Retailing Tips | Affordable Wholesale

How CPG Brands are Surviving – and Thriving – Amid Increasing Costs

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated: November 19, 2022

If there is one thing that all consumer packaged goods suppliers have learned over the past two years, it’s how interconnected our global economy is. Even a supplier that is local to its primary market is at the mercy of events happening on the other side of the planet.

Nowhere has this been more evident than with the rising costs of doing business, whether it’s due to scarcity of raw materials, supply chain bottlenecks, or increasing fuel and labor costs. At the same time, inflationary pressures are squeezing them from the consumer side, as shoppers are more cognizant than ever of spending.

I spoke with more than a dozen suppliers from around the world – some of them during a recent ECRM session – to get a sense of the challenges these brands are facing, and how they have adapted their businesses to accommodate them.

What it basically comes down to is that suppliers are getting hit on all fronts: rising costs of raw materials, shipping and freight (even local freight prices have gone up due to the increased fuel price). Labor is also getting expensive and can be scarce. Added to this are shipping backlogs at the ports, which …

Building a Customer Retention Strategy

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated: November 15, 2022

Most CPG founders are so focused on acquiring new customers that they don’t spend enough time and energy retaining their existing ones. According to Neil Patel, “The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-80%, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%.” On top of this, customer acquisition costs for new customers are much higher than for existing customers.

Are you building your strategy around retention first and acquisition second? If not, you should be as it’s the foundation to building a successful business.

Let’s break down what a retention first strategy looks like and how to build one for your business.

First, let’s look at a traditional marketing funnel.

Ideally, each potential customer moves from awareness down to advocacy. Now it’s called a funnel because at each stage you’ll have fewer and fewer people moving to the next step. Sometimes it’s because the product isn’t a fit, while other times people are simply busy and forget. As a company, your goal is to:

1) Build as many advocates and loyalists as possible, and

2) Increase the number of people moving from one stage to the next without exiting the funnel

Why? Advocates and loyalists …

This Veteran-Owned Sauce Brand Proves to Retailers That “It’s Gon Be Good”

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated: November 11, 2022

John Walden, Founder and Chief Quality Assurance/Quality Control Officer of J.W. Southern Sauce grew up in restaurants. His parents and family worked long careers in the service and restaurant industry, where he learned a lot about what makes a good meal. The secret? Sauce. While his love for food and delicious sauces sparked at a young age, manufacturing and producing his own masterful sauces was a new endeavor. From 2005 to 2011, Walden served in the United States Army, where he completed two combat tours in Iraq. While serving in the Army, he started developing J.W. Southern Sauce, born through his collective experiences across several countries and many years of trying to make military food more flavorful. Several years and lots of hard work later, the one-of-a-kind LGBTQ-, veteran-, and now Black-owned and operated brand launched on March 18, 2021.

We mustard from the beginning

Before launching J.W. Southern Sauce, Walden received formal education about the sauce manufacturing industry by attending an array of food-safe programs and the University of Georgia’s Department of Science and Technology’s Better Process Control School. From there, he needed a message behind his brand, something that represented all his hard work and would resonate with …

Hitting the Big Time: Are You Ready for Retail?

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated: November 3, 2022

Many small businesses and startups are conceived to bring new and unique products to market. Entrepreneurs often start by selling their products via local boutiques and company websites. However, to reach a wider audience and achieve greater success, you will need the bigger, broader sales channels and supply chain acumen of retail and e-commerce marketplaces to help you grow. Here’s what it takes to make that leap:

Establish credibility with major retailers

Before you can sell your product through a national retailer, you must sell it to them. In addition to pitching your product, you’ll have to pitch your company – and prove your ability to meet their requirements. Scale is an obvious point: do you have the production capacity to meet the retailer’s needs? If demand takes off, will you be able to meet it?

You also need to demonstrate your company’s credibility in a marketplace that utterly depends upon customer satisfaction – timely delivery, sufficient supply, reliable quality, and product authenticity. The gatekeepers will carefully vet new products and suppliers, so it’s important to work within an infrastructure that supports the retailer’s systems and reputation.

One key qualifier large retailers look for is the implementation of a standardized, …

What To Look for in Your UPS and FedEx Contract

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated: October 30, 2022

UPS and FedEx contracts are complex and confusing. That’s by design. The details of your carrier contract can make a huge difference in your total shipping costs. For most businesses, shipping is one of the biggest expenses. It’s also one of the most challenging to predict and control since the parcel and freight shipping world is an ever-changing landscape with carriers able to add fees and change your costs at will. With shipping rates at an all-time high, too many are unknowingly being overcharged by their carrier.

The secrets behind shipping costs

We’ll uncover a few hard truths about shipping with UPS and FedEx. The reality is the UPS/FedEx duopoly dominates parcel shipping. There are other players in the game like regional carriers, the USPS, and postal consolidators, but the “big two” still dominate the market share for parcel deliveries in the United States (excluding Amazon’s in-house deliveries).

Without competition, there’s no transparency. And without transparency into your shipping data, you lack the visibility and insight necessary to make cost-saving shipping decisions.

There are a few reasons why UPS and FedEx customers are overcharged:

FedEx and UPS can increase their rates without notice (peak surcharges) It’s challenging to understand what…

10 Tips for Emerging Brands to Navigate Distribution Success

In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated: October 26, 2022

You’ve scaled your production, cultivated your unique branding, and grown your presence in the Consumer Packaged Goods world. Now, you’re ready to boost your sales, visibility, and reach through nationwide distribution. Where do you begin? How do you find the right distributor?

There are a few key factors to keep in mind as you kick-start a launch into retailers nationwide. The experiences we’ve had growing our Pod Foods platform have taught us a number of lessons that we’re thrilled to share with others who are looking to grow their own emerging brands. Consider the following ten factors to ensure a strong, enjoyable, and cost-effective partnership with your distributor:

1) Prioritize transparency

It is critical to select the right distributor for your expanding business and to determine a transparent and reliable platform that will work as hard as you do to get your products placed. Prioritize the distributor that delivers the most insightful look into your company’s sales, inventory, shipments, and analytics, as these metrics help support your retailer relationships.

Additionally, keep in mind that efficiency is paramount in this industry. Emerging brands rarely have surplus cash to waste on supply chain inefficiencies, so make your distribution partner aware of …