tips for success: 10 top resellers

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Tips for Success

10 Top Resellers

Who they are. How to sell to them.

Disclaimer This guide was written based on a several decades of combined experience in launching thousands of products through hundreds of companies in the channel. While we hope this guide is helpful and offers you some wisdom and new insight, our attorneys want you to know that it is not designed to incorporate every piece of information anyone would need to know about working with these resellers. Likewise, all products are different and results vary widely, so use any advice provided here at your own risk.

Amazon.com dominates Internet sales with over 20% of ALL

on-line purchases in the U.S. going through the etailer. They

offer everything from books and electronics, technology

products, sports equipment, jewelry and much more.

How to Get Listed on Amazon.com:

You can open your own store on Amazon, but you’ll have to

drop ship all your orders until sales reach the Amazon Prime

volume levels necessary for Amazon to take on stock.

A better route is to partner with Ingram Micro. Ingram fulfills

orders for Amazon and virtually every product in their catalog

appears on the Amazon.com website for sale by Amazon.

Multiple other resellers also take the Ingram Micro’s

catalog and offer it on Amazon’s marketplace.

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Amazon.com

Global Marketing Partners, Inc. | 28038 Dorothy Drive Agoura Hills, Ca. 91301 USA | All Rights Reserved

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Finding Success with Amazon.com

● Create Rich Content No matter what kind of product you have, the consumer wants to see it before they buy. Imitate, the best you can, the experience of holding the product by providing Amazon with at least 3 high quality pictures showing different angles, also upload a demonstration video and key details of your product.

● Glance (click) Views How many users are “clicking” on your products page? If you are going through a distributor, offer Amazon a very special price to get on “Best Deals” section. Best Deals section requires 20% or more off on your product(s) to be considered for placement.

● Product Reviews On-line sales are made and broken based on user product reviews. Use social media to drive a 5 star drive and participate in Amazon’s Vine Program to get visibility for people to come review your products.


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Newegg Inc. sells more than 3 million products. At one point

Newegg was most famous as a store for high-end gamers, but

now Newegg targets a wide range of consumers from tech-

enthusiasts to novice e-shoppers.

Newegg.com

How to Get Listed on NewEgg.com

NewEgg buyers are most open to new

products that bring their consumers great

value. Approach them direct or through your

primary distributor such as Ingram Micro or

D&H. Ingram’s NewEgg team is especially

helpful with pitching new products and

setting up promotions with this reseller.


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Finding Success on NewEgg.com

Run promotions

NewEgg’s Shell Shocker, Featured

Daily Deal and Eggxtra segments move

thousands of product. To get included, offer free

shipping with the product in stock and ready to ship, high

discounts coupled with high margin for Newegg and

instant rebates for specific time periods

Rich Content

Provide multiple product shots,

video and detailed product

descriptions.


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Walmart.com’s customer promise is

low price on everything from

Computers and Electronics, Photo,

Mobility, Media, Video Games, Home

& Appliances, Furniture & Home

Entertainment, Toys, Health & Beauty,

Baby & Pet Care and Office Supplies.

Walmart.com

How to Sell to Walmart.com

Ingram Micro has a fulfillment agreement with walmart.com and is

helping them to increase their product line assortment. If you have

a partnership with Ingram, ask your product manager or the Ingram

AR for the appropriate Walmart.com SKU set up form. SKU set

ups do get back logged so prepare to wait 2-3 months for your

listing to appear.


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Great Product Reviews: Wal-Mart customer search the internet

for good product reviews before they purchase. So make sure

you’re getting full stars.

Site-to-Store: Most Wal-Mart customers like to have product

shipped free or for 97 cents to their closest Wal-Mart store.

Leveraging this promotion by supporting the shipping fees can

make or break sales.

Value Pricing: Wal-Mart customers are

some of the most price conscious

consumers, as Walmart is heavily

focused on providing the lowest prices.

So you’ll need an extraordinary price or

bundle deal that screams value to the

consumer.

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Finding Success on Walmart.com


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Buy.com competes head to head with

Amazon.com. The site sales millions of

products in categories ranging from

computer hardware and software to

electronics, cellular, books, movies, music,

sporting goods and more.

Buy.com

How to Sell to Buy.com

Buy.com utilizes multiple distributors to fulfill customer orders

although their primary wholesale partner is Ingram Micro.

Products SKU’d as open items appear on Buy.com’s website.

However, Buy’s system is programmed so that a minimum of

10 physical units must appear in stock or the product will drop

off the site.


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Pricing: Buy.com is a online e-commerce

marketplace and therefore has a price

competitive sales environment. To be

successful you must have compelling pricing,

promotions and/or exclusives for Buy.com.

Inventory: Having inventory in stock at your

distributor to cover the promotion you are

running with Buy.com is essential since both

the product and the promotion will disappear

from the site if stock quantities fall below 10

units per distribution warehouse.

Promotions: Offer a very tempting promotion

to get into a Buy.com email blast to get visibility

to their customer base. All items must be: a)

over $25.00 & less than 15lbs. or; b) 15-25 lbs

& greater than $150 to receive free shipping.

Finding Success on buy.com

Purchased by Japanese company Rakuten, Buy.com is slowly undergoing a name change and will eventually only be known as “rakuten.com”


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Costco.com Costco is a members only

warehouse club originally

designed to help small-to-

medium-sized businesses

reduce costs in

purchasing for resale and

for everyday business

use. However, the 598

store chain also sells to

Individuals for their

personal needs.

Costco.com expands on

the stores selection selling

a wide variety of

consumer electronics,

household goods,

clothing, jewelry and food.


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How to Sell to Costco

Buyers for Costco stores are looking for unique values.

i.e. bundles that include something extra along with the

main item. Also, for many items, Costco requires

special theft-proof clam shell packaging, so they’ll

consider your item more if you come prepared to show

them how you will package it for their stores.

Tips for Costco Success

Exclusive Offer: Costco requires exclusivity on many

SKU’s , prices or bundles.

One Hot Offer: Typically, Costco takes on one SKU

from manufacturers that is compelling and provides

extraordinary value to their members

Must accept Costco’s Terms & Conditions:

Manufacturers are required to offer their products at the

Costco T’s &C’s.


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CDW CDW is a technology solutions provider for small-medium

businesses, government, education and healthcare. Their

model is driven by sales through personalized account

managers and highly integrated vendor relationships.

How to Sell to CDW

CDW buys products based on customer demand. So if you

want to harness CDW’s enormous selling power, start

creating demand with their vertical market customers.

You will also need a distributor

like Ingram Micro, TechData

or Synnex as CDW prefers to

make full solution purchased

through national distributors.

Mobility, Digital Signage, Networking, Security, Healthcare, Video-conferencing, Cloud & Services.


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Provide Leads. CDW is a great reseller partner but

“partnership” is the key. For the greatest success,

instead of selling direct to the verticals, push

customer leads through CDW. List them on your

website and work with CDW sales associates to fill in

missing gaps on the reseller’s big solution contracts.

For Success with CDW


CDW GETS IT

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Bestbuy.com, Best Buy’s on-line store specializes in

consumer electronics, mobility, video games,

technology products, office equipment, appliances.

BestBuy.com

How to Sell to Best Buy.com

While products sold in Best Buy stores undergo stringent

Geek Squad testing, you can get your product set up

with bestbuy.com by partnering with the right distributor

like Ingram Micro or Navarre. However, products are

not automatically included from the wholesaler’s

catalog and Best Buy will screen

submissions prior to inclusion.

Ask the disti account

rep handling Best Buy

to help get you set up..


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Margins: Most categories require at least 40%

margin and sometimes, a back-end rebate.

Start Online: Start on-line before launching in stores

if you are a newer manufacturer. High on-line sales can

lead to store placements. FYI, stores typically require

pure consignment and full stock rotation rights & a

minimum 2000 piece initial orders. So budget your

cash/credit position if want physical store presence.

For Success with Best Buy.com

Run Daily Deals: Work with your disti sales

rep to propose a Daily Deal. Best Buy’s daily

deal section offers flash sales on items with

steep discounts. If you pick one product for a

daily deal loss-leader, sales typically increase

on the full line.


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Fry's Electronics is a great way to test the waters with brick

and mortar retail. It is a regional chain with 34 themed

stores ranging in size from 50,000 to over 180,000 square

feet and an on-line store for Internet shoppers. Appealing to

the true computer geek, Fry’s is famous for moving large

volumes of product and being open to cool new stuff.

Fry’s Electronics

How to Sell to Fry’s

Fry’s has a virtual open-door policy to

view new vendors. One day a week,

vendors can come in to their San Jose

office and pitch product to the buyers.

Call to make an appointment before you

book your trip though because sometimes

the buyers are gone on store visits.


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Maximize Success with Fry’s

Store Training: Fry’s has a very hands-on sales staff.

You can schedule times with store managers to conduct

training sessions. Tip: Bring pizza and snacks.

Detailing: Hire a detailing company to visit stores and

maximize your shelf appeal.

End Caps: The Fry’s buyers like to sell vendors end-

caps, which can be a very effective way of bumping up

sales volume. However, make sure you get a return on

your investment by creating end-cap signs, sending in

detailers to insure the end cap goes up in all stores and

are beautifully stocked. We also recommend sending

sales trainers into the stores on the week-ends during

your end-cap to set up a table and run consumer demos.


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OfficeDepot.com is the on-line store for the 1,100+

North American store chain of Office Depot. They sell

more consumer electronics than their two major

office-supply chains competitors: Office Max and

Staples. In addition to office supplies, Office Depot

sells computers, software and office furniture. Tech

Depot is the portion of Office Depot that focuses on

small-to-medium businesses, education and the

federal government.

OfficeDepot.com/Techdept.com

How to Sell to Office Depot’s dot coms Get listed on both Officedepot.com and techdepot.com by

working with your distribution account rep to present and set-

up product. Both sites utilize 3rd party wholesalers to fulfill

their catalog and drop ship orders to customers.


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Consumer Electronics & Business Focus:

Maximize Office Depot’s CE selling

power by offering unique CE bundles

that fill in gaps and appeal to SMB

customers. Think SMB in your product

description and messaging and promotions.

Great Margin: Make sure you’re offering at least a 40%

margin for the retailer or typically your

products will be priced higher than your

product appears at other retailers, which can

slow down sales.

For Success with Office Depot


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Staples is the No. 1 office-supply specialty chain. Focused

product categories include: consumer electronics,

computers, computer accessories, office supplies, digital

imaging, personal A/V, home office and accessories.

Staples

How to Sell to Staples

Staples stores require a high margin from 40% to 60% on

computer accessory and mobility type products. When you

pitch your product to the buyers, be prepared with the right

price, but make sure you’re leaving room for disti margin

and spot promotions.

You can start with the Staples.com online store if

you are Ingram Micro vendor. Ingram fulfills orders

to the Internet store and you can work with the

distributor’s Staples account rep to get your

products SKU’d up.


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Exclusives: Offer exclusive deals to Staples that other

retailers don’t have . It can be a unique product exclusive

to Staples only, or bundle with an add-on that accompanies

your product and isn’t available to other retailers.

Roll Your Promos: When running a promotion at Staples,

be sure and set up a rolling calendar so you aren’t doing

the same promotions at other office stores at the same time.

For Success with Staples

Category Pages: Buy spots

on Staples.com category

pages while running

promotions to build your brand

and maximize sales.


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ABOUT GLOBAL

Global Marketing Partners is a full solution market

incubator and distributor of emerging technology

products. We focus on innovative IT and CE

companies in their early to mid-growth stages.


Contact Us:

Global Marketing Partners, Inc.

[email protected]

818.713.2700

Micah De Jonge, Product Manager

Mike Robinson Product Manager

mailto:[email protected]

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