Exploring new territories, retailers branch out as manufacturers to stake new claims and feed their passion.
Mobile Electronics May 2016 Issue, May 25, 2016 -- The simple formula of retailers operating only their stores as part of their business plan is becoming a strategy of another economic era. Today, retailers are diversifying their options from not only doing installations and selling sound products, but to operating training organizations and launching their own branded products.
What is driving this new way of doing business is a passion for the industry and the hope of reinventing and reinvigorating one’s business and oneself, as well as giving back to the 12-volt world.
The Right Fit
Back in 2011, Perfectionist Auto Sound, based in Anchorage, Alaska won the coveted Mobile Electronics Retailer of the Year award. According to owner John Schwartz, it was this honor that put the retailer on the map along with being the number one Compustar retailer in the world. The next year when Schwartz taught a business class at Mobile Solutions in Tempe, Ariz. a few guys from Australia were there.
“First question they asked was why they didn’t have Compustar in Australia,” Schwartz said. “Good idea, I told them, let’s make it happen. Daniel Gardner, owner of a retail shop called Carbon Car Systems, which is right outside of Sydney, and I talked about it and worked on it. We formed Compustar Australia.”
It was Gardner who discovered a sound deadening product which he was successfully selling in his shop. The product, branded under the Carbon Car Systems name, was intriguing to Schwartz. “It was a beautiful product,” Schwartz said. “And I wanted to do the same thing for Perfectionist—just bring it in and brand it under our name. The only problem was no one was going to buy it because it would have our name on it. Why would they want our name on it when they would rather have their own name on it?”
After discussions, Gardner and Schwartz knew that to sell it to other retailers, the product had to be global. That is how SoundSkins USA was born.
With a global plan and a product that every shop could comfortably sell, it was time to bring it here to the States. Today, SoundSkins USA is a full production house. “We have a distribution point in Dallas so we can ship to everyone in the country,” Schwartz said. “We’ve gotten a lot of traction.”
Not only is it easy for retailers to place orders and get product, but since it is a rep-less model without the need to pay commissions, Schwartz can keep the costs low.
Read the complete story HERE.
