Retail Blog

Retail is a brutally competitive business. Most retailers simply cannot compete against larger rivals on price. This can lead to retailers selling products carried by their larger rivals as loss-leaders. Smart retailers know that larger rivals can be easily outfoxed through a simple strategy. The larger rivals, by definition, serve the mass-middle of the economy. Retailers know that there is money to be made by serving above and below the price ranges of the big-box behemoths. Tools like the ProductBlazer wholesale supplier search engine can help independent retailers find new suppliers to provide high and lower end products.

Discover Suppliers of Innovative Specialty and Artisan Products
Smart retailers also take advantage of their smaller size by growing their business through identifying emerging talent. There are countless suppliers of unique craft and artisan products. Most of them work the trade show circuit with limited success. But a small number of craft and artisan manufacturers provide innovative products, including toys, jewelry, apparel, and even electronics. If you can identify talented artisan manufacturers, while they are still emerging, you can grow your business, and their business, by providing your customer with unique products they can’t find in other stores.

Take Advantage of Your Smaller Size
These emerging talents cannot provide the volume of products required by Walmart or Target. But smaller independent retailers can take advantage of their size and carry unique, sometimes one of a kind, products that the big-boxes simply cannot carry. Doing business with artisan suppliers isn’t any harder than doing business with a national distributor–it’s just different. Your account manager may be the designer, or the spouse of the designer. Embrace these differences and create a real relationship with the supplier founded on a solid stream of orders through your storefront.

Actively Manage Your Relationships
There are some differences in doing business with artisan suppliers. The most important difference to you may be that their view of channel management and support could be different than yours. Before you begin sending purchase orders understand how the artisan supplier views you, the independent retailer, as a channel. Are you selling online? Is the supplier also selling online? You may have far more experience than the supplier in channel relationships–don’t take advantage of them. Just figure out a way to build your business along side their business.

Find New Artisan Products Today
Doing business with artisan suppliers is much less of a challenge than actually finding them! Many work trade shows on a regional basis and occasionally visit national shows. ProductBlazer provides instant access to thousands of artisan suppliers of jewelry, toys, apparel, housewares, and a lot more. Here is a Supplier Spotlight of wholesale sources for beautiful artisan jewelry. Start getting in touch today and build your business on the beauty and innovation of artisan products!