156: The Evolution of Sales Channels for Hardware Products

Dec 30 2022 • 23 mins

Ben Drury is the Founder of Yoto, a connected hardware toy product for kids. Yoto has sold almost 500,000 units worldwide in just a few years of explosive growth. Today Ben is going to share some valuable knowledge to inventors, hardware startups, small manufacturers, and e-commerce brands on the 5 different sales channels, and how a hardware startup evolves through those channels to maximize their sales growth just like Ben did with Yoto.

Today you will hear us talk about:

Crowdfunding. It takes you down a great path of figuring out all the elements needed to build a successful product business.
Direct via Website.
The website gives you a lot more information that you can sell
Amazon sales
It’s easy to set up sales with Amazon.
Wholesale / Retailers, Micro retailers, independent retailers, mass retailers
If you go to a retailer with a buggy product, you will get hurt at retail badly
There are lots of regulations with retailers, and a lot of requirements.
Retailers want to see success before they bring on a new product
Retailers operate on long cycles, they are looking years ahead
You have to be very well prepared for dealing with big retailers.
Specialty Channels
Demand fuels specialty channels which are unique partnerships that want to buy your product
The feedback loop from customers is very active.

EPISODE LINKS:

Ben Drury Links:

LinkedIn | Yoto | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

PTC Links:

https://www.ptc.com/

OnShape | Creo

Mako Design Links:

https://www.makodesign.com/

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter