All Posts in Retailing Tips

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

When you are a brand owner, sometimes things just go wrong. It could be an ingredient shortage, a miscalculation on your part, a production error, or a simple act of God. These are the times that test the resiliency and ingenuity of an entrepreneur, and offer valuable lessons moving forward. 

Molly Blakeley, Founder of Molly Bz Cookies, is no stranger to shit hitting the fan. In fact, her entire life story before launching her brand was a series of overcoming one challenge after another. She even documented it in her book which will be published October 27, Bake it Till You Make It: The Story of a Risk-Taking Cookie Queen. 

Fortunately, most of the risks she has taken with Molly Bz have paid off, and via RangeMe Immediate Opportunities & ECRM Food & Beverage Sessions, she has landed deals with Walmart, Target, Kroger, 7-Eleven, and most recently, Desert Diamond Casinos (see story here). But in one particular instance, a new product she was developing, the Straight Fire cookie, ran into so many roadbumps it almost never made it our of production. 

Fortunately, some quick pivoting and scrappy problem-solving on the part of Blakeley turned what couple have been a potential …

Read More

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

For emerging consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, few moments rival the thrill of landing a distribution meeting with a major retail buyer. Whether brokered through networking platforms like RangeMe or forged during meetings at a ECRM sessions, receiving that initial “yes” feels like the ultimate validation.

However, as Sudhanshu Gupta, Founder and CEO of Mirchi Labs, points out, that initial handshake is actually where the most complex phase of retail expansion begins. Getting a product approved is merely step one; getting that product set up, compliant, and visible across distinct retail portals is an entirely different operational hurdle.

For resource-constrained founder-led brands, navigating these distinct requirements can rapidly turn an exciting growth milestone into an operational bottleneck. Sales leads, administrators, and founders often find themselves bogged down in technical spreadsheets rather than driving core business growth.

“When the brands come, when they get ‘yes’ from the retailers, the very next thing is to get their product set up with those retailers,” says Gupta. “And every retailer comes with different requirements, different ways of accepting data. This is where Mirchi Labs comes in and helps brands set up their products and manage their product listings on various channels.”

I had the …

Read More

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
When & How to Find the Perfect Contract Manufacturer for Scaling Your Brand

Many of the brands I’ve interviewed over the years have followed a similar journey. They started making their products at home, typically in their kitchen or basement (as Nat’s Nuts did), then eventually moved up to a commercial kitchen space (or using a local church kitchen as in the cases of Molly Bz Cookies and Teddy’s Tallow). Finally, after growing distribution enough, it was time for a contract manufacturer. 

In many cases, this involved hundreds of calls and dozens of meetings, trial and error and dead ends before the right contract manufacturer was found. Fortunately, in today’s digital age even the process of finding the perfect contract manufacturer has been streamlined with platforms like PartnerSlate, which bridges the gap between emerging brands and an extensive network of contract manufacturers and co-packers. And via PartnerSlate’s partnership with RangeMe, brands can leverage this platform for little or no cost.

I sat with Vincent Tseng, the CEO of PartnerSlate, during the recent ECRM Center Store Grocery Sessions in San Diego to discuss how emerging brands can determine when they are ready to take the step to a contract manufacturer, what to consider when choosing one, and how to take advantage of the PartnerSlate/RangeMe …

Read More

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
The Long Game of Scaling Distribution: How Independent Retail Builds a Solid Foundation for Growth

Retail history is filled with brands that expanded quickly and disappeared quietly. Rapid placement created visibility. It did not create resilience. Distribution is not a campaign. It is a construction process. And the strongest structures are built deliberately. Independent retail remains the most reliable environment for playing the long game of distribution.

Long-term success in wholesale depends on reorder behavior, margin preservation, operational stability, and brand relevance. Independent retailers support all four. Their partnerships are built on purchasing decisions rooted in communication. Their merchandising reflects intent. Their customer relationships drive loyalty.

This ecosystem favors manufacturers who prioritize durability over immediacy. National retail often accelerates exposure while compressing economics. It introduces volume alongside structural deductions. It amplifies demand alongside administrative weight. It expands presence while reducing control. Over time, these pressures compound. What appears to be growth begins to resemble dependency.

Independent retail reverses this dynamic. Growth follows demand. Expansion follows performance. Investment follows margin. Brands develop infrastructure in step with opportunity rather than in anticipation of it.

Independent retail networks provide stability

At Mr. Checkout, long-term experience across independent retail distribution channels has consistently shown that the most stable brands are those that matured within independent networks before pursuing broader …

Read More

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

Retail moves faster today than ever before. Driven by social media viral trends and rapid consumer shifts, new products are launched daily. Yet, retail merchants are often trapped under an avalanche of chaotic pitch emails, LinkedIn messages, business cards collected from expos and unvetted supplier inquiries. Sifting through this mountain of information to find suppliers that are not only on-trend but that also have the capabilities needed to support a retailer’s category needs can be a daunting task. 

If only there was a way all of this information could be captured, stored and presented in a way that’s easy to organize and evaluate.

Fortunately, there is – for retailers that are RangeMe Enterprise Partners! For Enterprise Partners, all supplier submissions are collected in RangeMe and stored in the cloud with all of the information needed for buyers to easily review and evaluate whether a product is a fit for their category. And what’s more, this information can be transferred when a buyer switches desks. In addition, Enterprise Partners can host Immediate Opportunities for specific category needs, unlocking a wealth of new product innovation with the click of a mouse.

I sat with RangeMe SVP of Retail Wayne Bennett to discuss …

Read More

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
DEFI-ing the Odds: This Former CPG Exec Scores Quick Retail Wins With Her Healthy & Indulgent Snacks

Defi Snacks has certainly hit the ground running. Just launched last year, the healthy snack brand has already landed on the RangeMe Top Brands in Food & Beverage charts three times (October 2025, January 2026 and April 2026), and was recently named one of six winners of the Nourishing Change Conference Emerging Brands Competition, which will see its products on the shelves of 500 Kroger stores. The brand inked a deal with Hy-Vee, as well. 

Leading the charge for DEFI (which stands for Delicious Energizing Fitness Indulgence) is Founder and CEO Tatyana Jones, who previously spent years climbing the corporate ladder at global Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) giants like Mars, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and Bausch & Lomb. 

Looking at Jones’ background, it becomes clear why her brand has seen so much success so fast. While DEFI is Jones’ first entrepreneurial venture, her CPG background has more than prepared her to win as a business owner. She was a classically trained brand director, fresh off managing a massive $ 100 million marketing budget and launching high-profile national commercial campaigns for pharmaceutical brands like Miebo.

I caught up with Jones shortly after her Nourishing Change win, and she broke down her journey, from …

Read More