Seven Tips for Food & Beverage Distributors to increase sales

Food and beverage distributors play a significant role in the food industry. One of the most important goals for such companies to achieve is maintaining and increasing the customer base in the retail sector. Food distributors and wholesalers are the ones who place the product in multiple retail locations. And these are the locations where customers look for the products the most. Besides, they have a strong network of agents who further have close contacts with food services businesses and retailers. This gives them the power to present new products and tasting samples to retailers. 

If you are a food distributor struggling with sales, this blog is for you. Here we have come up with seven tried and tested tips for food and beverage distributors that will help you gain the sales you want to achieve. 

Physical marketing material

Distributors delivering food products can provide physical marketing materials like coupons, shelf talkers, and brochures. Making visually appealing promotional material works best if you are in the food sector. Most of the time, the manufacturers are the ones who bear the cost of the marketing materials, but it could be the distributor too. Marketing materials are then passed from the distributor to the retailers and then to the final consumers, promoting the brand and hence increasing sales. 

Digital Marketing

Nowadays, going digital plays a key role in determining the sales of any business. Keep your business website updated with the food products and services you are providing. Potential customers search for your business on search engines by using a specific set of keywords. Thus, it is advisable to keep your business website optimized for local searches and national searches to gain more traffic to your site. Make the most out of digital marketing techniques. Your business will definitely flourish. 

The uniqueness of your business

You should have a unique selling proposition if you want to be the star of the market. Your USP defines what makes you stand out from other food and beverage distributors. First, decide what kind of food items and beverages you want to sell. Online grocery is increasingly becoming popular at a rapid speed, especially after the pandemic. Many people find it easy to order perishable or semi-perishable food items online. Here arises the question: What should you offer? If you know the answer and there is a market demand for it, Voila! You can increase sales. 

Create a marketing plan

Your marketing plan needs to be top-notch if you want to impact your sales positively. Invite your contacts to follow you on social media platforms. Keep your customers updated. Moreover, using market data can prove to be tremendously helpful for food distributors. Using data analytics for food distributors can give you better insights to serve the food service market effectively. It helps to identify the gaps in the market, and you get a holistic view of the demand to unleash new market opportunities. 

Develop a pricing strategy

The type of storage affects your business cost to a large extent. The cost can certainly go up if you sell the things that need to be refrigerated. You can include a drop shipping arrangement in your business which allows you to ship directly from the distributor. In this, you don’t need to have an inventory of your own or worry about the shipping or packing. If you are selling food items like candies or baked goods, you need a space for storing them. This is where you think about the logistics, like sourcing the ingredients, food preparations, cooking equipment, and packaging, to name a few. All these factors help you develop the price strategy that will help you fetch more returns. 

Prepare your launch

Once you become ready to start selling, it’s time to select the e-commerce platform. Connect your online store and marketing platforms to learn more about customer analytics. Include the e-commerce integrations like payment processing technology to make the business successful. Include the option so that the customers can review the products they buy. It builds the confidence of the customers in your products. And you are likely to gain more buyers. Don’t forget to automate post-purchase emails to capture the attention and review of the customers. Now you are all set to prepare your launch. 

Events and fairs

Tasting events always come with good opportunities for all the food and beverage distributors to promote their brands and hence increase their sales. You can target different categories by attending these events and fairs, like B2B customers, partner distributors, or final consumers. You can even create private events for potential B2B customers if you have the budget. It will help retain the existing customers, promote your products, and who knows, you may even find new sellers for your company.

Final Words

Building a loyal customer base needs constant effort. Implementing the above-mentioned strategies will let the food and beverage distributors increase their sales and ultimately takes them closer to their goals.