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• How this small biz grows by 70 new stockists a month

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• We made you a list of indie stores and curated grocers that stock brands like yours. 🔗 Tell me more

• Try this email template when pitching investors. 🔗 Tell me more

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This small biz adds 50-70 new stockists every month

Date Better sells better-for-you snacks made from medjool dates—it’s tasty stuff. Right now they’re in 1,300 small independent stockists and (this is wild) adding between 50-74 new ones every month through Faire, the platform connecting brands with independent stores.

Jasmine did what she does 😂 and asked founder Michelle for every single small detail about how they’re growing so damn fast through small boutiques and curated grocers, and what’s working on Faire.

This is what you need to know:

1. Find indie stockists via email and bring them to Faire.

Michelle started using Faire two years ago. You can’t do any cold outreach to potential stores on Faire (they need to find YOU) so at first she contacted stores via email and social media, and asked them to checkout via Faire. This did two things: First, it ensured Michelle never pays Faire commission on orders from that retailers (you only pay commission on orders from stores that find you on Faire, not that you bring to Faire).

Second, it built traction for her brand on the platform. Faire has a search engine for retailers to find new brands, and if they see stores are buying your brand, their algorithm will show your products to more stores, and you’ll get more inbound requests via Faire. Simple!

Today, most of Michelle’s new stockists find the brand on Faire when searching for new products in her category.

I can’t recommend this approach strongly enough. 10/10!

2. Set your minimum order quantity low. Nope, even lower.

At the beginning Michelle only worked with stockists on Faire who could order a minimum of 18 products per order. With this rule in place, over time she started adding about 30 new stockists per month on Faire. Not bad at all.

But then, she made a bold move and set her minimum order quantity to just one product, seriously reducing the barrier for new stores to try Date Better.

Almost instantly the number of new stockists placing orders each month blew up to 50, then 70, and by January 2024 Date Better secured 74 new stockists via Faire. 🥵

As she grew, the Faire algorithm continued to reward her by prioritizing Date Better in search results, leading to even more inbound requests from stores—and the ✨gorgeous✨ flywheel effect continues.

3. Rethink your packaging

Michelle gets told by new stockists that her packaging “sells itself”.

I think aesthetics matter always, but they really matter to independent boutiques and curated grocers—and what sells online or in chain/mass retail stockists doesn’t necessarily appeal to indie stockists.

I’ve heard of indies ordering only one SKU from the brands they stock, because the packaging color on that product matches their store. No lie!

Tip: Go walk into the stockists on your hit list, take your product, and see whether it stands out on-shelf, but also fits the aesthetic of the store.

Want to start or scale-up your indie stockist strategy? We have a contact list with hundreds of cute stores stocking cute brands like yours—download it here:

TRY THIS: Run clubs for your brand community are ~all~ the rage right now. Wellness app Kic just launched theirs and shopping app Locker did one earlier this year. The search term “run club” is up 25% over the last year, so now might be a great time to launch one for your band. 

FOOD + BEV: Oof, this news hurts. Specialty grocer Foxtrot is closing stores and Boisson, the marketplace for non-alc beverages, has filed for Chapter 11 and closed all 8 of their brick and mortar stores after raising $17M.

MIC DROP: 14 of the companies Serena Williams has invested in are now unicorns (AKA privately held companies worth over $1B). 79% of her portfolio is made up of underrepresented founders, 54% to women founders, 47% to Black founders, and 11% to Latinx founders. And THAT’S why we need more women, and women of color, writing checks in venture capital firms. 🤚🎤

KEEP SWIPING: Instagram now allows you to post more than 10 slides in a carousel.

TALC LAWSUITS: Lawsuits over the dangers of some forms of talc have forced beauty brand Ben Nye to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

BEAUTY SLOWDOWN: Last in the kinda bummer beauty news, Ulta’s CEO shared he’s expecting a beauty slowdown, which sent Ulta’s stock price down 15%. 

BIG MONEY WINS: Pressed Roots, the blowout bar for textured hair, raised $3.1M to fuel their salon growth. Investors include Naomi Osaka, tennis all-star, and Howard Schultz, longtime CEO of Starbucks.

Female-founded Home From College, the career platform for college students and young professionals, just raised $5.4M from Google Ventures. 

💡Jasmine’s weekly content prompt

I live and breathe content. Actually, the entire Female Founder World team is deep in it too—it’s our literal business—and I want to let you in on the posts and trends that hit. One of our posts is going viral on IG right now (3.7 million views and counting, whew!). Here’s how to recreate it—keep scrolling for a real world example.

Video: Film yourself or someone on your team doing a relatable task like typing on laptop, brushing their hair, washing their face, or using your product in some really simple and relatable way.

Text overlay: “I couldn’t understand why [insert problem your product solves] but then I heard about [insert why no one solved the problem before you].

Caption: Give much more detail and context in the caption, and end the caption with a question people should answer in the comments.

I think this hook works best when it explains something lots of people can relate to. In the example below, I explained the Glass Cliff Theory (click the video for an explanation) and ended the caption asking people to share real world examples where they have seen this theory play out. Lots of people have personal experiences with this or have seen it happen in big corporations on the news.

Tip: Collaborate with a likeminded account on Instagram to boost your reach.

Hit reply and lmk if you try this!

femalefounderworld

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♡🎧 NEW Podcast Episodes

• At 23-Years-Old She Started a Biz With Her Mom, Now It Sells One Product Every Minute: Rachael Wilde, tbh Skincare

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