In today's supply chain, manufacturers often get the thinnest slice of the margin pie. With customers shopping globally and demanding better pricing, retailers compress margins to stay afloat, which puts pressure on their distributors, which in turn passes the pressure along to manufacturers. With margins squeezed the hardest, it's no wonder manufacturers are looking beyond the traditional supply chain and want to reach out to customers directly, capturing profits that their distributors and retailers make.

This is the case with today's Under the Hood episode guest. Matt Baack sells wine thermals, beer chillers, and other house ware accessories made of concrete. He used to operate solely as a B2B manufacturer, but has now begun selling direct to consumers via his online site, Angle 33. Matt makes a good profit margin in the B2C area and wants to transition completely to B2C.

In this episode we talk about how he can make this transition as smooth as possible. We look at the low-hanging fruit--the options that can move the needle as fast as possible without spending a ton of money. For Part 1 of our conversation, we talk about the following, among others:

• How he started on ecommerce
• His awesome products
• How much of his business is in the B2C area, and what his margins look like
• Using Amazon as the first step to scale more of his business to B2C
• Getting the help of influencers to promote his products
• Other channels that are perfect for his brand

This is just Part 1. We get to more of this in Part 2 which is coming out next week, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, if you are looking for awesome, totally unique wine thermals, coasters or beer chillers, head over to Angle 33. I can already think of a couple of people in my life who would love his products.

Resources mentioned:

MyEcomCrew Angle 33 Jungle Scout Famebit Houzz

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