Get Your Product into Costco
Mr. Checkout is a national association of independent wagon-jobbers and full-line distributors. We distribute product to approximately 130,000 independent stores around the country and are always seeking the next hot new product. If you have a product, we want to hear from you!
How to Get Your Product into Costco
Costco is a unique, but profitable retailer that many suppliers are anxious to sell to, but few succeed. If you want to start seeing your products on Costco store shelves, follow these tips:
Change your pitch.
For other retailers, you may focus your pitch on how profitable and strong your margins are, but don’t do this for Costco. This retailer makes the majority of their money on customer memberships, not margins. In a pitch meeting, Costco buyers want to hear about what kind of value you are offering their customers and why you are different from the other products in the store. They are much less concerned with how much they will make off of every unit than other retailers are. If you get the opportunity to pitch to Costco, make sure you adjust your presentation to meet what Costco buyers are looking for.
Consider bundling products together.
Often, brands create special bundle packages of products for Costco that are not offered at any other retailer. This is done in order to offer more value to the Costco customer, who is used to buying large amounts of products at once for low prices. If you want to impress Costco buyers, make sure you have already brainstormed ideas of how you can bundle products together and include this in your presentation. But, before you present to Costco, make sure your internal team can handle the process of creating new packaging and shipping out new products.
Make sure you can adjust your price.
Costco is known for the incredible value they offer their customers. If you cannot adjust your price to fit what Costco is looking for, then there’s no point in pursuing this retailer. Make sure you look over your financials carefully to determine how low you can go to remain profitable. Once you know how low you can afford to go, visit Costco stores to see if your price fits in with similar products. If your price is still much higher than other products in your industry, Costco may not be the right retailer for you right now.
Contact a distributor.
Both new and established brands often rely on distributors to handle the process of getting into retailers such as Costco. That’s because distributors such as Mr. Checkout Distributors, already have strong relationships with these retailers and therefore do not have to struggle to get their foot in the door. If your product has strong margins and is ready for retail, Mr. Checkout Distributors can send it to their network of wagon jobbers and direct store distributors to get on Costco shelves immediately. Allowing a professional to handle this part of the business will let you focus on your strengths instead of spending all your time trying to get in touch with a retailer.
Want to launch your new product in Costco? Contact Mr. Checkout Distributors to talk to a team of experienced and knowledgeable distributors that service over 35,000 stores across the country.
Submit Your Product to Costco Foods
Skip the cold outreach. Mr. Checkout presents products to corporate chain buyers and also works a network of thousands of independent retailers that build real reorder proof. Tell us about your product below and a real person will read it.
Costco works a lot differently than other big box retailers in that they prefer traditional forms of putting products into their retail stores. Unlike their competitors Kroger and Walmart, they do not have an online source where retailers could submit their product. Instead, you must directly contact a buyer representative for the region you wish to represent and from there you will present the product to the buyer.
In order to get to this stage you must first go to the costco website and at the bottom footer you’ll find a section that says Vendors and Suppliers, you’ll want to choose that link.