How to Sell to Dillard’s & Become a Dillard’s Vendor

Learn how to sell to Dillard’s retail stores

Hey everyone. This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA. Today we’re going to talk about a retailer that I think is important to mention.  They have over 300-something stores that they’re responsible for currently in 28 states. I mention that because a lot of times when I’m teaching people how to get their products into big chain stores, people don’t know about some of the department stores that are massive, that have a lot of buying power, and so forth. I like to mention these types of retailers in these short videos that I create, because it helps some of you with your distribution strategy figuring out, 

” There are some other retailers that I don’t know about that I could possibly go after”

Any time I can help you figure out how to make money, that’s the purpose of these videos and what I do and so forth.

What you need to know to become a Dillard’s vendor

Let’s talk about Dillard’s. Dillard’s is a department store. Again, they have hundreds of stores that they’re responsible for. I love Dillard’s because of the fact that they’re larger retailers. A lot of your competitors aren’t thinking about selling to them. Also the fact that they sell all sorts of products in their stores. They sell everything, way beyond apparel. Usually when somebody thinks about going after department stores, they think, “If I have a clothing product or I have a jewelry product or accessory product, I’ll go after department stores. That’s my go to move”, which makes a lot of sense.

What you can sell to Dillard’s stores

But if you have all sorts of other products like sporting goods products, or anything else, you could actually sell to department stores as well. I hope that you put those types of retailers on the list, because a lot of your competitors aren’t thinking about putting their consumer electronics products into a department store, or anything beyond an apparel product in their stores. I always like those types of retailers, because big store, lots of opportunity there, and a lot of your competitors aren’t thinking about selling to department stores. I definitely recommend exploring a retailer like Dillard’s.

Once you become a Dillard’s vendor they will buy more types of products from you

What can I say about department stores in general? They are very similar to selling to any sort of other retail chain. They usually have a corporate buyer who buys on a national level. They also have regionals and so forth. But generally speaking, on the corporate level they’ll buy for all of their stores. They are looking for interesting new innovative stuff. If you have a product like an apparel product that you want to sell to a department store, you’ve got to either have a really good story that will get them inspired to buy from you, or ultimately you need to possibly sell to Dillard’s on a private label basis, and/or kind of find your angle in with them.

Learn more strategies on how to sell to Dillard’s

But in general, the reason I decided to create this video is to emphasize the fact that, don’t ignore department stores simply because you are not an apparel company. Because they really have made me a lot of money over the years, and it’s simply because a lot of my competitors aren’t thinking about that. That’s kind of the quick tip and strategy I have to become a Dillard’s vendor.

It’s tricky to become a Dillard’s vendor

This is Karen Waksman with Retail MBA. If you want to know how to actually pitch to these guys and what to say to them to get them to buy, and the way to finesse these retailers, definitely you want to learn a little bit more. These short video trainings are epic and I want to give you a lot of value, but it’s a whole other discussion. If you want to know the specifics on that, take a look at my website, retailmba.com. I actually have a free training program that you can sign up for. It’s a six part training series. Really powerful stuff.