Reach the retail buyers who decide what gets stocked

Why the person matters

Buyer contacts are the second step of finding stores, after store search. An email to info@ goes to whoever is on shift. They might pass it on. Usually they do not. An email to the person who orders stock gets read by someone who can act on it.

This is a big part of why our clients average a 10-15% reply rate. In our experience the same email sent to a generic inbox gets far fewer answers.

Who we look for

For each store we look for the person who decides what gets stocked. Who that is depends on the kind of place:

1. 1The buyer or department managerIn a hotel or a large venue that is often the F&B manager or bar manager. In a grocer, the person who buys for your category.
2. 2The general managerWhen there is no named buyer, the GM usually signs off new products.
3. 3The ownerAt most independents the owner is the buyer, and often the best person to reach.

What we skip

Some addresses look like contacts but never lead to a yes. We leave them out:

• Accounts and billing inboxes. Read by whoever pays the invoices, not whoever buys the stock.
• Bookings, events and careers inboxes. They handle tables, functions and job applications, not new products.
• No-reply and system mailboxes. Nobody reads them.
• Addresses that belong to someone else. The web designer's email in a site footer, or a platform address picked up from an embedded map.

How current are the contacts?

Store contacts are found fresh for your campaign, or reused from a lookup made in the last 30 days. Nothing comes from an old list bought years ago.

Hospitality staff change jobs often, so accuracy is something we aim for, not something anyone can promise. Bar managers move on. Owners sell. When an address has been closed, the email hard-bounces, and the address is blocked for your brand and never emailed again. Every address is also checked before sending; see contact verification.

What your email does with the contact

Each email is written for the person and their role. A bar manager hears about how your drink works in a cocktail and what it does for the margin. A grocer hears about shelf life, price and how fast it sells. See personalised emails for how that works.

Not sure what a buyer needs before they say yes? Our beverage brands guide covers what drinks buyers ask for, venue by venue.

What a buyer wants to see

Reaching the right person is half the job. The other half is giving them what they need to say yes. Retail buyers at independents tend to ask the same few things: what margin they will make, how fast it sells elsewhere, whether you can supply them reliably, and whether there is a sample.

Our emails answer the first question and offer the last one. The rest comes in the conversation once they reply, which is yours to have. Keep a short note of what each buyer asked for, because the next store will probably ask the same.

Your contacts are yours

Every contact found for your campaign is yours to use. You can download a campaign's stores and contacts as a spreadsheet whenever you like, with each contact's role and where their emails got to.

A small owner-run shop sometimes uses a Gmail or similar address for the business. When that is plainly the shop's own address, we keep it, because whoever reads it is usually the person who buys.

Why not just ring the store?

You can, and for some stores you should. But a phone call during service reaches whoever picks up, and they will tell you to email the manager. An email to the right person gets read when they have a moment, and they can reply with a yes, a question or a request for a sample without stopping what they are doing.

Email also scales in a way the phone does not. One founder can reach a whole city's worth of buyers in a few weeks, then spend their phone time on the stores that replied.