Commencing on the 1st of
November Stock Box Online will be re-launching product sampling.
This program is the foundation of Stock Box, and has been in hiatus since the
start of the pandemic.
Sampling has been very popular with members and vendors alike since 2014, and both have been asking about sampling, since we launched Stock Box Online in August.
“When the pandemic hit, we were not immune to the impacts, as every one of our trade partners went into survival mode” said Stock Box Founder Craig Matthews.
Like most, we took this time to reflect on the past 5 years of business, and review what our vendors and members had been telling us.
What was very apparent was a level of frustration from retailers who could not get easy access to the products that were being presented in our boxes, and vendor frustration at not being able to service the areas where members expressed the greatest interest.
We had a good look at the pain points of SME’s and two things are very apparent.
1. Retailers hate out-of-stocks
2. Vendors hate distribution gaps.
As a result, we have re-vamped the product sampling program to only be
available to retail members and vendors of Stock Box Online.
Stock Box Online completes the loop from initial product discovery and trial, through to range and distribution.
90% of all vendors on the platform are direct supply, and so by creating a platform that allows retailers to order direct, and have these products delivered through couriers, we can guarantee three things.
1. Retailers will always get the freshest stock
2. Retailers will never receive an order with out-of-stocks on it
3. Retailers will always be able to get these products delivered no matter where they are
Stock Box Online is the culmination of the past 6 months of planning, design
and development, and the last 5 years of insights from real retailers and
vendors, looking for a faster and easier solution.
The platform essentially reverse engineers all of the good things happening online for consumers, with product choice, flexible ordering and efficient last mile delivery, and turns this into a wholesale platform for vendors to grow their reach.
The platform is a multivendor platform which means that retailers can order from multiple vendors, and make one payment. Stock Box then splits the orders, and sends the order components off to the respective vendors for fulfilment.
This means that vendors do not have to set-up multiple accounts with individual retailers, and retailers do not have the hassle of making multiple payments to vendors for a couple of product lines.
“The real power of the platform is yet to be realised, as we want to do our bit to support more local vendors” said Craig.
During the pandemic we have been conditioned to stay local, and I believe that when the restrictions lift, local will become more important to all of us.
This is good news for local vendors and retailers, and a major reason why the platform has been designed with the capability to become hyper-local.
Using Google technology the platform can ring fence certain vendors, and match them to retailers within their catchment. This means that while Stock Box Online will not be dealing in fresh or perishable products, it will be able to showcase these local vendors to retail operators within a catchment area.
This type of technology has many applications, including the ability to tag sites within groups, to only allow them access to certain local vendors, and to create a more local flavour to the stores retail mix, in a more controlled way.
“This is probably the most exciting aspect of the platform for me, and we have already been approached by meat vendors looking to promote their products within local catchments” said Craig
“While core range and compliance is an important part of maintaining a consistent offer across a network of stores, we can’t deny the need to compete on range and assortment at a local level” Craig went on to say
Our mission for the portal is to focus on the 10% of product, that gives retailers a unique point of difference in-store.
Stock Box Online is answering the challenge, at a time when we are seeing – access to the market eroding, distribution options diminishing, and a growing need for more flexibility in localised range and availability.
For more information contact:
craig.ma@mystockbox.com.au
0407 467 670
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