Sector · Retail & e-commerce
Customer Success for vendors that sell to retailers
A retailer does not buy software the way a scale-up does. It has a buying group, back margins, a pricing committee and a budget set before the renewal date. A CSM who ignores that finds out about the renewal on renewal day. I carried these accounts directly at a pricing vendor.
Four things to understand about the retailer
The buying group
Many terms are negotiated at group level, not by the store or the team that uses your tool. Who signs and who uses it cannot be read in the CRM.
Back margin
Part of a retailer's margin is made outside the shelf price, in the terms negotiated with its suppliers. A pricing tool touches the selling price. It touches this margin too.
The pricing committee
A price is rarely set alone. A pricing or category director arbitrates with its own numbers. It reads your tool with its own metrics, not yours.
The budget cycle
A tool's budget is set before its renewal date. A renewal prepared on the due date gets discussed with no room to move.
My contribution to a vendor
Gaps settled at the kick-off
Every gap between the retailer's process and the product is written down. For each one, someone decides who adapts.
Value measured in the customer's metrics
Value is read in the retailer's own metrics, in front of the person who will sign the renewal.
Renewal prepared early
Preparation starts months before the negotiation, on the customer's budget cycle.
Who it is for
Vendors whose customers are retailers
B2B SaaS vendors selling to retail banners and buying groups.
Vendors whose customers are e-merchants
B2B SaaS vendors whose accounts are e-commerce sites and pure players.
The method has four stages, and the last one organises my departure. See it under Working together →
The seven retail calculators and the glossary terms below are my way of showing that I know the end customer.
Target buying price, promotion results, markdown optimiser: the retail calculators are free to use. See the tools →
The method
The customer who stays
A retailer stays when it sees the value in its own metrics, before renewal. The full method is on the Customer Success page.
Explore the Customer Success expertise →In the glossary
A first thirty-minute conversation
Thirty minutes is enough to tell whether your topic calls for a diagnostic, a build-out or something else. No strings attached.