Alice.com and
OHL Partner to
GREAT
SUPPLY CHAIN
PARTNERS
Deliver CPG
Goods Direct to
Consumer
Alice.com appears to have cracked the code on how to successfully enable CPG manufacturers to sell
direct to consumers. OHL is the partner that keeps the orders flowing.
lice.com is an e-commerce
retailer with a unique business
model. It enables CPG manufacturers to sell basic household items like toilet paper and
toothpaste direct to the consumer. Free
shipping, automatic coupons and other
manufacturer-sponsored promotions, as
well as store-comparable pricing, entice
consumers to give the service a try, says
CFO David Slayton.
“Consumers are not willing to spend $18
for a bottle of Tide that they can buy in a
local Walmart for $10 just to have it shipped
to them, he says. “But if you can offer them
a better selection, low pricing and conven-
ience, then it all comes together.”
And not just for consumers. CPG manu-
facturers until now have been prevented
from capitalizing on the trend toward
direct-to-consumer sales. “Dell sells its com-
puters online and you can even buy Call-
A
away golf clubs directly, but you can’t buy
Huggies diapers directly from Kimberly-Clark or Colgate toothpaste directly from
Colgate,” says Slayton. It is not economically feasible to ship these products separately from each company, nor is the
consumer willing to shop for these products
at many different locations, he says.
At the same time, CPG manufacturers
have had to contend with a sharp rise in
competition from private labels. “
Manufacturers spend all kinds of money to drive
customers to the retail store and at that
moment of truth when the customer is actually making the purchase decision, the
retailer puts a private-label product right
next to the branded one—at a significant
discount and with no marketing dollars
spent. This is a big concern for those manufacturers,” Slayton says.
“We thought, what if we created a plat-
form where CPG manufacturers all could
offer their goods, which would go in a
shared box to the consumer? It would feel
like a retail store experience because the
consumer would be able to order a bottle of
Tide from Procter & Gamble and a box of
Huggies from Kimberly-Clark and a carton
of Splenda and put them all in one box with
shared shipping and fulfillment costs,” Slay-
ton says.
