Retailers are at the front line of connecting with the customer.  Their place in the distribution channel gives them a unique perspective.  The opportunity to interact with consumers enables them to learn what consumers like and dislike.  They know what products and services consumers are asking about. 

Not only can retailers provide you feedback on whether or not they think that consumers will accept your product but, they can go one step further and let you place your product on their shelves on a trial basis to see if consumers will buy the product.  You can approach retailers with a prototype or an already developed product.

There are pitfalls to approaching retailers.  Large retailers can end up costing you money.  They order in large amounts and they expect you to pick up the cost for returned items or items that didn’t sell.  So, while they offer the opportunity to get your products in thousands of their chain stores their policies and procedures could end up costing you.

Try approaching smaller retailers where the terms are more favorable.  Smaller retailers gives you the opportunity to get your product infront of customers on a smaller scale that is more manageable and minimizes your exposure.  Remember the object is to do a small sampling of the customer base in a way that does not leave you with large expenses.

Visit the Distribution page to learn how you can approach retailers.