Transcript for this Video:

Retail Product Sales – 5 Things You Need to Know!

Hey everyone. This is Karen Waksman, founder of Retail MBA. And today I want to talk about the five things to know when starting a retail business. So what does that really mean?

If you have a physical product and you want to go after retail chains and increase your retail product sales and you want to know some things about these retail chains and what it’s like working with them, what they care about and so forth, that’s what I’m going to be talking about here today. The five things to know when starting to work with these retailers.

So the first thing to consider when working with retail chains is that they don’t mind if you are a small company. So a lot of you guys are wanting to sell Walmart or Best Buy or Macy’s or Neiman Marcus or whatever. And you’re kind of not reaching out to them because you think you’re a small company and that’s an issue.

It’s actually not an issue. Today, more than ever, these retail chains are still looking at new products from small companies constantly because you guys have the coolest products and they know that. And so they’re fine with that.

And so the only thing that they’re going to look into is to make sure that you’re going to be able to pay for orders and all these things, but ultimately it’s not really about you being a small or big company. They’re okay with… I have clients who’ve actually gotten products in the stores who literally had no sales before and they got into like Walmart and so forth. So it’s possible for anyone across the board.

Another thing to consider when starting this journey down retail chain stores is that they really actually appreciate tenacity when you approaching them with your product. But only if you say the things that are interesting to them.

So you can go from being really annoying, to being really magical with retail buyers. They actually don’t mind hearing from you, but it really does come down to how you approach them, the things that you say to them. So they don’t mind if you approach them even unsolicited interactions.

However, that unsolicited interaction needs to be something quality. Needs to be quick and needs to be the right things that they want to hear and so forth. But they don’t mind it. They are actually… That’s a very common misconception in the retail chain space.

Another thing to consider when getting started with retail product sales is that they love diversity. So diversity is a big thing for them. So if you are a woman owned company or you’re a diversity owned company, and so there’s layers to that, but essentially if you are even a veteran owned company or they kind of slice it up, but essentially what they’re looking for is diverse suppliers.

And if you want to sell to any sort of chain store and you go to their vendor website, they’ll explain what they mean by a diverse supplier. But they love people who have certifications as a diverse supplier.

So if you’re a woman owned business, you can get certified as a woman owned business owner. And it’s actually you receive that through a third party who you pay and you ultimately get certified as a woman owned business and same thing for minority owned company and so forth.

You get the certifications, retail buyers love you. They actually have a whole division for that, that actually gets you in the front of the line of retailers. Love it. Something that you should definitely consider.

Another thing to consider when reaching out to retail chains and working with retail chains as a beginner, is that they love knowing that you set everything up in advance. So what does that mean? Well, if you want to reach out to retail chains and you haven’t finished your packaging or pricing or whatever, don’t bother reaching out to them. They want a finished product. They want a product ready for stores. They want to be able to buy your product on the spot.

So you definitely want to build that out before you reach out to them. So they like it when it’s all fixed and set up for them in advance. The shipping and all that stuff, all of that. They want that done in advance. So definitely do that in advance before you reach out to retail chains.

And the final thing to know when starting a retail business is that they really like products that actually make sense for their store shelf. So what does that mean? Well, you have no idea how many times buyers are rejecting products because you’re creating packaging that’s too big or too bulky or needs a whole floor display or whatever. Because they’re not going to give you that much room in their stores until they know that the product sells.

So they eventually will do full floor displays if your product makes money. And obviously there’s some exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, you bring them a packaging that’s like way off or doesn’t fit on their store shelves, or doesn’t look right, they’re just going to look at your product as too risky because every square value of that store is accounted for.

So everything is a dollar value for them. So adding an awkward product there is going to mess up their flow, mess up their revenue stream. So don’t even bother reaching out to retailers unless you’ve looked on their store shelves to make sure that your product fit appropriately in packaging and so forth. And definitely don’t bring them a product that’s going to take six feet of their store. They don’t like that at all.

So anyways, I hope that give you some ideas of things to consider when starting a business with retail chains. By the way, if you want to learn exactly how to approach, pitch, and sell to these retail chains, and then all the consideration in regards to working with retailers and then ultimately exactly what to say to them, to get them to buy, I actually have a program called Retail MBA.

I’ve been teaching this program for the last seven years. It’s powerful. It’s made people millions of dollars for their retail products. And it’s just a great program. The link to Retail MBA is listed below this video.

So please take a look at that. Again, it’s called Retail MBA, a training program. It’s very, very powerful. So more information about that is listed in the link below. Otherwise, please be on the lookout for additional videos I create on selling products to retail chains and so forth and how to make money with physical products. This is Karen Waksman with Retail MBA. Thanks so much.