A RangeMe alternative for independent stores, or the step before it

What RangeMe does

These facts come from RangeMe's own pages, checked on 30 October 2026. Read rangeme.com and its supplier pricing page for the current version.

• A product profile buyers browse. RangeMe describes a profile that puts your products, brand story and key details in one place, so buyers looking for new products notice them.
• Buyers come to you. Reviews and conversations happen on the platform, and RangeMe advises brands not to contact the buyers on its listings directly.
• Scale. RangeMe says it is used by more than 15,000 retail and foodservice buyers and more than 200,000 brands.
• Sourcing calls. Paid plans let you apply to what RangeMe calls Immediate Opportunities: active sourcing requests from retailers and foodservice operators, each open for a limited window.
• Meetings. Some opportunities lead to in-person buyer meetings at ECRM sessions, and several of those listings carry a registration fee if you are selected.

What LaunchPal does

We work the other way round. You tell us what you sell and where. We find the independent stores in that area that fit your product, find the owner or buyer at each, and write every email around that store and why your product suits it. It goes out from a separate sending domain we set up for you, with a short run of follow-ups that stop when a store replies. When a store answers, you take the conversation from there.

Nobody has to be browsing for your category that week. The email arrives in the owner's inbox on its own, about their shop.

What to have ready for either route

A buyer who finds you on a platform and an owner who answers your email ask many of the same questions. Have these ready before you start either:

• A wholesale price that leaves the store a fair margin, and the price you suggest it sells at.
• Case size, minimum order and shelf life, written down the same way every time.
• Sample stock, set aside for the stores that ask, so a yes is not held up by production.
• One sentence on why a store should stock it: who buys it and why it sells.
• A real website, because the first thing a curious buyer does is look you up.

Side by side

The two answer different questions, so compare them on what each does well.

• Who starts it. On RangeMe the buyer finds you. With outreach you write to the store first.
• Who you reach. RangeMe is strongest with chain, grocery and foodservice buyers. Outreach is strongest with independent cafés, delis, grocers, bars, bottle shops and gyms, whose owners are not browsing a buyer platform.
• How many brands compete. On a platform your profile sits next to every other brand in the category. An email to one café owner competes with nothing but their morning.
• What you need ready. Chain buyers ask about volumes, sales history and how you will support the product. An independent owner mostly wants to taste it and know the margin.
• Speed. A chain review follows the chain's calendar, often months. An independent can say yes the same week.
• Who owns the relationship. On both, you deal with the buyer yourself. With outreach, you also chose which stores to talk to.

When RangeMe makes sense

A buyer platform earns its keep once you are ready for a chain: steady production, a price that survives a distributor's cut, and sales you can point to. At that stage, being findable by a category buyer and getting into a sourcing call is valuable, and outreach to independents will not do that job for you.

It is weaker before that point. A chain buyer who finds a brand with no stockists and no reorders has little reason to take the next step.

When to start with outreach

Start with outreach when you want your first 10, 30 or 100 stockists and you know which kind of store suits your product. Pick one city and one store type, write to the owners, and follow up. You hear in their own words why they say yes or no, and that sharpens the pitch you will later give a chain buyer.

If you are not sure which stores would take you, see who would stock you: enter your website and you get real stores near you that fit, with an opening email written for the best match.

Using both

The order that works for most food and drink brands: outreach to independents in your home market, a distributor once delivery becomes the bottleneck, then a buyer platform or a food broker when chains come into view. The stockists you win first go straight into your RangeMe profile as proof.

If you also sell through a wholesale marketplace, our page on Faire vs selling direct covers how that fits alongside both.

What we will not claim

We do not put you in a chain buyer's office, and we do not sell on your behalf. We find the stores, write and send the emails, and hand you every reply. If a chain is your only target this year, a buyer platform or a broker is the better first spend, and we will tell you so. For the steps before a chain, see our guide to getting your product into stores.