Building your brand: choose sales channels before expanding

Your brand is taking shape. A shop offers to stock your products, someone suggests launching an online store, and you are also considering your own retail space. These are not three boxes to tick. Each option changes how you sell, the work you need to organise and what your business actually retains from an order.

For a brand creator in Morocco, choosing sales channels means choosing an initial commercial system you can manage. Before trying to be everywhere, establish which channel serves which customer and on what terms. This approach concerns developing your own offer, not finding a franchise to buy.

Start with a specific buying situation

Describe the moment when your customer wants to buy: do they need to feel a fabric, get advice, compare variations or simply reorder a familiar item? The right channel for an initial discovery is not necessarily the right one for a repeat purchase. A social media presence can introduce the brand without handling payment, handing over the product or providing after-sales support.

Ask people who fit your target audience about their last comparable purchase. Where did they complete it? What would have been missing elsewhere? Keep track of stated reasons and observed behaviour without presenting a few conversations as a representative study of the Moroccan market. You are looking for a hypothesis to test, not a justification for opening every channel.

Describe each channel’s commercial role

Words such as “partner” or “digital” do not explain who does the work. For each option, write down who sells to the end customer, collects payment, prepares the order and responds when a product is missing. The answer depends on the actual arrangements, not just the channel’s name.

• Your own shop: you organise presentation, advice and selling. You also need to plan opening hours, staffing and how enquiries are handled when the manager is away.
• Your online store: the product page must help people choose without a salesperson beside them. Preparation, payment, delivery and support are part of the model, even when some tasks are outsourced.
• An independent reseller: clarify what they purchase or handle, what information they receive and how problems are reported. A reseller’s initial order is not evidence of regular consumer sales.
• A marketplace: check the platform’s role, fees, payment arrangements and operational requirements in its current terms. Do not assume it handles everything or provides access to all customer information.

Build a channel-specific financial worksheet

Two orders for the same product may require different resources. Add the work the channel actually involves to the product costs: selling time, individual or batch preparation, packaging, payment fees, any commission, transport you cover, and observed returns or rework. Separate launching the channel from running it day to day.

With a reseller, the public selling price is not automatically your revenue. In direct sales, apparently retaining more revenue does not mean the sale costs less to fulfil. Use the method for setting prices and examining costs per sale, on a comparable basis and with your accounting professional’s help where needed.

Include cash timing: when do you pay for preparation and when do you actually receive the money? A channel can look attractive per order while requiring an advance your business has not planned for. Keep unconfirmed payment times visible rather than replacing them with a reassuring average.

A fictional example: a cushion-cover brand

Imagine a brand offering cushion covers in several textures. This example is neither an MFV client nor a forecast. On its own website, the brand can show colour combinations, but needs to explain dimensions and help people understand materials remotely. A multibrand shop lets customers touch the product, with less space to tell the story of the entire collection.

An initial trial could involve a short selection with a reseller while the website keeps a clearly defined repeat-purchase offer. The question is not which channel is superior: it is what each contributes, what it costs and which information is still missing. A shopkeeper’s order followed by stock that does not move is not evidence of end-customer demand.

Remove grey areas between channels

A customer discovers a product in a shop, then asks a question on your website. Who answers? An item sold by a reseller becomes unavailable: who updates the information? Discuss these situations before launch without promising that everyone involved shares the same tools.

Prepare a common information pack: references, verified features, authorised visuals and a contact for requests outside the agreed scope. Link this work to your customer journey and handovers. Sales and returns terms, and agreements with independent businesses, need appropriate review. This guide does not provide a contract or a pricing policy to impose on them.

Test a question, not another presence

Choose a limited scope: a product selection, one partner or a delivery area, with an identifiable period and owner. Define what would make you continue, adjust or stop: a misunderstood offer, preparation demands beyond the team’s capacity, an unexpected cost or insufficient information about final sales.

Track enquiries, accepted orders, fulfilled orders, cancellations and replenishment separately. An enquiry is not a sale; a repeat stock order may be encouraging without establishing the channel’s profitability on its own. Compare explicit periods and conditions, not a promotional launch with an ordinary month.

Your decision brief before adding a channel

• The customer, buying situation and precise purpose of the channel.
• The products included and those deliberately left out of the trial.
• Who sells, collects payment, holds stock and handles problems.
• Costs, payment timing and resources still to be confirmed.
• Available observations, their limitations and decision criteria.
• The review date and conditions for any wider rollout.

A brief that concludes “not yet” can be useful: it reveals what remains to be done before committing the brand. MFV supports concept modelling and preparation for expansion. Explore our support for structuring your own brand; choosing a network model comes after clarifying the business model, not instead of it.

Frequently asked questions

Should we launch the website and resellers together?

Not necessarily. Starting with a manageable scope makes observation easier. A second channel needs a clear purpose and available resources, rather than a fear of missing out.

Is a reseller a franchisee?

No, the terms are not interchangeable. Review the proposed relationship and commitments with suitable professionals before choosing their framework. Selling a product to a retailer does not by itself establish a franchise network.

Which channel guarantees the best margins?

None in principle. The outcome depends on your offer, the tasks undertaken, costs and actual conditions. A comparison without these elements cannot support a conclusion.

For general background on direct and indirect distribution, see Bpifrance Création’s distribution resource. It is French methodological guidance, not Moroccan regulation.

Illustrative photo: Bench Accounting, Unsplash, cropped under the free licence. It does not depict an MFV team, client or project.