Retail Strategies & Supplier Insights

Recovering retail deductions can be complex, but most brands lose money due to avoidable mistakes. Here are the five most common missteps:

If your CPG brand sells to major retailers like Walmart, Kroger, or Target, you’ve likely experienced the frustration of deductions ...

If you’re a CPG supplier working with UNFI, you know the drill: you send the shipment, you send the invoice, and you wait for payment. But somewhere between “invoiced” and “paid,” things get messy.

Target is raising the bar for suppliers, and your invoices could take a hit if you’re not ready. In 2025, the retailer updated its...

No one starts a brand because they love compliance. But ignoring it? That’s how you go from “next big thing” to “why aren’t we getting...

The 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill” puts $186 billion in SNAP cuts on the table over the next decade. Starting in 2028, states begin covering 5–15% of benefit costs based on their error rate, up from zero, and must pick up 75% of administrative costs instead of 50%.

You get the email. “Just wanted to let you know I’ve accepted a new role…” And just like that, your champion at retail is gone. Now What?...

What We Learned from This Year’s Retail Heavyweight Showdown Every July, it’s the same showdown with new twists: Amazon Prime Day versus...

You don’t need a crystal ball to understand your retail future—you just need to pay attention to what your data is already telling you....

You thought your buyer loved you. You thought you were locked in for resets and features. Then a new competitor shows up—and just like that, your item disappears from the set.

Let’s play a game of blame ping-pong. Sales hits the deduction over to finance. Finance smacks it back with a “not my job.” And while the back-and-forth continues, your margin quietly bleeds out. This isn’t just an internal turf war—it’s a strategic failure.

Not every deduction comes from pricing or compliance. A big chunk comes from your warehouse—and it starts before the truck even moves. We...

Think product photos are just for your website? Think again. In today’s omnichannel world, images are everywhere—on retailer portals,...

Promotions are supposed to drive trial, increase basket size, and get your brand noticed. And they often do. But there’s a quiet cost to promotions that too many suppliers overlook—especially smaller or growing brands trying to punch above their weight. Let’s be blunt: Retail promotions can hurt your business if they aren’t strategically designed, tracked, and supported.

Will Your Retail Margins Survive the Tariff Hike? There’s a moment every summer when back-to-school season starts to sneak in. You see it in the aisle resets, the clearance bins, and the sudden run on #2 pencils. For suppliers, this August brings a different kind of “back to school” vibe—except the stakes are your bottom line.