Page 54 - AVN August 2016

by BRADYJANSEN
The Pleasure Center
As the market grows, distributors look for innovation—in many ways
used to buy every pleasure product
By his own admission, Larry Garland
that was released to distribute through
his Eldorado Trading Company. It was
practically necessary given the desire
to be an industry leader. But it just
doesn’t make sense anymore.
“There is too much duplication or pricing and
quality issues, so it is essential that we buy only
the best new products that hit the market,” says
create this business. Pipedream, Doc Johnson, CalExotics and Nasstoys have a very strong and loyal following
with our dealer base and the consumer.”
In addition to looking for unique feature sets in comparison to other offerings, Dantis notes that they also
want to make sure the brand has the resources to support the marketing and product launch with training
support for Williams Trading Co. retailers. They also look to make sure that the brand has a distinct channel plan
for the “adult channel,” with adequate margins to compete with online e-commerce offerings.
Dantis adds that they have a very pragmatic approach to focus with their manufacturers that support
the brand. This includes a full year merchandising calendar, new monthly introductions and e-learning for
customers. Williams Trading Co. focuses on building brands with good store velocity, and working with new
partners with unique concepts to help build distribution.
FEATURE
the CEO. “There has also been an increase in
the number of distributors. This has changed the
landscape of the market and eroded margins if you
try to compete on price alone. Eldorado aims to be
a thought leader in the industry, and strives to stay
ahead of the competition with our value-added
services, including same-day shipping, exceptional
customer service, extensive product knowledge
and sexual health and wellness education.”
While the number of products may seem
overwhelming, Garland notes that if you have a
good team of buyers who collaborate with the
sales team, they can sort the products they see
will sell from the duplicate products they already
carry. The most important thing to look for?
“Uniqueness above all else. Since there is so much
duplication in the marketplace, we get excited
when a new and innovative product comes out. A
bonus is when we find a company that shares our
guiding principles.”
But Garland admits that many pleasure product
manufacturers—while competing hard with
each other and providing plenty of products for
distributors to choose from—aren’t doing that
enough. “From our perspective, there is too
much duplication and not enough innovation
happening. Some manufacturers are re-releasing
the same products and just repackaging them with
different names. We have also noticed that there
are a few manufacturers that are competing with
distributors by selling direct.”
That’s one of the reasons motivating
distributors to develop their own product lines:
“They can appreciate larger margins, no brand
competition, not have to compete with our own
vendors to win business with larger chain stores,
the ability to control the factors of production, can
more easily follow a trend, to name a few. It also
helps diversify a distributor’s revenue source by
not having their eggs all in one basket.”
Williams Trading Co. has had its own brand
of Cloud 9 Novelties for more than 20 years, but
Director Sales and Marketing Scott H. Dantis
notes this is not a new trend. “Cloud 9 is offered
as a value-entry price point brand choice. Our
first priority is always to support and grow our
business with the key manufacturers that helped
“The distributor model is constantly changing due to the landscape of the adult novelty business. We focus
on our partnerships with our long-term brands by offering new programs, including e-learning and a new WTU
Store Builder program for all brick-and-mortar retailers. Our focus is to have the widest range of products in
stock for quick shipment to our retail partners and offer the best service levels with training for the store. In
today’s world, a distributor cannot just stock products; we work closely with our vendors to offer value-added
services for our partners.”
Dantis says they help their adult customers by offering WTUStoreBuilder.com, a free turnkey e-commerce
store builder program, to sell 24/7. This new concept allows customers to compete with Amazon with a data
feed of more than 19,000 items—and drop shipment direct to their own customers. Williams Trading’s other
primary focus is in-store training. It provides localized training events, working with its manufacturer partners
(Dantis notes they are the only adult distributor offering an e-learning program with more than 34,000 certified
trainings to date).
Since there is so much duplication in the
marketplace, we get excited when a new
and innovative product comes out.
—Larry Garland, CEO, Eldorado Trading Company
“
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