Retail moves faster today than ever before. Driven by social media viral trends and rapid consumer shifts, new products are launched daily. Yet, retail merchants are often trapped under an avalanche of chaotic pitch emails, LinkedIn messages, business cards collected from expos and unvetted supplier inquiries. Sifting through this mountain of information to find suppliers that are not only on-trend but that also have the capabilities needed to support a retailer\u2019s category needs can be a daunting task. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If only there was a way all of this information could be captured, stored and presented in a way that\u2019s easy to organize and evaluate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, there is \u2013 for retailers that are RangeMe Enterprise Partners! For Enterprise Partners, all supplier submissions are collected in RangeMe and stored in the cloud with all of the information needed for buyers to easily review and evaluate whether a product is a fit for their category. And what\u2019s more, this information can be transferred when a buyer switches desks. In addition, Enterprise Partners can host Immediate Opportunities for specific category needs, unlocking a wealth of new product innovation with the click of a mouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I sat with RangeMe SVP of Retail Wayne Bennett to discuss the challenges modern merchants face, and how a RangeMe Enterprise Partnership addresses these challenges. You can watch the full video interview below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For modern merchant teams, the primary obstacle isn’t a lack of new products \u2013 it\u2019s the sheer volume of choices combined with limited evaluation bandwidth. “There is a lot of innovation out there and retailers today have to make sense of all that information,” says Bennett. “And the evaluation of whether a brand\u2019s products are retail ready or not is time-consuming. The rate at which innovation is taking place and the rate at which the merchant teams need to evaluate is actually creating an innovation gap.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To make matters worse, retail organizations frequently experience desk changes and buyer turnover. When a buyer moves to a new category, historical data and supplier communications are often lost, forcing new team members to start back at square one. Combined with corporate pressures to do more with less, merchants need a way to streamline supplier evaluation without adding headcount or operational friction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
RangeMe serves as an extension of the merchant team, providing a centralized ecosystem designed to simplify supplier discovery, evaluation, and connectivity. Following are three key ways in which RangeMe accomplishes this for merchants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of forcing buyers to sort through disorganized inboxes and multiple sources of input, RangeMe provides Enterprise Partners with a custom inbound product submission link placed directly on their website. This leads to a customized landing page hosted by RageMe that is designed to collect the information that merchants need to evaluate a product\u2019s shelf-worthiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Desk shifts shouldn’t mean losing months of market research and supplier context. RangeMe creates a permanent digital trail for retail teams that can be transferred to buyers new to a desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Buyers leave, and desk changes happen,” says Bennett. “One of the nice things about RangeMe is that it retains institutional knowledge of all of the information that you’re capturing in that platform so the merchants don’t have to start again from square one. That new buyer would be able to see all of the communication, sample requests, any information that was recorded in the RangeMe platform \u2013 so that they can hit the ground running.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When retailers need something specific \u2013 whether it\u2019s launching a sustainability campaign, seeking Made in America suppliers, or finding products in a niche subcategory \u2013 RangeMe enables targeted sourcing campaigns called Immediate Opportunities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These campaigns can scale from massive retail events to hyper-targeted category requests, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “In this age of limited resources and doing more with less, I think our platform really can serve the needs of a lot of retailers,” says Bennett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Implementing enterprise software often comes with IT integration headaches, but RangeMe operates as a cloud-based solution that doesn’t require connecting directly to internal ERP systems. Supported by dedicated account support and regular cadence check-ins, the platform ensures retail teams fully leverage new tools without adding tech overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, RangeMe connects both sides of the retail aisle to fuel market growth. “If you think about RangeMe, we are a marketplace of opportunities,” says Bennett. “That’s what we’re really delivering for the retailer, and that’s what we’re delivering for those emerging, new innovative brands.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n To learn more, contact Wayne Bennett at wayne.bennett@rangeme.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
A Secure, Frictionless Enterprise Solution<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n