RangeMe

Products are important, but RELATIONSHIPS are what creates long-lasting success in this industry. And Susan Darretta, owner of Hey You Distribution is a best-in-class example of this, and these relationships have evolved her business into what has essentially become an incubator that launches small brands -- particularly international brands -- into U.S. retail. I had the pleasure of visiting one of the company's warehouses in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. yesterday, and spending several hours with Susan to learn a bit more about what they do. Hey You is a RangeMe Pro subscriber who represents more than a dozen brands in the food & beverage as well as beauty categories and will be participating in several ECRM Sessions this year to pitch these brands to buyers. The origin story of Hey You is fascinating and shows just how much of an industry problem-solver Susan is. She started in the business when she took over her father's Pepsi distribution operation, which consisted of just one truck and a small route. Over the years, however, she grew it to 30 trucks covering pretty much all of the tri-state area. During that time, she developed relationships with retailers and learned all about the various capabilities that brands need to succeed in retail. As someone who loves entrepreneurship and helping brands succeed, she decided to launch Hey You as a means of providing turnkey solutions for emerging brands looking to grow -- everything from warehousing space, distribution, merchandising solutions, marketing, importing, and even product photography. (In fact, the shared space she uses in Mt. Vernon, in addition to having one of her warehouses, also houses many of the companies that provide these services to the brands she works with.) Once she planted her flag and announced it on LinkedIn (which is how we met by the way), brands started coming to her. For example, the government of Colombia flew her to the country to meet with many of its small business owners to advise brands on doing business in the U.S. She has been back six times and is actually working with some of them now. And as each brand had its own unique challenges to meet, with every brand Hey You took in, it added to its own arsenal of capabilities. The photos below from my visit show some of the things they do as well as a few of the products they represent that are on RangeMe and that she will be pitching to buyers at ECRM Sessions later this year. Side note: We grabbed lunch at a local diner, where she introduced me to my first Chopped Cheese sandwich -- which is apparently a staple in the Bronx, where she's from, and the server came up with a creative compromise for a Diet Coke drinker lunching with a Pepsi distributor. Later this month I will be posting our video interview on the RangeMe blog, so keep an eye out for it! Thanks for being such a great host, Susan! #entrepreneur #startup #distributor #cpg #retail #ecrmrangeme

Succeeding on Amazon is not as easy as you think. It takes time to build your brand on the platform, and there are several ways to go about it. Market Performance Group's Bryson Buck is an expert on helping brands succeed on Amazon, and at ECRM's recent Innovate X: Winning in Grocery Summit, held at ECRM's Center Store Grocery Session, he gave a presentation outlining what brands need to know to do business on the platform. In this video interview with ECRM's Joseph Tarnowski, Buck provides some takeaways from his presentation. 1st Party Fulfillment model Amazon has two fulfillment models, each which operates differently. It's 1st Party fulfillment model operates much like a traditional retailer agreement model. Amazon gives the brand a purchase order, the brand fulfills the order, and Amazon becomes the seller of record and sets the prices. You are selling your products wholesale to them, and they then are responsible for selling it. The brand is responsible for helping drive traffic to their page. This model is pretty hands off from the perspective of the brand. Once Amazon has the products, they can do what they want with it -- ship it to different fulfillment centers, etc. The brand's only job is to fulfill the purchase orders, which typically come in weekly. 3rd Party Fulfillment Model In the 3rd Party model, the brand is the seller of record. They are still responsible for sending product to Amazon for fulfillment, but instead of selling it wholesale to Amazon, they are selling directly to the consumer via the Amazon platform. In this case, the brand is responsible for managing inventory and getting it to Amazon, and Amazon can move it to various fulfillment centers to meet Prime availability requirements. However, if you send Amazon too much inventory you can get hit with long term storage fees, so it's important to pay attention to demand on the platform and forecast accurately. In both cases, it's important to drive traffic to your page via ads on the platform as well as off the platform (online, social media, etc.). For this, content is king. Not only must you have smart marketing to drive consumers to your Amazon page, but your product page content must be on point, with thorough descriptions, sharp images, product carousels and videos. This is what makes a person decide whether to add the product to their cart or click to a competing product -- which is often right there on the page as well! So regardless of which type of fulfillment model you choose to pursue, before you get started, make sure that you have achieved the operational excellence needed to support it. Make sure you have enough inventory in stock, that your supply chain is optimized, and that you have quality content that's ready to deploy! #ecommerce #amazon #cpg #retail #ecrmrangeme RangeMe Wayne Bennett Sarah Davidson Greg F. Kurt R. Heather Grantham Cheryl Policastro Todd Matherly