Online product sales still rule the roost for many companies, but selling your products through traditional brick and mortar stores helps commercialize your products, boosts your brand awareness, and increases access to your products and services. Plus, let’s be honest, seeing your products on the shelves of your favorite stores is pretty awesome!

Here’s a helpful guide to help pitch your products to retailers and land them as wholesale accounts.

Getting your product into retailers is not something to just jump into—there’s no reason to rush, and here are a couple of questions to ask yourself. First, make sure you have enough inventory to support both your orders and your wholesale accounts/retail lines. Can your production line keep up with the demand? If you’re struggling with meeting your own online and/or shop sales, you may not be ready to add retail to your sales channels. Just being honest.

When you’re ready to start building your leads list (a.k.a. the list of retailers you’ll eventually pitch to), here is something to think about. You probably want to go straight to approaching the big guys but pitching your products to smaller, local shops in your area is a really smart way to get started— getting your products into small businesses can open the doors to larger stores later. Start building a list of businesses that align with your brand, you think will be easy to work with, can benefit from having your products in their stores or already stock local brands as away of building community.

Pro-tip: Think about joining an online wholesale marketplace (Handshake or Faire are examples). Listing your products on a wholesale marketplace platform can get your products in front of more retailers.

Getting your wholesale pitch ready to present to potential retailers can feel stressful at times—especially if you’re not even sure where to begin. The good news is that like so many other marketing efforts, it’s about getting organized and completing a few key tasks to make sure you’re buttoned up and ready. Here are the pieces we recommend completing to make retailers think, “We don’t just want these products, we NEED these products on our shelves!”.

Create a wholesale catalog – A wholesale catalog is a must. The catalog you create can be left or sent to are tailer (along with samples) and is the best way to open the conversation or get a meeting on the calendar. Read this piece next to help you create a wholesale catalog for your business.

One key aspect of your wholesale catalog is the pricing of your products. Pricing considerations go along with the type of store you are hoping to get your products into. In general, your product pricing should fall within the range of the other products in the store already. For example: A store that sells high ticket items like consumer electronics may not be the best fit for your $15 home goods. Also, as discussed earlier, will keeping up with the supply requirements of retail cut into your profit margins at the price of your products? This is important to consider when deciding on the price/supply/demand mix.

Get your social proof together - Let retailers know your product is already “hot.” Share testimonials, feedback, current sales numbers, and your competitive advantage. You could create a nice marketing package with all of this information along with your wholesale catalog or price sheet—better yet, incorporate reviews into both of those documents.

Make sure your packaging is great - If you have products for sale, you’re most likely already on top of this but making sure your packaging looks sharp, attractive, and on-brand is important. Consider hiring a graphic designer to ensure your packaging is eye-catching and memorable.

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Get samples together – Even if your wholesale catalog is beautifully detailed, containing rich photography and descriptions, nothing will compare to getting samples of your products into the hands of retailers. The tangible feel, packaging, and size of your products will help the seller understand how they might look in their store. It helps retailers to visualize where they would go (on a shelf, in a display, part of a promotion, etc.) and how consumers might react to them.

On a visit to the shop, deliver a sample or two of your products for them to see, answer any questions they have, and if appropriate, offer to let them sell the products to determine their appeal. If the product sells quickly, you can be sure, you’ll be asked for more!

Now that you have all the pieces together (or at least coming together), you can start crafting your introduction email. If you haven't a branded your emails yet, you’ll want to do this first. Design your “online letterhead” in the email platform you use (likely Gmail) so it feels cohesive with your branding—even though it won't be fully "branded". Here are some design thoughts to consider:

And when it comes to writing a great pitch, use this email template to get your message on target. Copy and paste what you see below, customize the prompts you see in brackets, and use as a jumping off point.

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Subject Line: [A fun, clever description of your product] by [your brand name]

Hello [buyers first name],

I adore your shop, [store name] and absolutely love the unique items you’ve curated to sell. [Store name] is such an important part of the [town name] community and [Your brand name] would love to be a small part of the experience you create for your customers.

My name is [your name] owner of [your brand name/linked to your website] and we have [describe your products in a style of commonality—why they fit the other items in their store].

I would love the opportunity to set up a quick introduction where I could stop by for a quick visit and bring a few samples of [product]. I believe they could be a great addition to [store name]’s array of [product type]. In the meantime, please take a look at my product wholesale catalog [Insert link or say it is attached] to see the range of what we make and more detailed product descriptions. If it feels like a good fit, I’d be happy to schedule a time that works for us to chat.

I’m incredibly grateful for your consideration and look forward to sharing more about [your brandname] when we meet.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

[Your brand name]

[your web address]

ATTACHMENT: PRODUCT IMAGE 1

ATTACHMENT: PRODUCT IMAGE 2

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Is it time for your business to enter the retail world? If you’ve followed the tips above, you might be ready for your business to go from online to on mind in stores everywhere!