Is Your CPG Brand Ready for Retail? How to Get Your Product on Store Shelves

Expanding from direct-to-consumer sales into retail is one of the most significant growth opportunities for a Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brand. But this expansion demands comprehensive transformation across operations, finance, and strategy, requiring alignment at every organizational level.

After more than 20 years of guiding brands through this transition, I’ve seen what happens when teams move too quickly. Retail partnerships formed too soon often lead to missed shipments, underperforming shelves, and damaged buyer relationships that are difficult to repair.

Getting your product into stores takes more than strong branding and a compelling origin story. Buyers expect to see clear proof of consumer demand, efficient operations, healthy margins, and a plan for long-term growth.

Here’s your guide to assessing if your brand is truly ready for the leap into retail and how to thrive once you get there.

Prove Demand to Get Your Product in Stores

Retail buyers invest in what’s proven to work. To get your product into stores, your brand must show clear, repeatable consumer demand. Consistent direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales are a starting point, but retailers want to see signs of long-term traction like repeat purchases, community engagement, and brand loyalty.

These signals carry even more weight when you're expanding beyond small-scale, community-based channels. While farmers' markets and local sales offer valuable consumer insights, they don’t always reflect the scale or shopper behavior seen in retail environments. Additionally, if your traction has mostly come from friends, family, or your founder network, that's a solid foundation. However, buyers will want to see proof that people outside your inner circle are discovering your brand and purchasing repeatedly. To bridge that gap, it’s important to back up those early wins with digital sales data, consumer surveys, or in-market testing that validates broader demand.

Key Takeaway: Highlight customer retention, positive growth trends, and consistent sales momentum. Use both qualitative and quantitative data to show why your product belongs in a national retail setting.

Design Packaging That Succeeds in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Retail

Packaging often serves as a brand’s first, and sometimes only, introduction to a new customer on the shelf. Think of your packaging as your silent sales representative. It needs to reflect your identity, explain the product’s value, and stand out among competitors, all within a brief glance. It’s also important to remember that designing for retail shelves requires a different approach than designing for e-commerce. In-store, your packaging has to perform under fluorescent lighting, compete with dozens of neighboring products, and catch the eye of a shopper moving quickly. When you account for these real-world conditions, you increase your chances of turning curiosity into a purchase.

Pro tip: Test your packaging’s clarity by giving someone unfamiliar with your brand just five seconds to understand what you sell and why they should care.

Build Operational Capacity to Sell Your Product to Stores

One of the most common mistakes I see is brands underestimating what retail demand really looks like. A product that performs well in DTC or through local channels often isn’t equipped to handle the operational intensity of large-scale retail. Selling online or at a farmers' market is one thing. Shipping pallets to multiple distribution centers with tight timelines and retailer expectations is something else entirely.

Before a brand approaches retail buyers, I work with founders to stress test their operations under real-world conditions. What happens if a retailer places a reorder earlier than forecasted? Can your suppliers ramp up without compromising quality? Do your production schedules account for promotional bumps or seasonal swings? Understanding the logistics and forecasting needs of fast-moving consumer goods is essential if you want to sell your product to stores at scale.

These are the kinds of questions that need to be answered before you sit down with a buyer, and they aren’t just hypotheticals. I’ve navigated these kinds of shifts with clients in real time. In one case, a national retailer changed its merchandising strategy and required a client’s product to be displayed upright. The original packaging had been designed to lie flat, so we had to move quickly to rethink the structure. I helped the team coordinate with packaging partners and run consumer tests to validate the new format. We brought those updates back to the buyer before anything hit the shelf. That flexibility and foresight led to more facings and even a secondary placement.

Retail also introduces new partners like brokers, distributors, and third-party logistics teams. Each can be an asset, but they also require active management and margin planning. Retail isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it model. You need tight coordination across your internal team and external partners to keep up with buyer expectations and protect your brand’s reputation.

Key Takeaway: The fast-moving consumer goods industry demands precision in supply chain management, inventory forecasting, and retailer relationship management. Walk through your supply chain from end to end. Identify weak spots and make sure you're prepared for spikes, seasonality, and retailer-specific delivery expectations.

Plan Financially for Retail Success

Retail entry comes with a different cost structure than DTC. Many founders enter this phase focused on their gross margins and what price point they can achieve, but that’s only part of the equation. The real challenge is anticipating where your dollars will go before the first product even hits the shelf.

I work with brands to map out everything from working capital requirements to retail marketing budgets, and I often find that their initial plans miss major line items. In addition to producing inventory, you need cash flow to support extended payment terms, promotional spending, and the additional retail expenses like slotting fees, in-store support, and buyer presentations.

For example, it's not uncommon for brands to underestimate retailer payment terms. Most retailers pay on 30-60 day terms (some even 90 days), meaning there's often a significant gap between when you invest in inventory and when you receive payment. Even with strong sales, cash flow can become a bottleneck if this timing isn't properly planned for. When cash flow becomes tight, I help teams adjust their production and promotional cadence so they can stay in-stock without overextending their resources.

I also encourage teams to plan for the unexpected.  That includes product liability insurance, of course, but it also means preparing for unforeseen financial impacts such as deductions retailers commonly take to cover damaged goods, returns, or expired products—also known as spoils or stales. These deductions are typically subtracted from the final payment made to the brand and can significantly impact your anticipated cash flow from the initial purchase order. Additionally, having a clear communication plan ready in case a product is recalled or removed from shelves is critical. When issues arise, having prepared messaging for the USDA, the FDA, and your retail partners can help you avoid unwanted headlines and maintain trust with all stakeholders involved.

Key Takeaway: Your budget should drive decisions, not just track spending. Build in buffers, scenario plans, and investments that support both buyer trust and consumer pull. Retail moves fast, and your financial infrastructure needs to keep up.

Set Retail Pricing That Protects Your Margins

Retail pricing is a signal to the buyer whether you understand your category, your consumer, and the reality of retail economics. The number on the shelf has to account for distributor margins, retailer markups, promotional levers, cross-channel business costs, and the marketing resources needed to support retail sell-through.

Online, your brand may have had the freedom to set pricing in a relatively controlled environment, often without your product sitting side-by-side with direct competitors. But retail changes that. Your price now competes for attention in a tightly packed category, and buyers know immediately if it’s too high, too low, or just right.

This is where a comprehensive pricing strategy comes in. I guide founders through building pricing structures that work across different retail formats and promotional conditions. That means understanding your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) inside and out, mapping multiple pricing scenarios, and creating enough margin cushion for trade promotions and retailer discounts. Pricing evolves as your distribution grows and your cost structure shifts.

Key Takeaway: Develop a pricing framework that aligns with both your brand positioning and retailer margin requirements. Validate it against competitive price points and category standards. When you show buyers that you understand retail economics, you earn their confidence.

Choose the Right Retail Strategy for Sustainable Growth

It can be tempting to say yes to every retailer that shows interest, but successful brands know how to pace their growth. Going deep vs. wide with a few strategic partners often leads to better results than spreading too thin, too fast.

A “deep” retail strategy is focused on investing fully in select accounts where you can optimize in-store execution, conduct CPG market research, and develop strong buyer partnerships. This foundation becomes your proof of concept for future expansion, complete with velocity metrics, operational insights, and a tested growth playbook.

Expanding too “wide” too quickly often leads to operational strain and underwhelming results. When you're spread thin across multiple retailers, you risk stockouts, missed promotional opportunities, and subpar performance that damages your reputation. In retail, your track record follows you through syndicated sales data provided by sources like Circana (formerly IRI) or Nielsen. Buyers and competing brands leverage this publicly available information to evaluate your brand’s strength, making it critical to establish a proven record of performance from the start.

Key Takeaway: Prioritize retail partners that align with your target customer base and where your team can provide comprehensive support. Excellence with your initial partners creates the credibility and operational foundation necessary for sustainable expansion.

Structure Buyer Pitches Around Category Performance

When you enter a buyer meeting, your success depends less on your founder's journey and more on demonstrating how your product strengthens their category performance. Retail buyers hear dozens of pitches each week. What stands out is a brand that understands its business priorities and can speak their language.

The best presentations start by viewing the shelf through the retailer’s eyes. Where is their current assortment falling short? Which customer needs aren’t being fully met? How does shopper behavior in your category influence broader store performance? Your product should be positioned as the relevant and timely solution to those gaps.

To build a compelling case, conduct thorough CPG market research that examines category dynamics, competitive positioning, and consumer behavior patterns. This research becomes the foundation for connecting your brand's performance to broader market opportunities. Present purchase rates alongside category growth trends, pair customer testimonials with syndicated data, and align your supply chain capabilities with retailer logistics requirements.

I work with brands to evolve their pitch from a product introduction into a strategic growth conversation. That means demonstrating how you’ll support execution, align with promotional plans, and invest in marketing that drives sell-through. When buyers see that you understand their goals, and can deliver on them, they see a partner, not just a product.

Key Takeaway: Structure your presentation around category goals and retailer success metrics. Lead with market opportunity, support with performance data, and conclude with your operational plan for driving mutual growth.

Monitor Retail Performance to Secure Long-Term Success

Landing shelf space is a major milestone, but it’s not the finish line. Your ability to maintain and grow that placement depends on how well you track and respond to performance.

Retailers evaluate success using key metrics like units per store per week (UPSPW), on-shelf availability, promotional lift, and shopper engagement. These metrics influence reorder decisions, promotional support, and long-term partnership potential. You need to monitor them just as closely as your buyer does.

This requires both access to syndicated scan data and the infrastructure to act on it. Whether that means partnering with brokers, activating field teams, or adjusting your promotional strategy, staying proactive is essential.

Quantitative metrics should also be paired with qualitative feedback. Social media activity, shopper reviews, and QR code scans can offer early insight into what’s resonating and where improvements are needed. Together, these data points help you tell a story of momentum, relevance, and readiness for what’s next.

Key Takeaway: Track performance from day one. Use a combination of data and in-market observations to identify trends, flag risks, and propose solutions before your buyer has to ask.

Master Retail Readiness to Unlock Strategic and Sustainable Growth

Retail distribution can be the fastest way to scale a CPG brand, but it's also one of the most resource-intensive and operationally demanding. The brands that succeed are those that approach retail expansion with thorough preparation, realistic expectations, and sufficient resources to support long-term success.

Take the time to honestly assess your readiness across all the dimensions we've discussed. Build the foundation properly, and retail can become a powerful engine for your brand's growth. 

If you’re exploring how to get your product in stores, let’s talk! I’d love to help you achieve your retail goals confidently, strategically, and with the systems in place to grow beyond the first PO.