Brokers & partnerships
A broker represents a distributor or brand in a territory and earns commission on the business they bring. Brokers are organizations too — a solo broker is one person, but a broker can grow into a team.
Finding a broker
My Brokers → Find Brokers has both ways of reaching one.
On DISTRYB lists the verified brokers already here — filter by the states they serve and their specialty, view a broker's territory on a map, then send terms. A broker you already work with shows as such and links to the partnership instead.
Invite by email is for a broker who hasn't joined. Enter their address and set your terms; they're emailed the offer along with an invitation to create a broker account, and when they finish signing up those terms become a live partnership invite automatically. Outstanding email invites are listed on the same page — change the terms or withdraw at any point. If a limit or a licensing rule blocks the invite once they're here, you'll be emailed the reason.
If you're a retailer
Trade Network → Find a Broker lists the same verified brokers. A retailer can't hold a broker partnership — that's a supplier-side relationship — so the action here is to view a broker's profile and start a conversation about sourcing.
Setting terms
Either lane ends on the same screen: commission rate, basis, territories, categories, broker seat, and an optional note. Nothing accrues until the broker accepts, and either side can pause or terminate later.
Licensing
A broker can only be assigned a territory whose state allows it. States that legally require a broker's license are blocked until the license is on file; "unclear" states pass with a flag.
Your public broker page
Every verified broker gets a public profile at distryb.com/broker/your-handle. No login is needed to read it, so it is the link for an email signature, a business card, or an Instagram bio. Edit it under My Org → Public Profile.
The join button carries your broker code. A retailer who signs up through your page is attributed to you, and you earn commission on that store's orders without a distributor having to assign you first. Attribution is first-touch and lasts 30 days, so it survives someone reading around before they commit, and it survives the sign-in step partway through signing up.
It attributes the store that signed up, not the whole company. If that retailer later opens a second location, the new location needs its own connection — the same rule commission follows everywhere else on DISTRYB.
Your line card
Shop the bottles I represent on your profile links to distryb.com/supply/your-org: the products you are approved to sell, grouped by the supplier who licenses each one, with that supplier's own states and trade terms shown beside their own lines. Coverage is never merged across suppliers, because no single supplier could honour a combined claim.
It never shows prices. Those need an account with a licence on file, and the page says so rather than leaving a blank — a buyer comparing suppliers reads a missing price as "unavailable".
Publishing it takes two switches, and the second one is not yours:
- Yours — My Org → Public Catalog, tick "Publish this catalog", then save. The preview there shows exactly what would go out, line by line, before you commit to it.
- Your principal's — the supplier whose lines you carry has to have published their own catalog too, which they do under My Catalog → Public Catalog on their side.
Publishing is an owner or manager decision, so the page only appears for those roles. If you can't see it, ask whoever owns the account.
A supplier's switch governs their lines wherever those lines appear, including on your page. Suppliers who have not published are counted on your page but never named — which of them you represent is their business, not their competitors'. If none of your principals have published, the button does not appear at all rather than sending someone to an empty page.
Under the publish box is a second checkbox controlling whether search engines may list the page. Leave it off and the page still works for anyone you send the link to, but stays out of search and out of our sitemap — usually what you want for a link you hand out yourself.
Where the trade terms come from
Two numbers appear beside each supplier on your page, and neither of them is yours to set — a broker takes no title, so the terms belong to whoever actually sells the liquor:
- Minimum order — set by the supplier under Orders → Order Settings. It is an order rule, not a publishing one: it is enforced at checkout on every order, whether or not anyone ever publishes a catalog. Their Public Catalog page shows it read-only and links there.
- Delivery days — set by the supplier under My Catalog → Public Catalog. Nothing enforces it; it is a published claim about when they run their routes.
Either one that nobody has set is simply left off the page. "Not stated" and "no minimum" are different answers and are published differently: a stated $0 is a commitment that there is no minimum, and it is shown.
Plan limits
A broker's plan caps how much they can take on:
- Starter (free) — 1 partnership, 1 territory, 1 seat.
- Pro ($99/mo) — 10 partnerships, 5 territories, 5 seats.
- Agency ($249/mo) — unlimited.
When a broker reaches a limit, adding more requires an upgrade. See Plans & billing.
Next: Broker commissions & payouts, then Selling bottles at your events.