Agencies, platforms, brokers and going in-house, compared honestly. Including full disclosure about where we fit, and where the other options genuinely beat us.
Published July 19, 2026 · Updated July 2026
Search for a wholesale outreach agency that specializes in CPG and you will find something strange: the category barely exists. There are marketplaces where buyers browse, brokers who work chain relationships, generic cold email agencies built for software companies, and the option of doing it yourself. Each solves a different part of the problem, and brands routinely buy the wrong one because nobody maps the landscape in one place.
This page is that map. One entry on this list is us, and it is labeled as such. The rest are real options we get compared against weekly, described the way we would describe them to a friend.
| Model | Best for | Typical cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShelfConnect | Done for you outreach to independent + clinical buyers | Opening many independent doors fast | Free pilot, then from $3,485/mo |
| RangeMe | Product listing platform buyers browse | Chain and grocery buyer discovery | Free listing, paid tiers |
| Faire / Mable | Wholesale marketplaces | Boutique and specialty store orders | Commission on sales |
| CPG brokers | Commissioned reps with retailer relationships | Chain placements and category reviews | Percent of sales, often retainers |
| Generic cold email agencies | Outbound for any industry | B2B pipelines outside retail | $2,000 to $6,000/mo |
| In-house rep | Your own person doing everything | Closing and relationships at small scale | $4,000 to $6,000/mo loaded |
What we do: map every independent retail and clinical buyer that fits your product in a market, qualify each one, send personal outreach in your brand's name at hundreds per day, sort the replies, and hand your team the interested buyers. Quarterly recontact of the not-yet pile included.
Honest strengths: the only option on this list built specifically for the independent CPG channel, coverage no manual method matches, a free 14 day pilot on 500 real buyers so you decide on evidence, and published pricing.
Honest weaknesses: we do not close orders for you (your team or our SDR add-on answers the interested buyers), we do not work grocery chain procurement, and if you only want five flagship accounts, we are overkill. Details on the cost guide.
The largest product discovery platform in CPG, connecting more than 200,000 suppliers with retail buyers including major chains that browse and request samples. Being on it is close to mandatory hygiene for a serious brand, and Verified tiers get more buyer visibility.
Strengths: real chain buyers use it, low effort to maintain, credible discovery surface.
Weaknesses: it is inbound, you wait to be found among hundreds of thousands of suppliers. Waiting is not a pipeline. Works best paired with an active channel, not instead of one.
Faire, Mable and similar marketplaces let independent store owners order wholesale with net terms handled for you. For giftable, shelf-pretty categories they generate genuine boutique volume.
Strengths: orders arrive with logistics and payment handled, great for testing new products, buyers come pre-committed.
Weaknesses: commissions bite margin, you compete inside another crowded catalog, the platform owns the buyer relationship, and food, beverage and clinical categories see far less traffic than gift and lifestyle.
The traditional route: commissioned brokers such as Harvest Group or CPG Brokers who carry real relationships with chain category buyers and manage the retailer bureaucracy. Typical broker economics run 5 to 10 percent of wholesale revenue.
Strengths: for grocery chains and big box, a good broker is often the only realistic door, and their relationship capital is real.
Weaknesses: brokers amplify demand more than they create it, unproven brands get bottom of the bag effort, and commissions plus retainers stack on top of already thin chain margins. Independents are mostly not their game.
A large, competent industry (Belkins, ColdIQ, Cleverly and dozens more) that builds outbound pipelines, mostly for software and services companies.
Strengths: mature infrastructure and process, often cheaper entry points, fine choice if your buyers are corporate decision makers with LinkedIn profiles.
Weaknesses: CPG wholesale buyers are juice bar owners and clinic managers, not VPs in Apollo. Generalist data sources barely cover them, and copy tuned for SaaS demos reads absurd to a store owner. The craft transfers, the targeting does not.
A rep, or the founder at night, researching and emailing buyers one at a time. Full control, full relationship ownership, and about 60 properly researched buyers a week at roughly $40 of salary time each, before anyone replies. The ceiling math is covered in this piece. Right when your account count is small and closing matters more than coverage; wrong as the engine for reaching a market of thousands.
Most funded brands eventually run two or three of these at once. The mistake is not picking the wrong one. It is running none actively and calling the waiting a strategy.
Free 14 day pilot: 500 qualified independent buyers reached in your name. Decide on evidence, not on a listicle.
Because we could not find ones to list, which is why this page compares categories instead of ranking ten near-identical agencies. If genuine CPG-specialized competitors emerge, this page will add them.
Yes, and it is a sensible stack: marketplaces and listings catch buyers who browse, outreach reaches the far larger group who never browse. They do not conflict, they cover different buyer behavior.
For grocery chains and big box, usually yes. Brokers own those relationships. For the thousands of independent doors, outreach reaches buyers no broker will ever call on.