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Wholesale suppliers are your business partners. A great one will propel you to success and a bad one can shut you down.

Few manufacturers will sell direct so to find wholesalers contact a few of the leading manufacturers in your industry to learn the leading wholesale dealers. Ask them for a recommendation and then follow-up with your own research. Merchandise cost and shipping speed are essential things to look for.

In order to buy items wholesale, a wholesale license is required. Depending on the state where the business is located, the license can be called a seller’s permit, a resale ID, wholesale ID, retail ID or a resellers license.

The wholesale industry is large and about 50 of the largest wholesale distribution facilities generate 25% of industry revenue. Wholesalers serve retailers and other service businesses through a variety of distribution channels and supply chains. At the top of the chain are manufacturers which include importers or exclusive distributors who also sell to wholesalers. Next are wholesalers or regional distributors who distribute the goods locally and brokers or jobbers who deliver goods to local small businesses.

A wholesale purchase is almost always done in bulk. Because of that the wholesaler pays …

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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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6 Ways to Make Your CPG Brand Unforgettable

Molly Blakeley, Founder of Molly Bz Cookies, is a hard person to forget. Her personality in-person is as exciting and enthusiastic as it is in the content she produces online for her brand of uniquely flavored treats. But if there is any example that perfectly encapsulates her style and personality, it’s the time she came up with an original creation for Walmart.

She was in Bentonville to meet with Walmart’s buyers (she is a two-time Open Call Golden Ticket winner), and they asked her to come up with an idea for an exclusive line of cookies. “I did tons of research on Sam Walton, the Founder of Walmart,” says Blakeley. “I wanted to know what he ate, why he ate it, and what his favorite foods were. I learned that he loved Pralines N’ Cream ice cream and moon pies.”

So she went to a local Walmart, then at her AirBnB created a cookie with pralines, chocolate, and a quarter of a moon pie on top, and the next day brought it a Tupperware container to the meeting. Not only did the buyers love it, but they brought other staff into the room to try them out too. They decided …

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Does Your CPG Brand Need a Refresh? Here’s How to Find Out

Whether you are an emerging startup or an established player in the CPG retail space, you have likely felt the pressure of the “sea of sameness” on the retail shelf. With thousands of SKUs competing for a few seconds of a consumer’s attention, the difference between a product that sits on the shelf and one that flies off it often comes down to the strength of its brand.

By the same token, a strong brand has a better chance of actually making it to the shelf in the first place by effectively aligning its story, mission, product and packaging in a way that the retail buyer can easily understand – and share with his or her shoppers.

Korinek

But when is it time to stop tweaking and commit to a full brand refresh? To answer this, I sat down with Dave Korinek, Chief Brand Officer at branding and packaging design agency Pearl Resourcing, during ECRM’s Everyday & Holiday Cosmetics, Skin, Fragrance and Bath and Cough, Cold, Preventative & Allergy Sessions in Dallas. You can watch the full video interview below!

Korinek, a veteran with over 25 years in the industry, shared his insights on what makes CPG branding effective, the red …

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