hi guys welcome back to my youtube channel my name is kibabam this channel primarily is about you
know just bringing some impact into the retail industry in south africa being an entrepreneur
myself i know how hot it is to get your product on shelf so the purpose of this channel is to
bring those answers to suppliers who actually want to get into the retail market in south africa
and actually have amazing product that should be on shelf so my channel primarily tackles the
difficulties of getting that product in front of the buyer and what it is you should be focusing on
who you should be focusing on in the supply chain and how to get yourself
in front of the decision maker in the supply um in the supply chain so before we get started
please subscribe to my channel hit the like button and leave a comment in the comment section
of whether you know a question that you'd like to ask with reference to what i'm talking about
or even if you don't have clarity in in the subject that i'm talking about today
just leave a question there and i will answer you either in the comment section
probably um or i will do a video but i really would like to hear from you guys you know your
thoughts and your questions so today's topic we're going to talk about at what point does the buyer
look at your product whether it's product that you send via email or it's product that you actually
physically send um to the retailer you know to the buyer maybe you find out what the email address
is uh what you maybe you'll find out what the email address is and you send them an
email so the question is today that hot topic for today is at what point does the
buyer look at your product physically touches your product and looks at it wait for it never
to tell you the honest truth the bible the buyer will open your email from the thousands of emails
that they get daily firstly emails about them you know meeting deadlines for the actual job
that they do and the other suppliers who are trying to get a hold of them yes guys
it's pro it's probably never and um i know it's a huge statement to make but i i will back it up
the reason why i say it's almost never they look at your product i don't want you to get
the wrong impression that buyers are not open to receiving new suppliers but in every organization
in every business there's a system in that system there are roles right each role has
an accountability each role has a job description each each person carries out a portion of their
role within that supply chain so when i say buyers will almost never pick up a new product it's only
the only way buyers really pick up a new product that is sent to them is if they were already
picking up from their own research that you are actually supplying something that they really want
to put in there in there by in their category okay so buyers their jobs are not to look for suppliers
negative it's not their job to look for you their job is to maintain a buyer's job
is to manage and to to grow their business that is their job it doesn't sound simple at all it's
not it sounds simple but it's not simple at all you know buys jobs are very admin admin driven
so looking for new supplies is a job on its own the complexities there are a job and its own
because the people who are responsible to look for new suppliers are you aware that they have to do
multiple audits this is per supply they have to travel to the supplier to the new supplies
premises so if the supplier is located in swaziland with the supplies located in china
or bangladesh the that quality department has to travel to that destination to make sure that
firstly the factory operates right so those people have to go there and make sure that the factory
operates that they are compliant and work within the standard that is required for that retailer
so for example they don't use child labor the factory workers get days um off or they
do finish work at a certain time and if it's a 24-hour factory are they changing shifts
you know all those all those things yeah you find 24-hour factories in china so you know
sourcing new suppliers is a division on its own it is a job function on its own so my question or the
topic that we're discussing here at what point does a buyer even get to look at your product
so your buyer looks at new products when number one if there is an issue with deliveries with a
certain supplier if it's a recurring problem that a supplier is not meeting the demand is
not meeting the in-store dates that is not meeting the in dc dates then the buyer is going to go to
the sourcing department and say guys i'm having a problem with the supplier just to backtrack
a little bit i did mention in my previous video that buyers have sales meeting every week usually
it's on a monday some retailers will have it on different days but usually sales meetings are
on monday so within that season the buy already is red flagging that i'm picking up on my sales
that this product is missing an opportunity to trade for three weeks because my supplier is not
delivering their shipments on time so in that meeting the sales meeting you'll find there are
people from the different divisions which are the planning division the social division
and the designer they are sitting in those meetings and the buyer will flag to say guys
i'm struggling with the supplier can you please find me a new supplier
then the sourcing division will go out looking for that specific supplier to be able to supply
the demand then the sourcing managers within that season is looking for a supplier a season is four
months if the the sourcing division manages to find a supplier or they already have a supplier
within their database after that meeting they're going to call that supplier please
can you send us samples and costings right you this is within a season trade is happening the
buyers maintaining its buy the buyer is you know looking at previous past and what's happening
and is building a range for the coming season so then the sourcing manager or the
quality assurance department will then reach out to their daughter pace
and say guys we're looking for new supplies send us costings and and and and but if it's a totally
new supplier entrepreneurs listen if it's a totally new supplier audits factory visits
samples costings need to be seen and interrogated putting a supplier through a compliancy
test is at least two to three months on its own yeah it's at least two to three months and in a
separate video i will go through what does that entail maybe what i'll do is even invite someone
so we can have a conversation just to check and to share not to check to share with you guys
what goes into or that when you're a new supplier and then you you hand over your your stuff to a
retailer what happens because you know there's a whole set of forms that you have to fill in
you have to send in your samples right packaged in the way that it would be delivered into the
dc then it's put through tests in the aquatic division if it's fabrication it goes for testing
in labs in laboratories it comes back has to come back with testing results then it does the buyer
doesn't even see that the buyer doesn't even care about that they're going on about their business
growing their business you know growing their market share focusing on their kpis
not worried about what you're sending to them so buyers are not interested at that point in time
of you know where a new supplier is within you know the system they rely
100 on their team members who are assigned to that job which is finding new supplies so yeah
you keep contacting the incorrect people within that supply chain so as i said stick with me
and i'll make you famous in retail stick with me and i'll make you famous in retail
so guys thank you so much again for always jumping on my channel watching and sharing my
videos so please don't forget to hit the subscribe button to like my video and leave a comment at
the bottom as i said i'm more than happy to um to you know answer your questions send me a question
but don't forget to subscribe subscribe subscribe thank you guys love you bye