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Through the years convenience stores www.cstoredirectory.com have evolved from dusty gas station stores to modern stores with well stocked shelves with food, beverages, household products and other items of daily use that can be used around the house. While grocery stores stock fresh and packed food items along with perishable and beverages, convenience stores store all necessities and also items that people are likely to buy on impulse leading to a tough battleground for new product launches. They provide the right platform for your products which is critical for their success.
You a manufacturer can use various resources like direct store delivery wholesalers, wholesale grocery distributors and brokers to get your product into convenience stores for a standard fee.
Why C stores are preferable
Industry data collected last month shows that nearly 160 million people enter convenience stores on a daily basis and spend between 3 to 10 minutes depending on their requirements opening up a large clientele for retailers to sell a wide variety of items. Stores now set up a separate section of ready to eat food items, pop-top beverages and other packaged goods that people can pick up on the go. Efficiently managed stores near heavily populated neighborhoods take the assistance of convenience store brokers to replenish their stocks on a regular basis and also to keep in touch with new products launched in the market.
Supplying merchandise to convenience stores through distributors will bring your product much faster within reach of customers. As a manufacturer of several products you would like to concentrate on production instead of sales and at such times a wholesale distribution specialist can help you establish links with convenience store owners within their contact circle. The high number of footfalls in c stores will provide with an inexpensive outlet for your products which you can use to earn profits by making more new products. In today’s world of quickly changing tastes and availability of wide range of options, retailers use the services of both agencies and individuals who can give them wide range of products at competitive prices.
How to distribute products to convenience stores
Every manufacturer of convenience products has to use different channels to distribute his products to c-stores and grocery chains depending on product type and utility. While food and beverage distribution can be done through wholesale distributors which specialize in these type of products, other durables like torches, tobacco products, cleaning agents, toiletries, cosmetics, stationery, batteries and electronic products are delivered by specialized distributors.
Selling beverages through c-stores
A large variety of hot and cold beverages are displayed in c-stores comprising of sweetened cola drinks, ordinary water and health drinks. New studies show that nearly one third of total sales earned by c stores are through sales of beverages. Though most beverage distribution are carried out by the manufacturers or by third party distributors, they are also sometimes distributed through specialized grocery distributors in remote area which service single mom and pop grocery stores spread across the nation which cannot stock large quantities. A large majority of new beverages are now launched in c-stores to create a market for them throughout the nation.
Selling food products through c-stores
Though in the early days of convenience retailing, the stores contained more of tobacco products, convenience items, beverages like beer and a few food products, but the scenario has changed completely. Now c-stores have their own takeaway sections along with fast food outlets as a part of the convenience offered to walk in customers who come to fill gas in their vehicles. If you are keen on introducing a new range of ready-to-eat products then convenience stores are your best bet to reach a wide range of customers. You can try approaching local stores in your area directly and depending on customer feedback work with food distributors to sell your food products within the state.
Collaborate with C-stores through checkstand program
If you feel that your product will be an instant hit and requires a strong platform to market it to convenience stores across the nation, then you can use the expert services of an affiliate system like checkstand program. This association of wholesalers, food distributors, rack jobbers, brokers and others in the distribution chain work as a group to provide a single launch platform to introduce new products in convenience stores.
After they check the viability of your products at a few stores in your locality which are affiliated to them, they will take the responsibility of launch, display and distribution to anywhere between 200-5000 stores located across the nation at a certain fee. This saves the manufacturers from taking on the responsibility of looking for distributors and ensuring that their products are available before their target customers when required.
Collaborate with C-stores through wholesaler distributors
To get a product before the customers at a competitive price they would be willing to pay for requires efficient management of logistics and partnership between manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Wholesaler distributors manage smooth flow of goods by absorbing cost of transportation and risks involved during the process of distribution. To reduce the number of intermediaries, large convenience store chains work with specialist wholesale distributors www.cstoredistributors.com who deal in one or two products and know where to source the best quality at low price.
As they have insider knowledge about market demand and supply frequencies they can use this information to turn your new product into a bestseller by branding it effectively through c-store chains.
While convenience stores can help sell your product, manufacturers should remember that it has to be constantly in demand for stores to dedicate shelf space to them. If the store gets a better product at a lesser price which catches the fancy of customers then your product will be easily replaced with another. Besides providing better discounts on bulk purchases manufacturers have to constantly promote their products in online and offline media until it is deeply entrenched in buyers’ psyche like Coca Cola is for beverages and Hershey is for chocolate. So manufacturers have to constantly interact with buyers and c-stores stocking their products to understand the challenges on the horizon and meet them with better products.