22 · Channels & Distribution

Week 23 · 25 hours

Objective

Decide where and how you sell, and build the infrastructure to actually take money and ship goods.

Why it matters commercially

Channel choice determines your margin, your cash cycle, your customer relationship and how much of your time goes to selling versus making. Choosing more than one channel at launch is a common way to do all of them badly.

Core concepts

The channels

Channel Margin Cash timing Effort Verdict for drop one
Your own site (DTC) Best — you keep everything Immediate High: you drive all traffic ✅ Primary
Wholesale to independent shops ~50% of retail Net 30–60, sometimes worse Mid: outreach, samples, line sheets ⚠️ 1–3 shops max, for credibility
Consignment You keep more than wholesale, but the shop holds your stock Paid on sale, if ever Low effort, high risk ⚠️ Only with shops you trust
Marketplaces (Farfetch, SSENSE, END etc.) Commission or wholesale Slow High barrier; they mostly won’t take an unknown ❌ Not yet
Pop-up / market stall Full retail, cash immediately Immediate High effort per day but excellent feedback ✅ Strongly recommended
Amazon / eBay Low, and wrong context Fast Low ❌ Wrong for this positioning

Recommendation: DTC as the core, one or two independent stockists for credibility and physical presence, and at least one in-person selling event. The in-person event is disproportionately valuable at this stage — you watch people react to the shoe in real time, learn fit complaints immediately, and sell at full margin.

Your own store

Platform: Shopify ($39/mo) is the pragmatic default — footwear needs size variants, inventory by SKU, and returns handling, all of which it does out of the box. Alternatives exist and are cheaper, but the time cost is real. Don’t build a custom store.

The product page is the whole business. For footwear it must have:

  • Photography per the Module 21 shot list, including on-foot from multiple angles
  • A real size guide: foot length in millimetres, a print-and-measure guide, and an explicit fit statement (“true to size,” “runs half a size small”)
  • Materials, named specifically, and where they come from
  • Construction described plainly — this is a differentiator, use it
  • Made-in, with the factory named if you’re willing
  • Weight per shoe
  • Care instructions
  • Returns and exchange policy, prominent and generous
  • Pre-order status if applicable, stated three times

Reduce size anxiety aggressively. It is the single largest conversion blocker in online footwear. Free exchanges, a great size guide, and honest fit language will do more for revenue than any advertising you can afford.

Wholesale, if you do it

What a shop needs from you:

  • A line sheet: product photography, style code, colours, size run, wholesale price, retail price (RRP), minimums, delivery window, payment terms
  • Terms: typically 50% of RRP, net 30, with a first order often paid pro-forma from an unknown brand
  • Product liability insurance — many won’t stock you without it
  • Barcodes (GS1) per SKU
  • Reliability. A missed delivery date loses the account permanently

Target independents whose existing mix makes sense for you, approach with a physical sample rather than an email deck, and be honest that you’re new. Small shops often like backing a new brand; they don’t like being misled about your capacity.

Fulfilment

At 250 pairs, fulfil it yourself. A 3PL isn’t worth the setup cost or the minimums until you’re shipping hundreds of orders a month. Self-fulfilment also teaches you what your packaging and shipping actually cost, which you’ll need for the V2 model.

What you need:

  • Shipping carton sized to the shoe box (don’t ship the shoe box unprotected — the box is part of the product)
  • A carrier account with negotiated rates (Shopify Shipping or similar gives usable rates immediately)
  • Tracking sent automatically
  • A returns process: a clear policy, a return label method, and a plan for inspecting and restocking
  • Storage that isn’t damp

The returns policy is a product decision

Given 15–30% returns and fit as the driver, be generous and specific:

  • Free returns and free exchanges within 30 days, unworn, in original packaging. This is close to table stakes and it directly increases conversion.
  • Free exchange for a different size, no questions. Exchanges keep the revenue; returns lose it. Make exchanging the easiest path.
  • Say all of this on the product page, not buried in a policy link.

Email, which matters more than social

Social platforms rent you an audience. Email is one you own. Build it deliberately: capture on the site, capture at events, capture in the box with a card. Send infrequently and with substance — process updates, restock notices, the honest story of production. A 500-person list that actually reads you is worth more than 20,000 passive followers.

Do this

1 · Channel decision memo (2h). Which channels, in what order, and why. What you’re explicitly not doing.

2 · Build the store (10h). Shopify, product page to the standard above, size guide, returns policy, about page carrying your belief statement from Module 20.

3 · Size guide (3h). Build a genuinely good one: a printable measuring guide, a foot-length-to-size table in mm, and a fit statement based on your wear tests.

4 · Line sheet (3h). Even if you only approach two shops. It’s an hour of work and it makes you look professional.

5 · Approach stockists (4h). Identify ten independent shops that fit. Visit or call three with the physical sample. Aim for one or two commitments, not ten.

6 · Fulfilment setup (3h). Cartons, carrier account, packing station, returns process, a written packing checklist so every order goes out identically.

Deliverable. A channel decision memo; a live, complete store with a genuinely good size guide and returns policy; a line sheet; at least three stockist conversations with a physical sample; a working fulfilment setup with a written packing checklist.

Self-check

  • Why is DTC the right primary channel at your scale?
  • What must a footwear product page contain that a t-shirt’s needn’t?
  • What does a shop need from you before it can stock you?
  • Why prefer exchanges over returns, and how do you encourage that?
  • Why is email worth more than followers?

Traps

Launching on four channels. Do one well.

A weak size guide. It will cost you more money than any other single page on the site.

Wholesale terms you can’t fund. Net 60 on your first order means you’ve financed a shop’s inventory for two months with money you don’t have.

Shipping the shoe box as the outer carton. It arrives damaged and the unboxing you designed is ruined.