On this episode of DTC Pod, Nathan joins Blaine to talk about how to work with manufacturing partners to bring a product to life. They cover lessons from working with over 1000s of factories in several countries, avoiding the biggest pitfalls of manufacturing, building software to streamline the process, moving from CEO to the board, frameworks for building companies, new projects he's excited about, AI and it's application to CX, finding scale, and more.

Timestamps:

[00:03:01] Bringing a product to life requires many details; choosing the right factory is essential for successful ecommerce.

[00:05:59] COVID has prevented travel to Asia, alibaba is pay to play, communication via WeChat, verify factory capacity and history, specs detailed in tech pack, test production run, third party inspection.

[00:11:03] Factories typically produce same products in same city; forecasting and transparency important; visit factory to understand how product is made; consider potential defect areas.

[00:14:15] Few ask how product costs are determined.

[00:16:03] Started in 2016 with flat fee product sourcing, raised seed round, built software, SaaS revenue plus commission on production, saved customers 10% of unit costs, worked with/outgrown by customers, new deal with isba, hired CEO, reinvest in technology/team/customers.

[00:20:05] Building relationships with suppliers and expanding sourcing team to source globally for better terms and pricing.

[00:23:28] China remains the world's manufacturing hub due to low cost of labor, electricity and nuclear energy. America is providing incentives to bring manufacturing back to the US, but it is difficult to compete with China.

[00:26:54] Never be single-sourced; have backup supplier; consider cost and lead time when exploring outside of China.

[00:29:38] AI used for faster iteration in marketing and customer service with Caffeinated CX for improved efficiency.

[00:32:19] Using AI to increase brand impressions by clipping and reposting ads on YouTube Shorts, TikToks, etc., and looking at blended ROAS for success.

"Bringing Products to Life: "There's so many nuances to it, even this hat, there's so many different materials that go into a simple hat like this. A lot of people come to us and say, hey, we want to produce a T shirt, right? But there's so many cuts and trims and fabrics that go into a shirt that you really have to dial in exactly what you want."— Nathan Resnick 03:01

"Third-Party Inspections: "When you receive product and it's not what you expected, it's a horrible position to be in - so get third-party inspections done, even at the scale of sourceify, we always do them, because it's just insurance for your product."— Nathan Resnick 05:59

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Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.

Additional episodes you might like:

• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth

• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content

• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views

• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands

• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook

• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands

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Nathan Resnick - Founder of Sourcify
Ramon Berrios - CEO of Trend.io
Blaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated