XPEL showcased its paint protection film (PPF), window films and coatings at the 21st Annual International Window Film Conference and Tint-Off™.

WINDOW FILM magazine caught up with XPEL’s director of sales Chris Hardy to discuss a wholesale pricing shift and the market conditions facilitating the move. The conversation follows a social media post centered on the changing conditions, which generated 280 comments as of January 3.

WF: Can you confirm the current minimum purchasing volume needed to maintain wholesale pricing?
Hardy: For a few years now, XPEL has quantified what constitutes a wholesale account. There has been more than one way to qualify. [We announced at the beginning of] 2022 that the amount would be $10,000 a year or $833 a month. This amounted to less than a single roll of our least expensive auto tint per week, less than a single bottle of our PPF and paint ceramic coating per week or less than 80% of a standard roll of PPF per month. Many of our clients recognized that they were falling behind the yearly sum and many of them received calls from the reps, trying to determine how to get them there. If the account started with us after the year began, then we prorated the monthly to determine if they were going to make the yearly spend. Also, flat glass, XPEL exclusive, body shops and a few others were able to qualify without hitting the $10,000 mark.

WF: What was the reason for this increase?
Hardy: The main reason for the increase is that XPEL wants to continue to develop what we call partnerships/marriages with our shops. Their number one complaint is why we continue to allow shops to use XPEL and other brands. They point out how many of these smaller shops are using our name to attract the buyer to them and then utilizing one of their less expensive options to fulfill the order. Bait and switch is unfortunately something that has not missed the window film/PPF/coating world. At a box of tint a week, anything less would simply not make sense.

WF: Does XPEL feel this increase is fair and realistic given current market conditions?
Hardy: Yes. We believe that our XPEL partners will continue to see incredible growth over the next 12-24 months. There is a lot of conversation floating around about the economy. But for us, this helps us. Since retail clients will be more conscious of where they will want to spend their hard-earned money, we believe they will search harder for the best deal. This does not equate to the cheapest. But again, the best deal. In turn, they will do their online research and more often than not, end up locking onto XPEL and continue to shop from there.

WF: Is there any more info about this increase that you would like to share?
Hardy: We need to be aware that XPEL spends many millions of dollars per year on [business-to-consumer] B2C marketing platforms. Most of our competitors spend very little to no money on B2C advertising. It is unrealistic to expect us to be ok with driving business to the doors of the shops and then watch the opportunity go to a brand that had nothing to do with the chance to do business in the first place.