They couldn't have the impact they wanted without scale. So we changed the model.
Scope · Go-to-market model · New department · Pricing · Partner enablement
In short: wholesale alone would never buy enough from enough makers to matter, so the business model changed before the marketing did. Drop-shipping took the collective from a pilot to more than 100 partners.
A collective distributing handmade goods from makers in underserved communities around the world. Wholesale to small shops was working, and a couple of large retailers had come on. But wholesale alone would never buy enough product from enough makers to matter.
We started with go-to-market, not marketing. The answer was drop-shipping: use the US warehouse to serve thousands of online retailers, so the collective could buy more from makers and put the goods in front of far more customers. That meant a new department, a repriced program, a narrative that said wholesale and drop-ship, success packets for partners and for makers, and the tools to make ordering and fulfillment simple. A pilot in three months. Two dozen partners in six.
What the numbers don't show: makers reaching markets they'd never had access to, and teaching the next generation their craft.
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