AllBirds Needs Distribution Not Resale

AllBirds Needs Distribution Not Resale

Yesterday Allbirds announced that it launched a new resale program, powered by Trove.

Let's get beyond the PR for a moment and focus on the profit.

Do we think Allbirds is saying that our $100 shoe is too high-end for consumers, we need a $60 entry point?

This seems crazy. Let's dismiss this.

or ... We don't care about profit.

You buy the $20 shoe from consumers, sell it for $60.

That's $40 left. Let's say 10% overhead, that's $36 left. Let's say $5 per item handling, that's $31. You need to ship it now, potentially twice? Let's say $15. Let's hope the consumer is in a store, oh wait, they only have 3 locations for this trade-in.

Now your net is $15/shoe.

Probably there are costs I'm leaving out. That's a lot of shoes to make an impact on their bottom line.

Which consumers outside of Tri-State and LA/SF truly know about AllBirds?

Hardly any. And I say this owning a few pairs :)

AllBirds big problem by far is distribution, and slowly opening their own stores is not fast enough when they are better alternatives like being in Walmart or Target. If they were owned by private equity right now, you don't think they would be in Target like tomorrow?

#allbirds

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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