Manufacturer Selling Direct to Retail: How to Run a Direct Sales Network

When a manufacturer sells directly to retailers, no dealer sits in the middle. You set the price the shop sees, you learn which outlets actually sell your product, and you keep the margin a dealer would have taken. In exchange, you take on everything the dealer did: visiting shops, taking orders, delivering, collecting money and carrying stock. Done carelessly, direct selling turns into a costly, chaotic operation. Done well, it becomes a source of market intelligence competitors cannot see.

When direct makes sense

• Your outlet density in an area is high enough that visits are efficient.
• Your product range is broad enough that an order is worth a visit.
• You want brand control: display, freshness, pricing.
• You need data about which shops sell what.
• You can manage credit and collections yourself.

It makes less sense where outlets are sparse, orders are small, or distances are long. Blend models: direct in dense areas, dealers elsewhere. See the super-stockist and dealer model for the other half.

The direct operation in five parts

Part	Question to answer
Coverage	Which outlets, how often, who visits?
Pricing	What does each outlet type pay?
Order and delivery	Who books, who delivers, how fast?
Collections	When is money due and who chases it?
Stock	Where is it held and how is it counted?

Coverage and team structure

1. List and map your outlets.
2. Divide them into beats a person can finish in a day.
3. Grade outlets by value so high-value shops get more visits.
4. Decide your team layers: salesperson, supervisor, area manager.
5. Set daily and monthly targets.

Read retail outlet visit planning for FMCG for beat design details.

Pricing and schemes

Keep price lists simple. One list per outlet type avoids a fog of exceptions. When you offer a scheme, define it by what the shop must achieve and what it receives, and record the outcome. A scheme nobody can verify becomes an argument.

Delivery models

• Pre-sell, then deliver: salesperson books the order; a delivery team follows. Good for broad ranges.
• Van sell: the vehicle carries stock and sells on the spot. Good for fast-moving lines but needs tight stock control.
• Hybrid: van for top sellers, pre-sell for the rest.

Whichever you choose, record proof of delivery: receiver, time and location.

Collections

Direct sales invite credit, because shops expect it. Set terms per outlet type, fix due days at dispatch, and review the aging statement weekly. Offer easy payment options, such as eSewa, Khalti and Fonepay alongside cash and cheque. Read how to collect payments on time.

Stock

Direct selling pulls stock out of your warehouse in many small pieces. Watch low-stock levels, oldest-batch-first picking and returns. See how to prevent stock-outs at retailers.

How to run it in gamitrack

1. Choose direct supply mode. Orders are placed by the officer for the shop and fulfilled by your company.
2. Add outlets as parties with GPS location and type. New outlets from the field go to a manager for approval.
3. Create routes with ordered stops and assign them to salespeople.
4. Run the day. Start and end the day with GPS, visit outlets within geofences, add photos, and record order or no-order reasons, closing stock and market notes.
5. Book orders. Orders are priced from price lists; VAT applies only on taxable lines. Dispatch is all-or-nothing.
6. Invoice. Tax invoices use gap-free numbering per fiscal year and can be printed.
7. Deliver and collect. Assign a delivery person who records proof of delivery; collect payment on delivery or later, with FIFO allocation.
8. Measure. Monthly officer targets with daily pace, an end-of-day summary of calls, productive calls and kg sold, and a performers ranking.

If you sell biscuits, bakery or packaged foods, see bakery and confectionery or FMCG and packaged food.

A hypothetical example

Suppose Example Biscuits (an invented name) decides to sell direct in a city. It maps outlets, creates six beats, and hires two delivery drivers. Each salesperson visits their beat twice a week, books orders and records closing stock on shelf. Drivers deliver the next day, collecting payments where terms allow. After a month, the manager sees that two beats are well over their target pace and one is far behind. Rather than blame the salesperson, the manager reviews the visit data, finds the beat spans two separate bazaars with heavy traffic between them, and splits it.

Pitfalls

• Hiring before you have defined beats.
• Offering credit with no limits.
• Letting salespeople create duplicate outlets.
• Delivering without proof.
• Treating every outlet equally.

Direct sales checklist

• Outlet list mapped with locations.
• Beats and owners assigned.
• Price lists per outlet type.
• Delivery model chosen.
• Collection process agreed.
• Weekly review scheduled.

Measuring whether direct selling pays

Direct selling has costs that dealers would otherwise carry: salaries, transport, delivery staff, credit risk and stock holding. Before you extend it, build a simple picture for each beat:

Measure	Where it comes from
Orders and sales value per beat	Order history
Visits made against plan	Route and visit records
Productive calls as a share of calls	End-of-day summaries
Collections against due	Aging statement
Delivery cost per drop	Your own transport costs

Compare the margin you keep by selling direct with the cost of serving the beat. Where a beat does not pay, consider shifting its low-value outlets to a wholesaler or dealer while keeping the high-value ones direct. This mix is common and sensible.

Keeping the team honest and motivated

Direct teams work with less supervision than an office team, so clear targets and fair measurement matter. Set monthly targets with a daily pace, share rankings openly, and use commission rules that reward the behaviours you want. Review flagged visits calmly: a short visit may be a good one if the shop was fast, and a visit outside the geofence may be a mapping error. Fix the data before you blame the person.

Next steps

Pilot one city or area, track visits, orders, deliveries and collections together, then scale. See the pricing page for plan options.