to your clothing. Wont go into much more detail

nobody want to steal your bags.

if it was anygood and u dont know about supply chain , you would have liscenced it for eternal royalties.

It's not bags haha. No one's got this yet.

Thing is I'm not sure how I'm going to do this. I've got no experience with running my own firm for this will be my first. I could sell them via my own webshop and indeed patent it, it's fucking expensive though.

Or sell them through other stores. Which might be the best choice for me to begin with.

Did you validate your idea first? Did you make a minimum viable product before going to production?

to stop roleplaying would be the God tier choice.

Yes, they work as I want them to. Cheap and quick to make as well. And easily customisable, which I want to offer on the webstore. Custom colour and print etc

Bought 100k

Some people on here actually got things going for themselves mate

Cheers

Is it me being too stoned or is Veeky Forums actually flipping me off

...

Put it on Amazon or something

>Some people on here actually got things going for themselves mate

I'd still have the shipping problem. A website and advertisement aren't the issue. How do I get it to the customer. Cheap but reliable.

>Lip read "What are you talking about"
Kek.

There are firms with warehouses and orderpickers and agreements with package companies like DHL etc that take care of this. Now sure how they're called. I searched for "distributor" but what an incoherent bunch of bullshit.

>I searched for "distributor" but what an incoherent bunch of bullshit.

THIS. Omfg. What are those called, preferably here in the NL

>So I've got my invention far into the development stage and is soon ready to market. I'll be selling it from my website only probably.
Wait wait wait wait... You developed a product but didn't secure a distribution network or marketing strategy well in advance of producing it!?!?!?!

Get ready to live with a bedroom full of stock for 7 years

kek, well spotted

How much are you charging? Could you absorb the cost of FedEx or UPS?

It's just in development stage, not producing any numbers yet. And I obviously wont yet.

I think €5 for the regular ones (cost about 13ct to produce) But I'll be offering customs as well for like 15 or 25.

I can absorb the cost but would I have to rent a warehouse and hire a bunch of people? That's too much for me in the early stage

>I can absorb the cost but would I have to rent a warehouse and hire a bunch of people? That's too much for me in the early stage
Then scale up your operation, borrow money or seek equity investors... unless you think it will price you out of the market

I'm honestly thinking about a KickStarter here. Complete the development stage, produce a couple and then get free money from there for the development. Offering some limited literally 1 of a kind ones. Trust me, these things have high change of becoming collectibles. They're a fashion accessory with functionality, but they don't look out of place on their own

For the deployment*

>I'm honestly thinking about a KickStarter here.
That sounds like your best option at this point.

> Trust me, these things have high change of becoming collectibles.
I sincerely doubt that no matter how good the product is. At this point you need to sell on functionality or instant gratification, you can't predict if something will become a collectible. Hell, not even Versace or Prada can predict that shit

True yes. But I wont be selling them on that. You never do. Unless it's Pokemon cards or something. I will do it by offering limited ones and custom that will say instead of [Product name] -Originals, It will say " -Customs

Sounds like a good way of charging a premium, why not kill two birds with one stone: personalized packaging. Allows you to charge more, but their name or something related to their customization is printed on the box or on a card that forms part of the lining of the box or something.

Will be a bitch to pull off, but that kind of luxury people will piss out money for.

Haha yeah that too. In time though. It's still an inert piece of plastic. I'll need a name first. When it indeed becomes a name, I can pull off shit like that. And I will. Good idea mate cheers!

Amazon is your best bet hands down. Fullfilled by Amazon. It's a steep learning curve. They scalp you hard, but it's cheaper for you and your customers to use Amazon.

>Fullfilled by Amazon
Ah so they DO distribute it for you. I do need a company to do that but I have a strong preference for it top be here in the NL. Amazon isn't big here yet I thing. We only recently got it

You've got a few days work cut out for you. Hopefully your category isn't 'gated'. Some things like clothes or music are difficult to get permission for.

You'll ship as many as you can to Amazon us using their shipping network. They will tell you where to take it. Then you need to put a lot of work into your listing to get views. As long as it's more than $25 your customers will get free shipping.

If you are successful in US ship more boxes to Canada, UK etc. Don't waste your time with Netherlands. A good unique product can make you thousands a day easily.

To start:

Sell them on Bol.com. Ship them yourself. You will probably lose money on this (unless your product fits in a small envelope).

When/if they start selling on Bol.com start working on your own website. Still ship them yourself.

Once you are no longer able to ship all the orders yourself look into a fulfillment company. This will be more expensive than shipping them on your own but is an easier way to scale than hiring people. Make sure you start selling them in multiples to improve your margins because €5 orders will kill you. Offer free shipping when they order €20+ or something.

Also look into Amazon FBA once you see there is good demand. US is a better bet to start than UK/DE because of VAT implications.

Scale to the moon.

Good luck.

This is a good start yeah. Cheers mate