Direct Distribution vs Distribution with intermediary

[bendurso]

What do you prefer? Distribute your plugins directly with the biggest marketplaces/websites or through an intermediary that sends them to all of them?

Currently I only distribute my plugins through a single marketplace, and I thought about adding others but it is a bit time-consuming to send the assets one by one.

[d.healey]

I prefer to use my own website. However it's a lot of work and if you aren't doing this full time or as your main income source then it's probably not worth it. You have to be able to handle various sales taxes for different countries and keep up to date with security stuff, etc.

I also do some limited distribution through third-parties, for me I see this as part of marketing my products.

[iamlamprey]

@d-healey I think the hardest part of using your own store is driving traffic to it, the primary benefit of marketplaces is they've already spent years building the audience

[bendurso]

@d-healey Yes, I already sell through my website and manage taxes via FastSpring. However, I'd like to begin selling on marketplaces. I mean, even most of the big brands do so.

I'm unsure whether it's better to manage them separately or opt for a distributor that handles all of them.

[d.healey]

@bendurso Everyone in the chain will take a piece of your pie

[orange]

@bendurso If your brand is new in the market, I recommend selling with both ways (your website and resellers-marketplaces).

Because since there are tons of alternatives in the crowded plugin ocean, reaching to the audience is harder nowadays, even the product is good. Marketplaces have the dedicated audience database and they will help to promote your plugin. Of course there is a price for this service with commissions

Recently, iPhone has restricted receiving some social media ads due to personal data protection laws. Reaching the audience is more difficult now than it was a few years ago. This disrupted the advertising business of resellers. But resellers still help to reach the dedicated user database directly.

You also still need to sell on your website because some users want it. Yes, some users want to buy directly from the manufacturer. I think this is also necessary for the prestige of the brand.

[d.healey]

If you are selling through a reseller and you also want to have your own site, then you must use a system that requires the users register at your website, otherwise you will not build your mailing list.

I've used two method. Previously I let the resellers sell coupon codes which could be redeemed at my site. Now I let them sell serial keys which need to be redeemed through Rhapsody. The resellers never have my product files.

[bendurso]

@d-healey @orange Thank you :) that's good info.

But actually, my question was whether if you deal directly with resellers (ADSRSounds, LootAudio, Plugin Boutique, etc.) or if you go through an intermediary such as Xchange or Pluginvery.

[d.healey]

@bendurso I deal directly... but maybe I shouldn't...

[iamlamprey]

@bendurso never heard of those, but their testimonials are very impressive

@Christoph-Hart do you have any experience with Xchange?

[iamlamprey]

@iamlamprey actually @Lindon might be familiar with them too

[orange]

@bendurso To be honest, I have never heard of Pluginvery and XChange before, and I couldn't find much information when I searched on Google. Can you give the links?

Resellers can also contact you, and you can make an offer to the resellers. I think if the product is good, no matter.

[DanH]

@bendurso If you have the time then go direct. You'll be able to manage promotional campaigns directly with the resellers which can be advantageous.

If you don't have time then use an intermediary!

If you're not sure then begin direct, and if you find it a lot of work then you can move to an intermediary.

I was approached by resellers directly, and often get approached by intermediaries.

Your own website is a must imo.

[oskarsh]

@bendurso I am currently running my own Website where I do most of the Sales. I've dealt with ADSR and Loot Audio as well but find it annoying having to cross communicate sales and updates. I will definitely try to use Xchange. I have been contacted before but at the time did not really understand the need. Now I do.

[Lindon]

@iamlamprey said in Direct Distribution vs Distribution with intermediary:

@iamlamprey actually @Lindon might be familiar with them too

Well here's my position based upon my experience with 3rd party distributors:

1. You need your own web site.
2. If you work with distributors then @d-healey is not entirely correct, about getting customers on to your email list, some distributors (e.g. APD) will provide you with the entire list of customer details at the end of each sale event, some of course(e.g. Loot Audio) just wont
3. The intermediaries, I found, are quite difficult to get on board with - no real reason - just it kept falling over for me, so I have limited experience.
4. Going via the intermediary route gives you no say at all with the end distributors, but it does save you the hassle of manually getting on-board
5. The distributors themselves are a real mixed bag, but in all cases sales wont be great if you cant get on the front page of their site, and frankly these days that's nearly impossible, either because they've bigger fish to fry, they are just too busy to care about you or because they are obtuse and haven't taken to you in some way.... I really have no idea some times.
6. The single most effective way to get sales is to partner with some(as many) organisations as you can.

Partner does not mean "get loaded on to the distributors web site", here's an example of what I mean. Several years ago I partnered with Loot Audio to build a new series of instruments, they did the instrument design, I did the Kontakt coding, and another guy who did the sound design - we were called Audio Reward. We got pushed onto the front pages of Loot Audio (then called Kontakt Hub I think) and we made quite a lot of sales.

So find some partners, as many as you can and work together - if that makes sense. Dragging in anyone who has any customer base at all will repay you all. I have in the past thought about trying to get all of us "Hise Developers" into one big group with a common web site so we all benefit form the traffic, but I'm not sure there's ever been an appetite for it.

[d.healey]

@Lindon said in Direct Distribution vs Distribution with intermediary:

will provide you with the entire list of customer details at the end of each sale event

Are you allowed to contact them with marketing emails?

[Lindon]

@d-healey said in Direct Distribution vs Distribution with intermediary:

@Lindon said in Direct Distribution vs Distribution with intermediary:

will provide you with the entire list of customer details at the end of each sale event

Are you allowed to contact them with marketing emails?

they just send you the list - its up to you what you do with it...maybe start with a "thanks for purchasing..." email and see where you go from there.

[d.healey]

@Lindon

its up to you what you do with it

I'm not so sure. If you don't have a person's permission to send them marketing emails then you shouldn't be sending them. It could be that APD gets this permission for you from the customers of course, but I think they're US based and the rules are different there.

[Lindon]

@d-healey Well I would argue I'm NOT sending them marketing emails, just a "thank you " email and an option to opt in to marketing materials.

[d.healey]

@Lindon

Ah true, that would be a transactional email which is totally fine.