Would you like to sell your inventions and become a Walgreens Vendor?
Have you ever wondered what it would take to get a product into their stores? If so, you will love this short training segment on how do I sell a product to Walgreens!
Do you have an invention that is perfect to sell to Walgreen stores?
In this training, I will discuss some of the things to think about when approaching a retailer such as Walgreens.
Hope it helps! 🙂
Transcript of this Video:
Learn everything you need to know to be a Walgreens vendor
So one of the questions people always ask me in my workshops or classes is “Karen, I want to sell my invention to Walgreens and how do I become a Walgreens Vendor?” And so obviously I take 15 hours to explain how to get products into the stores with my retail MBA program, but I want to give you a quick tip on Walgreens, and actually one of my students did this and and he’s ultimately – have grown that business.
Why you should be selling to Walgreens
And so, what happens when you’re a small to mid-size manufacturer/product company, you’re ultimately trying to go after Walgreens, which is a monster, right? They have thousands of stores, and everybody wants to sell to Walgreens. And so sometimes, again, when you’re dealing with these larger retailers, like the big, big guys, they’re ultimately little bit harder to get into because everybody’s clamoring to get into those stores and become a Walgreens vendor.
How to become a Walgreens vendor
So one of the things that you can do if you’re having challenges there is to notice that there’s another company called “Duane Reade”. And Duane Reade is another drug store, and they have a couple of hundred stores. Now, why do I mention Duane Reade? Well, Duane Reade and Walgreens are the same company. They are owned by the same company. And so one of the reasons why most people don’t get their products in the stores is because, maybe the buyer doesn’t wanna deal with all the paper work to add on a new product. It takes time for them, they get new codes.
It’s tricky to become a Walgreens vendor
It’s a whole thing for a buyer to add a new product, and so if you’ve got a newer product, sometimes they’re just kinda lazy and just don’t want to deal with it unless you go make some money elsewhere. And so ultimately, what happens is when you’re dealing, like say a Walgreen, sometimes that’s probably the reason why they’re not going to deal with the smaller guy. Doesn’t always happen, but it does happen.
Learn how more about how to approach, pitch & sell to Walgreens stores
So, the cool thing is that when you go and say, approach Duane Reade, and if Duane Reade is interested in your product and they only have a couple of hundred stores, and it’s a lot easier to get that product into that store. Well what happens is when they take you on as a vendor, you get a vendor number, and guess what, that vendor number will work for Walgreens as well. And so, that’s pretty cool ’cause then you can go at Walgreens and say
“Hey Walgreens, I have a vendor number so it’s not gonna be so complicated for you to test out my product”.
And so ultimately, that’s a really great tip of getting your product into Walgreens
