Moving from ecommerce to retail is a big step for any business to take. The payoff could be huge—big wholesale orders, more customers, and the opportunity to expand your business into new markets. But it’s a move that requires a solid strategy and careful planning.
“You have to be able to very clearly argue why your product is different and better and brings something new to that category that [retailers] don’t currently have,” says Kat Kavner, cofounder of Heyday Canning Co., on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “If you can make those points in a really clear and compelling way, you have a good shot of getting on the shelf.”
Learn how Heyday Canning Co. got its products into Whole Foods, plus hear from the entrepreneurs behind brands like Ridge, Aloha, and Stoked Oats on their strategies for getting products on store shelves.
10 steps to get your product in stores
- Determine whether you’re ready to go wholesale
- Decide which retailers to pursue
- Know what makes your product unique
- Set up meetings with retailers
- Make your pitch
- Follow up with retailers
- Join online wholesale marketplaces
- Attend trade shows
- Explore alternatives to wholesale
- Continue to promote your products
1. Determine whether you’re ready to go wholesale
As a small business owner, getting your product into stores isn’t something to rush into.
One of the most important things to consider is whether you have enough product to support both your online sales and wholesale orders. You don’t want to find yourself in a position where you can’t ship your direct-to-consumer (DTC) ecommerce sales because you’re busy fulfilling wholesale requests, or unable to supply retailers because you’ve sold too much DTC.
Take a hard look at your manufacturing process and assess if it makes logistical sense to sell wholesale. Can you scale up to meet anticipated wholesale demand? Are there supply chain issues that would make production difficult? Are you already having difficulty keeping up with online sales?
Your pricing strategy can also affect whether retailers will carry your product. If your profit margins are slim, setting an even lower wholesale price may not be sustainable unless you reduce costs or increase prices overall.
Sugardoh founder Aliyah Marandiz ran into this problem when her at-home hair removal kits landed at Ulta Beauty. When Sugardoh was DTC only, its profit margin was 60%. But Aliyah found that she needed margins closer to 85% to 90% to successfully operate a wholesale business. In hindsight, she wishes someone had said: “Hey, maybe you’re not ready for retail, or you need to wait until your margins are at this amount in order to make it to retail.”
Lastly, make sure you have the budget to promote your products once they hit store shelves. “Having a good plan in place and making sure you have adequate funds to support the product once you get it into one of those big retailers is really important because you will need money to support marketing and other initiatives,” Kat says.
2. Decide which retailers to pursue
Before you approach retail stores, consider your goals and how a retailer can help you meet them. For example, if you want your product to be everywhere, you might pursue a major retailer. If you prefer to have a closer relationship with your partners, you might target smaller retailers instead.
You should also have an idea of how much inventory you can supply without hurting your bottom line. “I’ve seen a lot of great brands go bankrupt because they pursued too big of wholesale relationships for the size that they were in,” Sean Frank, CEO of metal wallet company Ridge, says in an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “[Big retailers] are going to want a lot of stuff right now, and they’re not going to want to pay you for 90 days or 120 days, and those cash flow cycles could really end up killing your business.”
Consider whether your chosen retailer aligns with your brand—it can affect how visible your brand is in a store. Protein-bar brand Aloha decided CVS, a brand that wasn’t prioritizing healthy products, wasn’t the right fit. “It wasn’t their primary business model,” CEO Brad Charron says on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “They’re not interested in making sure the shelves are stocked with the best and greatest protein bars or drinks or powders. They’re interested in making sure that the pharmacy is stocked and beauty is stocked and I can get my toothpaste.”
3. Know what makes your product unique
Before you pitch your products to retailers, you need a clear, compelling message about what makes them different from the products they already sell.
For example, most grocery stores sell canned beans, but they rarely offer flavored beans beyond traditional baked beans. Heyday Canning Co. was able to differentiate itself by offering convenience paired with gourmet flavors.
“A lot of people know great food, know great flavor, like to cook from scratch, they just don’t always have the time or the energy to do that. This is basically a meal in a can. We’re trying to elevate it,” says Kat. “It’s not something that you have to reach for as a doomsday alternative. It’s something you can reach for when you want to whip up a great meal, just without putting in a lot of effort.”
Beyond understanding your own product, having deep knowledge of the rest of the industry can help you find ways to differentiate your company. Potential distributors want to offer something new—something they don’t already offer. If your product is easy to replicate, bigger competitors could outbid you for shelf space or undercut your price.
Think about:
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How your product compares to your top competitors
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If you use specialized materials or ingredients
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If you fulfill speciality niches, like vegan, organic, or allergen-free products
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If you can offer a lower price point than your competitors
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If your products appeal to a specific demographic
You should be well-versed in your product’s unique selling points, able to recite and sell those differences at a moment’s notice. Don’t forget to use sales data and repurchase rates to demonstrate strong customer demand.
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4. Set up meetings with retailers
Getting to a point where you can pitch retailers takes careful planning. As Simon Donato, cofounder of oatmeal brand Stoked Oats, explains, bigger retailers often have a predetermined calendar. “There’s a category review period, typically annually,” Simon says in an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast. “So you got one shot … to land your product. Otherwise, you’re waiting another cycle.” This information is usually publicly available on the retailer’s website.
If your chosen retailer is between review cycles, don’t just sit around waiting. This is the perfect time to start building relationships and genuine connections, setting you up for meetings down the line.
Stoked Oats first began to communicate with Costco via email. “It started with an email, a simple introduction: ‘Hi, I’m Simon. I run this company. Here’s what we do. We’d love to have an opportunity to chat with you to learn more about what you do.’”
If you want to get into local stores, consider more informal networking opportunities. For example, Brad of Aloha attended hockey games with a retail partner: “We’d sit there and talk. We’d talk about business. We’d talk about the category. We’d talk about growing together. I’d talk about what winning means for them.”
5. Make your pitch
Pitching is your opportunity to clearly present your product’s value to retail buyers. Talk about your current sales and highlight other sources of hype, like a strong social media following. Include information about your audience—it might be a demographic the store is trying to attract.
Simon suggests giving store owners and retail representatives a chance to contribute to the conversation early on. During one meeting with Walmart, Simon spoke for 10 to 15 minutes during a 30-minute scheduled conversation. It changed the way he approached these meetings.
“I should have started the meeting with, ‘Hi, my name is Simon. I’m the founder of Stoked Oats. Thanks so much for having us here. What can we do to help you? What would you like to know about our company? Would you like me to jump into the history? Or is there something specific I can answer for you straight out of the gate?’” Simon says. “All my meetings now start this way as opposed to, ‘Let me tell you why we’re so awesome.’”
6. Follow up with retailers
Leave product samples and information, and then follow up. This helps your brand stand out among others. “It’s all relationship-based,” Simon adds. “You’re not selling the product per se. You’re selling a relationship.”
You can follow up a few times. Being persistent and consistent shows you’re serious. When they have a need for products like yours, you might be top of mind.
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7. Join online wholesale marketplaces
The in-person pitching process makes sense if you want to get your product into major retailers and small local stores, but there are other ways to start selling wholesale, including through online wholesale marketplaces.
Wholesale marketplaces connect sellers to retailers around the world. They can be a great way to gain exposure to many potential retail partners without having to pitch stores individually.
Faire is a great option for small businesses, as it focuses on supporting independent brands. It also integrates with your Shopify store’s back end, so you can manage DTC and wholesale orders from a single platform.
8. Attend trade shows
Trade shows are a traditional avenue for entrepreneurs to get face time with distributors. They have the potential to connect you to dozens of stores, but they can also be a gamble.
Attend a trade show as a visitor first before buying a booth to understand what products are featured, who your competition will be, and how many buyers attend. Talk to vendors and see if they’re making meaningful connections.
Keep costs in mind. Trade show booths can run thousands of dollars per day, so you should be certain that your investment is likely to pay off. For that reason, only consider attending trade shows when you’re committed to selling in stores as part of your business strategy.
9. Explore alternatives to wholesale
Wholesale isn’t the only way to get your product onto store shelves.
A pop-up shop, for example, lets customers interact with your product in real life, without you having to invest in a permanent location. It’s also an opportunity to build personal connections with shoppers and create content showing shoppers interacting with your product. With the Shopify point-of-sale system, you can accept payments in person.
If you want to reach new customers without traditional wholesale, consider joining Shopify Collective. Shopify Collective connects you with other retailers who can then feature your products on their storefronts. You’ll handle fulfillment, but the customer gets a single integrated checkout experience.
If you hope to be more hands-on, you can also open your own brick-and-mortar store. This lets you reach customers who don’t shop online and have one-on-one interactions with shoppers.
10. Continue to promote your products
Getting your products into stores can give your small business a huge boost, but you’ll still need to do the heavy lifting to keep sales strong. “Getting in the store is one thing, and then staying in the store is a whole other thing,” says Kat. “It’s a lot harder to stay, and the way you stay is to make sure the product actually sells off the shelf.”
It’s your job to make sure your customer base knows where they can find your products and to maintain relationships with store management. “It’s doing everything that you can to support [in-person sales], from building awareness for the brand so that you’re driving people into the store to go find it to doing in-store sampling and demos so you can catch shoppers and actually give them a taste of your product and convince them in that moment to buy,” Kat says.
You also need to keep your online business and marketing strategies strong to maintain demand. Using social media to deepen connections with your audience, buying paid ads, and focusing on organic marketing can all help keep shoppers interested in your brand.
Read more
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How to get your product into stores FAQ
How can I get my product into retail stores to sell?
If you want to approach retail stores in your local area, an in-person pitch can work. But if you’re looking at a larger regional or national chain, there are employees dedicated to finding new products. Check the chain’s website or call its corporate phone number to inquire about who its buyers are and how they accept pitches.
How do I get shops to sell my product?
Big box retailers have a more formal process for pitching products. Check the retailer’s website or call its corporate phone number to inquire about who their retail buyers are and how they accept pitches.
How do I pitch my product to a store?
For local stores, you can likely pitch in person, but make sure to do some research ahead of time to figure out who to talk to and when they’re available. For larger chains, check the retailer’s website or call its corporate phone number to ask about the buying process.
Where do store owners get their products?
Retail store owners typically source their products from manufacturers, wholesalers, or distributors who specialize in various goods. They may also use online marketplaces or attend trade shows to find unique and trending items for their stores.
