About this episode

Roberta Townes discusses the five costly mistakes that prevent product-based founders from connecting with retail buyers.

Send us Fan Mail Struggling to get your product in front of retail buyers—even though you know it belongs on the shelf? In this solo episode of Shelf Talks, I’m breaking down the 5 biggest mistakes product-based founders make when trying to connect with retail buyers and how these missteps could be the exact reason you’re not getting responses, meetings, or retail opportunities. As a retail buyer with 15+ years of experience, I’ve seen it all from generic outreach emails and poorly targeted p...

People in this episode

Host: Roberta Townes

Topics covered

• retail buyers
• product marketing
• entrepreneurship mistakes
• business strategy
• founder challenges

Keywords

• retail
• buyers
• product
• mistakes
• entrepreneurship

More episodes of Shelf Talks

• 5 Things I'm Loving Right Now Founders are Doing to Drive Awareness, Traffic & Sales to Retail Stores · May 4, 2026 · 10 min
• Jillian Salinas of Beach City Coffee: How She Landed Whole Foods First and Scaled to Walmart & Kroger · April 27, 2026 · 33 min
• How Clara Sieg Built Loonen Water Through Purity, Transparency & Retail Strategy · April 20, 2026 · 37 min
• 5 Biggest Mistakes Founders Make After Getting Into Retail (And How to Win on Shelf) · April 13, 2026 · 28 min
• Rapid Retail Questions with Samantha Ong, Founder of Joeydolls · April 8, 2026 · 2 min
• From Idea to Retail Shelves: How Samantha Ong Built Joeydolls with No Product Experience · April 6, 2026 · 51 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Shelf Talks podcast page.