Support Your Retail Partners

How to Support Your Retail Partners with Sustainable Go-To-Market Content Tools

Setting up your retailers for success, modernizing your brand, and supporting your retail partners through every stage of the season is important. To do this you need to have sustainable go-to-market content tools at each step of the retail seasonal journey. Envoy’s wholesale e-commerce solution provides the following features to help you achieve that goal:

  • Digital catalog builders
  • Printable PDF exports
  • Showroom wholesale digital storefront
  • Visual merchandising and line planning
  • Constant sharing and asset management
  • Content performance analytics and reporting
  • And more...

To understand how to support your retail partners with these go-to-market features, take a look at the retailer’s perspective of the seasonal journey below to learn how to use it to build your go-to-market strategy.

Envoy B2B Buyer Journey


Let’s go through each one of these stages to learn how your brand can help your retailers succeed by providing them with the right content at each stage.


 

icon_visionquest@2xVision Quest: What brands align with me and my consumer’s values?

Showroom in Envoy B2B

Make it easy for buyers and reps to see your vision for the season.

 

At this first stage of the season, your retail partners are asking themselves, “Which brands do I want to carry during the season?” As a brand, it’s your job to demonstrate that you hold the same values as the retailer. At the same time, it’s important to showcase your product story for the season, along with your plan to support the retailer until the final “Sell Your Season” section of the journey.

Content Best Practices:

  • Use a protected digital destination that story tells and delivers your go-to-market content.
  • Paint a picture of your entire season for the retailer, from sell-in to sell-through.
  • When presenting digitally and in-person, provide your retailer with the same go-to-market content by using our content sharing and asset management features. 
  • Keep content relevant and offer content that is available to export in modern forms. 

Content to Provide:

  • Your brand’s story
  • Features and benefits of your brand
  • Key products
  • Lookbooks
  • Co-op marketing opportunities

Key Features to Utilize During this Stage:

  • B2B Opportunity #8: Content sharing and asset management tools to allow your retailers to get to know you better, understand your brand, and have a better view of co-op marketing opportunities.
  • B2B Opportunity #1: Digital catalog builder to showcase your brand’s key products to the retailer.
  • B2B Opportunity #8Showroom whole digital storefront to provide a greater context to the content of who you are as a brand.

 

You know right away when you sit down with a marketing team or a rep whether they genuinely care about your shop and consequently your community, or if they’re just chasing self-interest.”

Brendan Madigan, Alpenglow Sports

 

icon_numbers@2xNumbers: What’s worked and what hasn’t?

You’re off the hook for this stage of the season journey. No content is needed from you.

 

dc_collaboration@2xCollaboration: Let’s start merchandising!

Visually Merchandise Your Order

Merchandise collaboratively and visually with your team.

 

Your retailers want to see what they’re going to be selling. At this stage, your reps should be going out to showcase the brand and assist retailers in building assortments that fit their store’s needs.

Our advice: Do this in person. And don’t be afraid to go over the Vision Quest again from stage one. Doing this will help show your retailers that you’re the real deal.

Content Best Practices:

  • Show up in person to present your brands and products. 
  • Provide content that is available in printable PDF exports.
  • Provide them with your in-market content marketing vision.
  • After the meeting, make sure the assortments are available digitally and in other popular formats.

Content to Provide:

  • Your brand’s story
  • Features and benefits of your brand
  • Key products
  • Lookbooks
  • Co-op marketing opportunities 

Key Features to Utilize During this Stage:

  • B2B Opportunity #3Visual merchandising and line planning to showcase everything that your brand has to offer.
  • B2B Opportunity #8Content sharing and asset management tools so that your retailers have access to your content after you have presented it to them.
  • B2B Opportunity #8Printable PDF exports of your content so that they can share and review with colleagues.
  • B2B Opportunity #1Virtual Showrooms to allow your brand to deliver target specific products, innovations, or initiatives.
  • B2B Opportunity #1: Digital catalog builder to tailor a custom catalog to what products the retailer is looking for.

 

icon_thebuy@2xThe Buy: Stay in budget.

No content is needed at this stage of the seasonal journey.

 

icon_theplan@2xThe Plan: How will you support me in my market? 

All your content in one central location. Dashboards.

Provide supporting in-market marketing materials.

 

By this stage in the seasonal journey, your retailer's are asking, “Now that I’ve purchased all of this product from you, how are you going to help me sell it in my market?” 

This is where you need to gain their trust and support them by helping them market to their loyal consumers. Provide them with imagery to show your products in their store and through their online channels. Involve them in co-op marketing opportunities and promotions for social media, print, events, and everything in-between for the specific products they’ve purchased. Do this by utilizing content sharing and asset management tools. 

Here are the facts:

68 percent of sales are in-store

Content Best Practices:

  • Share local direct-to-consumer marketing insights
  • Provide a digital catalog that is searchable with flexible exports
  • Offer in-market co-op marketing programs
  • Provide shared visibility to co-op marketing effectiveness

Content to Provide:

  • A marketing plan
  • High-quality eCommerce product photography
  • Full details and data about the product
  • Digital campaigns and co-op ads
  • A guide to event participation

Key Features to Utilize During this Stage:

  • B2B Opportunity #1Digital catalog builder to help build specific campaigns for the retailers
  • B2B Opportunity #8Content sharing and asset management tools to perform cohesive marking co-op pieces
  • B2B Opportunity #4Content performance analytics and reporting so that that retailer knows what’s working and what needs to change in their marketing initiatives. 

 

“At SunSki, we’ve found it invaluable to share D2C analytics with your retail partners because…” 

Grand Mahn, Director of Wholesale at SunSki

 

icon_createexperts@2xCreate Experts: It’s time to activate my team!

Showroom is a great spot for educational resources

Create experts through simple digital training content.

 

Now’s the time to turn your retailers into the experts. If you can nail down this part of the season, this will be a foundational step for them to leverage when working with their customers. Help them learn about your product, what makes it unique, and how to sell it based on what they’ve purchased for the year. You can do this through Envoy B2B features like building a digital catalog, providing them with printable PDF exports about the items, and sharing content with them about your brand. 

Here are the facts:

Assistance learning about the product is the number one need.


Providing education for reps to support their retailers and opportunities for retailers to learn about the brands they’re selling are the two main focal points for this stage in the seasonal journey. 

Content Best Practices:

  • Provide digital and in-personal education 

Content to Provide: 

  • Current and up-to-date, rep-focused seasonal clinic materials
  • Retailer-focused seasonal brand education

Key Features to Utilize During this Stage: 

  • B2B Opportunity #1Showroom wholesale digital storefront to help retailers learn more about your products
  • B2B Opportunity #8Printable PDF exports to keep as resource guides about your brand and your products
  • B2B Opportunity #8Content sharing and asset management tools to enable retailers better understand your brand by educating themselves on your materials.

icon_selltheseason@2xSell The Season: Managing Seasonal Demand. 

This stage of the seasonal journey doesn’t need your content focus, but there are still a few more things you can do to provide your retailers with the best content to succeed.

 

A Modern Tooling Approach

Having a modern tooling approach helps support your reps and retailers by containing everything in one easy spot. This means no more looking through piles of print materials, searching through thousands of emails, or logging into separate platforms. 

A modern tooling approach doesn’t replace real interactions between reps and retailers though. Instead, it provides a central location for your reps and retails to engage with your content throughout the seasonal journey. This can be done through content sharing and asset management tools.

Here are the facts:

  • Retailers are busy! 97% use more than 5 B2B platforms.
  • It’s important to be the best partner you can be because 66% carry more than 20+ brands.
  • Click here to see the research!

97% use more than 5 B2B platforms

Recap 

Support your retail partners with sustainable go-to-market content tools by using the following features in your modernized wholesale B2B solution:

  • A digital catalog builder
  • A digital storytelling destination
  • Presentation functionality with flexible exports
  • Content sharing and asset management tools
  • Reporting and insights on activities

 

Start supporting your retailers through every stage of the season with Envoy B2B! 

Get started by modernizing your brand, streamlining your wholesale channel, selling your season, and going-to-market smarter through our fully featured wholesale eCommerce platform.

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