When the Manufacturer and the Channel Fight Over the Same Customer

MTE-Thomson is a Brazilian auto-parts manufacturer founded in 1957, specialized in temperature control and electronic injection — a Latin American reference in oxygen sensors, with more than 3,000 items covering over 95% of the national fleet. It doesn't sell direct to the end consumer. Distribution runs through a network of partner distributors and retailers, built over decades.

Even so, the customer comes to the factory. Between 1,800 and 2,000 contacts a month — over WhatsApp, email, the toll-free line — asking the same thing: does this part fit my car? Where do I buy it? It's the end customer who watches a video, identifies the symptom, and calls the brand directly. The strategic question that forces is an uncomfortable one: if the customer is knocking on your door, why not sell to them?

The direct-to-consumer temptation — and why it breaks the channel

The easy answer is to sell direct. The brand has the product, the technical information, the customer on the line. Cutting the intermediary looks like capturing the full margin.

But the intermediary isn't fat in the process — it's the reach that gets the product to market. When the manufacturer sells direct, it starts competing with the very network that made it grow: the distributor carrying the inventory, the retailer serving the region, the partner who knows the local customer. The channel notices, and the relationship sours. The brand wins a few direct orders and loses the trust of those who move the bulk of the volume.

It's the classic channel conflict, and it's rarely a technology problem. It's a strategic decision left unmade about who sells to whom. Selling direct to the consumer doesn't resolve the conflict — it creates it.

The customer doesn't want to buy from the factory — they want it resolved

It's worth separating what the customer actually asks for. When they call MTE-Thomson, most of the time they don't want to buy from the factory. They want a technical answer that ends in a purchase: confirm the right part and find out where to get it, fast, without error.

In auto parts this is critical, because the wrong compatibility isn't just dissatisfaction — it's rework, cost, and risk. Technical support, here, isn't an operating cost: it's part of the product. Whoever answers fast and accurately builds the trust that brings the customer back to the same channel next time.

The point is that "resolve the question" and "close the sale" don't have to happen at the same counter. The manufacturer can own the technical answer without owning the sale.

What MTE-Thomson did

MTE-Thomson built its own digital channel where the sellers are the partner retailers, not the factory. The flow is direct: the customer arrives with a question, support confirms the correct part and sends a link with the full technical sheet and the available partner retailers' offers — each with its own price, lead time, and stock.

According to MTE-Thomson, the move is straightforward: when the customer gets in touch, the team grabs the code, drops it into the channel, gets the link and sends it over — the sellers that have that part already show up.

The transparency is deliberate. The customer sees the lead offer — usually the nearest retailer or the one with the best lead time — and can expand all the others. In each, it's clear who they're buying from. The brand neither vanishes nor plays invisible middleman: it curates the environment (catalog, technical sheet, verified compatibility) and coordinates after-sales, while the retailer supplies only price and stock. The channel runs with a vetted set of active partner sellers.

Enabling the channel instead of competing with it

MTE-Thomson's choice is the opposite of the direct-to-consumer temptation: instead of removing the intermediary, it invests so the intermediary sells better. Many retailers want to sell online but have no way to build their own digital channel. The manufacturer steps in there — not as a competitor, but as the one providing the setup.

In April 2026, the brand gathered dozens of partner retailers in São Paulo to align on the digital channel. The message was clear: sell-out is migrating online, and the factory offers a curated environment, with brand credibility, for the partner to sell without having to build anything on its own.

MTE-Thomson sums up what holds it together: everyone has the part these days; what's surviving in the market are the differentiators — relationships, an engaged team, service.

The strategic play is recognizing that the retailer is a partner, not an enemy. The manufacturer that enables its channel doesn't just survive retail's digitization — it ties the network closer, because the partner's success now depends on the environment the brand provides.

What this means for whoever owns channel strategy

For a commerce director or a CMO, the decision isn't technical — it's commercial policy. When the end customer starts arriving directly, the question isn't "how do we sell to them," but "how do we route that demand without betraying the channel." Selling direct captures today's order and risks the relationship that delivers tomorrow's volume.

Diagnosis before prescription: before opening a direct channel, it's worth measuring how much of your inbound demand already reaches the brand — and what happens to your channel's trust the day it learns the factory became a competitor.

Frequently asked questions

Why is selling direct-to-consumer risky for a manufacturer with a distribution network? Because it puts the brand in competition with the distributors and retailers that build its reach. It captures a few direct orders and risks the trust of those who deliver the bulk of the volume — the classic channel conflict.

What is an owned digital channel where the partner sells, not the factory? An environment curated by the brand (catalog, technical sheet, compatibility) where the partner retailers are the ones making the sale, each with their own price and lead time. The customer sees who they're buying from; the brand coordinates the environment and after-sales, without selling direct.

Does serving the end customer who reaches the factory mean having to sell to them? No. The manufacturer can own the technical answer — confirming the right part — without owning the sale. Routing the customer to the nearest partner retailer resolves the question and strengthens the channel at the same time.

The Cost of Selling is a CWS Platform publication. The operational data cited belongs to MTE-Thomson, a CWS Platform customer, used with permission.