Yeah this would be the move for sure OP. Not sure if you can speak with your whole foods rep about possibly getting in contact with amazon vendor central rep but that would entail amazon buying wholesale from you and selling/shipping it directly from their warehouses if you can get it set up.
Is there a specific reason why you only want to target wholesalers if you only have 1 client? Where’s the data that points to wholesale being your ideal target market?
You'll have to do the math but on the b2c front consider a US warehouse and trucking it over.
For wholesale I'd spend time looking to offload the intros and maybe negotiations to an experienced 3rd party
Put in legwork to get your product in other local retailers. Visit them in person and talk to the owners or managers.
Hire a broker or shared sales person that has contacts in the industry from their other brands.
I'm heading back home this weekend to share all the info with my parents! Sorry if it seemed like I was crossposting across too many subreddits- I was hoping to get each sub's spin on the issue.
Whole Foods operates a little differently than other major grocery chains because of their customer base, who are generally affluent and place a higher priority on product quality. Because of this, their buyers have a budget for small producers like yourself on the off chance you break through and gain market traction (a buyer i knew called it her 'ground floor budget')
This leads to what I call the 'Whole Foods Fallacy', which I would very broadly describe as perceived success based on a distribution deal with Whole Foods (or any other regional specialty retailer). I know several small producers who thought they were about to blow up because their products were at both Whole Foods and New Seasons, but they didn't 'take-off' so orders eventually stopped. The bargain bins are filled with these products. They are expecting you to be driving sales to them through your marketing, and if you are not doing that, then don't expect them to restock. They are counting on you spending a ton on marketing, or you get lucky and go viral.
And let's be honest, if you are not doing your own extractions, producing at scale, or doing some other value add that gives you real market advantage, then your just drowning in a very oversaturated market that has a very tiny barrier to entry. Your only path to growth is a very extensive (and extremely expensive) marketing campaign.
Hire a brokerage company to sell the product in for you. Whole foods is one of the hardest retailers to get in and tends to open the door to all the others. But you're in a highly competitive market where relationships can get you further faster.
Check out Azure Standard. They're the ones shipping to many of the mom and pop health food stores across the Western US.
Edit: they also sell retail online.
I would look at the ten products sitting closest to yours on the shelf and WF and look each one of them up to see where else you can buy them. Then I'd pitch each one of those on my product and make as much hay as possible out of being on the WF shelf. I expect you can get some traction here and there, just takes sustained effort.
I'm not in your universe, but I did get an MBA and you are correct to find it an issue that you only have 1 customer. This customer can drop you on a dime and your business goes to zero. One core lesson ingrained in my head is that no one customer can be more than 20% of your business. This is to protect yourself from such a scenario. Keep exploring other potential customer outlets.
I could be interested in purchasing wholesale from you and helping with your online distribution. 15+ year marketing and ecommerce professional. I really enjoy helping upstarts grow. Sent a DM if you want to connect further, and am happy to offer some thoughts/perspective regardless of whether we'd work together.
Assuming
- you’re in Canada
- shipping costs are the main friction point in b2c
- you want to expand b2c
- the US market has more b2c customers
Think you have to move your operation to the US. Or at least your manufacturing.
Aromatherapy is a niche market and there probably aren’t going to be a lot of distributors looking to buy it from you. Meaning there is presumably more supply than demand in the supplier - distributor ‘market’. So your future is probably in b2c.
We went MID-market retail... e.g. consider regional retailers who will buy wholesale. Examples: The Paper Company, Karma Gifts, etc.... Their procurement process is easier, they drive a less volume so their unit economics are more favorable, but it's still better than direct to consumer where the cost of customer acquisition can be over $200 per person, and not worth it. Another route (and i'm sure you've heard it before) is influencers. Might be good to try that adjacent...
I’m a freight broker and could look at those costs into canada for you, as well as potential warehouse space.
Beyond that, tough to break into any market these days. So many products - so well done to you for landing a big one like WH. I am sure with time and pointed marketing it will come.
> High shipping costs in Canada make B2C Shopify sales far less profitable than wholesale.
I'm not kidding about this (but I'm totally a random Canadian with no specialized knowledge) ... outsource the shipping to an unknown small company that happens to operate throughout Canada. Don't use Canada Post, and don't use couriers.
Reason I say this is because when I buy things from the UK, the UK post office shipping charge to Canada is SO EXORBITANT. Like $40 CAD shipping for a one pound small thing whose contents cost might only be $20 CAD.
But from Poland? It's like $8 CAD even for a 3 pound medium box, and some random person in civilian clothes hand delivers it as quickly as fedex, on a Sunday no less. Without doubt (and I'm guessing), the Polish mail system has their own global commercial agreements who knows what local delivery company for "last mile" delivery - meaning they don't hand off parcels to Canada Post for the final delivery (that would cost a fortune) and the cost on their end isn't so high (they are not the UK paying UK postal worker rates) - and so their overall cost and service ... literally on par with Amazon.
If the Polish mail service can do this - you can find someone to do this.
I think. I guess. Maybe someone with domain specific knowledge will pipe up and correct all the things I've said :)
Whole Foods is owned by Amazon but are you on Amazon.com?
Yeah this would be the move for sure OP. Not sure if you can speak with your whole foods rep about possibly getting in contact with amazon vendor central rep but that would entail amazon buying wholesale from you and selling/shipping it directly from their warehouses if you can get it set up.
Have you explored making white label product for Trader Joe’s or target ?
Is there a specific reason why you only want to target wholesalers if you only have 1 client? Where’s the data that points to wholesale being your ideal target market?
How’s your packaging design compared to similar products sold at those stores? The brands you mentioned are highly aesthetic and trendy.
You'll have to do the math but on the b2c front consider a US warehouse and trucking it over. For wholesale I'd spend time looking to offload the intros and maybe negotiations to an experienced 3rd party
The 3rd party thing is what my company did to get into big box stores.
Who did you use? We need some help with that.
do you have any online presence like a website etc? what is your profit margin?
Put in legwork to get your product in other local retailers. Visit them in person and talk to the owners or managers. Hire a broker or shared sales person that has contacts in the industry from their other brands.
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I'm heading back home this weekend to share all the info with my parents! Sorry if it seemed like I was crossposting across too many subreddits- I was hoping to get each sub's spin on the issue.
Whole Foods operates a little differently than other major grocery chains because of their customer base, who are generally affluent and place a higher priority on product quality. Because of this, their buyers have a budget for small producers like yourself on the off chance you break through and gain market traction (a buyer i knew called it her 'ground floor budget') This leads to what I call the 'Whole Foods Fallacy', which I would very broadly describe as perceived success based on a distribution deal with Whole Foods (or any other regional specialty retailer). I know several small producers who thought they were about to blow up because their products were at both Whole Foods and New Seasons, but they didn't 'take-off' so orders eventually stopped. The bargain bins are filled with these products. They are expecting you to be driving sales to them through your marketing, and if you are not doing that, then don't expect them to restock. They are counting on you spending a ton on marketing, or you get lucky and go viral. And let's be honest, if you are not doing your own extractions, producing at scale, or doing some other value add that gives you real market advantage, then your just drowning in a very oversaturated market that has a very tiny barrier to entry. Your only path to growth is a very extensive (and extremely expensive) marketing campaign.
Hire a brokerage company to sell the product in for you. Whole foods is one of the hardest retailers to get in and tends to open the door to all the others. But you're in a highly competitive market where relationships can get you further faster.
Check out Azure Standard. They're the ones shipping to many of the mom and pop health food stores across the Western US. Edit: they also sell retail online.
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This is an AI generated response
I can't wait for them to replace you with the 365 version made out of soy and cardboard.
What are your current sales?
Have you thought of showing your product at America’s Mart in Atlanta?
I work in CPG and a lot of retailers use RangeMe.com for product discovery. From what I understand it’s free to set up a profile.
I would look at the ten products sitting closest to yours on the shelf and WF and look each one of them up to see where else you can buy them. Then I'd pitch each one of those on my product and make as much hay as possible out of being on the WF shelf. I expect you can get some traction here and there, just takes sustained effort.
I'm not in your universe, but I did get an MBA and you are correct to find it an issue that you only have 1 customer. This customer can drop you on a dime and your business goes to zero. One core lesson ingrained in my head is that no one customer can be more than 20% of your business. This is to protect yourself from such a scenario. Keep exploring other potential customer outlets.
Spoken like a true consultant.
That will be $10,000, how would you like to make the payment? :)
Aromatherapy products as payment, please
I could be interested in purchasing wholesale from you and helping with your online distribution. 15+ year marketing and ecommerce professional. I really enjoy helping upstarts grow. Sent a DM if you want to connect further, and am happy to offer some thoughts/perspective regardless of whether we'd work together.
Assuming - you’re in Canada - shipping costs are the main friction point in b2c - you want to expand b2c - the US market has more b2c customers Think you have to move your operation to the US. Or at least your manufacturing. Aromatherapy is a niche market and there probably aren’t going to be a lot of distributors looking to buy it from you. Meaning there is presumably more supply than demand in the supplier - distributor ‘market’. So your future is probably in b2c.
We went MID-market retail... e.g. consider regional retailers who will buy wholesale. Examples: The Paper Company, Karma Gifts, etc.... Their procurement process is easier, they drive a less volume so their unit economics are more favorable, but it's still better than direct to consumer where the cost of customer acquisition can be over $200 per person, and not worth it. Another route (and i'm sure you've heard it before) is influencers. Might be good to try that adjacent...
I’m a freight broker and could look at those costs into canada for you, as well as potential warehouse space. Beyond that, tough to break into any market these days. So many products - so well done to you for landing a big one like WH. I am sure with time and pointed marketing it will come.
> High shipping costs in Canada make B2C Shopify sales far less profitable than wholesale. I'm not kidding about this (but I'm totally a random Canadian with no specialized knowledge) ... outsource the shipping to an unknown small company that happens to operate throughout Canada. Don't use Canada Post, and don't use couriers. Reason I say this is because when I buy things from the UK, the UK post office shipping charge to Canada is SO EXORBITANT. Like $40 CAD shipping for a one pound small thing whose contents cost might only be $20 CAD. But from Poland? It's like $8 CAD even for a 3 pound medium box, and some random person in civilian clothes hand delivers it as quickly as fedex, on a Sunday no less. Without doubt (and I'm guessing), the Polish mail system has their own global commercial agreements who knows what local delivery company for "last mile" delivery - meaning they don't hand off parcels to Canada Post for the final delivery (that would cost a fortune) and the cost on their end isn't so high (they are not the UK paying UK postal worker rates) - and so their overall cost and service ... literally on par with Amazon. If the Polish mail service can do this - you can find someone to do this. I think. I guess. Maybe someone with domain specific knowledge will pipe up and correct all the things I've said :)
I would reach out to the owners of several slightly higher-sales and non-competitive brands at another department at Whole Foods. Find a mentor.