Tips toward better retailer, supplier relations
Solutions for Retail Brands, a software and consulting company with expertise in own brands, discussed four common mistakes retailers make when building supplier relationships.
The Nottingham, U.K.-based company with offices in the U.S. recently appeared in Store Brands’ special report on lifestyle brands. The company, which stylizes its name to S4RB, shared insights from its survey, “The State of Retailer and Private Brand Supplier Engagement,” saying one improved way to build the relationship was for more retailers to work with suppliers as "one team" to increase engagement and challenge innovation.
In the agency’s latest blog, part of its new “Inside Own Brands” publication, David Taylor, client success director, S4RB, furthered that sentiment and added four mistakes retailers commonly make when working with suppliers. They are:
- Fails to prioritize a supplier. Often the manufacturer delivering a good for private brand can be treated as an afterthought in the planning process.
- Assumes compliance. Retailers sometimes just assume that if they request a supplier to, say, respond to a survey in an amount of time, they won’t. Expectations need to be clearer.
- Focuses solely on product margin. Simply just pressuring suppliers to lower costs and raise retailer margins, retailers could benefit from develop products and customer needs with a supplier.
- Moves buyers around. Retailers often move people in and out of buyer positions and ranks which can damage a consistency in how the two work together.
Read the full blog here.