Learn how manufacturers can sell directly to consumers without breaking operations. Explore the real platform requirements for hybrid B2B + DTC.
By Miva | January 22, 2026
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Reduced shelf space availability and increased competition for placement have largely been driven by retail consolidation. As brick-and-mortar operations decline, manufacturers are recognizing that direct-to-consumer (D2C) channels offer an alternative path to market. This alternative path allows for greater pricing control, messaging, inventory decisions, and customer relationships. For manufacturers, the real question is not whether D2C works, but whether the ecommerce platform can handle manufacturing complexity without breaking operations. Miva is built for that mid-market and enterprise reality: high-SKU catalogs, hybrid B2B + D2C models, account-level pricing, and integration needs that basic storefront tools struggle to support.
U.S. digital D2C sales grew 45.5% from 2019 to 2020, with projections reaching $175 billion by 2023, indicating that the market supports the shift. Currently, many manufacturing brands are actively evaluating D2C strategies as part of their growth planning.
Studies indicate that 81% of shoppers plan to purchase from at least one direct-to-consumer brand within the next five years, suggesting that consumers are receptive to the shift towards the new model. For manufacturers, this shift creates an opportunity to strengthen brand equity, improve margins, and gain insight into customer preferences.
The challenge, however, is execution, as 70-95% of business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce initiatives fail to achieve their desired outcomes, according to research from Revelation Labs that surveyed manufacturers and distributors. The failure rate is driven by operational execution, not by lack of demand. Companies can sometimes choose platforms that cannot handle the complexity of their actual business, and this causes both short-term and long-term issues for them.
The traditional supply chain model is as follows: manufacturers sell to distributors or wholesalers, who sell to retailers, who sell to consumers. Each of the aforementioned intermediaries takes a margin and controls customer relationships.
The manufacturer-to-consumer (M2C) model eliminates these layers: manufacturers sell directly to customers, retaining control over pricing, brand experience, customer data, and margins. Furthermore, many manufacturers use hybrid models, allowing them to sell both wholesale and direct from the same operational infrastructure.
Here's an example: manufacturer evaluates D2C, identifies market opportunity, selects a platform that looks adequate, and launches. For the first 3-4 months, everything appears functional. However, by month 6-8, operational problems emerge: inventory doesn't sync reliably across channels, pricing inconsistencies create channel conflict, fulfillment workflows break down, and the team spends more time fixing data problems than processing orders.
By the 12th month, the team realizes they chose the wrong platform. They will proceed in one of two ways: either they limp forward with a broken system or undertake costly platforming that disrupts operations.
As a manufacturer, understanding operational requirements is a crucial prerequisite to platform selection.
Inventory Synchronization Across Multiple Channels
If a manufacturer supports both wholesale and direct-to-consumer sales, inventory needs to sync across both channels in real-time. When a customer buys directly, that inventory needs to update immediately so wholesale partners see accurate stock levels. When a wholesale order ships, direct inventory needs to reflect the change. When this fails, overselling happens.
Pricing Complexity Across Customer Types
Retail pricing is simple, one price for all customers, but manufacturing pricing is complex, as multiple pricing models have to be managed simultaneously:
Platforms often can't manage these rules, so teams have to use manual methods. Pricing updates get distributed manually via email, pricing inconsistencies emerge, wholesale partners discover they pay the same as direct customers, and margins erode without visibility. Understanding operational requirements is crucial because it determines whether a team can manage multi-channel sales profitably.
Data Fragmented Across Multiple Systems
Many mid-market manufacturers operate across multiple interconnected systems, ERP, CRM, PIM, warehouse and order management, accounting, email platforms, and ecommerce, and those connections can become fragile over time. In situations where these systems do not integrate, data can become unreliable across operations. For example, inventory counts can differ between systems, product information might exist in multiple versions with conflicting specs, customer data might be duplicated, and orders can take over a calendar day to sync from ecommerce to ERP, delaying fulfillment. Fragmentation in digital systems often kills operational efficiency and creates fulfillment delays.
User Adoption and Organizational Change
User adoption is a common failure point in software implementations, and manufacturers feel this across sales, operations, customer service, and finance. For manufacturers, this manifests across multiple functions:
Irrespective of technical capability, a platform won't deliver value if an organization does not align around D2C adoption. Organizations implementing formal change management, like clear communication of strategic rationale, incentive realignment, structured training, and ongoing support, are significantly more likely to succeed.
Operational realities dictate the level of platform sophistication a manufacturer needs. This is where many manufacturers misstep. Miva is built for companies that are past “simple D2C,” but not served well by platforms that require constant patchwork to support pricing rules, hybrid channels, and integrations.
Tier 1: Simple Operations
Tier 1 manufacturers typically have under 500 SKUs, sell direct-to-consumer only (no wholesale), run uniform pricing, ship from a single warehouse, do not require ERP integration, and process under 50 orders per day. In this scenario, a basic storefront platform can be sufficient, and it is ill-advised to overspend on unnecessary sophistication.
Tier 2: Mid-Market Operations (Most Manufacturers)
Profile:
Tier 2 manufacturers usually manage 500–5,000 SKUs with variants, support both wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels, maintain customer-specific pricing for some segments, operate multiple warehouse locations, require basic ERP integration, and handle roughly 100–500 orders per day across channels.
Most manufacturing companies operate in this space. Consequently, this is where most failures happen. Manufacturers often need real-time inventory sync across channels, pricing rules that prevent channel conflict, and order routing logic that handles different fulfillment workflows. Platforms built specifically for manufacturing commerce, such as Miva, are designed to support these requirements natively rather than relying on layered apps or fragile custom workarounds.
Financial Reality
Financial reality at this level is usually significant because design and development—plus integrations—can quickly move into six figures depending on requirements and complexity. Net Solutions, for example, describes outsourced B2B ecommerce design and development ranging from $50,000 to $200,000+, depending on scope, with integration and migration factors affecting the total.
Platform selection at this level is crucial. Should a manufacturer choose a platform that is too small, they are likely to hit operational walls around month 8. Conversely, too large a platform will result in overpaying for unused capabilities.
Tier 3: Complex Operations
Tier 3 manufacturers often operate with 5,000+ SKUs and complex configurations, sell across multiple channels and buyer types (end-user, wholesale, distributor, internal sales), and manage multiple pricing models (contract, volume, customer-class). They typically require sophisticated fulfillment logic (multiple warehouses, order routing, drop-shipping) and deep ERP integration (e.g., NetSuite, SAP, Oracle). At this level, ecommerce platforms function as operational hubs that orchestrate inventory flow, pricing application, order routing, and synchronization with the ERP. Panorama Consulting Group’s ERP benchmarking reports show that enterprise software projects can be expensive. One recent report lists a median project cost of $450,000, highlighting how quickly large-scale operational systems accumulate cost and complexity.
Before committing to a sophisticated platform, manufacturers must assess whether they genuinely need that level of capability.
Manufacturers that meet the following criteria probably do not require a highly sophisticated platform:
In these cases, investing in mid-market or enterprise platforms wastes capital.
When platform sophistication is likely required:
Most manufacturers underestimate total implementation costs because licensing is rarely the main expense; design, development, integrations, data migration, and training drive the budget. Published estimates for B2B ecommerce builds commonly range from roughly $50,000 to $200,000+, depending on scope, integrations, and customization, and broader B2B ecommerce implementations are often cited in the ~$70,000 to $250,000 range.
Choosing an undersized platform often results in re-platforming soon. By that point, manufacturers often have custom integrations, workarounds, and technical debt. Re-platforming costs 2-3 times the original investment and disrupts operations; this is why the initial assessment is crucial.
Q: What are the real costs of implementation and integration?
A: Platform licensing is only part of the cost. Integration, connecting ecommerce to ERP, CRM, PIM, and other systems, is often a major driver of total spend. Published estimates for B2B ecommerce builds commonly range from roughly $50,000 to $200,000+, depending on scope, integrations, and customization, and broader implementations are often cited in the ~$70,000 to $250,000 range.
Q: What happens if we outgrow our platform in 18 months?
A: This is a common issue, as manufacturers might launch on what seems adequate, but successful growth will lead to inevitable operational constraints. Replatforming at that point is costly and disrupts operations. Choosing a platform sized for a multi-year growth trajectory rather than year-one needs prevents this.
Q: When should we start simple vs. going sophisticated from the beginning?
A: The answer depends on a manufacturer’s current operational complexity, not their long-term vision. If they have hybrid channels, complex pricing, and ERP integration requirements today, starting simple will fail. If they are doing straightforward D2C with standard pricing, starting simple is appropriate.
Q: How do we know if the current platform can scale?
A: Ask the following questions: Can it sync inventory in real-time across channels? Can it manage customer-specific pricing rules? Can it integrate with our ERP system? Can it handle our projected order volume without degradation? Can it support our product configuration requirements? If “no” is the answer to more than one, the current platform will constrain growth.
Q: How important is change management to implementation success?
A: Organizations implementing formal change management strategies are significantly more likely to meet their transformation targets.
Miva's platform is designed to address the operational complexity manufacturers face. It supports high-SKU catalogs, account-specific pricing, configurable products, real-time inventory synchronization, and ERP integration, the capabilities that Tier 2 and Tier 3 manufacturers require.
For manufacturers in the mid-market or complex category, Miva handles the operational requirements that cause most D2C implementations to fail: inventory syncing across channels, customer-class pricing rules, order routing workflows, and backend system integration. This ensures consistency across wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels while simultaneously simplifying operational management.
Creating Successful DTC Operations Requires Planning
Manufacturer D2C ecommerce represents a legitimate revenue opportunity. Market demand is substantial, growth rates are favorable, and technology is accessible. Success, however, depends on an honest assessment of operational complexity and selecting an appropriate platform.
Some manufacturers with simple profiles can succeed on basic platforms while others with complex operations require sophisticated infrastructure. Most manufacturers fall between these extremes and need platforms that handle hybrid channels, complex pricing, real-time inventory synchronization, and ERP integration without requiring permanent IT staff. Flexibility for scaling is key here.
Before evaluating specific platforms, manufacturers must understand their operational reality: How many SKUs now and in the future? Which channels do they support? What pricing complexity do they manage? How deep is their ERP integration? What is the team's technical capability?
These answers should drive platform selection, not vendor marketing or competitive comparison.
Done correctly, D2C is profitable and strategically valuable. It requires treating platform selection as the serious operational decision it is.
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Miva offers a flexible and adaptable ecommerce platform that evolves with businesses and allows them to drive sales, maximize average order value, cut overhead costs, and increase revenue. Miva has been helping businesses realize their ecommerce potential for over 20 years and empowering retail, wholesale, and direct-to-consumer sellers across all industries to transform their business through ecommerce.
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