Setting up an e-commerce business as a sole proprietorship or with a business partner is far from an easy adventure. There are many moving parts, and maintaining a positive trajectory requires an ongoing, full-time effort.

Even the most well-intentioned leaders can easily miss details and let things slip through the cracks that hinder rapid growth.

Yann started a company after working in product development and software engineering at large enterprises. He brings direct-to-consumer brands and leverage proprietary experience to power the growth of those brands.

Yann’s client portfolio includes:

* Amazin’ Aces – develops pickleball sets and rackets

* ColorIt – produces quality art supplies and publishes adult coloring books.

* Hudson Durable Goods — making aprons and bags for male creators.

* Patient Aid — manufactures medical scales and lifting slings for moving immobile patients.

* Amazon’s best seller

All of these brands have one thing in common; they sell directly to consumers on Amazon and through their own websites.

In acquiring these companies and starting to address the logistics issues surrounding their development, Yann faced some challenges, and they turned to Mirazen to help.

 

Challenge

There are three challenges Yann wants to overcome:

1. Need to systematize design and manufacturing solutions
2. Reduce cost of sales (COGS) to control financials
3. Capacity constraints and rapid production for some of their customers’ major SKUs.

 

Systematization of Design and Manufacturing Solutions

The company is facing resource challenges related to the availability of capital and the ease of the product creation cycle. Yann is requires a cost-focused partner to help.

“Finding resources to do a project like this is very difficult, I’m more focused on top-line than cost,” Yann said. “Products have a life cycle, and Mirazen gives us an innovative way to hire designers without having to use our resources. “

Finding a way to confidently navigate the product creation process from design to manufacture is not easy. Along the way, there are many roadblocks that can slow it down.

The partnership with Mirazen helps Yann to systematize the design and manufacturing solutions they provide to their clients.

“I could have a team doing this, but I probably wouldn’t hire a team to do that,” Yann said.

Reduce cost of goods sold

Reducing the cost of goods sold is the number one goal of any DTC-focused company. Yann’s client brand was facing this problem and turned to Mirazen to help reduce COGS and increase profit margins accordingly.

Capacity constraints for major SKUs

Yann and his team also faced capacity constraints on some major SKUs. Lost sales occurred as production was not fast enough to meet demand.

Delivery times have also been pushed back, making timely fulfillment of customer orders a challenge. Progress stalled, while Yann’s team was repeatedly told: “It can be done in a week.”

While visiting the factory, Yann found that the factory was much smaller than expected. At this point, he turned to Mirazen for help, hoping to get things back on track.

Beyond the functional issues of producing products and protecting profits, it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get addicted to browsing Alibaba for the next great opportunity to improve their product.

Falling down Alibaba’s “rabbit hole”

China-owned Alibaba Group, one of the world’s largest tech companies, is involved in various holdings but focuses on e-commerce.

Many DTC and e-commerce brands use Alibaba as a sourcing marketplace to develop ideas for improving existing products, or to find products to buy cheaply and sell online for a decent profit.

In our interview, Yann talked about how easy it is to fall down Alibaba’s “rabbit hole,” saying, “I could spend my life falling down the rabbit hole of Alibaba and still not get what I need to accomplish. “

Shifting focus from Alibaba to innovation helps to systematize the creative process and Yann’s customers.

 

Solution

The partnership with Mirazen opens new doors for Yann to help them streamline operations, reduce COGS, minimize capacity issues, and advance their time-to-market.

The variety of solutions and positive word-of-mouth Mirazen offers to customers made the decision easy for Yann.

“Mirazen has many value propositions as you climb the product creation ladder with relatively little up-front cost,” Yann said. “We consider them as our strategic product development arm.“

Yann believes that research innovations that help entrepreneurs find new products to sell to insiders will be the next big opportunity.

“If Mirazen can do this digitally, it’s a dream for people like me. This kind of innovation is where we’re starting to work together.”

 

Result

According to Yann, developing a strong product line isn’t always about adding new ideas, it’s about “making what you already have better to reduce the cost of goods sold”.

Here are some highlights of Yann’s collaboration with Mirazen:

*The former owner of Amazin’ Aces pickleball sourced from a supplier that Yann and his team were dissatisfied with. “We knew there was a middleman, so we came to Mirazen to find a new manufacturer.“

*Young and his team worked with Mirazen to develop a new packaging design for Amazin’ Aces and a ball backpack to make the gaming device more portable and easy to carry.

*Hudson Durables hoped to keep the cost of the product below its target price. We helped them buy parts from different suppliers to be more competitive and assembled them in our warehouse. During the assembly process, we checked the products one by one. If there were small defects, it would be addressed. If the products had serious quality problems, we would return them to the factory.

*Finally, the collaboration on ColorIt’s new case helped the brand enter the market with a fresh look.

The future is bright for Yann as they look forward to helping more customers enter the market with new, improved products, ready to make an impact in a variety of niche markets, while protecting COGS and the integrity of the production process.

Through working with Mirazen, Yann has been able to decrease COGS by 40-50% on SKUs, partnered with new factories in China to triple production output, and source new factories to diversify their supply chain and circumvent their tariff issue.

How can we help your company do this?

Mirazen helps Amazon sellers, brand builders and growing small businesses confidently navigate the product creation process. Click here to learn more about our process and how we can help you develop and bring your next great product to market!