A common part of business plans that I read involves some strategy that will lead to the shelves of Wal-Mart or one of the other big mass-merchandisers. StartupJournal tells the tale of one entrepreneur’s attempt to get his product placed in Wal-Mart stores.
Last year about 10,000 new suppliers applied to become Wal-Mart vendors. Of those, only about 200, or 2%, were ultimately accepted. “We just don’t have very many empty shelf spaces,” says Excell La Fayette Jr., Wal-Mart’s director of supplier development.
It is a journey that generally takes a minimum of six months just to get approved — and even then an order is not guaranteed. And along the way expect your margins to get thinner and thinner as costs go up and the price that Wal-Mart is willing to pay you goes down.
One change that is helping more entrepreneurs break into large retailers is that all of them, even Wal-Mart, are allowing more local autonomy for purchasing. But even with this change the odds are against you ever getting a shot at any shelf space.
Anita over at Small Business Trends has some interesting thoughts on this article.