Many inventors and new stock entrepreneurs want to sell to Target or Wal-Mart. And some do. You won't have any easy time production the sale, and there are fullness of obstacles, but the fact is that both Wal-Mart and Target are open to new vendors, both have an open submission procedure and you might be able to follow if you set up a plan to that will show the retailers that your stock will sell. Wal-Mart goes a microscopic bit further than Target in being accessible to new retailers by having a local buying schedule where inventors can of course have their stock test market in their local store, and if it succeeds it just might be picked up across the country. The road to both Wal-Mart and Target success is to build up some market momentum to show the stock will sell, and then naturally work through the retailers' submission process until you can get in front of a buyer.
Many of you are probably skeptical about your prospects about getting your stock into Wal-Mart or Target. So I'm going to start with a consolidate of success stories.
LOWES SETTLEMENT
Success Stories
Kim Babjack launched her enterprise at Qvc, selling her first 2,000 Zip-A-Ruffles, which is a ruffled bed skirt that zips on and off the bed pad for easy cleaning. The Zip-A-Ruffles ran successfully on Qvc for several years and created a history for Babjack when she came up with a new stock idea in 2005, the Animalid a toilet-lid cover with 3-D animal graphics designed to help toddlers feel more comfortable while the potty-training process.
Babjack was sure her stock would sell at Wal-Mart and she approach her local Wal-Mart Store manager to carry the Animalid. After working for a year to get an appointment, Babjack made her presentation, the store manager loved it and after only a small mountain of paperwork and approval of the district manager Babjack's stock was on the shelf. Animalids had a name upgrade to Animal Lidz, and never dominated the market but it still had its spot on the Wal-Mart and a opportunity for permanent glory.
The husband and wife composition Vanessa Troyer and Chris Farentinos came up with a simple idea, a lockable mailbox. The mailman could put the mail in, but you could only get the mail out with a key. Their two products', the Oasis and the Oasis Jr., sales have Troyer and Farentinos' enterprise Architectural Mailboxes off and running in the marketplace and right into Target's catalog and website. To date they have sold more than 150,000 of their locked letter drops, which sell for to 8.
Troyer and Farentinos developed their credentials by selling successfully through Amazon. through a persistent attempt she placed the home address of Jeff Bezos, president of Amazon and sent him a presentation on how much money Amazon was losing because their packages were lost. The day after the presentation arrived Amazon called and today they carry over 50 of Architectural Mailboxes products. The Oasis locking mailbox is not just sold by Target, it is also sold by Home Depot, Costco and Lowes.
The Submission Process
Both Wal-Mart and Target have a submission process before you have a opportunity to meet a buyer. Your chances of meeting a buyer will growth as you have success in the market.
Wal-Mart
National Program
1. Go to the Wal-Mart's web page and find the supplier section.
2. On the left side of the page and for stock Submission. There will be a link at the site for Wal-Mart's online submission package.
3. You are allowed to upload only 512 Kb of data. So you might need to cut down your brochure image ability to keep under that limit.
4. The online submission form doesn't ask for your sales success but if you keep your brochure down in size you can include a jpeg of a page with your current sales success.
5. Once you do this you need to wait for the buyer to palpate you to ask a sample or hopefully an appointment.
You can only be so active in the National Program, and you can't of course control how the buyers will respond, so it can be discouraging as you don't have control of the situation. Fortunately Wal-Mart also has the local buying schedule choice that offers you an opportunity for a one-on-one meeting.
Local Buying Program
If you want to sell your stock only in a microscopic market, Wal-Mart requires you to use their local buying program, where you need to convince one Wal-Mart manager to like your product, then you need to faultless a local supplier questionnaire and have the District manager approve the questionnaire. You can do this even if you hope to finally sell to all Wal-Marts, but you just need to start with the local store manager.
Sounds easy enough. The qoute is getting that appointment with the store manager. This is where you need to supply lots of success data about your product, state exactly in the store where your stock should go, and by comparison how your stock has outsold the other products that Wal-Mart has on the shelf at other locations. The store manager is busy, and won't see you until you can be convincing that your stock will sell. You need to expect to try to make an appointment for at least 90 days and you need to keep furnishing data to get the store manager interested. You also might want to try and get in to see several store managers. The store manager's point of view is going to be that only one out of 100 products will be worth seeing. Your job will be to supply short bursts of data that will show your stock is the right one.
Some steps you can take to help the manager see your stock is right:
1. Have sales success, preferably in bigger stores. Be sure to show pictures of your stock on the shelves of those stores.
2. Attend trade shows, show your booth display.
3. Gather testimonials from satisfied users.
4. Show Pr you have generated in manufactures or buyer magazines.
5. Create sufficient packaging.
6. Be prepared to show that you can deliver large quantities, either with a D&B report, or with a detailed explanation of how you can fund deliveries.
Target
Target wants new vendors to call their Sourcing data town at 612-696-7500. When you call they will direct citizen who want to sell a stock to Target to send an email to target.globalplanning@target.com. You will only get a response if the Target citizen like your product. So you need to be sure that you include all the data you can about your product, your sales success and also your ability to fund production. The email itself should show a photograph of the product, in its holder if you can. You only have a brief opportunity to make your point so you have to be direct. You can send in your item complicated times, but space the submittals at least six weeks apart.
I propose you have in the email itself, not as an attachment,
1. Start with the category, for instance: New Electronic Product.
2. Mention one or two items currently carried by Target that your stock should be next to. For example: place next to digital cameras and camcorders.
3. State where it has been sold. Just on one line, list only the biggest retailers, catalogs or Home Shopping Network.
4. List the recommend sell price.
5. Your palpate information.
6. A photograph of the stock in its package. Don't make the photograph too big, 2 x 2.5 inches is fine. They can strengthen the photograph if needed.
Also include as attachments as many items as you can from the list above on how to convince the store manager that he or she should meet with you.
Other Options
While Wal-mart and Target both have a process that whatever can use to gift their product, that doesn't mean that you will have an easy time getting an appointment with a buyer where you can pitch your product. You might be shut out and never get the opportunity to make your convincing case. If that should happen, you still have two other options to explore: selling through distributors who might sell to the big retailers, or having a enterprise that already sells to Wal-mart or Target market your stock for you. All the time first try to sell your stock yourself, often Target or Wal-Mart prefer to buy from the originate first, and if you sell through other fellowships you will make far less money than if you sell directly. But if you can't get in the door at first you may need to take someone else approach.
Distributors
There are many ways to find distributors that would cope your product. manufactures Trade Magazines often have an every year directory where they would list distributors. Larger libraries will have Gale's Source of Magazines and Broadcast Media which lists almost all trade magazines, or you can try an internet search. Trade Associations will also have a directory of distributors. Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations at larger libraries can also help you, as can an internet search.
You can also check quest the internet for directory listings for distributors, for instance:
-Top Ten Wholesale
-Wholesale Directory
-Wholesale Distributors Directory
-Wholesale Central
Contact the seller and get the name of the someone in charge of what products they carry. Then send that someone the same holder you sent to Target and Wal-mart about your product. Even if the seller doesn't sell to Target or Wal-mart they might still be willing to carry your stock and sell it to other customers. Expect the seller to mark your price up from 20 to 33%, so you recommend sell price will also need to go up. Retailers will mark a stock up from 50 to 100%. Once you know what mark-ups are acceptable in your manufactures you can settle what your recommend sell price is.
Other manufactures or Marketers
Your other choice is to go into the store and find products in the same area as yours. For example, if you have a kitchen product, you would be curious in all the other manufacturers of kitchen products. Try to find a mid-size company. You can then palpate the marketing department, say you have a stock that has had strong sales success, and that would be a natural fit into their stock line. Have a holder similar to Wal-mart's ready to send the marketing someone if they have interest. Expect the originate to mark-up your price to them a minimum of 33%.
Good Luck
Selling to Wal-mart and Target is difficult, and even if they like your stock they will often try to negotiate such a low price that you might have problem production money. But while difficult, it is not impossible, and small vendors sell to Wal-mart and Target all the time. Just remember if you are rejected at first that you can go out and make further sales and then go back and try to sell again.
Selling to Wal-Mart and Target LOWES SETTLEMENT
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