Sales channels

One product. A different story in every channel.

Your online store, the marketplaces, the wholesale buyers, the stockists holding your goods on consignment — each wants its own name, its own photos, its own price and its own stock rule. Set that per channel once, and the same product serves all of them without a second listing to maintain.

THE PRODUCT · DESCRIBED ONCETerra mug · 350 ml
Recipeone
Cost to make$9.40
Photographs14 files
Product details18
Stock on hand148
Locations3
Everything to the right starts from here. A channel differs only where you say it should.
OWN STOREFRONTYour own storeNAMEsame as the productPHOTOS6 of 6PRICE$26.00STOCK148 shown
MARKETPLACEMarketplaceNAMETerra Handmade Stoneware Mug, 12 oz, Matte ClayPHOTOS4 of 6PRICE$34.90STOCK120 shown
B2B ORDERINGWholesale portalNAMETerra mug 350 ml — case of 6PHOTOS5 of 6PRICE$12.50STOCK148 shown
CONSIGNMENTConsignment stockistNAMEsame as the productPHOTOS2 of 6PRICE$26.00STOCK24 shown
TRADE PLATFORMTrade platformNAMETerra Mug 350mlPHOTOS3 of 6PRICE$13.75STOCK100 shown
RETAIL LOCATIONYour shop counterNAMETerra mug 350PHOTOS1 of 6PRICE$26.00STOCK18 shown
A DIAGRAM, NOT A SCREENSHOT · BLUE MARKS WHERE A CHANNEL DELIBERATELY DIFFERS FROM THE PRODUCT
What a channel actually controls

Six decisions per channel, and every one of them is yours.

01What it is called and how it readsName, description, details and category, written the way that channel expects, or copied from the main product when there is no reason to differ.
02Which photographs go wherePick per photo, per channel. White background to the marketplace, lifestyle to your site, print originals to your wholesale buyers, and some shots nowhere at all.
03What it costs thereA price list per channel and per customer, with the platform’s fee built in so your net is the number you meant.
04How much stock it may seePublish everything, hold a buffer back, or cap the figure. One channel having a good day cannot empty the shelf another one is selling from.
05Where the order ships fromYour warehouse, a marketplace’s fulfillment center, a shop floor or a stockist’s shelf — chosen per channel and, where it matters, per product.
06What happens at zeroHide the listing, pause it, accept backorders with a date, or sell against the next production run. Set once, and it happens without anybody watching.
Consignment

Goods sitting in someone else’s shop are still yours, and still counted.

A consignment stockist is a channel with its own rules: your stock lives at their address, ownership does not pass until it sells, and settlement happens on a schedule. Most systems have no word for that at all, so it ends up in a spreadsheet and an awkward phone call every quarter.

Ownership stays with youGoods at a stockist are your inventory at their address. They appear in your valuation, not as a sale you have not been paid for.
Placed, sold, returned, heldEvery movement is recorded: what you sent, what sold, what came back and what is still on the shelf today.
Commission is part of the dealEach stockist has their own rate. The settlement figure is calculated as sales land, not reconstructed at the end of the quarter.
Aging you can seeHow long each piece has been sitting there. The ones that have not moved in ninety days are a list, not a feeling.
Top-ups without a phone callWhen a stockist drops below the level you set, the restock appears in your actions queue with the quantity already worked out.
Settlement writes its own invoiceAt the end of the period the sold column becomes an invoice, with the commission deducted and the lines itemized.
Recalls and pull-backsEnding a relationship or pulling a line is one action: what is still out there, where, and what has to come home.
CONSIGNMENT STATEMENT · MARCH14 STOCKISTS
STOCKISTPLACEDSOLDHELDDUE
Harbor & Fern, Portland483117$806.00
The Common Room, Austin36288$728.00
Nordstern, Chicago602238$572.00
Field Notes, Brooklyn42393$1,014.00
Marrow Home, Seattle544113$1,062.00
SETTLEMENT DUE$4,182.00

Every figure comes from movements the system already recorded. Nobody counts a shelf, nobody rebuilds a sheet, and the invoice for the month writes itself from the sold column.

Product mirrors

The same thing, sold as two completely different products.

You make one item. It goes out under your own brand at one price, and under a partner’s label at another — different name, different story, different photographs, sometimes a different category entirely. To the buyer they are two products. To your warehouse they are one box on one shelf.

A mirror is that second identity. Everything a customer sees can differ; the stock, the location and the availability stay shared, because there is only ever one physical thing.

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YOUR OWN BRANDTerra mug · 350 ml
BRANDTerra
PRICE$26.00
PHOTOSyour shoot
CATEGORYTableware › Mugs
A PARTNER’S LABELNordstern Stoneware Cup 12oz
BRANDNordstern
PRICE$31.00
PHOTOStheir shoot
CATEGORYHome › Drinkware
SHARED BETWEEN THEM
148ON HAND3LOCATIONS$9.40COST1RECIPE
Sell one under either name and the other knows immediately. You cannot oversell a shelf twice.

White-label and private label

A retailer wants your product under their own name. Say yes without keeping a second stock figure, a second cost and a second set of counts that drift apart by March.

One product, two audiences

The professional line and the consumer line are the same thing in different packaging language. Each gets its own name, story and price without duplicating the item.

A marketplace that demands its own identity

Different brand, different categories, different photography rules. Give it a face of its own while your warehouse keeps counting one box.

Why it matters

Every channel you add should cost you an afternoon, not a person.

The reason brands stall at three or four channels is not ambition. It is that each new one means another listing to write, another set of photos to crop, another price to remember and another stock figure to keep honest. Here the fifth channel is a few settings, not a project.

1ONE PRODUCT BEHIND EVERY CHANNEL
10CHANNELS ON RETAILER, MORE BY ADD-ON
0DUPLICATE LISTINGS TO KEEP IN STEP