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What do Retail Buyers REALLY Want? Here are 3 Pillars of Success for Emerging CPG Brands

Getting your product onto a retail shelf is the holy grail for many emerging brands. However, the journey from a finished prototype to a national retail partnership is paved with challenges, miscommunications, and steep learning curves. What do retailers actually need from the brands they partner with?

This was the topic of a recent roundtable discussion held at ECRM’s Convenience and Impulse Sessions that was moderated by Fresh Scent’s Andrew Allen. The roundtable, which included two rounds of discussions with a mix of brands and retail buyers, took a deep dive into the core of what builds a lasting, profitable supplier-retailer partnership.

Following the roundtable I interviewed Allen on some of his learnings from the roundtable discussion. The key takeaway was that brands need to focus on three crucial pillars to win at retail: Transparency, Service, and Expertise. In this blog post, we’ll dig into each of these pillars and how brands can deploy each as part of their buyer engagement.

To watch my full interview with Allen, check out the YouTube video below!

Radical Transparency: The Foundation of Trust

In the rush to secure a purchase order, many brands feel pressured to present a “perfect” version of themselves. They …

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Driving Demand with Demos: How Snack Brand Pirucream Does It

A very successful independent grocer once told me that what helps drive sales at his store was the fact that they were always “shoving food into shoppers’ mouths.” He was a huge proponent of demos – after all, there is no better way to drive trial of a food brand than by actually having people taste its products. So he teamed up with different brands each day, as well as with local farmers, and hosted demos.

At ECRM’s recent Winter Snack Session, I ran into Simone Luke, Head of Sales for North America at RangeMe Premium & Verified subscriber Pirucream – a brand that has spent the past five years expanding its Venezuelan rolled wafers into the U.S. market – and learned that she was planning to scale up its demo strategy from 250 events in 2025 to more than 500 this year. 

During our video interview (see below), Luke unpacks some of the best practices she has learned from hosting all of those demos, and shares insights on how brands can get the most out of their demos. Here is some of what I learned.

Quality is the catalyst for tasting

Luke

Before you book a demo, first things …

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Price is more than a number – it’s a signal. It tells retailers where you stand and tells customers what to expect. In independent retail, where shelves aren’t flooded with endless options and where relationships drive recommendations, your price speaks volumes about your brand’s value.

Set your price with purpose. Independent stores don’t demand race-to-the-bottom pricing. In fact, they support premium positioning, especially when the product delivers a clear benefit or carries an authentic story. These retailers thrive on curation, not competition. They want products that justify their place, not those trying to be everything to everyone. When you price for value rather than volume, you’re aligning with what independent stores do best: serve thoughtfully, not massively.

Don’t cut price to drive velocity

Resist the temptation to cut price in pursuit of velocity. Big box chains often force brands into a cycle of perpetual discounting, which may create short-term movement but long-term erosion. Undercutting your brand to chase sales rarely ends well. It trains the market to expect less and accept less. Independent retail offers a smarter path: protect your price, protect your margin, and elevate your product through positioning, not slashing.

Promotions still have their place, but they should …

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How RangeMe is Using AI to Supercharge Product Discovery for Retail Buyers

With approximately 30,000 food and CPG products launched each year, the challenge for retail and foodservice buyers is finding the right products amidst this vast number of possible choices. RangeMe’s Immediate Opportunities have helped buyers from retailers like convenience store giant Casey’s streamline their product discovery by providing a means for focusing their product discovery efforts, but even these can result in hundreds – if not thousands – of submissions.

To take things one step further, RangeMe is leveraging artificial intelligence to transform how buyers review applications for their Immediate Opportunities. By aggregating disparate data points into concise, actionable summaries, RangeMe is now helping buyers boost their capabilities of finding the absolute best products in record time.

What Are RangeMe Immediate Opportunities?

For those unfamiliar with the term, Immediate Opportunities (often used interchangeably with Limited Time Campaigns) are specialized sourcing initiatives where buyers put out a call for suppliers to fill specific needs. Whether a buyer is looking for innovative new products to refresh an existing assortment, seeking private label manufacturers, or sourcing across categories for sustainably-made items, these campaigns allow suppliers to submit their products for direct consideration.

These campaigns typically run for a set window of time, typically …

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5 Hidden Risks Every Emerging Food Brand Should Know About

Launching your food brand can feel like a dream come true. It took hard work to get to this point, and there’s more to do, but seeing your product on shelves and in customers’ hands makes it all worth it. But beneath this excitement lie hidden risks that threaten to turn this dream into a costly nightmare. From labeling errors to recalls, it’s easy to be caught off guard by these pitfalls and derail your brand’s success. 

Let’s uncover the biggest risks that might have flown under the radar for your food brand (which we’ll explore more in-depth in upcoming posts) and take a closer look at how insurance helps protect you from financial fallout.

1. Mislabeled Allergens

Mislabeled or unlabeled allergens are quite common in the food manufacturing space. Sometimes, brands fail to disclose an allergen, but in other cases, there may have been a packaging error at the processing plant.

This happened to the brand Van’s in 2023, when a packaging mix-up led to their waffles containing wheat being shipped out in cartons that claimed the products were gluten-free. 

A 2025 report from the International Food Information Council (IFIC) revealed that 53% of Americans either have or know …

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How Beauty & Wellness Destination Bubbles & Mane Finds Products that Match its Vibe

The moment one sets foot in Bubbles & Mane, you immediately sense a vibe of beauty, wellness and spiritual harmony, and know you are about to be totally immersed in a self-care experience. Just the walk from the front door to the check-in desk relaxes the mind and fills the senses with an array of sights, shapes, scents and colors coming from hundreds of products, each beautifully displayed on wooden shelves and incorporated with decorative elements so that the full effect is art in itself. 

Each of these products were carefully curated by Michelle DeMartino, owner and CEO of this one-of-a-kind wellness destination in Astoria, N.Y., and many came from an Immediate Opportunity campaign run last year with RangeMe. Aside from providing an assortment of clean beauty, wellness and lifestyle products for her customers, they set the tone of the place for everyone who visits.

Indeed, the products are a great introduction to what waits at the end of the hallway: two floors and 2,500-square-feet of services for hair, skin, nails, body, mind and spirit – as well as a space for community gatherings and workshops where local residents can relax, learn and grow.

The salon area doubles as a…
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