Most direct to consumer brands that open a wholesale channel lose it within a year, and the cause is almost always the same. It is not the product, the margin or the service. It is the price on their own website.
The mechanic that kills the partnership
A store puts a sofa on its floor, trains its staff and carries the cost of the space. A customer sits down, likes it, then checks the brand website on their phone and finds it thirty percent cheaper.
The store has just paid to make a sale it did not get. Do that twice and the line comes off the floor, permanently, and the buyer remembers the brand name for years.
The damage is not proportional to the discount. A single aggressive campaign can undo a season of network building, because trust in a supplier is binary rather than gradual.
What price parity means in practice
The recommended retail price is identical online and in store. The partner earns their margin off that price and is never undercut by the official channel.
Aggressive online promotions are not run against the network. If a brand wants a promotional window, it announces it to partners in advance and lets them run the same offer, or it does not run it.
The rule is written into the partner agreement rather than promised on a call. A commitment that only exists verbally is a commitment that disappears the first quarter revenue comes in behind plan.
The objection, and the honest answer
The objection from the brand side is real. Direct sales carry a higher margin, so why give up the lever that drives them.
Because the two channels are not interchangeable. A store sells the sofa the website cannot, to the customer who needs to sit on it first. Paid acquisition costs money every single time, a retail partner brings their own traffic, their own window and their own sales staff.
If the margin structure only works when the brand undercuts its own partners, the problem is the margin structure, not the parity rule.
What a buyer should ask before referencing a direct to consumer brand
Is price parity written into the contract, and what is the remedy if it is broken.
What is the promotional calendar for the next twelve months, and are partners included.
Is the territory defined, and does the brand sell direct into it.
A brand that answers those three questions clearly has thought about the network. A brand that improvises the answers has not.