What Retailers Expect from Distributors
The convenience distribution industry is constantly evolving, and with every new change comes a new set of hurdles that retailers must face. As distributors, retailers look to you for best-selling products, reliable customer service, affordable costs, and ultimately as a partner for growing business and fulfilling store needs and goals. The relationship you have with your retailers is an important one and it’s met with certain expectations as, in most cases, you are their go-to resource for getting products to end consumers.
Educate Your Staff
Retailers depend on you for solutions on how to sell more. Making sure your sales reps, customer service and other customer-facing staff members have reliable brand and product knowledge ensures that you are positioning your retailers to be successful in the future. Staying up to date with essential information that retailers are looking for, such as inventory levels, movement of product, pricing and offers strengthens the retailer-distributor relationship. Retailers must rely on your word, so make sure the information you give out is consistent, honest and reliable.
Utilize Technology
Providing retailers with accurate distribution of consumer products is no simple task. Whether it’s vendor information, store promotions or item numbers, retailers want reliable, quick and easy access to the information and data that’s going to boost their sales. To improve services, distributors should utilize online software programs that aid retailers with what they need to enhance profitability. Integrating an online platform allows for clearer and timely communication through electronic means, minimizing lost sales opportunities and a faster turnaround time from product to shelf. If you don’t have the resources to implement a large online platform, do as much as you can to provide data to your retail customers digitally. As the saying goes, time is money, and you want to be sure you’re streamlining processes with technology whenever possible.
Offer Category Insights
By working with a large network of retail clients, distributors are able to collect information directly from end users for market research. As such, distributors should be analyzing their sales data to identify what products will do best on shelf in the retail space. Distributors are a valuable industry resource to many retailers and are expected to serve as consultants for making better merchandising decisions. Distributors should strive to develop a category management analysis that offers insights to product recommendations, volume projections, performance trends and key convenience categories to better position retailers in their respective markets.
