How do I get products into stores?

[HelloSock]

Hello,

We seem to be hitting walls when approaching retailers to stock our products. In our minds it's a no brained, the retailer will profit, and we get our product/brand out there...though don't seem to get far?

Does anyone have any advice?

HelloSock.com

 

[fisicx]

Get in contact with the stores and ask if they will stock your socks. If they say no try a different stores.

 

[Carl Mintern]

You have no idea if the retailer would profit or not, unless you are able to point to the stock they would be no longer selling to make room for yours, knowing their margins and intangibles on said stock.

To know this you'd need to know the credit terms with their current stock suppliers, margins, how the products arrived at the stores, and a million other things I know enough to know I don't know.

I don't mean to sound negative but there's a lot more going on here than you seem to be aware of to be calling it a no brainer.

 

[MOIC]

How are you approaching them?

What profit margin are you assuming they will work on if they decided to stock your products.

How unique are your products?

 

[Turnkey Businesses]

try to get meetings with the HQ's of bigger retailers. getting into one of them nationwide can be the same as getting into hundreds of independents.

 

[Belford]

Having a quick look at your website and the product you sell I would be contacting any online fitness equipment/clothing website

 

[HelloSock]

Hi Carl,

thank you for you feedback. We currently supply our products direct from us to various yoga studios, sport clubs, gyms with all of them benefiting, and providing repeat business and forming great partnerships with us. It's proving difficult to get significant interest from retailers. Even taking the "million" other factors you mention we still believe it's still a no brainer based on the model we provide to the above mentioned, however if a retailer tells us these certain factors that would stop them in particular from stocking our products I'm sure we could still work a profitable system for them.

 

[HelloSock]

Hello My Office In China,

Due to time constraints at times, our main method is contacting retailers online, phoning and posting letter/information, we have posted samples which did help with our yoga products, we have recently started approaching retailers/stores in person.

Based on our model supplying to yoga studios, gyms etc it ranges between 30-45%

We have two products which are only available from us.

Thank you

 

[MOIC]

What retailers are you targeting?

The profit margin is not viable for large stores to stock your product.

 

[myfairworld]

I'm a retailer and all day every day I'm pestered by people who want me to sell their products. Many of these products are pretty much the same as the products I'm already selling. Some of these products are things which I know perfectly well are of no interest at all to our customers. Some of these things are completely unrelated to the ethos, purpose and style of my shop. Mostly the margin offered is insufficient to justify that product taking up shelf space. Often the quantity in which you have to order is completely unrealistic both in terms of my likely sales of that item and of the amount of storage space available to me. Often those urging me to buy new products want payment up front while existing suppliers offer 30 days credit plus a much wider range of stock which makes it easier for me to meet any minimum order. A few of these existing suppliers offer goods on a sale or return basis knowing that I will take many more products on that basis and try out more things I feel are 'borderline' for my shop - we stocktake those products at set intervals, pay for what has sold and the supplier then tops up my stock. For some products you'd never dream of such an arrangement but for some products it works really well for both sides.

Also, of course, it is the dream of most suppliers to see their product in every outlet in the land, but actually the more places something is sold (unless it is immediate consumables like chocolate or cola) the less value it offers to any individual retailer. In fact if you are a specialist retailer the fact that something is on sale in all sorts of places may mean that you don't want to stock it at all. Two of my customers are yoga instructors, I trade within walking distance of a Sports Centre, very probably your products are already being offered through those people and that Centre so why would I want to stock them? I want stock which brings customers into the shop, not stock that they can see everywhere else.

The suppliers I buy from and keep buying from tend to have a good understanding of retail and the realities of retail. I get the impression that you love your product - which is good - and have a good understanding of your product but little understanding of retail.

If you are selling through Yoga Studios, Gyms, etc then presumably their main income comes from fees for using the facilities or for attending classes, anything they can persuade the client to buy on top of that is an extra source of income but presumably not the main source of income. Also they have, as it were, a captive audience for your type of product as the clients are already there doing their yoga or running on the treadmill or whatever. But a shop's almost total source of income is selling goods so every item has to earn its shelf and storage space and if it doesn't or doesn't look to the retailer as if it will then there are an endless line of other suppliers offering other products...

 

[fisicx]

We have two products which are only available from us.

You can buy socks from lots of places. There is nothing special about your products, I've found similar elsewhere.

Your problem is convincing retailers that your products are superior to everything else on the market with the same sort of markup. I'm not sure branded sweatbands are going to do that for you.

 

[HelloSock]

Myfairworld,

Thank you for your insight and feedback. We are a start up brand as of only May 2015, so I agree there may be areas we need to learn more of which I'm sure will come with experience.

 

[HelloSock]

You can buy socks from lots of places. There is nothing special about your products, I've found similar elsewhere.

Correct, and you can also find food in many different places etc. We don't just do socks, we have two patented products. Have you tried our products to make such accusations? Have you compared the quality/affordability of our products to others etc?

We are looking for feedback and advice in relation to the question

 

[The Byre]

Read, read and then read again what @myfairworld has written.

Now learn it by heart!

You have found on type of retailing, ancillary products at specialist outlets - similar to selling trinkets and balls at golf clubs. I would concentrate (for the time being at least) on developing that. Give them display stands and possibly a better margin for volume. Visit them in person and talk to them.

When you are in every club/studio etc. I your area, then perhaps retailers might start thinking that they should be taking a second look at what you have to offer.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

I knew someone who was the sock buyer for Tesco. That is all he did, buy socks. The time between a buying decision and the product appearing in store was 18 months. In those 18 months he worked flat out on increasing Tesco's margins and reducing the supplier's margins. Every week he would have to take the epos analysis for the previous week and justify his failures to his chief.

 

[fisicx]

Have you tried our products to make such accusations? Have you compared the quality/affordability of our products to others etc?

No, but neither has the retailer you are trying to sell them to. When you write to them are you sending 10 pairs of socks for them to test? Have you sent them to lots of people to test and provide feedback. All you have at the moment is a website with some pictures. There are no testimonials to suggest these are better socks than you can get from primark.

I'm looking at the business dress socks. They don't appear to be anything different to the ones I get from M&S. And the M&S socks don't have any branding - which means when my trousers ride up as I sit down it doesn't say 'HalloSock'. That's quite important for a lot of people.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

I see the problem as little repeat orders from individuals, how often do you buy sports socks

No interest to the bigger shops as a couple of quid in profit now and again is not good use of the shop floor space

The only place to really sell is e-commerce and sporting shops and Gyms

To sell in both places you need to give the company a small display stand and enough profit to make it all worth while, your prices seem very low for a premium product so not much left for mark up and low cost could indicate to buyers that there is nothing special about them

 

[Mark T Jones]

Lots of good advice above. Forget the ;'no brainer' and take time to think why any particular retailer would want to give you shelf space above the million other 'no brainers' they are offered daily.

Part of this process will involve talking - and listening - to the retailers you are targeting.

Another. separate question, is what will happen if you land your dream order? How quickly can you deliver? In what quantity? Can you handle 90 day payment terms? What about SOR? What are your margins?

 

[Lovelybear]

Try to contact the retailers, show them how gorgeous your socks are. You also can discuss with the stores to hold giveaway or free trail which can help stores attract customers, meanwhile, it's also a good chance to show the stores how perfect your products are.

 

[MOIC]

You need to concentrate on niche stores that sell the category of products (health & fitness) that you are targeting.

This will at least provide you and your customers the profit required to make it viable.

Unless you're Nike, Adidas or any of the top international sports brands, your brand name has no added value to Joe public.

 

[Cynic]

forget retailers. You will get better margins online and build brand loyalty