Your 8 Step Playbook for Getting Stocked in Coles, Woolworths & Beyond.

Getting your product onto supermarket shelves is one of the biggest milestones for any FMCG brand. It is exciting, rewarding, and often intimidating. The truth is, having a great product is not enough. Retailers like Coles and Woolworths are looking for commercially sound brands that understand their processes, meet their requirements, and can deliver consistently.

At Aisle 7, we have worked inside these systems and across them. We know what category managers look for, what makes a brand stand out, and where many suppliers stumble. This playbook shares the key steps to help you prepare, pitch, and perform in major retail.

Step 1: Get Your Product Retail-Ready

Before approaching any retailer, your product must be retail-ready in every sense. This includes:

• Packaging: Professional, compliant with ACCC and Food Standards, barcoded correctly, and designed for shelf impact. This isn’t just the packaging that a customer sees, but also what you deliver to the retailer and whether it works with their distribution systems
• Supply readiness: Confirmed GS1 registration, carton configuration, pallet fit, and shelf-ready packaging.
• Quality and safety: Shelf life, batch testing, and traceability documentation in order. 
• Commercial paperwork: You will need to have all your commercials in order before meeting with retailers including documents such as ABNs, product specs, and allergen statements ready to submit. 
• Compelling Launch and Marketing Plan: Retailers expect a detailed launch plan agreed and ready to go for launch so make sure you think about what marketing is best for your product both in the retailer and outside.

A Category Manager will expect these fundamentals. If something is missing, your brand may not be considered until the next range review. Our end to end Retailer Readiness module can help you build an end to end program covering everything a retailer would expect to see to set your brand up for success.

Step 2: Build a Commercial Story That Makes Sense

Buyers want to understand your numbers. Every submission should clearly show how your product contributes to category growth and profitability.

Key elements include:

• Recommended retail price, cost of goods, and retailer margin
• Trade spend (think marketing like brochures, ecommerce, print etc) and promotional strategy
• Freight, warehousing, and cost-to-serve
• Competitor pricing benchmarks

It is important to calculate margin accurately. A small misstep can turn a strong concept into a commercial non-starter.

Step 3: Understand Retailer Timing and Category Review Cycles

Supermarkets do not list products randomly. Each department runs to a planned cycle known as a category review. These reviews usually occur once or twice a year and determine which products stay, which leave, and which new ones enter.

If you contact a buyer outside that cycle, they may be interested but unable to list until the next window. Understanding when your category reviews occur allows you to plan submissions months in advance, build samples, and finalise your pitch deck in time.

Buyers also manage multiple internal deadlines, including internal testing, planograms (how the products are laid out on shelf), and promotional calendar planning. Knowing the rhythm of their year is one of the simplest ways to show you understand how they work.

Step 4: Partner Effectively with Your Category Manager

Your category manager is not just the gatekeeper. They are your potential advocates. Their primary goal is to grow their category profitably and ensure that their shop is doing the best job at meeting customer needs either with unique products, competitive pricing or a great shopping experience. When you help them achieve that, you both succeed.

Strong partnerships are built on:

• Preparation: Arriving with data and insights, not assumptions. 
• Empathy: Understanding what drives their KPIs such as sales, profit, and supplier reliability and present a differentiated solution to achieve that
• Professionalism: Delivering what you promise, when you promise it.
• Transparency: Communicating clearly about challenges or delays.

Building trust takes time and consistent follow-through. The more you understand their priorities, the more likely they are to champion your brand internally. They want brands that they can trust to deliver innovative marketing to customers, as well as having a clean back end to maintain consistent on shelf supply

This is where Aisle 7’s  Retailer Relationship and YOU principles come to life, helping you navigate conversations, prepare confidently, and show up as credible long-term partners. We want to help you represent your brand in the best way, because as the Founder of your business, no one can advocate for your product like you do. But knowing how to do that in a way that resonates with retailers is a skill, one that we can help you learn.

Step 5: Deliver a Pitch That Cuts Through

Your presentation is your chance to make an impression. Retailers receive hundreds of submissions each year. To stand out, your deck needs to show as a minimum:

• Clear consumer insight and category opportunity
• Market data or research proving demand
• A unique brand story that connects emotionally
• A complete commercial model with margin, promo plan, and costings
• A supply chain that can deliver reliably

It is not about selling your product. It is about helping the buyer justify a decision that drives category growth. Go in prepared to answer all their questions including things like “what makes your product different to what we already offer” and “how will customers see value in this product within their weekly budget”. 

If you already have sales data and customer reviews this is your chance to really tell a story about what makes your brand unique, and show that you are already passionate about building long term brand loyalty.

Aisle 7’s Product principle can help you craft compelling presentations that combine insight, story, and commercial logic in a professional format retailers trust.

Step 6: Negotiate for your Future Commercials

The process doesn’t stop at pitching. Once a supplier is interested in your products, you will likely go back and forth on everything from negotiating supply and payment terms, marketing and promo plans, ways to differentiate them from other retailers and options to optimise sales and profit for your business and theirs. 

Negotiating with major retailers can feel overwhelming at first, but understanding their priorities and your own non-negotiables can turn that pressure into confidence. At Aisle7 we can coach you on key negotiation tips, how to identify your key foundations for negotiation and how to prepare so that you walk into every conversation understanding the impacts and benefits of your decisions.

Step 7: Nail the Supply Chain and Forecasting

Winning the ranging is only the beginning. Once a product is approved, retailers expect suppliers to deliver flawlessly. This means:

• Accurate forecasts
• Consistent DIFOT (Delivered In Full, On Time)
• Correct EDI setup and GS1 data
• Pallet configurations that match retailer requirements
• Warehousing and logistics partners ready for scale

If you miss your first delivery window, you risk lost sales, a missed launch plan  and future delisting if your product isn’t performing. Preparation is everything.

Step 8: Drive Performance Post-Launch

Once the product hits shelves, the focus shifts from winning the listing to keeping it. The first twelve weeks are critical. Buyers track rate of sale and will flag line that do not perform.

Your post-launch plan should include:

• Activation across digital and social media timed to the on-shelf date
• Strong shopper marketing support in store
• Sampling or influencer partnerships that create awareness
• Continuous review of scan data and sales performance

Treat the launch as the start of the journey, not the finish line. Your ability to drive sales and maintain momentum determines whether the product becomes a core range item or a short-term trial.

Our Brand and Marketing and Promotions principles help brands design activation plans that deliver measurable results.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Approaching a retailer before your product and operations are retail-ready
• Misjudging the true cost to serve
• Missing the timing of category reviews
• Overpromising on supply capability
• Failing to support the product once it launches

Preparation and follow-through are what separate lasting brands from one-hit wonders.

If you’re ready to turn your great idea into a national listing, reach out to Aisle 7 for tailored support through every stage of the journey