4 Things You Can Do To Help Your Retailers Win During COVID-19

With all the current unknowns of COVID-19, you may have found yourself asking:

• How can I overcome these circumstances and get my retailers through this time?
• My retailers aren’t pushing through their current inventory right now, how can I help them? 
• How on earth am I going to get my retailer to focus on buying S21 when consumer confidence is unknown?

If this resonates, then you are not alone and we want to come alongside you during this time to offer suggestions and strategies to help your retailers win. We know this industry is resilient and will bounce back from all of this. In the meantime, we urge you to use this period to invest in yourself and in your business, so you can be part of the spring that takes place when we get through this. 

Here are the four ways you can invest in your retailers and come out of this stronger than before:

1. Get your FREE Digital Catalog up and going today with our 4-month trial.  

Get your brand online with digital selling tools today so you can hit the ground running, send your products to retailers around the world and give them the ability to shop directly in your catalog rather than scrummaging through a PDF and manually writing every order.

The best part is that you don’t need to be an IT guru to find your way around the technology. We’ve made it easy to upload your products from a spreadsheet so you can quickly go live with the necessary tools to connect and transact with your buyers. To learn more about Repspark’s Accelerate software, click here.

2. Develop merchandising strategies to push current inventory

To help your retailers push inventory, they need smart strategies and assets to make it happen and to make their life easier. During this time, they are most likely facing challenges like furloughing employees, budget issues, and a loss of consumer confidence. Sharing photos, videos, and product placement options can save them a lot of time and help their team execute selling strategies.

Go the extra mile for your retailers by coming up with different ways to merchandise and market inventory. Here are a few ideas you can suggest to your retailers to help push inventory:

• Offer discount on tops to look great and productive during video calls
• Outdoor brand? Encourage getting fresh air while social distancing with select products
• Invite your retailer to highlight items on Instagram Live 
• Golf shop? Suggest free delivery to their doorstep before their next tee-time. 

3. Use this time to become an expert at your retailer’s business

You already are a pro and now it’s time to elevate your role as their personal brand strategist. Spend this time diving into reports of the past and present, look under every piece of data you can find by knowing what does and does not perform well. But don’t stop there! You want to know: 

• The foundational elements of their business (aka what drives their revenue)
• The items that are slow to sell or have a certain sweet time on the retail floor
• While certain items may drive 60-80% of the business, what is driving the other remaining percentage.

By being able to answer these questions, you can help craft and guide their future buying strategies. If you lead a team of sales reps, this would be a great exercise to have them conduct and share during this downtime.

4. Evaluate and Optimize your S21 Strategy by Retailer

Filled with the great knowledge you acquired in step 3, is your S21 line optimal for your retailers? Are there styles that need to be added or colors that are missing? Before sending off the line, evaluate the details and create a Digital Catalog that is focused on a strategy that speaks to the sales of their brand and is one they can’t resist.

Go the extra mile and include their suggested orders quantities based on bookings and sell-throughs pre-recorded in the Digital Catalog to make the process seamless and efficient. Be sure to highlight this service as a suggestion based on past reports. 

At the end of the day, the best thing you can offer your retailers is empathy, compassion, and humility. We are all in this together and can link arms in a variety of ways to help support each other and be able to sprint faster than before once this is over. 

If you are ready to get started with the Accelerate Software, then click below to get started on your FREE 4-month trial. Still have questions? Then schedule a demo today.