How To Build A Merchandising Team

If you own a CPG brand, you know you need “feet on the street.” You need people out there sharing your story, products don’t sell themselves no matter how delicious they are. Marketing should be supporting your brand outside of the store, online of course but developing a presence within the retailers you are in is essential.

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Finding and building your brand’s perfect merchandising team is a feat, but an important step to elevating your brand within your retailers and getting in front of more hungry customers. If you have a new brand or one that could need a boost, now’s the time to build your merchandising team to execute your plans. Luckily, there are many different options and items to keep in mind when brainstorming what you need and finding the right fit.

In House

Whether it’s a team of scrappy college kids, sweet retirees, or stay-at-home parents with some extra time on their hands. Creating a flexible schedule for a part-time team in house can be a great way to have a workforce you can fully oversee. The upside is you get more face-time with those team members and can ensure they have a good understanding of the brand but it does mean training and management will come down to you. Whether you set these people up as part-time employees or as contractors is up to you and your finance team but keep in mind the legal and tax differences that come with those worker designations.

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Using a Broker

This is one of a few ways that you can outsource your merchandising team. Most CPG brokers can help with this, they already have the connections and have built the team for you and they have an interest in boosting your sales too so it’s a win-win. This can be a more budget-friendly option for many brands. But, with the broker running the show, the personal touch can be lost.

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Agency or Third-Party Providers

Agencies or third-party merchandisers aren’t for everyone but they can be a great way to be super hands off and let the experts handle the details. They handle all of the challenges of building and training a team and can have multiple ways to work with them depending on your goals. Like using a broker, this can mean there isn’t as much passion or loyalty from the team on the floor so something to consider.

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There is no “one right way” or correct approach to take here but there might be one that feels like the right choice for your specific brand. Maybe having everything in house makes more sense or outsourcing is the right move, or a combination of multiple strategies to create a hybrid.

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