Even though the beauty and skin care industry is a very lucrative market, it is also a very competitive industry. Larger brands dominate many of the traditional distribution methods and paid advertising channels. So, how do most brands who desire to capture retail deals for beauty products go about it?
Retailing skin care and beauty products can drastically change the sales and profitability of a company. There are some common methods and tactics for capturing retail opportunities for beauty products. These tactics have to be turned into action to land retail opportunities and potential beauty product sales.
What actions to take tend to be one of the most challenging aspects for smaller brands and start-ups. The challenge is how to produce sales, when the brand has little to no visibility and doesn’t really know how to go about it. To help out, here are 5 tips to capture retail deals for beauty products.
5 Tips To Capture Retail Deals For Beauty Products
1. Quality questions are the first step to capture retail deals.
Before a brand goes into action and trying to land retail opportunities, the proper questions need to be asked and answered. Questions such as why would a buyer purchase your skin care products over the competitors. What is it about the product line that will make a buyer take a chance? If a deal is captured, can you handle the production volume? There are numerous questions that should be addressed before the sales cycle begins for beauty products.
2. Ensure the proper profit margins are in place for retailing.
This is a critical aspect of retailing skin care and beauty products. Profit margins change drastically, when retailing personal care products such as skin care. Business owners and key employees must ensure that the pricing points are sufficient for retailing products. Suggested retail price should be high enough to allow for wholesale sales, including the
3. Decide who will be conducting the sales efforts.
To produce proper sales results with skin care products, a brand must decide who will be conducting the sales efforts. In the beauty industry, it is often a sales broker who is tasked with this job. At times, a brand tries to manage their sales efforts in-house, but without the proper contacts and know how, it can be a devastating experience. For best results, brokers with plenty of experience should sell beauty and skin care products. These brokers have already established relationships and contacts of buyers and distributors.
4. Contact retail category managers and buyers.
To get started with selling skin care products contact retail category managers and buyers of each retail store that is desired. Mostly smaller retailers will deal with the brands directly. Larger retailers buy predominantly only from distributors. Contact local and smaller retail stores and chains, who will buy directly from the brand. Contact these individuals and be ready to provide them with all the required details, prices, and products for review.
5. Get ready for presenting the brand and products.
One of the worst mistakes is to schedule a meeting with a retail category manager and buyer, but not be ready and not have the required materials. There may not be a second chance, so brands must make sure they are ready to present the brand and products properly. These meetings can be at times almost like job interviews, but not for the individual but the brand.
To increase sales effectively, brands can always work with industry-experienced people that can help them avoid costly mistakes and capture the opportunities successfully. Skin care business consulting services are available to help brands learn more about selling skin care products and retailing them. Consultants can assist with certain tasks, but also elaborate on what is expected and the norm with sales brokers, distributors, and key industry influencers.