Stop chasing every stockist: How to get your product stocked by the right retail partners
The hidden cost of “Anyone who’ll take us”
You’re doing the hard yards.
You’ve built a product people actually love. You’ve packed boxes in the dark, done tastings on tired feet, and hustled your way into those first few stores.
And then…
Your product lands on a new shelf. You post the celebratory story. Friends cheer.
Three months later, nothing.
No re-orders.
No promo support.
No sign your product is actually moving.
It’s enough to make you question everything – your pricing, your packaging, even whether you’re cut out for this.
The thing is that the problem usually isn’t you. It’s the fit between your brand and that retailer – and the lack of a clear plan for how to get your product stocked in places where it can genuinely win.
In this article, I’ll give you a ‘work smarter not harder’ way to think about where you show up, and what you need in place once you do get your product on more shelves.
We’re going to walk the framework I use to develop your retail strategy, so you can:
stop chasing every stockist
focus on the retailers where your brand can actually win
and start moving towards how to get stocked in supermarkets in the right order
You don’t need a 40-page deck. You just need to know:
Is this retailer right for us, right now – and how do we support them well if we say yes?
What a right-fit retail partner actually looks like
Instead of asking, “Can I get into this store?”, a better question is:
“Can my brand and product win in this store?”
Here are a few lenses to look through as you build your own retail strategy for food brands like yours.
1. Their shopper looks like your ideal consumer
Think about who is actually walking the aisles:
age and life stage
dietary patterns and preferences
how they think about health, sustainability, convenience, indulgence
how price-sensitive they are
If you’re a premium, values-led brand and the store is heavily discount-driven, that doesn’t make them bad – just likely a “later” opportunity, not a “now”.
When your shopper and their shopper line up, everything you do to get your product on more shelves in that store will be more efficient – because you’re talking to people who already care.
2. Your product belongs in their basket (or trolley)
Ask yourself:
When does your product make the most sense – weekday lunches, weeknight dinners, Friday night treats, Saturday markets, special occasions?
What else is in the basket (or trolley) at that moment?
Does this stockist already sell products that naturally pair with yours?
If your product feels like a random extra rather than a natural addition, you’ll need a lot more effort to get movement. That might be fine later, but it’s a tougher road when you’re still working out how to get your product stocked into a handful of strong accounts first.
3. Your price and margin make sense on their shelf
This is where your future stress level lives.
Consider:
Will your RRP sit comfortably in the category, or stick out like a sore thumb?
Can your margin survive their expectations around promos and discounts?
Are you secretly planning to “make it work” by cutting into your own pay?
If the numbers only stack up in a fantasy world, it’s worth rethinking before you throw energy into get your product on more shelves with that retailer.
4. Your operations can realistically support them
The ‘details’ that can make or break you:
MOQs and order frequency
lead times and delivery windows
systems, barcoding and admin
your shelf life versus their stock handling
No amount of desire to figure out how to get your product stocked in a certain chain will fix a relationship where you’re constantly at breaking point trying to supply.
5. You’re proud to sit on their shelves
A quick sense-check:
Do you feel proud to tell your community you’re ranged there?
Do their values line up with how you want your brand to show up in the world?
When the alignment is there, every caption, email and pitch becomes easier – because you’re not just trying to get your product on more shelves, you’re choosing shelves that genuinely fit your story.
You don’t need retailers to tick every single box. You do want more green flags than red. From there, you can start to organise them a bit more intentionally.
The “Now, next, later” way to think about retailers
When your head is full of “We should be in X, Y, Z…”, it’s hard to know where to focus.
A gentler way to think about your retail strategy for food brands like yours is to sort potential stockists into three loose buckets:
Now – stockists who already look like a strong, realistic fit in the next 6–12 months
Next – stockists who feel aligned, but you know you’re a step or two away
Later – exciting, bigger or more complex accounts that might make sense once your foundations are stronger
You’re not doing this to be picky. You’re doing it so your limited time, money and energy are pointed at the places where your brand can actually win.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Is our brand positioning sharp enough to stand out on shelf?
Are we choosing stockists where those consumers are already shopping?
Do we understand what success looks like for the buyer?
Do we have a pitch pack that makes it easy to say yes?
If most of those feel solid for a particular retailer, they’re probably a “Now” or “soon” opportunity.
If you’re mentally ticking “needs work” or “no idea” across a few of them, it’s kinder to treat that retailer as “Next” or “Later” and fix the gaps before you worry about big leaps like how to get stocked in supermarkets.
A healthy retail strategy for food brands has all three buckets – but you spend most of your energy on Now, a little on Next, and almost none on Later.
Time for a simple check-In
If you’ve read this far, you’re already doing something powerful: you’re slowing down just long enough to think about where you grow, not just how fast.
You don’t have to overhaul your whole business this week. A great first step is simply to review your current and dream retailers through this lens, and notice what feels like “Now”, what feels like “Next”, and what can stay “Later” for now.
If you’d like a bit of structure for that, you’ve got a couple of options.
1. Start with a simple checklist
If you’re not quite ready for a full sales system yet, the Get your product on more shelves checklist is a great start to identify where you’re strong and where you might want to focus next.
It walks you through key questions and lets you mark each area as “nailed it / needs work / no idea” so you can spot:
what’s already working
what needs a tweak
what you haven’t thought about yet
2. Build your retail plan with the Get Stocked System
When you’re ready to move beyond awareness and into action, the Get Stocked System is the best next step.
It’s a DIY toolkit designed to help you:
turn “we should be in X, Y, Z” into a focused retail plan
decide which retailers make sense now vs later
feel much clearer and more confident about how to get your product stocked in the right places
Think of it as the place where we start working together in a deeper way – you keep control, you move at your own pace, and you start to see how these frameworks actually work inside your business.
3. When you’re ready for more support, the Rise Food & Beverage Accelerator will ensure you level-up
It’s a small, structured food and beverage accelerator for entreprenuers who are ready to:
Expand their reach
Prioritise which growth opportunities to pursue
get support on the day-to-day choices behind how to get your product stocked and keep it moving
If you’d like to be the first to hear when the next round is coming, join the waitlist. It gives you an early heads-up so you can access the earlybird specials.
You don’t have to fix everything at once.
Even taking half an hour to look at your current and dream retailers through this lens will give you more clarity than another month of scattered “see how we go” conversations.
So before the week runs away on you, pick a time, grab your stockist list and ask yourself one question:
“Where does it actually make sense for us to show up?”
Answer that honestly, and you’re already changing how to get your product stocked – from chasing every opportunity to choosing the right ones on purpose.