Hassle-Free Distribution
Besides the capital investment, the direct model also creates all sorts of distracting business challenges for a brand trying to distribute their product in North America. Challenges like: Do we need to incorporate? How do we manage the currency risk? Where do we find a warehouse? What about logistics? What are the labour laws like? How do we collect and remit taxes? What about that one Canadian province that speaks French?
“Under our Brand Fulfillment model, we take care of everything so that’s its hassle-free for the brand” said Martin, “Since we’re an extension of your company, we’re your representative here in North America. We have a local presence and local Canadian and American warehouses and we understand the North American business culture. We advise brands from outside North America on sales channels, currency risk, import fees, tariffs, language issues. We collect and remit taxes. We manage the entire importing process and we manage the risk for our clients. It’s a turn-key North American distribution solution.”
Beyond distribution and logistics, Evolution Fulfillment is also tuned to handle outsourced admin support activities, such as customer service issues, returns management, accounts receivable, accounts payable and bookkeeping.
Seamless Systems
This new breed of 3PL also specializes in information technology that allows brands half a world a way to keep tabs on every unit of inventory. Besides Evolution Fulfillment’s standard distributor services, they also have a programming team that can handle integrations between Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). Evolution even has proprietary integration software called Integreat, which ties all these systems together for one seamless information system.
For brands, this ultimately means instant visibility into key metrics, such as sales or inventory data, without the hassle or delay caused by digging into multiple sources to answer basic questions like “Which SKU sold best in Canada this year?” or “Who were my top 3 retailers in California?”
Evolution’s IT staff also understand the data routing requirements of large retailers, such as Nordstrom, The Bay, REI, etc) and speak the same data language as ecommerce giants like Amazon, allowing clients, for example, to outsource their Fulfillment by Amazon needs to Evolution (see their Amazon FBA rates here). This allows brands to tap into these huge distribution channels without having to know anything about the technical details. Evolution also understands how to connect up to ecommerce platforms such as Magento or Shopify and with ERP systems like Full Circle, Joor and Nuorder. With virtually any type of data a brand cares about, Evolutions’ Integreat software acts as the hub to tie these silos of data into one seamless system.
“We don’t shy away from IT challenges” said Harrison, “We embrace them. We specialize in them.”
For key markets, the distributor model has inherent flaws that restrict the control you have over the growth of your brand or, in the worst case, ruin your brand in that market
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