Listing Fees, Slotting Fees, and Free Fills 🤯

Also, low caffeine ins a trend and how to improve your amazon listings

👋 Happy Wednesday - Monday was a holiday, so we’re running a day late this week.

Welcome to another edition of what we’re determined to make the best newsletter in CPG and food marketing. Here we share what you need to know to run a successful food or drink business.

Our #1 goal is to be useful. So please shoot us an email if you have questions or feedback, especially if you implement something we share!

☎️ Remember, I offer hourly coaching to food entrepreneurs. When you’re ready to grow and scale, book a free discovery call here.

Here’s what we’re covering today:

• Trend Alert: Low Caffeine 🛑 ☕️

• How to improve your Amazon listings ⬆️

• Everything a food founder needs to know about Listing Fees, Slotting Fees, and Free Fills 🤯

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Trend Alert: Low Caffeine 🛑 ☕️

Coffee consumption is currently at a two-decade high. However, consumers, especially millennials and boomers, are becoming increasingly interested in lower-caffeine options.

I observed my own habits changing as I began drinking Kicking Horse “Half Ass” coffee last year, which contains only half the amount of caffeine found in regular coffee. This allows me the luxury of an extra cup in the morning without caffeine jitters.

Additionally, I always add a drop of my homemade chaga extract to my coffee for an extra and healthy boost of energy and antioxidants.

Apart from low-caffeine coffee, innovative products are entering the market, such as caffeinated mouth spray and “microenergy” water drops.

Some other low-caffeine products worth exploring include:

• Gummies

• Chocolates

• Snack bars

• Chewing gum

• Sparkling water

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How to improve your Amazon listings ⬆️

This last weekend I came across this fantastic article about improving your Amazon listings.

It presents practical advice on how to optimize your product titles, bullet points, descriptions, images, and reviews. It also showcases effective listings and provides explanations for their success. A great resource!

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Everything a food founder needs to know about Listing Fees, Slotting Fees, and Free Fills 🤯

Key Messages

1. A slotting or listing fee is a one-time charge that manufacturers pay to retailers for shelf placement.

2. Slotting fee prices vary based on the product, category, and location.

3. Manufacturers can reduce fees through marketing commitments, negotiation, high product desirability, and relationship building.

As a food or drink entrepreneur, it’s essential to understand the ins and outs of getting your products onto retail shelves.

This involves more than just creating great products; you must also navigate the world of listing fees, slotting fees, and free fills. In this guide, we’ll delve into these topics to help you maximize your brand’s potential and ensure your products get the visibility they deserve

What are Slotting and Listing Fees?

Slotting fees and listing fees are one-time payments that suppliers make to retailers to secure shelf space for their products. They often are an unpleasant surprise to new food or drink entrepreneurs, and they need to be understood to be managed.

These fees vary significantly depending on the retailer, the product category, and the store location. The purpose of these fees is to compensate retailers for the risk of carrying new products, as well as to cover the costs of stocking and merchandising those products.

How Much Do Retailers Charge on Average?

There is no standard fee structure, as each retailer has its own pricing model. However, some retailers are more transparent about their fees than others. For example, Loblaws and Sobeys, two major Canadian grocery chains, are known to charge listing fees ranging from a few hundred to (potentially) tens of thousands of dollars per SKU (stock-keeping unit).