While most of the home furnishings industry seems to be meeting 2024 with a cautious optimism (us included!), the uncertainties of the last year are certainly lingering.
Coming off the lumpiness that was 2023 can make it especially challenging for manufacturers to know how to prioritize the various parts of their business. It may feel like there are more areas of opportunity, places to course correct or ways to play catch up than any brand can effectively tend to.
When thinking about your ecommerce business, one approach is to look at where your retail partners are focused. After all, the success of your online channel depends on the success of these partnerships, so it’s worth it to make sure you are in sync with their priorities. Plus, with many retailers facing staff shortages after publicized layoffs, they’re spread thin, and making their job easier will only benefit your mutual goals.
What Retailers Care About Right Now
So what do retailers care about most right now? We asked BrandJump’s Account Management team to share the topics they’re covering most frequently with retailers like Wayfair, Target, The Home Depot, Lumens and others to understand how manufacturers can concentrate their efforts in the same areas and capitalize on opportunities with their partners.
Here are five key areas they shared:
1. Building a bigger trade business.
“Retailers that have not focused on trade side of the business in the past are now making it a priority,” said Mary Ann Boedeker, Account Manager and Associate Brand Manager. “They are attracted by the one-time cost to acquire the customer and historically higher repurchase rate.”
Every major retailer our team works with has put an emphasis on reaching the professional customer online. But rather than just being able to provide a quote to the trade shopper, retailers want a strategy that lets them shop via the website, typically at an exclusive, discounted rate, as well as a way to engage them and become a trusted resource for sourcing products.
What that means for manufacturers
At a bare minimum, make sure your products are present on a retailer’s trade-only site experience. Margin does come into play here—because the professional customer typically expects and receives an additional discount, manufacturers should also expect to provide a level of backend support on pricing. You’ll want to be able to provide a healthy margin for the retailer while, of course, protecting your own margin.
There also may be trade-specific marketing opportunities to participate in, or ways to train the sales team so they are versed in your brand and products.
Manufacturers should also be thinking about their own trade customer and share relevant insights with retailers that can help drive engagement with this audience via the retailer’s site. That doesn’t mean handing over any business your brand is already doing directly with the trade. Instead, think about using what you know to best approach reaching that customer through a retail channel, then work with retail partners on ways to try those on.
2. Winning customer satisfaction.
Today’s shopper has countless options for where they shop, how they shop and what they buy. That competition makes it ever more important for retailers to stand out among the rest by creating a best-in-class experience for the customer—from quick shipping and speedy delivery to accurate, robust product content.
“Ensuring speed to customer is very high on the list right now,” said Calli Morrison, BrandJump’s Account Manager for Wayfair. “Wayfair’s expectations for manufacturers have updated to same-day shipping, and those who can’t meet that will become less and less competitive.”
A standout shopping experience is also a must, with retailers vying to create site features that rival an in-person experience through powerful search, plentiful visual assets, detailed product specs and features and reviews from previous customers. This helps ensure a shopper has everything they need to make a confident purchasing decision and ultimately want to shop with the retailer again.
“Ensuring speed to customer is very high on the list right now.”
Calli Morrison, BrandJump Account Manager
What that means for manufacturers
Manufacturers are a partner in meeting the customer expectation on behalf of the retailer in two key areas: Product content and operations/logistics.
For most major retailers, it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to ensure product data is thorough, accurate and creates a product listing that fully meets the online shopper’s needs. A brand’s success at this may also be reflected on a retailer scorecard, but strong content benefits both partners to attract and convert a shopper.
For drop-ship programs, manufacturers also play a critical role in delivering that five-star experience across shipping and delivery times. That means they need to put a focus on operational excellence to compete not only for the customer’s wallet, but for the health of the manufacturer-retailer relationship.
If logistics is a challenge for your brand, you might consider participating in a 3PL program like Wayfair’s CastleGate or Amazon’s FBA to better compete on lead times.
3. Running promotions to draw in the shopper.
Retailers are emphasizing competitive pricing to attract customers. That means many are aggressively promotional throughout the year, not just during holiday periods or the Cyber 5. With an end-customer who is spending more carefully than they were a few years ago, being able to present them with a deal is paramount to winning a sale, whether the product is at an opening price point or a luxury item.
What that means for manufacturers
This doesn’t mean you need to be on sale all year and risk training the customer to wait for a sale. But if you aren’t aligned with your retailers on their promotional approach, or if you aren’t considering promotions as part of your overall online strategy, you’ll be leaving opportunity on the table.
“Retailers are looking to be as efficient as possible, and anything that is unnecessarily complicated can easily get backburnered for something that’s not.”
Erin Hanley, BrandJump Associate Brand Manager and Account Manager
Be prepared for continued asks from retailers around promotional participation. In addition to a brand-wide promotional calendar that can be used by all of your retail partners, manufacturers should make sure their brand is open to promotions outside of that, including all major shopping holidays, retailer-specific events like WayDay or Prime Day, as well as exclusive retailer sales. Having flexibility in your promotional schedule (as well as in wholesale support) will allow your brand to stay competitive.
Another tip for maximizing promotional efforts? Keep it simple. “Offers should be easy to process for the retailer, and easy to message to the end consumer,” said Erin Hanley, BrandJump Account Manager and Associate Brand Manager. “Retailers are looking to be as efficient as possible, and anything that is unnecessarily complicated can easily get backburnered for something that’s not.” Make sure to keep the discount, timing and category or SKU list of a promotion as straightforward as possible.
Finally, brands should make sure their margins are healthy enough to allow for a meaningful discount to the end customer. If you can only manage a 5% off sale, that’s not likely to mean much to the customer looking for a deal.
4. Boosting advertising programs to reach more customers.
All brands want their products to get in front of the shopper. But as retailers scale (with more brands, more products) and the market gets more competitive, that is challenging. Having your products published to a site no longer means a customer will see them. Many major retailers have pay-to-play programs, and expect brands who want to drive exposure to their products to participate in them.
What that means for manufacturers
Manufacturers now need to be an active player in getting the customer’s attention.
“In a time where people are spending less and being more cognizant of what they do spend, brands have to find ways to stand out to the customer,” said Julia Horvitz, Senior Brand Manager. “The best way to do that is often by investing in things like sponsored products to get better placement.”
To get the most proverbial bang for your buck, focus on your best-selling products first, or the ones the bring in the lion’s share of sales. Then, you can test sponsoring new products or different assortments a little bit at a time. But starting with products that have proven their ability to sell will help ensure you get a return on the investment in advertising them.
If investing in advertising doesn’t seem feasible with your budget, make sure you are looking at your overall program with retails to see if there are ways to modify to make room.
5. Ensuring thoughtful and intentional assortments.
Other than Amazon or Wayfair, many retailers are accepting less product to their curations than they once were. They’re zeroed in getting the right products on their sites to deliver them to the customer by making sure they are playing in the right categories, with a compelling and robust product assortment. Some may also be curating products to a particular category or aesthetic that appeals to their target customer. Either way, retailers want to keep their customer engaged and make their site a destination for the home shopper.
“Curated assortments alleviate the need to sift through thousands of items,” said Stephanie Mauro, BrandJump Account Manager. “When a customer trusts a retailer to thoughtfully bring together the styles or types of products they want to see, that helps build loyalty, which is something every retailer wants.”
What that means for manufacturers
Retailers love newness—so offering frequent and compelling new product is a great way for manufacturers to give them something to talk about.
But new product alone doesn’t guarantee being included or featured by retailers. Brands must also be able to show a retailer why their products are a must-have for their site. That means having good product at the right price; including great imagery; offering quick delivery times; and simply being easy to work with.
Manufacturers can also communicate to retailers any stories that help meet the customer where they’re at. Share any styles or products that are trending. Or make sure they know about things like your brand’s sustainability efforts that could speak to customers’ values.
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Knowing what’s important to retailers can be a beacon for manufacturers to not only understand where their efforts are best spent, but to also capitalize on the opportunities that will strengthen their mutual business. The success of the retailer can be the success of your brand—and vice versa—if you’re aligned on how that success is defined.
