RangeMe 101: Tutorials, Reviews, and FAQS

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What is RangeMe? Perhaps you remember hearing something about it or you’ve read a few RangeMe reviews and you’re curious. Can this help your business?

RangeMe is a product discovery platform. It is used by retail buyers to find new products they want and can sell in their stores. If you are a manufacturer, distributor, or other supplier, you can create a product profile on the site. This profile will outline all of the details of your product, giving buyers everything they need to know to make a decision to buy your product or not.

Getting Your Product in Front of Buyers

Does RangeMe work? That’s the question most suppliers need to ask. You do not want to invest the time in a platform that doesn’t produce results. One of the key differentiating reasons why some find success with RangeMe and others do not is the brand profile you create.

RangeMe gets a lot of attention from buyers. The company reports having over 7,500 retail buyers on the platform. There are over 175,000 suppliers using the site, with over 700,000 products. Not only do you need to think about the retail buyers, but there is also competition to consider.

It’s clear you need to stand out in a crowded room. The best way to do that is with your brand profile. This is what the retail buyers see. For that reason, it needs to be carefully created and detailed in a way that attracts the right buyer. To get on the shelf of Target (who has used RangeMe to locate products to put on its shelves) you have to build a strong, powerful profile that provides a clear message.

It’s possible to have one brand or multiple brands using the RangeMe tool. In all cases, you want to use your profile details to showcase what your product has to offer. However, you also want to use your profile as a way to show your would-be buyers that your company is more than just your products.

Today’s consumer buys from companies it knows and values. In one report, 63 percent of consumers stated they would prefer to purchase from a purpose-driven brand over one that is not. Buyers for companies – think Target here – want to have strong products on their shelves that consumers relate to and believe in. They want to build their own customer loyalty by connecting with brands that have a purpose, interest, a mission statement, or a global outreach that they can stand behind. Your brand profile helps to provide these would-be buyers with insight into who you are and whether or not your goals, beliefs, mission, and outreach all match with the buyers.

That’s why it is so important to invest the time in building a full and complete profile, but also one that is designed to attract attention and stand out. If that sounds like a complex situation, it’s because it can be.

Many of the people who never see a single offer on RangeMe fail because of the lack of understanding or quality of the profile they build.

Let’s work through some of the components that go into building your brand profile and provide you with the best insight into how to utilize them to the fullest.

Under “Profile” you’ll find a number of sections to complete. Here are some of them to fill out and how to do so. The entire process is very intuitive and easy to use.

Your Brand Story

This box is an important sector. It is where you need to provide a detailed description of your company’s story. Use this space to really talk about what your brand is. It is important to provide something interesting or unique that helps your brand to stand out.

List details about your product
Describe your brand’s mission statement
List out anything that you feel helps set you apart from the competition – don’t necessarily name them
What do you want buyers to know?
What style, tone, and message do you want to communicate to someone who is meeting your brand for the first time?

The Brand Video

The brand video is not something you can or should overlook. It is one of the best ways to bring your brand to life. You’ll be simply embedding your brand video from YouTube or Vimeo here.

Now, this video should not be long – usually just a few minutes – but it should be of professional quality. You may not want to shoot it from your cell phone.

Consider a few tips to help you to make this video work:

Have character. Whoever or whatever is presented, make sure it is a likable character with a smile. In short, you want this video to have buyers falling in love with your brand from the start.
Keep it to the point, but make sure every word counts. Ensure your video clearly demonstrates what your brand is.
Keep the focus on your brand’s mission and goals. What makes you different? Don’t talk about yourself or your personal story. Talk about your brand.

Your brand profile needs to communicate clearly why someone should take it one step further to learn more about your products. Your video and message should do that clearly. Here’s a step-by-step video that provides insight.

How to Use RangeMe to Amplify Your Results

Throughout the RangeMe site, you’ll find some outstanding helpful tools and resources available to you. Use them. RangeMe needs you to bring your best of the best in products to them to be profitable. For that reason, they are going to tell you specifically what works and how to get the most out of the site. Here are a few key areas to consider.

"My Brands"

Along the top of your screen, you’ll see a number of different things to explore. Start with the “My Brands” section. Remember, you can create more than one brand on the same account. When you do, you are going to be able to easily manage them across the platform.

When you want to get started, simply create a new brand or log into the one you’ve already established. Work through each of the sections on the brand profile pages as we’ve shown you. It’s as easy as that to get set up.

"Verification"

In RangeMe premium, you are able to get verified. What does this mean and why should you do it? In short, it is a way for you to show buyers you are ready to do business with them. You are being proactive through the process. The verification process ensures that specific criteria that retail buyers want to see to make decisions are provided to them.

The benefits are numerous such as:

Getting more access on the site – the company claims verified brand profiles get up to 7 times as many views as those who are not verified.
You’ll get to use the verified badge on your brand and product pages. That really does influence who stops to take a look at your page.
You’ll also appear in the search listings when a buyer filters only those who are verified to show up.

Simple, it is worth doing this. You want to stand out. Without doing so, you cannot provide your brand with enough page views to get the results you desire.

"Submissions"

Submissions is that big step – it is the push that you need to take to get your brand in front of those retailers. You can submit your profile to leading retailers from this point. You can use this service if you have the premium version of the RangeMe software.

In short, if you do not want to wait for buyers to find you, you can use this process to submit your profile to retailers you think may be interested in what you have to offer. This is done rather easily and gives you a simple way to draw attention to your products.

You can time your submissions when you find it is the best time to do so. You can also personalize your submission to them, sending the retailer a message as you go about what you have to offer or, most importantly, why you think they want to hear about your products and your brand.

Once you do this, your brand profile automatically shows up in the retail buyer’s dedicated submissions dashboard. That puts you right in front of the person making decisions.

“Insights – Profile Insights”

One of the nice things about this service is that it is very easy to use not just for setting up your profile but also for learning how well you are doing. RangeMe calls this providing you with Insights.

The more information you have about how your profile is doing, the better. With the Profile Insights tab, you get to see what type of buyer activity has occurred – who has looked at your profile and why. This gives you some information into which buyers may be interested in what you have to offer.

“Insights – Shares Insights”

This tab operates the same way as the other, but with a focus on your shares. It outlines what has happened with your email and link shares such as who has looked at them. This allows you more info on how well your shares are working or, in some cases, if your follow up emails are being viewed.

How to Create an Optimized RangeMe Profile

Now that you have a good idea of the tools on the site, let’s head back to the profile to work on optimizing it. Is RangeMe worth it? Is it worth spending this time creating a profile like this?

Unlike RangeMe competitors, this site is very easy to use. That makes the entire process rather simple. With the right tools – like a video and images on hand – you can really get through the setup quickly. Here are a few key areas to start with right now:

Make It Right the First Time

Spending an extra few minutes completing your profile now will make a big difference later. Remember that first impressions matter. When a new profile goes up on the site, many buyers – those who are constantly using the site to find new products – are going to see it first. You don’t want to try to get your profile up too quickly and not make a good first impression.

Quality Images Matter

When creating your profile, you will need to have images. There are very specific rules to follow here.

The image must be clear and high quality.
The product must be shown completely.
You need to place it on a transparent or a bright-white background.
The product needs a close-up image where it takes up most of the space.

Use images that show your product as it would appear if it was on the shelf of a retail store. Remember, images are the first thing people will see – and therefore they need to be outstanding.

Search Optimization

Like most other types of optimization, it is critical for brands to include keywords that are important to their product in their brand profile. Consider words that buyers – not consumers – would type into searches to find products like your own. Use these keywords in the product descriptions you add. This may include unique selling propositions, ingredients that are important to it, or specific features that make it more enticing, interesting, or unique.

Product Description

While you are working to build your brand profile, remember to put the same attention into product descriptions. This should include a clear message about what the product is or does. It should also use keywords that relate to your product.

Remember to focus on the buyer not the consumer. Your product description should include information about why a buyer would value having this product on their shelves. Why would customers – who buy from the buyer – want to see it there? When the information on your profile is buyer-specific, it will get more attention.

Detail Your Unique Selling Propositions

You’ll want to add up to three unique selling propositions using the tool on the page. These are product attributes that are specific to your product and help it stand out from other products in the category. This helps to enhance the search process on the site.

Is your product gluten-free? Is the company women-owned? Is it USDA Organic?

What Buyers Are Looking at on Your Profile

When working through your profile, you need to keep it in the frame of mind of a buyer. Knowing the importance of this, you’ll then want to include the following details. These are the areas that most buyers focus on as a priority.

Buyer Card

The buyer card is the primary tool that brands want to see when they are first searching for a product like yours. It gives them a view from their dashboard about what your product is before they actually click on it. This card should include:

MSRP range – how much is it likely to be priced at?
Margin range
Cover product – this is the first product the buyer will see when looking at your profile
Cover image
Logo
Number of products

Take a look at your buyer card. Make sure it is accurate.

Social Media

Every brand and product needs social media. You probably know that. Yet, RangeMe wants to make sure your buyers can find the product’s or the brand’s social media easily. It lets the buyer look at a few things, such as how consumers are reacting to the product and what type of message you have. If you are actively promoting your brand, buyers want to know that. You should list any social media challenges you are using to do this.

Trade Shows

Another component here are trade shows. List any shows you have attended or plan to attend. This is a good way for buyers to be able to meet with you and get information about your product firsthand. It is not uncommon for brands to have scouts that go to trade shows to check out products they are interested in even before they connect with you.

RangeMe Verified

Another important component is whether or not your brand is verified on the site. This indicates your brand and products meet the criteria set out by the company. To achieve this, you need to complete all seven portions of your site including:

Product images
Product barcode
Insurance
Business type
Nutritional information
Packaging
Ingredients

That’s all key information your buyers need to have on hand to make a decision to work with you – or even to just reach out to you.

Is RangeMe Worth It?

Once again, you may be wondering this question. Is RangeMe worth the investment and is RangeMe Premium worth it? We’ve provided some insight here so far, but it may be important to see how other people are using it.

Who uses the platform? A number of types of organizations use it including:

Retail services
Service providers
Retail ready suppliers
Verified retail buyers

Who should not use it? The site is not set up to meet the needs of resellers, concepts, art, or licensing. It does not sell products directly.

Retail ready suppliers are those who have a product that is ready to be presented to retail buyers at the very least. Can you complete all of the information to be listed as RangeMe Verified? If not, that indicates you may not be at this point just yet.

Here’s a breakdown of what RangeMe Verified means, in terms of costs as well as in terms of features you gain access to when you hit that mark. Keep in mind that there is a cost here, but it is generally one of the best investments you can make when you are retail ready. You get key features, as we’ve mentioned, like improved visibility of your product, better marketing and sales efforts, and you can submit your product directly to a retailer. That makes a big difference.

Is it the Right Investment for Your Product?

So the bottom line is this – how much does RangeMe cost? When you consider whether or not something is worth your investment of time, you also have to factor in the cost structure. There are a few reasons why we believe it matters.

RangeMe – The basic version of the software and tools is free to use. This basic level allows you to publish your products on the platform and allows brands to find you. There are over 7000 buyers on the site and you can have sample requests and conversations with those buyers with this level.

RangeMe Premium – This second tier is more expensive. It costs $1399 per year. The biggest difference here is that you gain more control over what happens with your profile and products. You can engage with buyers more readily and submit directly to them.

Another key factor to remember is the buyer’s point of view. If you have a basic account, you look like a beginner and perhaps someone who may not be ready to really dive into this. On the other hand, if you buy a year’s subscription, you are serious about your product and getting to the next level. Don’t underestimate what buyers want to see here.

RangeMe Reviews

RangeMe does not provide reviews directly on its site. A good place to start is with knowing which retailers are using the site. Here’s a list of them. A few include Bed Bath & Beyond, Boxed, CVS, CosmoProf, Sprouts, Walgreens, Vitamin World, Whole Food Market, True Value, Target, and much more.

What are people really saying, though?

One Reddit user offers a nice bit of insight stating, “Being a Platinum, verified member at RangeMe helps to boost credibility. Whenever we visit Trade Shows, letting retailers know we are RangeMe verified has been helpful. Apart from that, the platform is still new and will possibly take time before you’ll see actual deals come through exclusively from the platform. We’ve gotten a dozen or so sample requests, but those came after we had face-to-face interactions with the buyers beforehand and RangeMe streamlines the process.”

Mark O’Brien from Terrapin Ridge Farms wrote, “If I had advice for suppliers, I’d say, ‘don’t ignore RangeMe.’ The faster you set up your products, the faster buyers will reach out to you. Your products on RangeMe work for you every day just like a booth that’s set up 24.7 online.”

If you’re interested in learning more, check out this webinar conducted by RangeMe. It provides insights into the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry and Buyers as well as how Range Me fits into the process.

You can also reach out to our team at Nuanced Media to get help getting started!