As your online business grows and you have a solid customer following, many people start to ask how to make the leap from selling on your own site to expanding into retail. Ultimately, working with local or larger regional and national stores can expose your brand to a far larger audience, enable selling in larger orders and help customers experience your brand easily. The key is preparation so here are 5 tips for get your brand into retail.
Your own e-commerce website is the foundation for your success and it’s literally the face of your business when connecting to retail buyers of all sizes. It’s important to put your best foot forward. Genuinely interested retail buyers will look at your website, pricing, promotional activity, social media and some will even join your mailing list so they have more insight into your brand and business. Retailers of all sizes know that getting on the shelf is only part of the equation, it’s sell through that matters. Continually building momentum online (even if targetings specific zip codes around retail stores) is going to be critical to success.
Create your Pitch. Product alone is not a brand pitch. It’s absolutely essential to show and tell your story in a succinct and visually compelling way to prospective buyers. Include the sizzle like any media coverage and marketing programs along with fundamentals. Buyers are product people and they get excited when they see something cool and different too.
Differentiate, Differentiate, Differentiate. You know that your products are unique, but when pitching to stores, it’s absolutely essential to highlight what makes you different from everything else that they carry. Buyers are wired to look for difference. Have your pitch honed to an easy ‘elevator pitch’ that highlights why your brand will bring major value to their store(s).
Decide how you want to connect to retailers:
You can partner with Sales Representatives or distributors to represent and sell-in your brand since they connect with accounts every day and can rapidly grow your distribution. It’s important to know where they are strong, geography and key accounts.
Do-it-yourself: You also can reach out to stores on a local level, speaking with store managers in person. Whole Foods for example is one major retailer that gives local stores the ability to buy some of the products locally.
Ultimately, it’s usually a combination of the two. Finding sales partners that have a genuine interest in your brand and a commitment to its success is challenging but it can be done.
Trade Shows: Yes, these are still hot and help buyers see what they may otherwise not see. It depends on the type of retailer but bigger ones don’t place orders at a show anymore. It’s really about getting exposure to buyers, trade media and making invaluable in person connections. However, you need to know which shows are best for your category and it varies. You should attend a show if you can before making the investment in buying a booth or table. The key is to go to one that’s very well established and well attended. You never want to find yourself at a show full of sellers and brands with almost no buyers. (yes, I have done that once!)
The reality is that getting into retail is challenging. The key is preparation in every way so you can seize the little wins which will be the first to come and use these to build momentum.