March 7, 2024 • 22 mins
Unlock the secrets landing and growing coveted shelf space at Walmart. Bill Sinacore, VP of National Accounts at PlayMonster joins Shelf Life to share advice gleaned over his 30+ year career at industrys giants like LEGO and LeapFrog.
In this episode you'll learn:
- What Walmart buyers really care about
- Tactics to get your product on the shelf and to show your buyers with data that Walmart customers will be interested in your product
- The key metrics that matter today
- Using Amazon as a proving ground to test your product before bringing it to Walmart
- The twists and turns of product innovation in the toy industry
Join us as Bill shares guidance on everything from product development, optimal pricing, and retail relationships, with a specific emphasis on Walmart.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
From Alloy AI.
This is Shelf Life.
How do you grow a relationshipwith Walmart, the nation's
(00:22):
biggest retailer?
What are the key metrics buyerscare about?
What do suppliers need to knowabout the dynamic between Amazon
and Walmart?
On every episode of Shelf Life,we answer questions like these
and more, with the help ofleaders across the consumer
goods industry.
Today, our guest is BillSinekor, vice President of
National Accounts at Playmonster.
(00:43):
Bill has a 32-year relationshipwith Walmart as a sales leader
for brands like Playmonster,lego and LeapFrog and as a
consultant helping suppliersbuild a relationship with the
retail giant.
I'm your host, logan Ensign,chief Customer Officer at Alloy
AI.
We'll be back with Bill rightafter this.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
As a consumer brand, you connect with dozens of
external partners and internalsystems to get a complete
picture of your business.
Each one is different.
Alloy AI makes it easy toconnect data from retailers,
e-commerce, supply chainpartners and even your own ERP,
then easily surface insights todrive sales growth.
Every day, brands use Alloy AIto see POS trends, measure
(01:30):
promotion performance and makebetter replenishment decisions
with their retail partners.
That's why we're trusted by BIC, crayola, valveline, melissa
and Doug Bosch and many more.
Get a demo at alloyai today.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Bill, welcome to Shelf Life.
Excited to have you here, I'mexcited to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I appreciate having the opportunity to speak with
you today.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, it's fantastic, bill, just diving right in.
Could you tell us a little bitmore about your background and
what your responsibilities aretoday?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Sure, Just as you mentioned, I started my career
in CPG with LEGO Toys, which isabsolutely a wonderful brick
that most of us has played witharound the world.
I did that for several years indifferent positions in
different cities and towns, Thenmoved on to LeapFrog, which was
a startup company at the time.
We made an entry into thepreschool learning category,
(02:23):
which was a lot of fun and somereally really great product and
helped a lot of childrenthroughout the world.
I did that for many, many yearsas well.
Then I decided to do my ownthing and help small to
mid-sized customers developproduct through pricing and
packaging, figuring out thewhite space on shelves where
they could live.
How do you get into Walmart andthen how do you stay at Walmart
(02:45):
?
Then a couple of years ago, acolleague of mine gave me a call
and said hey, I need some helpat Walmart with this brand I
have.
I ventured into that and that'swhere we are today.
It's been a great run and CPGis just a great industry to get
into.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Looking at your background, it looks like you've
got two, probably more, but twovery clear areas of expertise
toys and games.
Working with Walmart on thatfirst piece.
What was attractive to youabout getting into toys and
games?
Was this something on yourearly career trajectory that you
knew you wanted to do?
And tell us a little bit moreabout what has kept you in that
(03:25):
industry for the last severaldecades?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
To be honest with you , logan, I wasn't looking to get
into toys.
I just graduated and I waslooking for a job and the
opportunity for Lego came across.
I was like Lego you mean thebuilding block they're like.
Absolutely as a big customer, Ishould say my parents were big
customers of Lego, but I wasable to play with that toy my
(03:50):
first 15 years of my life andenjoyed it immensely.
I went through the process ofinterviews and I wanted to be
part of this company that Iplayed with.
I knew it dearly and I had alot of passion for it.
So that was really how I gotinto toys Toys.
To answer your second question,once you get into toys, you
(04:12):
never really leave.
It's a very small category ifyou think about it.
I mean, there's a lot ofplayers but the same people move
through it through theirlifetime.
I think it's because number one, if you don't really like to
grow up fully as an adult insome areas of your life of like
play, it's wonderful becauseit's new every single year.
(04:35):
We're selling entertainmentright and entertainment is fun,
so it's never the same.
Every day is absolutelydifferent and you never know
what's going to be around thecorner with innovation in
product and play, and just theopportunity to give children a
smile on their face everyChristmas is a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
What I love getting to know our, our customers and
their product lines, and it'sgot to be such an interesting
space to be in.
What I've noticed is in thetoys and games industry that
maybe has been surprising is theinnovation that's happening
again and again and again.
I think it has to be really,really innovative industry.
With how much I can, newproducts come out.
(05:16):
You kind of talked about yourbackground helping with with
product innovation.
Has that been a key part ofyour functions today, as you've,
as you've worked in thesevarious toy companies?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, I think the main idea doesn't really come
from me.
This come from inventors I'vecome from, from individuals who
have just a deep down passion ofcreation.
How I help and how I reallyassist is to look at that
product, to look at it and say,is there a need for that product
?
Is a consumer really going topurchase it, and then, at what
(05:47):
price?
Right, and look at it and say,okay, what is the package?
Say, is the package informativeso that a customer can look at
it within six seconds andunderstand exactly what it is,
and does it fill a need for them?
And this is the right pricepoint and is, does it fit the
metrics that Walmart looks atand is it gonna so?
Is it gonna check all thoseboxes from the end consumer to
(06:09):
the retailer that's gonnapurchase it?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Really, really interesting well shifting gears
a bit.
I know you're based out InBentonville and, for folks who
aren't super aligned withWalmart, that is Walmart's
global headquarters there inBentonville, arkansas.
I had the pleasure of goingthere, spent on my bucket list
for a while and I was there latelast year.
Fascinating place.
Could you speak to a little bitwhat it's like living in a
(06:35):
place that's just so focused onretail and consumer products and
what that communities like yeah, I mean it is changed immensely
now.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I've only physically been in Bentonville for 10 years
, so but for 30 years I travelback and forth from from Chicago
where I live Most of my life,and 30 years ago it was one
place in time and today it isabsolutely a totally different
place and in a lot of aspectsit's grown and it's nurtured and
(07:06):
matured and it is now a reallyit's a global community of
individuals from all over theworld that are living here, not
just from different states butFrom different parts of the
world, have now come toBentonville and, you know, with
the help of the Hunt family andthe Walton family and the Tyson
family, this Northwest Arkansas,as it's called, has grown
(07:29):
immensely.
So it's it's pretty neat, comingfrom a really diverse cultural
place like Chicago.
When I first got her, even 10years ago, it was like you know
it was, it was pretty normal.
I would say it was just a goodMidwestern town, and now I see
the absolute growth in buildingsand culture and different
things to do.
(07:50):
Restaurants have grown, thepeople have grown, a lot of
families moving in, so it's areally neat place to be.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, and I think, if they've claimed the moniker of
the mountain biking capital ofthe world as well, which is
surprising to me- Absolutelyyeah.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
If you're in the biking mountain biking as well
as trail bikes you know some ofthose families have done a
wonderful service to thiscommunity by purchasing land on
a 30 mile track betweenFayetteville and Bentonville and
you can ride your bike withoutany cars or anything else For 30
miles from they call it fromsquare to square and you can do
(08:26):
that all day.
You can ride parts of it.
So a wonderful outdoor area inArkansas.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Well, and I just have this vision in my mind of
dinner parties or back backyardbarbecues where people sit
around talking about OTIF ratesand roll back and promotion.
I mean retail is such a bigpart of probably most people
have connections to Walmart andto the retail CPG space.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You know absolutely.
You get individuals that areother vendors, such as myself,
but in different categories,right, you know housewares and
outdoor sports and food, so ingarments.
So you get to talk with thosepeople as neighbors.
And then you get individualswho maybe support Walmart and
they work for JB Hunt.
They talk about the truckingpart of the whole thing, so and
(09:12):
then you get the individuals whowork on the software companies
that talk about the tech portionof how they assist Walmart.
So you kind of get the wholegambit as well.
As then you get to talk witheveryday people who are
consumers, so you get the fullcircle of retail in a very, very
small area of the country.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Very, very interesting, very neat, Very
neat.
Well, bill, since you have suchan expertise in kind of working
with retailers and specificallywith Walmart, would love to
just get your perspective on asyou work with your buyer, as
other brands work with theirbuyers.
What are some of the trends yousee on what buyers are looking
for, the key metrics that areimportant to you in running your
(09:51):
business, and maybe we can talkabout getting into Walmart and
building those relationships atWalmart specifically.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Well, first and foremost, you know what Walmart
is looking for.
Obviously is product thatindividuals and consumer wants
right, as well as helping thembetter their life on every day,
and that's usually.
It could be price, it could beoptions of a product.
But how do we make theconsumers day a lot better, day
(10:20):
in and day out?
And of course you know let'sgive them a great price.
But obviously Walmart doesn't dothis for fun.
You know they need to maketheir margins and you need to
know those.
But then you also have to payattention to your contribution
margin.
You know as a vendor, right,you know you have to make money,
you have to cover your costsand you've got to look at your
capabilities.
(10:41):
So you know those are the mainthings that Walmart wants to see
and you know they've beenreally open, at least with me
over the last my whole career ofbringing products to them to
even just to see them and get anopportunity to see them.
And you know, take my calls ormy emails and say I'll give you
20 minutes or 15 or what do youneed?
(11:01):
A half hour?
So they've afforded me a greatopportunity in my life with
different products.
So that's really what they wantto see at.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Walmart.
So what I'm hearing is a greatproduct trumps everything
consumers are going to want tobuy.
That's right.
And then obviously there'sprofitability and pricing
consideration there as well.
But starting with the endconsumer, Right.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
And then there's capacity.
You know, do you have thecapacity to fuel a Walmart in
their 4000 locations?
I mean, not everybody has themanufacturing facilities to
produce what they need becausethey're such a giant within the
velocity of your product.
And most vendors today not all,but most of them their number
one customer is Walmart becauseof just the buying power and the
(11:45):
amount of traffic that they getin stores and the amount of
looks that Walmartcom is nowgetting online and you know,
delivery now and pick up atstore.
So you know Walmart has kind ofchecked all the boxes regarding
where the eyes of the consumerare and where they want to be.
So it's a lot of differentdisciplines that Walmart looks
at from a vendor standpoint.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Make sense, makes sense, and so when you kind of
have those components together,how do you find yourself making
that case to Walmart?
To a Walmart buyer?
What are some keys in beingable to effectively communicate?
It's a great product, thepricing right.
We can support you at scalefrom a supply chain perspective.
How do you go through that,that exercise and maybe giving
(12:29):
some advice to some listenerswho may not have as mature
relationship as you do withWalmart?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
sure are.
There's a couple different ways.
If you have the, the budget orthe opportunities to test
consumers on a I mean a couplethousand consumers, you do test
markets with them and you, youknow, you know that data, you're
giving Walmart the opportunityto say, hey, listen, we've done
a great deal of testing with andconsumer.
You know this, this item orthis group of items, you know
(12:57):
checks the top two boxes Priceand value and innovation and yes
, I would purchase it.
So you go through a lot of that.
Secondly, a lot of vendors willstart a product on amazon very
cheaply.
You're able to go ahead and setup a page, get it rolling, you
know, do some social media withthat and then start to get
(13:18):
Reviews and then multiplereviews and five star reviews
and you know those.
Those reviews are looked at bythe entire world, not just the
consumer.
You know, when you're lookingfor a product on amazon, you're
really not sure which one youwant to buy.
There might be ten on the pagea lot of us look at.
You know star rankings.
Right, give me the fives andthe four.
Well, there's no different thana Walmart merchant or merchant
(13:41):
team will start to look at allthe different products in their
category and say hey, you know,look at this product, start
again reviews, game five starratings and it's something we
need to start to look at.
So you know we've done that.
Where you can Grow a productover eighteen months or so on
amazon, it's, you start togarner that and then you bring
(14:02):
it to their attention.
I mean, they're looking at somany different things every day.
The whole world is bringing theproduct to get on that shelf
and you know that shelf space isworth millions of dollars and
you gotta prove your point.
You know that the consumerwants that product in a Walmart
consumer.
Be specific that's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
so not just the consumer level people looking at
reviews on amazon wanna makesure they're buying a high
quality product that the kidsare gonna play with, but but
actually that these bigretailers are looking at amazon
as a potential testing groundfor new products and building
that e-commerce presence.
Great reviews is it a way toget in potentially?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Right.
I mean it's just.
You know if they're, if theysee a product with higher
reviews and so forth, theyobviously want to care, you know
purchase it for their customer.
Because they have such such abig customer base and you know
they can go from Zero to fiftythousand units and in four or
five months easily, because ofthe amount of traffic they get
(15:05):
in those stores, they can.
They can pull that market shareto them very, very quickly and
they know that.
So.
But they need testing as well.
It costs a lot of money just totake a chance on a product and
you pull a product out, you putmy product in If it doesn't
perform.
You've not only lost the salesof what you had in your hand
there, but you also lost evenadditional because of what mine
(15:27):
did not produce In your world.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
you find yourself even collaborating with
e-commerce teams internally atplay monster and and this is
part of kind of the new productlaunch strategy.
How does that work internally,knowing that this dynamic exists
?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Absolutely.
It's a consortium ofindividuals within our company
that look at our own playmonster dot com website.
What's selling there, as wellas Amazon and others out there,
and what is selling there's?
There's many products we haveand others vendors have on on
Amazon.
We can put Our full portfolioof products on there.
(16:02):
Where is you know?
Walmart only has a dedicatedamount of space.
So does target it's.
Anybody that has a physicalstore only has so many spots.
So you know, as a vendor, we'dlove them to carry everything
right, but that doesn't evenmake sense either, because some
items are just not as profitablefor Walmart or Target as they
may be for an Amazon.
So we're constantly looking atPOS and that's where, you know,
(16:25):
alloy has really helped us builddifferent reports and Look at
different metrics on a dailybasis because, you know, your,
your software updates everysingle morning and by 10 o'clock
I can have a dashboard of whathappened yesterday.
It make changes to it if weneed to, or change pricing or
look at opportunities and lookat rates of sale, and so there's
(16:47):
just, you know, plethora ofmetrics using alloy.
That has really helped us.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Well, it's great to hear that's.
That's helpful.
You'd mentioned you.
You know how Bentonville hasshifted over the 10 years that
you've been there.
I'm curious, as you think aboutWalmart as a retailer, how
they've changed over the lastdecade and what you're noticing
about the way they work withtheir suppliers and how those
Strategic objectives haveshifted over time.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing I've seen is that
they've kind of gone to a newkind of buying format where they
have multiple buyers within thesame category and they're
supported by and Administratorswithin there, as well as
replenishment and so forth.
So they have teams.
The teams have gotten reallyyoung.
Either I'm getting really oldor they're getting really,
(17:36):
really young.
So they've gone young andthat's great.
I mean, some of these buyersare a year out of college and
you know they're sitting at asix, seven hundred million
dollar, you know, as I call itdesk.
So I've found that they're veryopen because they are younger
and maybe they just haven't beenin the market long enough, but
they're very open to ideas andnew things and, you know,
(18:00):
pushing the business forward andand just wanting to hear my
experiences with Walmart andwhat's worked, what hasn't
worked and it's it's been a bigchange in 10 years in those
buying desks.
So Fascinating.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So there's more openness to new ideas.
Is it more kind of Data-drivenor, you know, I've there been
other components, as maybe thedemographic of the buyer has
changed, where you've had tokind of change to meet them
where they are.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Absolutely.
You know they've always beendata-driven Walmart.
You could always.
You know there's always kind of12 metrics that they've always
wanted to see and that as avendor, you better be up to date
on those every week at anypoint in time the phone call
would come, or during themeeting They'd want to see it.
Now Everybody has it on theirphone, right?
You know the buyers can look ontheir phone to get up in the
(18:51):
morning and take a look at sales.
You know who's not performing,who is, and today's you know
buyer.
You better know that beforethem and you better bring them a
solution if there is a problemor a great opportunity and say,
hey, this is what I'm seeingthis week.
You know, let's do x, y and zand I think we can increase
sales.
You know we can double it inthe next two months or triple it
(19:12):
or whatever.
Or we might have a situationwhen we're running out of
inventory and I just want tomake you aware of this.
I have a solution for you.
So yeah, the analytics part ofit now used to be on a weekly
basis.
Now it's on a daily basis, sothat's changed immensely.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
I'm hearing maybe a double-edged sword.
They're more potentiallypersuadable.
But also you've got to be ontop of your game.
It sounds like to becompetitive in that environment.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Yeah, you got you got to have a case right.
You have a case for what you'redoing and I always say let's
have two or three Solutions to asituation, because you never
know where they're coming from.
Different buyers have differentmetrics.
You know they always want tosell more.
That's the number one metricsthey all have.
But some of them have differentideas of what else is
underlying that they want tolook at.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Really really interesting, bill.
Well, one more topic for you.
I'd love to unpack a little bit.
I know it's top of mind for alot of industries, but I know
it's particularly top of mindfor toys and games around
Sustainability.
I know that this is importantto consumers and it's also very
important to brands, and so youknow how are you thinking about
(20:19):
sustainability at play monster.
You know how does this play inthe relationship with Walmart.
Could you speak a little bit tosustainability efforts and and
how you all think about that inrelationship to working with
with Walmart?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Sure, yeah, you know, obviously, as you mentioned
it's, it's a, it's a big agendaitem for Walmart and it's a
great one because you know, atthe end of the day, we all live
on this planet and we wanted tobe here for our kids and our
grandkids and we wanted to beenjoyable.
So the big picture is it's agreat picture.
So some of the things we we arecurrently doing at play monster
(20:53):
and also researching for thefuture, is to Limit it as much
plastic from our packaging asmuch as we can.
We want that out.
We don't want that in consumershands.
Then it goes into the disposaland into our you know, our
garbage waste facilities and itjust kind of sits there.
For what is it?
25 years or 30 years.
(21:13):
So we're trying to take plasticsout.
We're also looking at recycledpaper.
You know a lot of our productsare games, but our games, their
cardboard right.
So it's a very easy one to dothat now.
To do that Economically hasbeen a little bit of a challenge
, but it's getting.
It's getting much better and wewill take a little bit
obviously less profit if we cancome out with the recycled
(21:34):
products.
And the third part of it iswe're looking at.
In this next fall, fall 24we're coming out with two
different what we call upcycleproducts, where it's a toy, but
you're using plastics from Waterbottles or paper and you're
going to be able to make jewelrywith those.
So not only is there a messagethere for the consumer that
(21:57):
you're helping and you'rerecycling, but then you're also
able to make a bracelet or anecklace with the toy that we're
coming out with.
So it's it's very unique.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Wow, that sounds really really neat.
When does that come out?
That'll hit shelves in June of24.
All right, I have three youngkids, so we're gonna circle, all
right, circle that time horizonthere, I'd be excellent.
Well, fantastic, bill.
That sounds like really reallycompelling initiatives there.
Bill, really appreciate youmaking time for this
(22:28):
conversation and thanks forjoining us on shelf life.
Yeah, logan, appreciate it.
You've been listening to BillSinekor, vice president of
national accounts, and playmonster.
That's all for this week.
See you next time on shelf life.
From Alloy AI.
This is Shelf Life.
How do you grow a relationshipwith Walmart, the nation's
(00:22):
biggest retailer?
What are the key metrics buyerscare about?
What do suppliers need to knowabout the dynamic between Amazon
and Walmart?
On every episode of Shelf Life,we answer questions like these
and more, with the help ofleaders across the consumer
goods industry.
Today, our guest is BillSinekor, vice President of
National Accounts at Playmonster.
(00:43):
Bill has a 32-year relationshipwith Walmart as a sales leader
for brands like Playmonster,lego and LeapFrog and as a
consultant helping suppliersbuild a relationship with the
retail giant.
I'm your host, logan Ensign,chief Customer Officer at Alloy
AI.
We'll be back with Bill rightafter this.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
As a consumer brand, you connect with dozens of
external partners and internalsystems to get a complete
picture of your business.
Each one is different.
Alloy AI makes it easy toconnect data from retailers,
e-commerce, supply chainpartners and even your own ERP,
then easily surface insights todrive sales growth.
Every day, brands use Alloy AIto see POS trends, measure
(01:30):
promotion performance and makebetter replenishment decisions
with their retail partners.
That's why we're trusted by BIC, crayola, valveline, melissa
and Doug Bosch and many more.
Get a demo at alloyai today.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Bill, welcome to Shelf Life.
Excited to have you here, I'mexcited to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I appreciate having the opportunity to speak with
you today.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, it's fantastic, bill, just diving right in.
Could you tell us a little bitmore about your background and
what your responsibilities aretoday?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Sure, Just as you mentioned, I started my career
in CPG with LEGO Toys, which isabsolutely a wonderful brick
that most of us has played witharound the world.
I did that for several years indifferent positions in
different cities and towns, Thenmoved on to LeapFrog, which was
a startup company at the time.
We made an entry into thepreschool learning category,
(02:23):
which was a lot of fun and somereally really great product and
helped a lot of childrenthroughout the world.
I did that for many, many yearsas well.
Then I decided to do my ownthing and help small to
mid-sized customers developproduct through pricing and
packaging, figuring out thewhite space on shelves where
they could live.
How do you get into Walmart andthen how do you stay at Walmart
(02:45):
?
Then a couple of years ago, acolleague of mine gave me a call
and said hey, I need some helpat Walmart with this brand I
have.
I ventured into that and that'swhere we are today.
It's been a great run and CPGis just a great industry to get
into.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Looking at your background, it looks like you've
got two, probably more, but twovery clear areas of expertise
toys and games.
Working with Walmart on thatfirst piece.
What was attractive to youabout getting into toys and
games?
Was this something on yourearly career trajectory that you
knew you wanted to do?
And tell us a little bit moreabout what has kept you in that
(03:25):
industry for the last severaldecades?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
To be honest with you , logan, I wasn't looking to get
into toys.
I just graduated and I waslooking for a job and the
opportunity for Lego came across.
I was like Lego you mean thebuilding block they're like.
Absolutely as a big customer, Ishould say my parents were big
customers of Lego, but I wasable to play with that toy my
(03:50):
first 15 years of my life andenjoyed it immensely.
I went through the process ofinterviews and I wanted to be
part of this company that Iplayed with.
I knew it dearly and I had alot of passion for it.
So that was really how I gotinto toys Toys.
To answer your second question,once you get into toys, you
(04:12):
never really leave.
It's a very small category ifyou think about it.
I mean, there's a lot ofplayers but the same people move
through it through theirlifetime.
I think it's because number one, if you don't really like to
grow up fully as an adult insome areas of your life of like
play, it's wonderful becauseit's new every single year.
(04:35):
We're selling entertainmentright and entertainment is fun,
so it's never the same.
Every day is absolutelydifferent and you never know
what's going to be around thecorner with innovation in
product and play, and just theopportunity to give children a
smile on their face everyChristmas is a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
What I love getting to know our, our customers and
their product lines, and it'sgot to be such an interesting
space to be in.
What I've noticed is in thetoys and games industry that
maybe has been surprising is theinnovation that's happening
again and again and again.
I think it has to be really,really innovative industry.
With how much I can, newproducts come out.
(05:16):
You kind of talked about yourbackground helping with with
product innovation.
Has that been a key part ofyour functions today, as you've,
as you've worked in thesevarious toy companies?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, I think the main idea doesn't really come
from me.
This come from inventors I'vecome from, from individuals who
have just a deep down passion ofcreation.
How I help and how I reallyassist is to look at that
product, to look at it and say,is there a need for that product
?
Is a consumer really going topurchase it, and then, at what
(05:47):
price?
Right, and look at it and say,okay, what is the package?
Say, is the package informativeso that a customer can look at
it within six seconds andunderstand exactly what it is,
and does it fill a need for them?
And this is the right pricepoint and is, does it fit the
metrics that Walmart looks atand is it gonna so?
Is it gonna check all thoseboxes from the end consumer to
(06:09):
the retailer that's gonnapurchase it?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Really, really interesting well shifting gears
a bit.
I know you're based out InBentonville and, for folks who
aren't super aligned withWalmart, that is Walmart's
global headquarters there inBentonville, arkansas.
I had the pleasure of goingthere, spent on my bucket list
for a while and I was there latelast year.
Fascinating place.
Could you speak to a little bitwhat it's like living in a
(06:35):
place that's just so focused onretail and consumer products and
what that communities like yeah, I mean it is changed immensely
now.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I've only physically been in Bentonville for 10 years
, so but for 30 years I travelback and forth from from Chicago
where I live Most of my life,and 30 years ago it was one
place in time and today it isabsolutely a totally different
place and in a lot of aspectsit's grown and it's nurtured and
(07:06):
matured and it is now a reallyit's a global community of
individuals from all over theworld that are living here, not
just from different states butFrom different parts of the
world, have now come toBentonville and, you know, with
the help of the Hunt family andthe Walton family and the Tyson
family, this Northwest Arkansas,as it's called, has grown
(07:29):
immensely.
So it's it's pretty neat, comingfrom a really diverse cultural
place like Chicago.
When I first got her, even 10years ago, it was like you know
it was, it was pretty normal.
I would say it was just a goodMidwestern town, and now I see
the absolute growth in buildingsand culture and different
things to do.
(07:50):
Restaurants have grown, thepeople have grown, a lot of
families moving in, so it's areally neat place to be.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, and I think, if they've claimed the moniker of
the mountain biking capital ofthe world as well, which is
surprising to me- Absolutelyyeah.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
If you're in the biking mountain biking as well
as trail bikes you know some ofthose families have done a
wonderful service to thiscommunity by purchasing land on
a 30 mile track betweenFayetteville and Bentonville and
you can ride your bike withoutany cars or anything else For 30
miles from they call it fromsquare to square and you can do
(08:26):
that all day.
You can ride parts of it.
So a wonderful outdoor area inArkansas.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Well, and I just have this vision in my mind of
dinner parties or back backyardbarbecues where people sit
around talking about OTIF ratesand roll back and promotion.
I mean retail is such a bigpart of probably most people
have connections to Walmart andto the retail CPG space.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
You know absolutely.
You get individuals that areother vendors, such as myself,
but in different categories,right, you know housewares and
outdoor sports and food, so ingarments.
So you get to talk with thosepeople as neighbors.
And then you get individualswho maybe support Walmart and
they work for JB Hunt.
They talk about the truckingpart of the whole thing, so and
(09:12):
then you get the individuals whowork on the software companies
that talk about the tech portionof how they assist Walmart.
So you kind of get the wholegambit as well.
As then you get to talk witheveryday people who are
consumers, so you get the fullcircle of retail in a very, very
small area of the country.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Very, very interesting, very neat, Very
neat.
Well, bill, since you have suchan expertise in kind of working
with retailers and specificallywith Walmart, would love to
just get your perspective on asyou work with your buyer, as
other brands work with theirbuyers.
What are some of the trends yousee on what buyers are looking
for, the key metrics that areimportant to you in running your
(09:51):
business, and maybe we can talkabout getting into Walmart and
building those relationships atWalmart specifically.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Well, first and foremost, you know what Walmart
is looking for.
Obviously is product thatindividuals and consumer wants
right, as well as helping thembetter their life on every day,
and that's usually.
It could be price, it could beoptions of a product.
But how do we make theconsumers day a lot better, day
(10:20):
in and day out?
And of course you know let'sgive them a great price.
But obviously Walmart doesn't dothis for fun.
You know they need to maketheir margins and you need to
know those.
But then you also have to payattention to your contribution
margin.
You know as a vendor, right,you know you have to make money,
you have to cover your costsand you've got to look at your
capabilities.
(10:41):
So you know those are the mainthings that Walmart wants to see
and you know they've beenreally open, at least with me
over the last my whole career ofbringing products to them to
even just to see them and get anopportunity to see them.
And you know, take my calls ormy emails and say I'll give you
20 minutes or 15 or what do youneed?
(11:01):
A half hour?
So they've afforded me a greatopportunity in my life with
different products.
So that's really what they wantto see at.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Walmart.
So what I'm hearing is a greatproduct trumps everything
consumers are going to want tobuy.
That's right.
And then obviously there'sprofitability and pricing
consideration there as well.
But starting with the endconsumer, Right.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
And then there's capacity.
You know, do you have thecapacity to fuel a Walmart in
their 4000 locations?
I mean, not everybody has themanufacturing facilities to
produce what they need becausethey're such a giant within the
velocity of your product.
And most vendors today not all,but most of them their number
one customer is Walmart becauseof just the buying power and the
(11:45):
amount of traffic that they getin stores and the amount of
looks that Walmartcom is nowgetting online and you know,
delivery now and pick up atstore.
So you know Walmart has kind ofchecked all the boxes regarding
where the eyes of the consumerare and where they want to be.
So it's a lot of differentdisciplines that Walmart looks
at from a vendor standpoint.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Make sense, makes sense, and so when you kind of
have those components together,how do you find yourself making
that case to Walmart?
To a Walmart buyer?
What are some keys in beingable to effectively communicate?
It's a great product, thepricing right.
We can support you at scalefrom a supply chain perspective.
How do you go through that,that exercise and maybe giving
(12:29):
some advice to some listenerswho may not have as mature
relationship as you do withWalmart?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
sure are.
There's a couple different ways.
If you have the, the budget orthe opportunities to test
consumers on a I mean a couplethousand consumers, you do test
markets with them and you, youknow, you know that data, you're
giving Walmart the opportunityto say, hey, listen, we've done
a great deal of testing with andconsumer.
You know this, this item orthis group of items, you know
(12:57):
checks the top two boxes Priceand value and innovation and yes
, I would purchase it.
So you go through a lot of that.
Secondly, a lot of vendors willstart a product on amazon very
cheaply.
You're able to go ahead and setup a page, get it rolling, you
know, do some social media withthat and then start to get
(13:18):
Reviews and then multiplereviews and five star reviews
and you know those.
Those reviews are looked at bythe entire world, not just the
consumer.
You know, when you're lookingfor a product on amazon, you're
really not sure which one youwant to buy.
There might be ten on the pagea lot of us look at.
You know star rankings.
Right, give me the fives andthe four.
Well, there's no different thana Walmart merchant or merchant
(13:41):
team will start to look at allthe different products in their
category and say hey, you know,look at this product, start
again reviews, game five starratings and it's something we
need to start to look at.
So you know we've done that.
Where you can Grow a productover eighteen months or so on
amazon, it's, you start togarner that and then you bring
(14:02):
it to their attention.
I mean, they're looking at somany different things every day.
The whole world is bringing theproduct to get on that shelf
and you know that shelf space isworth millions of dollars and
you gotta prove your point.
You know that the consumerwants that product in a Walmart
consumer.
Be specific that's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
so not just the consumer level people looking at
reviews on amazon wanna makesure they're buying a high
quality product that the kidsare gonna play with, but but
actually that these bigretailers are looking at amazon
as a potential testing groundfor new products and building
that e-commerce presence.
Great reviews is it a way toget in potentially?
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Right.
I mean it's just.
You know if they're, if theysee a product with higher
reviews and so forth, theyobviously want to care, you know
purchase it for their customer.
Because they have such such abig customer base and you know
they can go from Zero to fiftythousand units and in four or
five months easily, because ofthe amount of traffic they get
(15:05):
in those stores, they can.
They can pull that market shareto them very, very quickly and
they know that.
So.
But they need testing as well.
It costs a lot of money just totake a chance on a product and
you pull a product out, you putmy product in If it doesn't
perform.
You've not only lost the salesof what you had in your hand
there, but you also lost evenadditional because of what mine
(15:27):
did not produce In your world.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
you find yourself even collaborating with
e-commerce teams internally atplay monster and and this is
part of kind of the new productlaunch strategy.
How does that work internally,knowing that this dynamic exists
?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Absolutely.
It's a consortium ofindividuals within our company
that look at our own playmonster dot com website.
What's selling there, as wellas Amazon and others out there,
and what is selling there's?
There's many products we haveand others vendors have on on
Amazon.
We can put Our full portfolioof products on there.
(16:02):
Where is you know?
Walmart only has a dedicatedamount of space.
So does target it's.
Anybody that has a physicalstore only has so many spots.
So you know, as a vendor, we'dlove them to carry everything
right, but that doesn't evenmake sense either, because some
items are just not as profitablefor Walmart or Target as they
may be for an Amazon.
So we're constantly looking atPOS and that's where, you know,
(16:25):
alloy has really helped us builddifferent reports and Look at
different metrics on a dailybasis because, you know, your,
your software updates everysingle morning and by 10 o'clock
I can have a dashboard of whathappened yesterday.
It make changes to it if weneed to, or change pricing or
look at opportunities and lookat rates of sale, and so there's
(16:47):
just, you know, plethora ofmetrics using alloy.
That has really helped us.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Well, it's great to hear that's.
That's helpful.
You'd mentioned you.
You know how Bentonville hasshifted over the 10 years that
you've been there.
I'm curious, as you think aboutWalmart as a retailer, how
they've changed over the lastdecade and what you're noticing
about the way they work withtheir suppliers and how those
Strategic objectives haveshifted over time.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing I've seen is that
they've kind of gone to a newkind of buying format where they
have multiple buyers within thesame category and they're
supported by and Administratorswithin there, as well as
replenishment and so forth.
So they have teams.
The teams have gotten reallyyoung.
Either I'm getting really oldor they're getting really,
(17:36):
really young.
So they've gone young andthat's great.
I mean, some of these buyersare a year out of college and
you know they're sitting at asix, seven hundred million
dollar, you know, as I call itdesk.
So I've found that they're veryopen because they are younger
and maybe they just haven't beenin the market long enough, but
they're very open to ideas andnew things and, you know,
(18:00):
pushing the business forward andand just wanting to hear my
experiences with Walmart andwhat's worked, what hasn't
worked and it's it's been a bigchange in 10 years in those
buying desks.
So Fascinating.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
So there's more openness to new ideas.
Is it more kind of Data-drivenor, you know, I've there been
other components, as maybe thedemographic of the buyer has
changed, where you've had tokind of change to meet them
where they are.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Absolutely.
You know they've always beendata-driven Walmart.
You could always.
You know there's always kind of12 metrics that they've always
wanted to see and that as avendor, you better be up to date
on those every week at anypoint in time the phone call
would come, or during themeeting They'd want to see it.
Now Everybody has it on theirphone, right?
You know the buyers can look ontheir phone to get up in the
(18:51):
morning and take a look at sales.
You know who's not performing,who is, and today's you know
buyer.
You better know that beforethem and you better bring them a
solution if there is a problemor a great opportunity and say,
hey, this is what I'm seeingthis week.
You know, let's do x, y and zand I think we can increase
sales.
You know we can double it inthe next two months or triple it
(19:12):
or whatever.
Or we might have a situationwhen we're running out of
inventory and I just want tomake you aware of this.
I have a solution for you.
So yeah, the analytics part ofit now used to be on a weekly
basis.
Now it's on a daily basis, sothat's changed immensely.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
I'm hearing maybe a double-edged sword.
They're more potentiallypersuadable.
But also you've got to be ontop of your game.
It sounds like to becompetitive in that environment.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Yeah, you got you got to have a case right.
You have a case for what you'redoing and I always say let's
have two or three Solutions to asituation, because you never
know where they're coming from.
Different buyers have differentmetrics.
You know they always want tosell more.
That's the number one metricsthey all have.
But some of them have differentideas of what else is
underlying that they want tolook at.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Really really interesting, bill.
Well, one more topic for you.
I'd love to unpack a little bit.
I know it's top of mind for alot of industries, but I know
it's particularly top of mindfor toys and games around
Sustainability.
I know that this is importantto consumers and it's also very
important to brands, and so youknow how are you thinking about
(20:19):
sustainability at play monster.
You know how does this play inthe relationship with Walmart.
Could you speak a little bit tosustainability efforts and and
how you all think about that inrelationship to working with
with Walmart?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Sure, yeah, you know, obviously, as you mentioned
it's, it's a, it's a big agendaitem for Walmart and it's a
great one because you know, atthe end of the day, we all live
on this planet and we wanted tobe here for our kids and our
grandkids and we wanted to beenjoyable.
So the big picture is it's agreat picture.
So some of the things we we arecurrently doing at play monster
(20:53):
and also researching for thefuture, is to Limit it as much
plastic from our packaging asmuch as we can.
We want that out.
We don't want that in consumershands.
Then it goes into the disposaland into our you know, our
garbage waste facilities and itjust kind of sits there.
For what is it?
25 years or 30 years.
(21:13):
So we're trying to take plasticsout.
We're also looking at recycledpaper.
You know a lot of our productsare games, but our games, their
cardboard right.
So it's a very easy one to dothat now.
To do that Economically hasbeen a little bit of a challenge
, but it's getting.
It's getting much better and wewill take a little bit
obviously less profit if we cancome out with the recycled
(21:34):
products.
And the third part of it iswe're looking at.
In this next fall, fall 24we're coming out with two
different what we call upcycleproducts, where it's a toy, but
you're using plastics from Waterbottles or paper and you're
going to be able to make jewelrywith those.
So not only is there a messagethere for the consumer that
(21:57):
you're helping and you'rerecycling, but then you're also
able to make a bracelet or anecklace with the toy that we're
coming out with.
So it's it's very unique.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Wow, that sounds really really neat.
When does that come out?
That'll hit shelves in June of24.
All right, I have three youngkids, so we're gonna circle, all
right, circle that time horizonthere, I'd be excellent.
Well, fantastic, bill.
That sounds like really reallycompelling initiatives there.
Bill, really appreciate youmaking time for this
(22:28):
conversation and thanks forjoining us on shelf life.
Yeah, logan, appreciate it.
You've been listening to BillSinekor, vice president of
national accounts, and playmonster.
That's all for this week.
See you next time on shelf life.
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