Simple tips on how to get more retailers [2024 guide]

In a wholesale business, your retailers and B2B accounts are your closest partners and they make your retailer network. We’ll share practical insights, strategies, and straightforward tips that can have a significant impact on your wholesale business in 2024. Whether you’re an experienced pro or new to the wholesale world, these methods will help you attract and retain more retailers, driving your business forward.

And that is why this post will focus on retailers.

What’s the difference between wholesale and retail?

The big difference lies in the fact that:

• Wholesale is a business-to-business (B2B) model. In a wholesale scenario, a company sells its products (usually in large quantities) to other businesses. Read everything you need to know about B2B here.
  
• Retail is a business-to-consumer model. Therefore, it is the retail businesses that have direct contact with the buying customers. Retail businesses reach out to brands in order to buy their products (B2B) and sell them again afterwards (B2C). These product exchanges are all navigated with purchase contracts.

How to get more retailers – and how to get the right ones

Whether you are just getting your first retailers or already have a long list, one thing’s for sure; to get more retailers, you need to make it super simple for new ones to approach you.

We often see brands handling this entire process by email, with the starting point of the conversation being something like this:

While getting new business requests is great, they all require significant manual work before a new wholesale account can be closed (or, in some cases, declined).

To make a decision based on the example request above, the brand will have to:

• Look for information that can give them more detail on the interested retailer.
• Evaluate whether or not the store itself is appropriate for the brand
• Check the location (if physical) to see if the brand already has retailers in the area.
• Ask for more information (what specific products are they interested in, can they meet the MOQs, etc.).
• And finally, the brand has to manually reply, request more information, or outright decline.

Due to the amount of manual work involved in reviewing and replying to these types of requests, many brands simply don’t get around to doing it. Especially, having to start the dialogue by requesting more information (and remembering what information you need) is tedious.

The result is often negative for you as a brand for two reasons:

• You lost a business opportunity 
• And you left a negative vibe in the retailer community because you (as the brand) didn’t bother to reply to a serious request. And that can come back to haunt you down the road.

How to get more retailers online

If you want to get more online B2B customers, it’s important to establish why you would want to be there. This will be the key to convincing retailers to take the leap and join you online.

The top three reasons why B2B customers would want to access your web store are:

1. It is way easier to shop online
2. They are able to look at your online catalogue
3. They get easy Insight into available inventory and delivery times

For many B2B customers, convenience is the main reason they choose to purchase online. For example, if you are running a delivery business, it is important to pay attention to the route you take when delivering a customer’s order. If you have an online store, then your customers will be able to see exactly where they are on the map at all times. They can see how many stops are left until their delivery arrives or if it is going to be delayed due to traffic or construction. In order to convince retailers to go online, here are some tips:

Send an introduction card

Sending a card announcing your web store via post gives your customers a physical reminder, and it shows that you’re putting time and effort into offering them improved services. It will also help those of your retailers who are not yet converted to eCommerce

You can also send an e-mail. Remember to keep it short and highlight a simple call-to-action inviting them to explore your new online universe.

Offer special offers for online shoppers

By offering exclusive web store discounts, you encourage your customers to try out your web store. Entice them with free shipping, a promotional code or a quantity discount.

Help your customers with how-to videos

Create instructional videos showing your customers how they can place orders online. You can send them to your customers by e-mail or share them on your social media. Besides being helpful, this is also a great way to increase brand awareness and earn new customers.

The simple solution

We’ve built a feature for handling retailer requests in a simple and structured way. This is just yet another benefit of having a B2B eCommerce platform.

So what is it exactly that Turis does?

We allow you, the brand, to set up an application form for all potential retailers to fill out.

Here’s an example of a form, that was created in Turis:

The form can of course be changed, so it includes the right fields for each individual brand. You might have standards for locations, social presence, customer volume, and in-store location – you name it! 

You can include everything in your very own application form.

This allows for a structured information collection, which makes sure that all new potential retailers answer the same questions.

Your application form can be embedded on your website so that you can direct all your retailer requests to it. This way, you collect all the submissions in one shared location; Turis.

Here’s what that looks like:

Now you’re probably wondering:

I already have a form on my website for contact and retailer requests. How is this better?

A form alone doesn’t do the job. 

It still requires you to manually process the data and store the status in a central location. And it still requires you to provide the retailer with your terms and conditions, your price list, and more – all in a handwritten email.

When you accept a retailer application in Turis, we will automatically create a user for the retailer and its first buyer. Turis automatically send this information to the user simultaneously so that they can start shopping immediately and get your products on their shelves. All with minimal effort from you, or anyone in your team (retailer applications can be handled by all admins in Turis).

Now that’s easy! And furthermore, it saves you precious time and money.

Start getting more retailers, easier, today

Let’s help you get more (and the right) retailers with Turis. Getting a B2B eCommerce platform doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or for mature brands. Getting a digital platform for B2B and wholesale is for anyone with ambitions to build or run a global brand.

Sign up now, or book a free demo to learn more about how Turis can help your business.

Remember your long-term goals

Once your brand starts gaining exposure and popularity, you will experience that potential retailers and resellers will contact you to partner up and sell your products in their stores directly to their customers.

Getting such requests directly in your inbox is a huge step for any brand. And at the same time, it’s intriguing for a brand just to accept all of them. After all, they all want to buy your products!

Well, if you’ve spent time developing a brand strategy and set goals for your ideal target group, customer types, and the retailers that you dream will one day sell your products, you should not just accept any request.

You need to carefully select your retailers from the very beginning, since this is a key part of building your brand and its identity. If you are building a high-end brand, you need to think high-end from the beginning. That being said, you can’t get the most prestigious retailers from the start. But make sure to enter into partnerships with the ones that share your attention to high-end products and experiences.

If you’re still stuck in an old-school setup with no eCommerce platform, you might want to read our definitive guide about B2B Sales.

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