of our Alibaba websiteBecause of nutshell's commitment to leveraging world wide sales channels over the years we have forged relationships with two of the planets biggest online supply chain channels.
While Amazon serves a growing European customer base, with primary focus on the States through a constantly increasing number of distribution centres, Alibaba has long been recognised as one of the powerhouses driving an increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumer market.
A coveted Vendor status that is now almost 17 years old has enabled us to learn, and jump through the Hoops, from EAN barcodes to sophisticated ASIN catalogue requirements, providing a small but steady supply of locally made product into Amazon's American supply chain.
We have attempted to embrace similar codifying technologies to supply Alibaba, without any notable success. The hijacking of an Alibaba portal early on in our relationship didn't help and although we eventually came back on track the experiences severely damaged our credibility and our confidence.
Although Alibaba went above and beyond in their efforts to assist us to maximise our prized Gold Supplier status the damage has been done.
Coupled with an increasingly expensive annual membership, and difficulties in effectively presenting our products on the platform, we regrettably pulled the pin several years ago.
Of course, there is always the fear of the unknown; that if Alibaba, or Amazon took off as effective sales platforms we would be forced to transfer our manufacturing offshore to meet a increasingly competitive market, even for the upmarket, quality and long life products we currently manufacture in New Zealand.
Adopting a viable growth scenario involves long-term logistics and empathetic financial planning.
It's said that entrepreneurs and those who forge new paths often suffer the slings and arrows of those who refuse to see beyond their own myopic vision.
Hopefully attitudes have changed and there are now supporters who are prepared to step up to the plate and help us achieve our oft stated goal of providing the burgeoning global mobile market with products that exceed our customers' expectations.
If you believe you can assist us, step up and make contract.
Email sales@nutshell.co.nz
Thanks.