Let’s say you’re a global manufacturer with your products being offered for sale on some of the biggest online platforms in the U.S. – think Wayfair, Lowe’s, Overstock, Walmart, Amazon, and more. Now let’s say that your products aren’t selling very well; you only get a trickle of order per day. Your products are sitting in some warehouse in the U.S., collecting dust and fees. You can’t get a rep on the phone from your retail partners because they’re busy dealing with bigger customers.
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If this sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. We’ve had lots of customers come to us in that situation. And this is where the magic of Cenports Vendor Managers comes into play.
Cenports Vendor Managers: what do they do?
Cenports Vendor Managers come to work every day with their clients’ success as the goal and work to solve all manner of challenges in pursuit of that goal. Every day, they communicate with vendors to relay promotions updates from major retailers, talk about sales velocity and recommendations to increase it, work with our accounting team to make sure retailers pay vendors in time, push specific SKUs, and more. If a product is slow to sell, we figure out why and work with vendors to fix the issue. If products are moving quickly, we communicate with vendors to make sure production is keeping pace with inventory demands.
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Our Vendor Managers are also experts in retail categories; their experience comes in very handy when building buying guides for vendors and recommending how to beef up images and specs to make the buying process smoother for the end customer. eCommerce success is much more than pricing; we’ve onboarded clients with extremely low pricing and almost no sales and turned things around for them in a matter of weeks. It’s all about experience, communication, and partnerships based on trust.
How does this set Cenports apart from the competition?
The concept of Vendor Managers is nothing new; lots of eCommerce partners offer dedicated reps to enable more sales. But we have a couple of big advantages that have huge benefits for our clients.
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First, we’re building a team to align Vendor Managers with clients in their geographical regions. Since communication is key to client success, this is a critical part of the Cenports offer, and it’s paying off already for clients in China, South Korea, and India (as well as the U.S.).
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Second, while lots of companies do bits and pieces of what Cenports offers, our Vendor Managers have the entire ecosystem in view. They bring products to the U.S., partner with major retailers, work closely with our fulfillment team, automate order and inventory management, and work with freight carriers to get last-mile delivery discounts. We connect all the dots, which means you can get your products up and selling with us in a matter of days. Once we sign a contract with a vendor, we get every single detail in place so we can simply turn on the faucet and start selling once the products reach our warehouse.
How much do overseas manufacturers need to know about selling in the U.S.?
There are a lot of barriers to entry in the U.S. Most of our clients don’t have the expertise to succeed in the U.S. by themselves – if they even get their products ready to go, there’s a big learning curve with customs, warehouses, sales channels, etc. Our Vendor Managers streamline everything, remove the barriers of heavy upfront costs, and get products online immediately in top retail channels. From there, we act as true business partners to solve all challenges of scale and help our partners grow.
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Whether you’re looking to break into the U.S. market or looking for a partner who can get the sales engine running smoothly, drop us a line today. We’d love to work with you.