How To Get Your Product Into Australian Stores

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, seeing your products on shelves in major retail outlets around Australia can be the ultimate win. It will require some market research, prototype testing with potential customers, and ultimately a successful product pitch to retailers. This may sound daunting, but with some thought and planning, getting your product into stores around Australia can be done.

There are plenty of advantages to getting your product into retail outlets, such as exposure of your brand, growth of your business and, naturally, increased sales. This guide can enhance your chances at getting on the shelves of your favourite retail outlets and in the hands of your target audience.

7 Steps To Get Your Product Into Australian Stores 

For every item you see on a retailer’s shelf, a lot of planning and preparation went into the products you see before you. Market Research, planning, design, testing and looking at what competitors are doing. It is a long journey to get to a retail outlet shelf. But with planning and commitment, it will also be a rewarding one.

Here we have the seven steps you need to take to get your new product to market and into retail outlets.

1.  Conduct Market Research

The first step to getting your product or brand onto Australian retailer shelves is conducting comprehensive market research. This involves understanding the market landscape, identifying your target audience and analysing your competitors. This helps you gain a better understanding of what the market is like, is there enough demand for your product, which of your competitors are already on the shelves of Australian stores, and how they’re succeeding. By studying what your competitors are doing, you can emulate, be inspired by, and then do a better job at getting onto Australian retailer shelves.

There are four main steps in market research:

1. Understanding Your Target Market

You can sell your product to everyone but you can’t market to everyone. You need to know who your best customers will be, who your target audience is, so you can tailor your message and speak directly to them.

1. Research your industry. Using Ibis World and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, you can find trends in the industry and gaps which you can exploit. 
2. Walk the aisles of the retail locations you want to be in, and note what brands are already there. These will be your competitors. You can survey people who purchase brands in your competitive space – take notes of their age, gender, and other details. And you can ask them a few basic questions such as why they chose Brand X over Brand Y, how often they buy Brand X, and so forth. Nothing too personal or confrontational.
3. Create a Customer Persona. Building a detailed avatar of your ideal customer allows you to engage with them more effectively. The information you discover through your research and surveys can give you excellent insight into demographics, spending habits which can lead to salary, location that can possibly give you ethnicity and other social data points. From this you create your avatar, a visual representation of who your target audience is, what their wants and needs are.

2. Competitor Landscape

Find who your top three or four competitors are. You can do a quick Google search of your products and services and find who the top search results belong to. Determine if any of these competitors are in physical stores and not just online. 

Walk into stores and see what these competitors look like on the shelf. How eye-catching is their packaging? How big of a shelf space do they occupy? Are there any shelf-helpers to draw your eye to their product, those little signs that sit beneath a product? Remember, this is the physical space you will be competing in, so you need to have a game plan that is going to beat the competition. How high up from the floor are the products?

Once you have determined who your direct competitors are, examine their social media profiles, their website, see what message they’re putting out there, what tone of voice they are using. How can you make your message different to your competitors?

3. What is your USP? 

All of your above research will help you find your Unique Selling Point, something that has you standing out from your competitors. Knowing who your target audience is and how to speak to them in their language, countered with what your competitors are saying and how they’re saying it, you can find a gap in the market, or an angle that no one has tried yet, and make that your USP.

Base your USP on innovation, on your story, the new benefits customers will enjoy thanks to buying your product. Be wary of using price as your USP, as people don’t always purchase based on price. Some people equate low price to low quality.

4. Define Opportunity

A market opportunity analysis is where you research how and where you can connect to more potential customers and where the best chances are to grow your revenue. In this case, your customers would be the retail outlets you want your product and brand to be displayed in. Which stores provide you with the opportunity to get the most sales and the best exposure to customers?

Understanding where your opportunities lie can help you create a stronger marketing strategy and identify where you should allocate the most marketing spend. You can integrate some of the target audiences your opportunity location has, into your own investigations. 

This opportunity research will also help you understand the level of demand there is for your product or brand, which again will power your overall marketing strategy.

2.  Develop Strong Brand Identity

Your brand identity is a visual representation of your product, your brand’s values, personality and voice. It’s not just about colour schemes or logos, your brand identity is woven into every aspect of your product packaging. In a crowded retail environment, your packaging is the first interaction a consumer has with your brand. 

Here are 4 steps to take to develop a strong brand identity:

1. Align with market insights. Use your market research from step 1 to shape your brand identity to fit your customer preferences.
2. Difference from competitors. Leveraging your USP, create your brand identity to champion your unique message. You want your brand identity to align with your USP to really show how you’re different from everyone else.
3. Tell a compelling story. Stories sell. Grab your target audience with a brand story that works on their emotions and makes them want to buy. A great brand story out of the US is water in a can, called Liquid Death. An idea that was born of punk concerts and music tours, these hard core bands were drinking water from energy drink cans, due to sponsorship. Mike Cessario spoke with a lot of these bands, and with his own experience playing in punk bands, he created the ‘Liquid Death’ brand, which was essentially water in a can. It is a brand that does not take itself seriously, leans into the obvious oddity that it is simply water-in-a-can, but it hit such a sweet spot at the right time, that sales hit $130 million in 2022, and pretty much doubled by the end of 2023.
4. Create emotional connections. Emotional connections create a stronger buying reaction. Buyers feel like you’re a trusted partner to help them, rather than just something to buy. From the above example, people at rock concerts could feel ‘hard core’ drinking from a can that said Liquid Death. Also, the owners and their marketing team connected with so many people online through social media with their irreverent humour and their ‘dumb idea’. They lean into negative reviews and bad comments, and released a ‘Greatest Hates’ album on Spotify.

There is also a connection between the team behind Liquid Death and their clients. The health risks of sugary health drinks include drastic weight gain, type-2 diabetes, heart disease, and more. Mike Cessario wants to improve the health of people who would normally drink cans of energy drink, and have them replaced with water ‘with a cool name’, in a can.

A strong brand identity will have people choosing your product over your competitors. Let’s have a look at Lush. They are an ethical toiletries brand with a big social conscience brand identity. This appeals to their target audience who have similar societal views. All of Lush’s products have an ethical supply chain and around 95% of their products are vegan friendly. Lush also has a strong stance against animal protection. Nothing they sell has been tested on animals and nothing they sell knowingly contains animal products.

This is a feel good product and brand identity. You feel good when you buy it, and using it makes you feel fresh and clean and happy.

3.  Nail your Product Packaging

Your product packaging will be an extension of your brand identity. If you’re a blue collar product then your message and packaging will be functional and hard working. If your brand is a high price item, you will want exotic packaging and luxurious language to entice. People will be scanning the shelves looking for what they need. Your packaging must disrupt their quick scanning, catch their attention so they take time to pick your item up and investigate more.

Here are some points to keep in mind when it comes to nailing your packaging.

• Make sure it is aligned with your brand identity. If you have a fun and exciting brand, your packaging has to reflect this, perhaps with vibrant colours and a fun looking typeface. People will quickly disconnect from your product if the packaging is in opposition to the brand identity.
• Visual impact. Catch their eye. People’s attention spans are shorter than they were ten years ago, so you need to grab their attention immediately. Bold colours, catchy words, enticing imagery, look at how we transformed Full Spectrum Coffee for a great example of powerful visual impact.
• Functionality and protection. Your packaging needs to look good and catch their eye, but it also needs to contain your product and protect it during transportation. 
• Sustainability. In Australia, new APCO guidelines for packaging sustainability have been introduced. There are ten sustainable packaging principles you need to abide by when creating packaging for your brand.
• How it feels in the hand. Along with looking good, the tactile feel of packaging in your hand can really heighten the experience with your product. For something claiming to be environmentally friendly, a rougher cardboard can feel more earthy. If your product is high end, foil embellishments, or raised typeface you can run your finger across, can make for a memorable package experience.

Nail your product packaging, through targeting your audience, engaging in storytelling, and marketing yourself better than your competition. 

4.  Get Sales Through Alternate Channels

If you can present to a retailer proof that your product is already popular and earning sales, you become a potentially more profitable product to stock on shelves and a less risky option to invest in.

Having an online store is always a great way to generate sales and is remarkably easy to set up and maintain. Consider trade shows as well. These attract retailers to discover new and exciting brands they can sell. It is an opportunity to demonstrate your products and show your sales figures, and it is a chance for retailers to purchase if they like what they see.

5.  Generate Buzz Around Your Product

Building chatter around your product can make it attractive to retailers – if your product is already in demand or your brand already has a following before it hits the shelves, retailers are more likely to want to stock it. Ask your customers to leave reviews on Google or social media to help.

A good example is Mr Beast’s Feastables. By leveraging Mr Beast’s massive YouTube following, the product created significant anticipation before its exclusive launch at Woolworths. The pre launch buzz made Feastables highly attractive to retailers, as they seek products with strong demand. 

Based on your market research, you know where your target audience is most active. If they’re on social media, create engaging content like fun videos or competitions to capture their attention.

You can have free samples at markets or potentially in a retailer you are going to target. Have some sign up forms so people will know when you launch, promise some special offers if they tell their friends. Encourage positive reviews online as well.

Build a PR kit to send out to prospective retailers. It should include all the information they will need to make a positive decision regarding your product or brand. Marketing information, sales information, even product samples if appropriate. Help retailers experience your product and brand before it goes onto their shelves.

The more people know of your product before launch, the more likely it is you’ll have a successful launch.

6.  Prepare Your Pitch

If you’ve watched shows like Shark Tank, you’ll know there is going to be a pitch to the retailer. Your pitch can include your brand story, sample products or a demonstration but it needs to be focused. You need to stay on message, remember step two about your brand identity.

Create a pitch deck for your presentation. The best pitch decks are ones that work with you as a presenter, not ones where you’re reading the text from the screen, which is a waste of time for your pending clients. Visuals, graphs, statistics, which back up what you’re saying, are powerful. Support your message, tailor your pitch deck for each audience. Have enough detail to explain things, but a lot of room for you to embellish, and enough room for you to answer questions from your audience.

Run through your pitch deck before presenting, make sure the technology is working and it doesn’t fail at the moment of presentation.

During your pitch you can talk about:

• Your brand story. What inspired you to create this product and choose to bring it to the retail stores of Australia? Did you come from humble beginnings, starting in your father’s garage? This can give personality and context to your brand and engage the listener i.e. the Retailer.
• Product testing/tasting. Did you have a stall set up to give potential customers a free sample? Always ask your customers to give you feedback and adjust your product or marketing based on this feedback.
• Your target audience. Speak about your research and how you came to choose your target audience and why you chose them.
• Your current sales. Be open with your sales. This will both show how much of a success you are and also what the retailer stands to gain by stocking you.
• Marketing potential. Presenting a strong position now is good, but showing the potential growth of your product is even better.
• Benefit to the retailer in stocking your products. Always, there must be a benefit to the retailer, be it more money from sales or more people in their store. 
  

The more positive news you can give them the better. Your marketing and sales data also helps from the point of view that, if a retailer brings your product into their store, the marketing and the brand following has already started, so it becomes easier for them to get sales of your product. 

7.  Approach Retailers

You are now prepared to approach retailers and present your case to have your products on their shelves. However, you can’t just walk in the front door of a shop and ask to speak to the manager. You need to target the right people in the retail chain. Look on their website, or go through LinkedIn and find people employed at the store. The people you want to be talking to aren’t the marketing department. You want the buyers. Putting the word ‘buyer’ into your search term on LinkedIn can find you the people you need.

Know who you will be presenting to. Try and find the right people to talk to. Learn their name and speak directly to them.

The first step is to email. Through email you can personalise your message to the recipient, provide links to your website or other places where you can show off your product. It also helps with the next step, the phone call, in that the buyer will know a little bit more about your product. This is a warm lead, not a cold lead.

Don’t be afraid to follow up with a second email a few days later, to keep yourself front of their mind. These people are busy and can forget, so a gentle reminder is not a bad thing

Don’t be too shy. Hassle them. Remind them that you have a great product and their stores would be better with it stocked on their shelves. A good salesperson is persistent. Don’t be afraid to get rejected, this can help you have solutions for those next rejections. You will have an opportunity to present an argument that no one could say no to. The best way to market your products is to convince store managers they need it, and have them coming to you to request your product be stocked in their store.

Remember to be confident when you speak to these people. You’ve got a great idea and a fantastic product, know this and present this.

Brandwell would love to help you get commercial success your products deserve. Success can be on the shelf locally, nationally or even internationally. We have a proven track record with branding, package design, and we can help you create the pitch perfect approach. Our team of creatives can help craft a compelling brand story, values and identity that align with you and your intended audience. Contact us now and let’s get your brand growing.