GetStockistsQuestions
The ones we get asked. If yours is not here, email us and we will add it.
What it is
Who is it for?
UK product brands that want to be stocked by independent shops: gift, home, food and drink, beauty, stationery, toys, garden, books, clothing and jewellery. If you sell to shops, or want to, it is for you. If you sell only online to the public, it is not.
What do I actually get?
Every Monday, a set of shops that fit your range, each with the buyer's name where the register or the shop's site gives one, an address that has been checked, and an intro written in your name from what we know about that shop. You read each one and press Send. Replies, follow-ups, samples and reorders are kept on one board, and once a month you get a note on what worked with one change to decide on.
Is it UK only?
Yes, for now. It is for UK brands, and every shop is a UK independent registered at Companies House, which is also what keeps your emails within UK email rules.
Where do the shops come from?
The Companies House register: every active limited company and LLP in the retail codes, checked against its own website. Trade association member lists, the stockist pages of brands like yours, and new incorporations add to it every week. Nothing is scraped from a marketplace. If a shop is not an active limited company we cannot email it, so it is not here.
How do you decide which shops fit me?
We read your website: what you make, your prices, where you are based, who already stocks you. Then you answer five questions, the brief: which kinds of shop, where, who already stocks you, what to leave out, what a good year looks like. Each shop is scored on its kind, the brands it already carries, your price band and your region, and the ones your own stockists resemble score highest.
What is the plan?
One screen, written from your site and your brief, that you approve once: the kinds of shop we go after and the share of each week they get, what each intro leads with for that kind, how many a week, how many emails per shop and how far apart. Change it any time; everything found and written follows it.
Contacts and sending
How is an address found and checked?
From the shop's own website: a role address like hello@ or info@ where one exists. Then the owner's name from the register or the site is tried against the shop's domain, and if their own address answers, that is the one used. Every address goes through a verifier before it reaches you. A shop whose mail server accepts any address is marked accepted, unverified, so you know.
Who is the intro written to?
The owner or buyer by first name where we have it, otherwise the shop. It opens with something about their shop, says what makes your product different, names one or two shops that already stock you, gives your trade basics in a line, and asks one easy question. Under 110 words. Edit anything before you send.
Can I make the emails sound like us?
Yes, in plain words rather than by training a model. Every intro starts from your website and your brand story, so it knows your products, prices and what makes you different. Then you add your own rules, like "always mention we are B Corp", "keep it short and warm" or "sign off as Sarah, founder", and every email follows them. Rewrite any intro yourself and that version can become the standard the rest follow. You can try this on your free first look, before you pay anything.
Do I have to connect my inbox?
No. Every email is written for you, and Send opens it in your own mail app with everything filled in: you read it and press send, which takes a few seconds, and the send is counted. Sending straight from your inbox, spread through the day from your own address, is on its way.
Is cold email to shops legal?
To limited companies and LLPs, yes, under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, provided the message says who you are and how to opt out. Every intro carries your name, your business details (for a company its registered name, number and office; for a sole trader a trading name and address) and a line saying a reply of no thanks ends it. You give them once, before your first intro goes. That is why only limited companies and LLPs are here.
Will a shop be bombarded?
No. Across every brand on GetStockists, a shop hears from at most two brands in a month and never two in the same week. A shop another brand has just written to rests before it can appear for anyone else.
What if a shop asks not to be contacted?
Stop, and tell us. We add every address for that business to the do-not-contact list, which is checked before every send by every customer. Shops can also write to optout@getstockists.com directly.
The pack
What is in the pack?
Four A4 pages built from your site: a brand sheet, a line sheet over two pages with trade ex VAT and RRP inc VAT, structured terms at the foot, and an order form. One PDF, plus a link per shop to the same pages, so you can see which shops opened it and where they stopped.
Where do the products come from?
Your site, in a minute, with images if your shop runs on Shopify. Or drop in a CSV, Excel file or Faire export and we show the column mapping before importing. Everything is editable.
What if my terms are different?
Every field in the terms editor has a trade default and a grey line saying what most brands do. Change what you like; the PDF and every intro that quotes the terms update with it. An intro only states a minimum or a margin once you have set them.
Conversations
What happens after I press Send?
The shop moves to Intro sent. If there is no reply, a follow-up is drafted and timed by the plan, usually seven days later, and appears under Today when due. When the shop replies, the reply is logged, sorted, and an answer drafted from your terms.
What happens when a shop says no?
Log it and the card closes with a revisit date: six months for not now, twelve for no. It comes back with a revisit note when the date arrives. Nothing is deleted.
Can I bring the stockists I already have?
Yes, on the brief and any time from Conversations. Read from your stockists page, upload a list, or type names. They land at Stocked, are never approached, and the brands they carry help find shops like them.
What is the monthly note?
On the 1st, one email and one page: how many shops were found, sent, replied, went warm, asked for a sample and ordered, by kind of shop. With it, one change to the plan proposed from those numbers, which you accept in one press or keep the plan as it is.
Money
How much is it?
£99 a month, or £69 a month paid yearly (£828). The trial is your first Monday: twenty-five shops, found, checked and written. After that it is twenty-five every Monday, included whatever they cost us to find. On top of that you get two hundred credits a month for shops you pick yourself on Ask Scout: one credit is one shop found, its buyer checked and the intro written, and nothing is spent when no buyer is found. A seat for a colleague who works the board is £12 a month.
Is the card charged during the trial?
No. It is taken at the start so the trial can roll into the plan, and Stripe emails you before the first charge. Cancel before then and nothing is charged.
How do I cancel?
One click in your account. The plan runs to the end of the period paid for. No call, no offer.
Do credits roll over?
No. The allowance is a pace, not a balance: it resets on your billing date. The Monday finds do not touch it; it is there for the shops you pick yourself.
Rather not do it yourself?
Alongside the software there is a managed option: we run the approach in your name, including the replies, from £350 a month. Email hello@getstockists.com.