In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:
Mushrooms Truly are Magic for Retail and Foodservice

I recently went down a mushroom rabbit-hole. And not the kind you may be imagining.

It all started with RangeMe’s Q2 Retail Roundup Report, in which I learned that the keyword “mushroom” was trending on RangeMe among food, beverage, health and beauty care retail buyers in the United States. After digging deeper into the data, I found that buyers were searching for every variety of these formidable fungi from fresh mushrooms to supplements, beverages, jerky, and even coffee.

Armed with these insights, I took to the 2022 Plant Based World Expo floor at New York’s Javits Center to see what retailers, food service operators and brands had to say about mushrooms. I was not disappointed. Mushrooms are indeed becoming a favorite among buyers and are no longer just a staple in the produce section. They can now be foraged throughout the store in multiple categories. According to NielsenIQ Retail Measurement Services, NielsenIQ Product Insight, powered by Label Insight, there has been significant growth among some up and coming mushroom ingredients in the past three years, particularly products containing Reishi (up 72.3%), Lions Mane (up 534.5%) and chaga (up 238.4%). In total, sales of mushrooms and products containing mushrooms are up …

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Why Typical Store Locators Are Falling Off the Map

It’s no longer breaking news that customers want multiple ways to shop. Whether it’s through online ordering with curbside pickup or purchasing directly from a retailer, meeting the omnichannel demands of the modern consumer requires brands to support several buying options in the most useful, convenient, and accurate way. 

In other words, we want our cake and we want to eat it too, but we also want to know exactly where we can locally buy the cake (preferably with multiple retailers listed so we can choose our favorite bakery and have a curbside or ship-to-home option available). 

The most common way to inform customers of where to find a brand’s products is via a store locator on their website. Up until now, store locators have caused more headaches than added value for both consumers and brands:  

Old data – The inventory data available for store locators is typically a couple of weeks old at minimum and is based on retailers’ point-of-sale (POS) data. Therefore, if a brand’s product is rung up at a register within the last couple of weeks, the item could still show up as in-stock at that location. This results in customer frustration when arriving at a…
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CPG Trends Unveiled at the Natural Products Expo East 2022

In October of last year, Natural Products Expo East 2021 returned on the heels of the pandemic and during the Delta variant surge, leaving many booths empty. This year’s show, however, was filled with suppliers and buyers. Our team was in the middle of all the action, happy to see many familiar faces, including several of our RangeMe Verified™ suppliers.

Team RangeMe at Natural Products Expo East 2022

Here are some of the natural product trends on display at the show:

Ghee Whiz!

4th & Heart - Ghee4th & Heart – Ghee 4th & Heart - Ghee4th & Heart – Ghee

Did you know that in our Retail Roundup: Q2 2022 report, butter was a trending keyword among buyers on RangeMe? Well, what if you could enjoy the buttery taste without the casein and lactose that butter contains? Ghee has now entered the chat and is putting South Asian cooking at the forefront of innovative ingredient substitutions. Ghee is clarified butter commonly used in India for over 4,000 years. 4th & Heart produces ghee that is grass-fed,  pasture-raised, shelf-stable, has a high smoke point, is a natural source of butyric acid, which your body needs to absorb nutrients, and best of all, has the same great buttery taste. …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

A recession is coming to an economy near you – and it promises to be painful, with spiking inflation adding to the misery. Even before war broke out in Ukraine, inflation rose sharply as the world adjusted to life after the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent crisis has sent food and energy prices even higher. Consumers’ purchasing power is rapidly eroding, with more problems ahead as central banks raise interest rates to fight the price rises.

No wonder the International Monetary Fund has downgraded its forecasts for global economic growth this year – it thinks the world economy will expand by just 3.2% during 2022, down from 6.1% last year. Economists are particularly gloomy about the prospects for developed countries, warning of an outright downturn in countries including the U.S., UK, and Germany.

The impact on the retail sector is inevitable. Cash-strapped consumers spend less money – decreasing revenues for retailers and product providers. This will be even tougher to cope with, given the high input costs the industry currently faces caused by raw material and energy inflation.

However, there are ways for your brand to get ahead of a recession. Here are six strategies that could pay dividends as the …

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In: Retailing Tips|Last Updated:

Incontinence, better known as a loss of bladder control, affects approximately 13 million Americans – 85% of whom are women. As a practicing physical therapist since 1977, Faye Pryor commonly encountered the consequences of this problem while treating patients with fall-related injuries. While assisting a patient with a bedpan, major spillage occurred on her clothes and bedding. The patient asked why there weren’t urinals for women to use without lying on their backs. In that same moment, a friend of hers walked in holding a baseball cap, sparking Pryor’s idea to create the PottyCap, a portable female urinal under the Blanor Products umbrella.

Blanor Products1981: Faye Pryor and her partners from Willowbrook Blanor ProductsFaye Pryor practicing physical therapy in the 1980’s Blanor ProductsFaye Pryor practicing physical therapy in the 1980’s

Potty talk

Pryor’s retail journey began with the help of her sister-in-law Cynthia Pryor, the Vice President and COO of Blanor Products. The two created their first prototype by working with a local university in Nashville. From there, they worked on refining the urinal with the assistance of engineers all across the country. “I’m the emotional one behind the brand and Cynthia is the analytical one. This balance makes us a great team,” …

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Each day, I hear food founders ask things like, “If we’re headed into a recession, how can I possibly make it work with my CPG brand?” or, “Is anyone having success raising money right now?” or “My products are already expensive – how am I going to navigate price increases on top of this?” Sound familiar? 

I’ve got good news and bad news: the good news is that we’re seeing some CPG founders inside of Retail Ready® have higher sales than ever before, secure funding this quarter (one of our students, Diaspora Spice Co., just raised $ 2.1M in Q3!), and continue to land regional and national placements in natural, conventional, and foodservice channels. You can do this too, despite what you’ve heard about slow sales, shifts in consumer spending, and challenges on the retail shelf.

The bad news: YOU have to take full responsibility for your success – for landing those wholesale accounts and increasing your velocity in your new and existing accounts. It’s not your broker’s, your distributor’s, or the retailer’s responsibility to drive sales for your brand. It’s on you – and this article will help you shift your thinking and increase your velocity regardless of the …

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