Distribution Management Software Needed

Before you weigh the pros and cons of different platforms structures it's important to think about who your customers are and how you want the business to grow. I help companies find their most profitable customers and have worked with pre-revenue to high-growth $70M+ companies in the SaaS, consumer products and professional service spaces. We usually start our work by aligning around what the vision for the company is asking questions like "Where do we want to be in 3 years? Why?" From there we think about how customers will encounter and use the product, asking: - "Is it a business where relationships and high company involvement is needed after a sale is made?" A centralised business model is a good fit (more quality control). - "Are we a service based business seeking to minimize risk while expanding?" Then a franchise model is better. A business model/structure tumbles out having clear answers to these questions. One business structure is not inherently better than another. You're just picking the structure that best facilitates your business goals. Don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to discuss your potential business model in more detail.

As a professional coach the market is smaller but it is geared towards key skills I would love to talk to you about the current market and business plans.

You're entering a highly competitive market. Aside from creating info sheets, images and video that show why your products are better than others, you will likely need to drum up interest online in advance. Keep in mind that store shelves are most always full, so to carry a new product they have to decrease the space allotted to another company. By generating true interest first, you can highlight that the product already sells. Also, don't forget to provide samples to bloggers, writers and other appropriate publications so they can review the products. That's a big step in kicking off a true word-of-mouth campaign.

I wrote an answer to a similar question today which you can find here: https://clarity.fm/a/2877 The one flaw to your current process is this premise: "Whereas, if I focused on a good idea the whole process of driving success would be easier." This - from my experience - is simply not the case. I'm working on what I believe to be the best idea I've ever had and it has been absolutely the most challenging time I've ever had in a career full of product challenges. So a "good idea" does not make the process any easier. As I privately advised the person who asked the other similar question: I'd encourage you to define all your own pain points in your life and filter by most pain and also least addressed by existing solutions. Building what you know and what you're excited about building is the best that any of us can hope for. There's no path to greatness that isn't full of challenges ahead. Happy to do a call to discuss further.

My experience is mostly related to Open Source ERP systems (and eCommerce systems). The two options you have are: 1. Go with an ERP system that has inbuilt eCommerce. There are several ERP systems which have this feature. Netsuite is a popular commercial cloud based system that has a built-in eCommerce system. Tryton and Nereid is an Open source alternative (Disclaimer: I work for a company that works on this stack). At advantages of an integrated system are: - One database to manage everything from sales to gift cards to refunds to shipping - Order updates reflect real time across the customers my account page and your ERP. - No more asking for credit card information when customers want to change orders. - Shipping (fulfilment) status reflects realtime - Pricing updates have to be done only at one place - Possibility to have additional sales channels like a point of sale, a marketplace etc. 2. Go for an eCommerce system that has known integrations with ERP systems. This is a popular approach too and there is a large plugin ecosystem with most ERP systems that provide integrations. The tricky aspect however is that no integration can be a 100% tight. So you need to analyze if the integration covers the features critical to your workflow. For example, most integrations provide importing of orders, but if your business uses gift cards extensively, you might want to make sure that the integration handles gift card and related accounting well. A few disadvantages of the approach is: - Maintaining integrations when either of the softwares change is costly. - Introducing a feature on either systems will need development on the other. For example, if you want to use reward points on webstore, your ERP might need it too. I will be happy to take a call to understand your use case.