Marketplaces & Wholesale
Amazon, Retail, Trade Shows
Channel, Not Strategy
Marketplaces and retailers are channels, not your strategy. Your strategy is to build a brand and customer relationships. At Quad Lock, we used Amazon, wholesale, and retail as reach extenders, but every decision was made through the lens of: does this grow our reach or cannibalise our market? The most valuable thing you own is the customer relationship. Never hand that to a retailer or a marketplace and hope they'll work it out for you.
Key topics covered
- The Marketplace Decision FrameworkMarketplaces serve two purposes: discovery (new customers find you through marketplace search - incremental revenue) and cannibalisation (existing customers buy on the marketplace instead of your site - margin compression).
- Amazon Strategy (Deep Dive)If you've decided Amazon is the right move, here's how to do it properly. This covers the full stack: organic ranking, PPC, reviews, Brand Registry, fulfilment, and the real P&L impact.
- Organic RankingAmazon's search algorithm rewards relevance and conversion. Before spending on PPC, get listing fundamentals right:
- Amazon PPCAmazon PPC is almost a requirement these days. Organic results are dominated by sponsored placements, and new listings (especially from new brands) need PPC for sales velocity.
- Reviews StrategyA product with 50 reviews at 4.5 stars outsells a better product with 5 reviews at 5 stars.
- Brand Registry & Brand AnalyticsEssential for serious Amazon presence. Requires registered trademark. Gives you: A+ Content, Brand Analytics (search term data, market basket analysis), counterfeiter reporting, Amazon Brand Store, Sponsored Brands eligibility.
- FBA vs FBM (Fulfilment by Merchant)
- Amazon P&L Reality
- Beyond Amazon: Other Marketplaces
- Marketplace vs DTC CannibalisationMost brands see 15-30% cannibalisation when launching on Amazon, meaning 70-85% is truly incremental. The question isn't whether cannibalisation happens. It's whether the upside is worth it.
The point is not to avoid these channels. The point is to use them deliberately, with a clear view of what they add and what they take away.
Marketplaces serve two purposes: discovery (new customers find you through marketplace search - incremental revenue) and cannibalisation (existing customers buy on the marketplace instead of your site - margin compression). The tension is always reach vs margin vs brand control.
When to go on Amazon:
Amazon Strategy (Deep Dive)
If you've decided Amazon is the right move, here's how to do it properly. This covers the full stack: organic ranking, PPC, reviews, Brand Registry, fulfilment, and the real P&L impact.
Organic Ranking
Amazon's search algorithm rewards relevance and conversion. Before spending on PPC, get listing fundamentals right:
Amazon PPC
Amazon PPC is almost a requirement these days. Organic results are dominated by sponsored placements, and new listings (especially from new brands) need PPC for sales velocity.
The PPC playbook: Launch auto campaigns to discover converting keywords (weeks 1-2). Harvest top performers into manual exact-match campaigns (weeks 3-4). Ongoing: negative match non-converters aggressively, bid on own brand terms, test competitor terms. Weekly: review search terms, kill anything with >20 clicks and zero conversions.
Amazon P&L Reality
Beyond Amazon: Other Marketplaces
Wholesale Pricing & Terms
These are directional benchmarks. Terms vary significantly by category, geography, retailer size, and your negotiating position. A brand with strong DTC traction and proven demand can negotiate very differently from one knocking on doors for the first time.
The Real Economics of Wholesale vs DTC
The headline maths says wholesale is your worst margin. You're selling at 50% of retail instead of keeping the full price. But that's a surface-level comparison that misses what the retailer absorbs on your behalf.
When you strip out all the costs your DTC channel carries, the per-unit margin gap between wholesale and DTC is smaller than the sticker price suggests. Some brands find the net margin difference is only 10-15 percentage points, not the 50% it appears at first glance.
Keep reading in the full playbook.
All 30 sections, the diagnostic Health Check, 400+ checklist items, and 8 tools. Free and always will be.
Open the full playbookWhat you'll walk away with
- Marketplace decision framework completed: why you're on each platform and what you expect from it
- Amazon Brand Registry set up (requires registered trademark)
- Amazon listings optimised: titles, bullets, backend keywords, A+ content, all image slots used
- Amazon PPC live: auto campaigns running, brand terms defended, manual exact-match for top keywords
- ACoS and TACoS tracked weekly (target: ACoS 20-30%, TACoS 8-15%)
- Reviews strategy in place: Vine enrolled, follow-up emails configured, insert cards designed
- FBA vs FBM decision made per SKU
- Pricing policy created and legally reviewed for each jurisdiction you sell in (MAP in US, RRP in AU, competition law in EU/UK)
- Authorised reseller agreements in place for all wholesale and marketplace partners
- Brand protection monitoring live: Red Points, Brandlox, Gray Falkon, or manual checks