Supplycompass

Market

Target market

Our customers include any brands who are looking to find international manufacturers.
This may include those that:

- Don’t have good connections in international manufacturing.
- Don’t have the knowledge of how to get a product from concept to finished product.
- Are looking for a robust supply chain including logistics capability.
- Have little experience in creating and managing contracts.
- Lack the buying power for good prices.
- Lack the time and resources to source and manage a manufacturer.

In practice this means we are targeting the following customers:

- Start-ups looking to make their first product line.
- Small businesses looking to move to international suppliers.
- Large corporates looking for bespoke merchandise.
- Medium - Large companies looking to increase supply chain efficiency.
- Buying departments of established companies looking for more efficient sourcing paths.

We have started in India and plan to grow here first, before expanding the model into other countries. Our manufacturers fall into the following categories:

- Fantastic manufacturers who aren’t being found by customers via traditional routes.
- Manufacturers who want to attract more international clients.
- Ethically aware and/or environmentally sustainable manufacturers.
- High end manufacturers who want to stand out from the crowd.

Our product target areas are:

- Textiles (apparel, leather goods, soft furnishings).
- Small consumer products (plastics, metal items, tool and dyes).
- Larger consumer products (furniture, printing).

Characteristics of target market

Using a bottom up approach:
There are 250,000 UK small businesses in wholesale and retail. If we capture twenty percent and assume two £30k orders/year, our total addressable market is approx £300M.

Using a top down approach:
UK imports in relevant sectors total £56bn. If we capture 10%, our total addressable market is approximately £560m.

These numbers are for the UK only. As we expand into Europe and the US, these numbers dramatically increase. For the above numbers, we have assumed revenue is ten percent of order size. This is consistent with current sourcing agents.

Our current target market either has to go it alone which rarely results in favourable outcomes or has to approach the large sourcing agents who do not cater well for this end of the market. This is because they have an entirely manual (people-based) infrastructure.

We believe there are currently a huge number of products that are not reaching the market because they fail to find a suitable manufacturer at an affordable price. If we can create an opportunity for these businesses to succeed, we will open up a whole new sector of the market.

Marketing strategy

Strategy.
Our acquisition strategy is based on leveraging the latest technologies to help us identify, educate, acquire and nurture our leads through to point of sale. We test constantly, learn quickly from mistakes and capitalise on opportunities.

Industry Events
• Tradeshows
• Design Forums
• Start Up Meet ups
• Networking

SME Promotions.
• Promotional product giveaways – e.g. marketing departments looking for short run production.
• Free (online) workshops on how to get things manufactured

Design schools.
• A competition for students, with the winner getting their first product run manufactured for them
• Promotions and discount codes for students
• Design ambassadors to promote Supplycompass within their social and professional circles
• Host events and talks on manufacturing sourcing and production

Social Media campaigns.
• Educate – About materials and manufacturing processes.
• Inspire – potential clients with amazing products already made.
• Document - current customer journeys.
• Advertising partnerships with key magazines and websites.
• Writing articles for websites and magazines.
• Ambassadors for FashionRevolution.

Logo placement.
• We will put a Supplycompass ‘C’ label in all our clients’ product. This label will be a sign of responsible sourcing for our customers and a way for us to raise awareness in our brand. This label will be a sign of responsible sourcing for our customers and a way for us to raise awareness in our brand.
• Advertising within co-working spaces
• Host events and talks on manufacturing sourcing and production

Targeted collaborations with complimentary businesses.
• NFP influencers in promoting transparency in the supply chain
• Crowdfunding platforms and angel investor collaboration - become the trusted development partner

Competition strategy

We believe the solutions provided by Alibaba, IndiaMart and other directory style platforms are failing. Our offering is made extremely defensible because manufacturer relationships cannot be made overnight.

We know and understand that the only way to create this platform is from the bottom up. This is because current online directories contain huge amounts of untrustworthy data about (often bogus) manufacturers.

By creating an information and knowledge rich hub, built into an augmented online self-service platform we intend to become the number 1 solution for manufacturer sourcing.

There are significant barriers to entry listed below.

- Manufacturing contacts and knowledge.
- Access to designers and illustrators.
- Clustering of orders to provide buying power.
- Extended supply chain capabilities – e.g. logistics, contracts etc.

Key to our offering is being able to help small businesses who do not have the contacts, knowledge or set-up to be able to do many of the things that we can.