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Many inventors and new product entrepreneurs want to sell to Target or Wal-Mart. And some do. You won’t have any easy time making the sale, and there are plenty of obstacles, but the fact is that both Wal-Mart and Target are open to new vendors, both have an open submission policy and you might be able to succeed if you set up a plan to that will show the retailers that your product will sell. Wal-Mart goes a little bit further than Target in being accessible to new retailers by having a local buying program where inventors can actually have their product test market in their local store, and if it succeeds it just might be picked up across the country. The road to both Wal-Mart and Target success is

to build up some market momentum to show the product will sell, and then simply work through the retailers’ submission process until you can get in front of a buyer.

The Submission Process

Both Wal-Mart and Target have a submission process before you have a chance to meet a buyer. Your chances of meeting a buyer will increase as you have success in the market.

Wal-Mart

National Program

1. Go to the web page:  http://walmartstores.com/Suppliers/
2. On the left side of the page and for Product Submission. There will be a link at the site for Wal-Mart’s online submission package.
3. You are allowed to upload only 512 KB of data.  So you might need to cut down your brochure image quality to keep under that limit.
4. The online submission form doesn’t ask for your sales success but if you keep your brochure down in size you can include a jpeg of a page with your current sales success.
5. Once you do this you need to wait for the buyer to contact you to request a sample or hopefully an appointment.

You can only be so active in the National Program, and you can’t really control how the buyers will respond, so it can be discouraging as you don’t have control of the situation. Fortunately Wal-Mart also has the local buying program option that offers you an opportunity for a one-on-one meeting.

Local Buying Program

If you want to sell your product only in a limited market, Wal-Mart requires you to use their local buying program, where you need to convince one Wal-Mart

manager to like your product, then you need to complete a local supplier questionnaire and have the District Manager approve the questionnaire. You can do this even if you hope to eventually sell to all Wal-Marts, but you just need to start with the local store manager.

Sounds easy enough. The problem is getting that appointment with the store manager. This is where you need to supply lots of success information about your product, state exactly in the store where your product should go, and explain how your product has outsold the other products that Wal-Mart has on the shelf at other locations. The store manager is busy, and won’t see you until you can be convincing that your product will sell. You need to expect to try to make an appointment for at least 90 days and you need to keep furnishing information to get the store manager interested. You also might want to try and get in to see several store managers. The store manager’s point of view is going to be that only one out of 100 products will be worth seeing. Your job will be to provide short bursts of information that will show your product is the right one.

Some steps you can take to help the manager see your product is right.

1. Have sales success, preferably in bigger stores. Be sure to show pictures of your product on the shelves of those stores.
2. Attend trade shows, show your booth display.
3. Obtain testimonials from satisfied users.
4. Show PR you have generated in industry or consumer magazines.
5. Create effective packaging.
6. Be prepared to show that you can deliver large quantities, either with a D&B report, or with a detailed explanation of how you can fund deliveries.

Target

Target wants new vendors to call their Sourcing Information Center at 612-696-7500. When you call they will direct people who want to sell a product to Target to send an email to target.globalplanning@target.com.

The Submission Process

Both Wal-Mart and Target have a submission process before you have a chance to meet a buyer. Your chances of meeting a buyer will increase as you have success in the market.

Wal-Mart

National Program

1. Go to the web page:  http://walmartstores.com/Suppliers/
2. On the left side of the page and for Product Submission. There will be a link at the site for Wal-Mart’s online submission package.
3. You are allowed to upload only 512 KB of data.  So you might need to cut down your brochure image quality to keep under that limit.
4. The online submission form doesn’t ask for your sales success but if you keep your brochure down in size you can include a jpeg of a page with your current sales success.
5. Once you do this you need to wait for the buyer to contact you to request a sample or hopefully an appointment.

You can only be so active in the National Program, and you can’t really control how the buyers will respond, so it can be discouraging as you don’t have control of the situation. Fortunately Wal-Mart also has the local buying program option that offers you an opportunity for a one-on-one meeting.

You will only get a response if the Target people like your product. So you need to be sure that you include all the information you can about your product, your sales success and also your ability to fund production. The email itself should show a picture of the product, in its package if you can. You only have a brief opportunity to make your point so you have to be direct. You can send in your item multiple times, but space the submittals at least six weeks apart.

I recommend you have in the email itself, not as an attachment,

1. Start with the category, for instance: New Electronic Product.
2. Mention one or two items currently carried by Target that your product should be next to. For example: place next to digital cameras and camcorders.
3. State where it has been sold. Just on one line, list only the biggest retailers, catalogs or Home Shopping Network.
4. List the suggested retail price.
5. Your contact information.
6. A picture of the product in its package.  Don’t make the picture too big, 2 x 2.5 inches is fine.  They can enlarge the picture if needed.

Also include as attachments as many items as you can from the list above on how to convince the store manager that he or she should meet with you.

Good Luck

Selling to Wal-mart and Target is difficult, and even if they like your product they will often try to negotiate such a low price that you might have trouble making money. But while difficult, it is not impossible, and small vendors sell to Wal-mart and Target all the time. Just remember if you are rejected at first that you can go out and make additional sales and then go back and try to sell again.