In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

Around the world, the exciting ambiance of in-person trade shows is back. After a two-year, pandemic-driven hiatus, retail trade shows are starting to boom again worldwide – and that’s spectacular news for brands looking abroad to fuel growth.

As pandemic guidelines relax, consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands feel a growing urge to get out and network face-to-face with global retailers. Trade shows are ideal venues to boost brand awareness and product discovery, build industry relationships and trust, and make deals to drive revenue growth.

If you plan to attend, exhibit, or speak at an international trade show, consider the following best practices. But first, let’s acknowledge how the pandemic has shaped today’s trade shows.

How COVID-19 changed trade shows

In 2021, U.S. trade show attendance rates declined by 48% in Q2 compared to Q2 in 2019 and the number of exhibitors fell by 31%.1 Hegel, Theresa. Despite COVID Hurdles, Trade Shows Go On. ASI Central. September 27, 2021. In 2022, the retail industry shows higher demand for in-person trade shows; yet, supply chain disruption and labor shortages have made the ordering process longer than before COVID-19. For instance, producing custom booth setups used to take a few days and …

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In: Dropshipping|Last Updated:

Starting an online business can be intimidating. There are so many things you have to deal with, like how to source your products, how to optimize your landing pages, or what to name your business. But let’s put that aside for now. Let’s look for some inspiration!

We’ve gathered a list of 60 online Shopify stores for you to take inspiration from. Not just random stores, but stores that are killing it. All of them are profitable ecommerce businesses that carved their own way to success. 

And for each of them, success meant different things. Their successes vary from executing excellent store ideas to having high-end clients like Ben Affleck to earning multimillion-dollar investments and six-figure revenues. 

Hopefully, they’ll get you inspired about your own online business.

Ready to become the next success story but need products to sell (and post on Instagram)? Head over to Handshake, a wholesale marketplace built by Shopify.

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60 great Shopify ecommerce stores for inspiration 

1. Negative

Best Shopify stores negative underwear

Negative has one goal: to help women feel confident in their own bodies. It doesn’t want to rely on push-up pads or bows for women to feel …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
Cosmoprof Reveals the Future Trends of the Beauty Industry

Do you need to brush up on your knowledge of the current and future state of the beauty industry? You’ve certainly come to the right place. The 2022 CosmoProf North America show was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center on July 12-14th, where our team was blushing over the many unique and innovative trends. As always, our team was happy to see familiar faces, including some of our RangeMe Verified™ suppliers, at the show.

As our team walked the aisles of exhibitors and learned about the products on display, there were a handful of existing and emerging trends worthy of highlighting, pun intended:

Pastel & Colorful Packaging 

I have to admit, I am a sucker for pretty packaging, and I know I’m not alone. It seems more and more brands are catching on to this trend, and I am here for it. Pinks, blues, purples–think Trix yogurt but more esthetically pleasing. RangeMe supplier, Slick Hair, exhibited their line of hair products with no shortage of pink. Consumers can say goodbye to bad hair days and hello to the ultimate slick and everyday hair-do with their SLICK STICK™. 

SLICK HairSLICK Hair Mermade HairMermade Hair Kim Chi CosmeticsKim Chi Cosmetics FluffFluff

Childhood Nostalgia

Have …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
Instant Biologics: Sowing the Seeds of Success at Retail

When it comes to plants, I’ve always had two brown thumbs. Whenever I bought one for my apartment, I had little success maintaining it, or keeping it alive. Feeding it was a hassle that involved mixing and measuring that often turned into a mess on my kitchen counter. It was simply time and effort I didn’t want to invest.

This all changed when I met Jeff Robbins and Ari Tenenbaum, Co-Founders of Instant Biologics. Their brand, Instant Plant Food, consists of tablets that dissolve in water and provide all the nutrients a plant needs for three months. A packet contains four tablets, enough to feed one plant for a year.

I am now the proud owner of a snake plant for which feeding is a piece of cake. And it’s thriving – much like Instant Biologics, which has landed business from a half-dozen large retail chains including Target and 1-800 Flowers (and is currently onboarding another half-dozen). This soaring growth can be credited to their RangeMe Premium membership, participation in several RangeMe summits and ECRM’s Lawn & Garden and Sustainable Products: General Merchandise sessions.

Instant Biologics's Instant Plant Food Instant Biologics's Instant Plant Food Instant Biologics's Instant Plant Food

The idea for the company sprouted when Robbins and Tenenbaum decided to shift their focus from …

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In: Dropshipping|Last Updated:
Ecommerce Strategy: How to Get It Right

Starting an ecommerce business is no easy task. From setting up your website to streamlining your supply chain, it seems there are hundreds of things to consider in the early days. And truthfully, there are.

But that’s not to say this always-on pace should continue forever. With the right strategies in place during launch, it should be much simpler to navigate the changing world of ecommerce in the future. In fact, the more you build up your strategies today, the more efficiently your business will run tomorrow.

The difference between success and failure in the industry has a lot to do with your ecommerce strategy. Prepare your brand for a successful launch by learning more about ecommerce strategies, what they can do, and how to design one of your own.

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What are ecommerce strategies?

Ecommerce strategies are interconnected plans that drive your business operations. There are three major ecommerce strategies to consider: product strategy, customer relationships, and corporate considerations. Each of these must work together to ensure the best possible outcomes for your brand.

Let’s explore these three major ecommerce strategies and their structure in greater detail.

Product strategy

Product …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

As retail costs balloon, certain products deflate.

Across retail categories, more manufacturers are making products smaller to offset rising costs, a practice called shrinkflation, or downsizing.

Retail costs keep climbing, as U.S. inflation hit its highest one-year price hike in more than 40 years in March 2022. Global supply chain disruption has made raw materials, labor, and freight more expensive. Costly omnichannel investments, product returns, and sustainability efforts also add financial pressure. 

That’s why consumer packaged goods (CPG) suppliers are now scrambling to cut back somewhere. Shrinkflation helps brands save some money—and keep prices stable—by slightly reducing the amount or weight of their goods.

Let’s examine what shrinkflation looks like and how it affects brands, retailers, and consumers.

Household staples shrink

Recently, several popular CPG brands exhibited signs of shrinkflation across the food and beverage, personal care, and pharmacy categories:

Doritos bags fell in weight from 9.75 ounces to 9.25, equivalent to five fewer chips, and parent Frito-Lay cited inflation  Aleve pain relief pills have decreased from 100 caplets per bottle to 90 Cottonelle toilet paper mega rolls shrank from 340 one-ply sheets per roll to 312  Gatorade bottles decreased in size from 32 fluid ounces to 28. The brand…
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