How To Sell To Bottle Shops
The top 10 dos and don'ts, as crowd-sourced from bottle shop owners themselves
Welcome to issue #4 of The WBB Playbook.
Last week’s email prompted some interesting discussion online around whether breweries can or should be pigeon holed. Overall, I’d say it was a tie!
This week we’re talking dos and don’ts of working with bottle shops.
Before we start, if you’re enjoying the emails, then I’m sure you know someone else who would too. I’d be really grateful if you would forward this on or even better, share by popping your thumb on the button below.
For those that don’t know, I own a bottle shop called We Brought Beer (hence the WBB part of the name of this newsletter). I setup in 2014, at a time when the UK scene was really starting to boom.
And I wasn’t alone.
Hundreds of bottle shops have opened up around the country in recent years, the majority of them owner operated by passionate entrepreneurs who love their beer.
And we’ve become a crucial part of the beer scene.
We’re often the first port of call for brand new breweries (such as when Theo from Deya wandered into my store to tell us he was setting up this little brewery in Cheltenham and would we be interested in stocking his first beer? Luckily we said yes!).
We’re the go to places for weird and wonderful releases you wouldn’t be able to find in more mainstream retailers (Rogue Beard Beer anyone?).
And all of us are passionate about spreading the good word of craft beer and helping to build a wider scene for all (be it through great customer service or engaging events).
As a brewery, working with bottle shops should be a key part of your sales and marketing strategy. It allows you to showcase special releases, get closer to your drinkers and keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the scene.
But what is the best way to work with bottle shops?
Are we a special breed that need special treatment?
Erm, not necessarily but there are definitely some dos and don’ts to bear in mind when working with bottle shops, which I’m summarising this week.
All of these have been crowdsourced from a group of over 100 owner/operators from across the country.
Shall we start?
1. Email, don’t call 📧
This was the most common response I got from the group. It’s not that we’re an unfriendly bunch. But most bottle shops are run by owner/operators who are time poor. They’re trying to do multiple things at once - ordering, cleaning, restocking, paying bills, sorting rotas, fixing equipment. You get the drift.
A call is an inconvenience.
But an email can be dealt with at a more convenient time, like when we’re binge watching Netflix in the evening.
Be kind and email.
(There will be a post coming soon about what makes for a good cold email).
2. Don’t just show up unannounced 👋
This kind of ties into the above but again was a common complaint. As much as we love chatting to brewery peeps, the reality is that the unannounced visit tends to irritate more than help.
If you do want to get some facetime, book it in ahead of time and make sure your visit is going to be more beneficial to your customer than to yourself.
3. Make it easy to buy from you ✅
We love hearing about your new beers, it’s why we got into this game.
But please, make it easy for us. Given that most beer names offer no clue as to the beer style, please include the key info we need to help us make our stocking decision. Information such as:
Style - be specific e.g. if it’s an IPA - which coast?
ABV
Tasting notes
Any relevant story
It’s also useful if you include prices, minimum order quantities, delivery days, delivery costs, how to order etc.
Don’t make us guess.
Oh, and can we please do away with new account forms that have to be downloaded, filled out, signed, saved again and sent back.
Use a Google Form or Typeform for new account setups. They’re free and would be easier for us and you!
4. If you are putting products into supermarkets, tell us in advance so we can prepare and plan 🛒
Different bottle shops have different policies towards breweries that have supermarket listings. Some delist everything, others just stop buying the beers that are in supermarkets. Others don’t care too much.
There’s no hard and fast rule.
But, there is agreement amongst the group that one of the biggest frustrations is finding out via Domo’s Instagram feed that one of your best sellers is going into Tesco!
So if you do have a beer or two going into a supermarket, please be upfront and tell us in advance. That way, we can plan stock accordingly and manage customer expectations.
5. Please make sure you send in clean (and undamaged) cans 🥫
Dirty cans was a complaint that came up much more than I was expecting!
You guys all make lovely tasty beer and package it in beautiful cans and bottles.
Please make sure they arrive into us clean and in good condition. Too often we are finding ourselves having to spend too much time with a toothbrush or cloth cleaning off dust, overfills or other debris.
6. Don’t add us to your mailer without asking! ❌
This should be obvious but judging by how many brewery mailers my email address has ended up on, it clearly needs saying.
Please don’t add us to your mailers without asking. Aside from the GDPR implications of doing so, it’s just a bit rude and starts any relationship off on a bad footing.
7. Include us in your hype releases 🔥
We love nothing more than the buzz that builds around an exciting new beer release.
And it often leads to a massive sales boon for us as people flood in for the new release, and fill their baskets with other stuff at the same time.
I have fond memories of queues outside the door for the latest Cantillon drop or Verdant Putty release. They were some of our best days sales & atmosphere wise.
And as bottle shops, we’re well placed to help build up the release further, improving the brand sales and reputation.
So please, if you’ve got an exciting new release (something genuinely hypeworthy we mean), please include us.
By which I mean, make sure we can get stock in early so we can release on the same day you release on your online store.
Perhaps we might even run events or competitions around it. If there’s imagery we can use, please share it. We’re here to help you as well as ourselves.
It’s worth noting that before every brewery went DTC, bottle shops were the main way for hype beers to drop. It would be a shame to lose that real world buzz, both for the shops, the breweries but most importantly, the customers.
8. Work with us on case sizes 📦
It’s worth remembering that most bottle shops are quite small so storage space is at a premium.
I mean, our place in Tooting is 3m x 3m but that is perhaps extreme.
Anyway, my point is this - if you’re able to offer your beer in 12 packs rather than the standard 24, you’ll get a lot of love and appreciation from bottle shops. This is particularly true where we’re talking about inevitable slow sellers, like imperial stouts, brown ales, strong sours, some DIPAs etc.
Cases of 12 help us to free up two valuable commodities - space and cash!
9. Be aware of how your own website pricing affects listings 💰
This is a delicate one.
The shitstorm of Covid-19 has meant that breweries have had to pivot and do what they can to survive. And no one begrudges them doing so.
But, bottle shops and brewery websites tend to share the same customers, so if you’re doing a mega cheap deal, e.g. 24 beers for £50 which includes plenty of 440mls and DIPAs (which was a real deal being done by a brewery), please don’t be offended if we decide not to stock your beer, either temporarily or permanently.
It’s not personal.
But when you’re selling direct to consumer at trade prices, it just makes it too difficult for us to compete.
10. Don’t try to sell to us in December! 🎅
Another no-brainer hopefully but thought I’d chuck it in anyway! The only thing you should be doing in December is bringing us coffee and offering to help stack shelves 😃
Conclusion
The general theme of the feedback received tended to be around respecting the fact that we’re time poor so try to make things as simple as possible.
But I think there’s another important point to bear in mind here - bottle shop owner operators tend to know what they’re talking about beer wise and therefore don’t need or appreciate the kind of sell you might give to a mainstream bar or retailer. Give them the info they need, be helpful where you can and, in the words of one of my contemporaries:
Focus more on winning the customer, not the sale.
Thanks again for reading this week’s edition of The WBB Playbook, I really do appreciate it. Hopefully these tips will be helpful when you’re approaching bottle shops in the future.
If you have any thoughts or comments about any of the posts, please do hit reply and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
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