Convenience Stores: Learn How To Sell Your Product To Convenience Stores

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Convenience Stores: How To Sell Your New Product To Retailers and Distributors

Sell your New Beverage to Convenience Stores such as 7-Eleven

Selling your new beverage to Convenience stores and other small format stores is not difficult when you have the right product and distributors.

New, Innovative and Unique Products are the lifeblood of all convenience store retailers which means c-store buyers need to purchase high in demand products.

Beverages are considered one of the fastest selling items in a convenience store accounting for over one third of overall c-store sales.

Young adult males are the number one consumer that shops in c-stores and also happen to be the target of most beverages.

If you have a new beverage that is geared towards young adult males, then c-stores should be your main path to market.

Convenience stores are everywhere. There are 146,341 convenience stores in the United States - one per every 2,100 people. Other competing channels have far fewer stores, such as supermarkets (35,394 stores), drug stores (37,700 stores), mass dollar stores (19,974), mass merchandisers (6,594 stores) and wholesale clubs (1,184 stores). (Source: The Nielsen Company)

Consumers are embracing convenience stores like never before. An average store selling fuel has around 1,100 customers per day, or more than 400,000 per year.

Cumulatively, the U.S. convenience store industry alone serves nearly 160 million customers per day, and 58 billion customers every year.

Convenience stores have an unmatched speed of transaction: The average time it takes a customer to walk in, purchase an item and depart is between 3 to 4 minutes. Here's the breakdown: 35 seconds to walk from the car to the store, 71 seconds to select item(s), 42 seconds to wait in line to pay, 21 seconds to pay and 44 seconds to leave store. (NACS Speed Metrics Research, 2002).. consumers spend less than 2 minutes selecting a product in a cstore.

There are so many opportunities to launch a new product because c-stores (especially 7-11) are pioneers of new beverage products.

How to Sell Your Product to a C-Store

Selling your new product to a c-store is not hard if you have the right product, right distributor and right price for the distributor, retailer and consumer.

The hard part is convincing the distributor and retailer that you actually have a unique product that consumers are dying to purchase. There are just so many "me-too" beverages that want to be the next vitamin water and are confident that they will outsell their competitor because they have a new marketing twist.

Retailer and distributors have heard and continue to hear this same story everyday as the big boys such as Pepsi or Coke is waiting to annihilate any new product that wants shelf space in their accounts.

C-stores is the battle ground for all beverage companies.

When I worked for Pepsi Bottling Group, I fought everyday against the Coke and Dr. Pepper Rep. It was important for Pepsi and myself to be the best in the retail account because I made more money by selling more beverages.

The Big Beverage Giants train us to destroy any new product that thinks they can come into our account and take up a shelf facing.

95% of new beverages don't just fail because they don't have the right sales and marketing plan or enough marketing dollars, they fail because of in-store execution...boots on the street.

Pepsi and Coke kill new beverage entrepreneur because of their sales people on the ground building strong relationships with retail personnel. It does not matter how great tasting your new beverage is or the great marketing you are doing if I wanted your shelf space, I used my relationships to remove your product to place my new sobe flavor or new energy drink.

How To Compete With The Beverage Giants and Boost Sales

In order to compete with the beverage giants, you have to recognize that they exist and they do not want you to exist.

You have to build relationships with the store managers by merchandising your new product and making sure they are making money.

If the retailer is making money from your product, they are not going to allow a fast talking sales rep to remove your product because at the end of the day, they are in business to make money and to remove a great seller will piss off their consumers and keep them from making money.

Show the retailer the money and they will keep your product in the store.

I make it sound really easy selling a product to a convenience store because I have done so for over 10 years for the largest beverage manufacturers in the U.S. (Pepsi, Coors and Miller Brewing Co.)

How to Go To Market and Sell Your Product To C-Stores

There are so many ways to get your product on the shelf of independent and corporate convenience stores.

The easiest way is to sell your product to a wholesaler or distributor and let them use their relationships to place your product in the retail accounts they are currently servicing.

CoorsLight Beer Distributor

Working With Beverage Distributors

Who should You Let distribute Your New Product?

If you have a new beverage, it's critical that a distributor that currently distributes beverages distribute your new drink for various reasons.

Knowing that you have to compete against so many beverages and large beverage companies that have sales reps that don't want your new beverage taking up shelf space, means you need to have a distributor that can monitor and merchandise your beverage.

If you are having a difficult time getting a beverage distributor to carry your product, then you may have to distribute the product yourself or use a wholesaler that typically distributes non beverage products.

This topic can get very complex because the beverage industry is complex, competitive and not amateur friendly.

At the end of the day, you have to pick the right distributor to distribute your product, sell your product to their accounts and ultimately get consumers to purchase your new beverage.

P.S. Just because you get a distributor to distribute your product, does not mean you get instant account distribution.

Distributors depend on you the supplier to sell your own product to their accounts while they focus on delivering your product... Distributors have enough to worry about when it comes to logistics and not selling or branding your new beverage for you.

Sell your New Beverage to Convenience Stores

Convenience stores out number the cumulative total stores count from competing channels in the United States:

• Convenience Stores: 146,341

• Supermarkets: 36,149

• Drug Stores: 37,409

• Mass Merchandiser/Dollar Stores: 28,326

• Superettes: 13,142

Top 10 States for Convenience Stores (as of 12/31/10)