If you’ve spent much time taking note of the craftsmen doing interesting things in Fort Worth, there’s a good chance you’ve come across the work of Daniel Wright and W Durable Goods.

His store feels like a paradise of nostalgia – a wonderfully odd mix of Woody Guthrie and General Patton, a WWII propaganda poster featuring the likes of Appalachian cattle wranglers and Texan tobacco farmers. WDG truly is one of a kind. Truth is, this is an operation that you just don’t see every day.

When we say that our model relies largely on working with brands that have their core business down but just need a hand in getting themselves noticed in the market, WDG is the epitome of what we’re talking about. They get to focus on what they’re truly passionate about, and we get to focus on making sure the rest of the world sees their greatness.

The Genesis

The initial need that the owner, Daniel, put in front of us was the creative execution of WDG’s new catalog. After talking for a while about how business was going — as well as conducting additional discovery on the catalog — we quickly began to realize that, although the store’s sales were respectable and its brand awareness was quickly growing, WDG was missing out on an enormous opportunity for growth. Its e-commerce website was selling next to nothing. Given the nature of the product and the current online shopping landscape, this was shocking. WDG’s online sales should be eclipsing those of its brick-and-mortar location.

Needless to say, we were eager to dig in and find the core of the problem. It didn’t take long to understand what the issue was. The online shopping experience was falling short, and no real effort was being put into driving the right people to the products.

This is the case for so many folks in Daniel’s position. So much time and energy has to be put into creating such a magnificent product, not to mention overseeing the constant evolution of the store and leading the ever-growing team of sewing-machine wizards. You guessed it: Daniel and WDG just needed a partner they could trust to take this aspect of the business off their hands and make it great.

The Plan

Here’s what we decided to do:

• We’ll create a new E-commerce solution including planning, design, photography, development – absolutely everything that goes into making a great experience.
• All of the online marketing (social media, email, search) will be supplied by Alcorn.
• Alcorn will receive a certain percentage of online sales until the agreed-upon amount of agency fees is paid. Once that amount is realized, the percentage drops to a much lower amount on sales thereafter.
• If the sales don’t happen, Alcorn makes nothing.
• If the sales don’t happen, WDG owes nothing.

Obviously, there is a lot on the line for us. As we said in an earlier article, we really do “put our money where our mouth is,” and we like it that way. There isn’t, however, a lot on the line for our partner. The revenue generated by this plan is totally new money — revenue that simply is waiting to be earned and will take nothing away from current sales or resources.

The truth is, with the amount of skill and expertise that is put into the product, it should have been flying off the e-shelves. The process of finding the right online consumers and giving those people a great shopping experience just needed to be on point. W Durable Goods is second to none in creativity and quality, and Daniel and his team deserve all the success they can obtain. They were a perfect fit for us, and we believe that we are a perfect fit for them.