How to get your product into cafes

Why cafés make a good first stockist

A café owner can say yes on the spot. There is no category review, no buying committee and no listing fee. If they like the product and think their customers will, it goes in the fridge or by the till that week. That makes cafés the quickest way to learn whether your product sells, which is the first thing every other buyer will ask you. It follows the same rule as the rest of our guide to getting your product into stores: independents first, chains later.

The catch is that cafés are busy, short on space and slow to answer email. The brands that win them make saying yes easy.

What a café owner is weighing up

Before they reply, an owner runs through a short list in their head. Answer it in your first email and you skip a round of questions.

• Does it fit the menu? A kombucha belongs next to the cold-pressed juice. A protein bar belongs at the till, not beside the pastries.
• Will it sell at our price? They need a margin that works. Many independents look for around 30% on what they stock, so know your numbers before you write. The wholesale price calculator does the sums.
• How much room does it take? Fridge space is the scarcest thing in a café. A small case and a single flavour to start make the answer easier.
• How do we order it? Can they order a small case by email, without opening an account with a distributor?
• Will customers ask for it? Local, small-batch and a clear story help. So does a café down the road already stocking you.

Write to the person who decides

Most cafés have a hello@ address that someone checks when they get a minute. Your email needs to reach the person who chooses what goes in the fridge. In a small café that is the owner. In a bigger site or a group it is usually the manager, or whoever runs food and beverage.

When we find stores for a brand, we look for one decision-maker per store in that order: the food and beverage or bar manager, then the general manager, then the owner. Shared inboxes such as accounts@ are skipped, because nobody there chooses stock.

The first email

Keep it short enough to read on a phone between orders. Say what you make, why it fits that café, and one easy next step. Name something real about the place, like the drinks they already carry or the street they are on, so it is obvious you are not writing to five hundred cafés at once.

Leave out attachments, images and price lists. They push a first email towards the junk folder, and the owner has not asked for them yet. Send the price list when they reply.

Send it from a separate domain set up for outreach, not your main address, so your everyday email is never at risk. We buy and set up that domain for you.

Then follow up. Most replies come on the second or third email, because a busy owner reads the first one and means to get back to you. A short sequence that stops itself the moment they answer keeps you polite and still seen. Here is how our follow-ups work.

An example opening line

“Saw you have just added an oat flat white to the board. We brew a sparkling yerba mate in Mount Maunganui that sells well in cafés with a younger lunch crowd, and it comes in a 12-can case that fits a bar fridge. If you reply with the best address, I will send four to try.”

It names something real, says what the product is and where it sells, answers the space question before it is asked, and makes the next step a reply.

Samples: only to the cafés that ask

A sample request is the real yes in this trade, but it is not an order. Send samples only to the cafés that ask for them, not to every café on your list. It saves stock, and each sample lands with someone expecting it.

1. 1Ask the format and the address togetherBottles, cans or a mix? Which address? One message, so the owner answers once.
2. 2Book the check-inAgree a day to follow up, about a week after it arrives, so the conversation has a next step.
3. 3Keep the first order smallOne case, one or two flavours. A café that sells through a small case reorders. One stuck with a big case does not.
4. 4Never promise a visit you will not makeIf you are two cities away, say so. Offer a call or a tasting pack for the staff instead.

Getting the staff behind it

Once you are in, the first two weeks decide whether the café reorders. Staff recommend what they have tasted and can describe in a sentence. Give them a one-line pitch and a few to try. If customers turn it down a few times in a row, staff stop mentioning it and the case sits at the back of the fridge.

Check in after the first case. Ask what sold and what did not. A café that has reordered twice is a stockist you can name to the next café, and a story you can tell a distributor later on.

Start with one neighbourhood

Pick one city and one store type, and do it properly before you spread out. Cafés in one area talk to each other, and you can deliver and visit without a plane ticket. Once a dozen cafés stock you, the next dozen take you more seriously. The same approach carries to restaurants and delis, and drinks brands pitching bars and bottle shops will find more in our guide to beverage sales. If you are in New Zealand, our guide to getting into stores in New Zealand covers the rest of the local market.

To see which cafés near you would fit before you write a single email, type your website into the box below. You will see real cafés and an opening email written for the best match.