Selling products into retail is not easy, and selling through that inventory is even harder. Channel sales is difficult and requires a team with a well executed and repeatable sales process to be successful. Many branded manufacturers struggle just to secure space on a retailer’s shelf let alone ensure their listing survives a buyer review. In today’s connected world where retail buyers are making more informed decisions based on data to cut bait on products that aren’t selling or not buying at all in difficult economies, how can you ensure your products get into physical retail and keep moving to hit sales targets?
A concerted effort must be placed to drive store traffic and reward retailers with incremental high margin business for taking the risk to carry your products. The question is, how can you get products listed and increase lift without resorting to margin crushing discounts?
How to Win at Retail
You have to outsmart competitors and make it easier for consumers to buy. In doing so, your company will win battles based on loyalty and warrant retail buyers keeping your wares stocked. Successful brands have more contact points with retailers because products are selling and replenishment is required. As a by-product this requires closer communication and builds unbreakable bonds between the vendor and customer. As a marketer in today’s economy you want to know did the spend result in sales and what was the return on investment? Channel marketing activities are expensive, difficult to execute, and the ROI calculation is fuzzy at best. Want to stand out from the competition and differentiate yourself?
Use eCommerce to Partner with Retailers Rather than Compete
The shift to digital is on as more brands adjust their budgets from offline activities to online. It is measurable, repeatable, and drives results. By capturing more sales online it can impact your offline business as well. Any time you sell direct to consumer where a stocking dealer is present, that is one less customer that is going to buy products from your retailer to maintain your listing. You are probably thinking how can I integrate my retailers into our eCommerce checkout to not compete. Additional questions also come to mind such as sales tax nexus, 1099s, reporting, inventory management, shipping, invoicing, which retailers are stocking, retailer buy-in and more. This repeatable sales process to generate sales and loyalty starts to get complex and an order management solution is required.
Make Sell-In a Snap…
Before a retailer decides on a product, they want to know that there is consumer interest and that your company will help turnover their inventory. For a new product how can you demonstrate consumer demand? Rather than begging and pleading for a spot in-store, prove to them that you will earn it. With ShipEarly’s Ship to Store program your dealers get insight as to what’s selling near them and nothing says ‘you should be carrying this product’ like actual sales to influence a retail buyers purchasing decision. By being able to demonstrate current and future demand using data you are making your life and your buyers job much easier. Once you sell a product in, your job is not done until the retailer re-orders and then the job continues. In case you didn’t get that… It never ends!
…and Sell-Through More at Retail
If you’ve already convinced your buyer to stock your products or perhaps you’ve earned your listing our order management solution continues to pay dividends by turning over inventory. The next time a consumer purchases a product in that retailers trade area online they get rewarded with better margins and new customers. In addition, nothing builds loyalty like instant payment so retailers make the correlation between your products selling and money in their bank account. Integrating retailers also happens to increase online sales as consumers want the convenience of free and same-day shipping/pickup in addition to shopping local, read here to learn more. So rather than competing online with dealers, offer your consumers new possibilities and capture marketshare by considering ShipEarly.
If you would like to learn more about us or ShipEarly’s order management solution, feel free to contact us.
