The Pilot

The free 14 day pilot, explained

We reach 500 wholesale buyers that fit your product, at our cost. You see every reply. Here's exactly how it works, step by step.

What the pilot is

Pretty simple. We find 500 buyers that fit your product, write to each one personally, and every reply lands with you. You watch it happen live, and we cover the cost.

Why free? Because we want to show you how we work before you commit to partnering with us. We take four pilots a month and we review every brand first, so we only run pilots we think will work.

One thing you won't find here: projected reply rates. Every brand and every product performs differently, and that's the whole point of the pilot. Two weeks of sending in, you'll have your own numbers instead of our promises.

How it works

1. Apply

Takes two minutes at pilot.shelfconnect.ai. We review every application, and if you qualify, the calendar to book your pilot call is right there after the form.

2. The pilot call

We talk it through and see if this really makes sense for you: which buyer type fits your product best, which market, what we'd offer the buyers. Usually samples, sometimes something better, like a tasting at your place if you're a local brand. If it's a fit for both sides, we move.

3. Onboarding

We send you a short onboarding form and the pilot agreement. The form covers everything we need to sound like you: what the product is, how you sell it, what makes buyers say yes.

4. The launch meeting

About three days after your forms are in, we meet again. We walk you through everything we built, your buyer list and the messages, and we launch the campaigns together on that call.

5. 10 to 14 days of sending

Every buyer gets 3 to 4 personal messages over the sending window, not one email into the void. Replies get sorted the second they come in: interested, sample request, question, not now. Interested buyers go straight to your team while the conversation is warm.

6. The review call

We go through everything that came back, number by number, and decide together if scaling makes sense.

Zero setup on your side

We build and run everything. Your domain and your inboxes are never touched, and there's nothing to install or manage. You fill in the forms, take the calls, and the next thing you do is read replies from buyers.

If we scale together after the pilot, we build your own dedicated sending setup, with copy written for your voice and approved by you before anything goes out.

What you get out of it

500
qualified buyers reached for your brand
14
days of sending, then the review call
$0
your cost, no obligation to continue

What we need from you

Not much. The application, the two calls, and the onboarding form. The basics about your product: what it is, the price point, wholesale terms if you have them. And one person on your side who can answer interested buyers within 24 hours, because reply speed is where pilots are won or lost. Samples ready to ship help a lot: buyers who like what they read will ask for them within days.

After the review

Once you've seen the results, we talk about what scaling looks like and pick the plan that fits you. That's when we start building the system specifically for your brand.

Scaling starts with a two week onboarding: two workshops where we get everything from you. Your voice, how you work, your company vision, and all the buyer types that fit your product. We create the campaigns from that, and once onboarding is done, we launch.

This is where the volume changes. We reach 2,500, 5,200, 10,000 or more buyers per month, so the replies come in fast, and you need someone on your side ready to handle them. If you don't have that person, we offer our own SDR, who learns everything about your company during onboarding and answers every question up to the sample stage. The moment a buyer requests a sample, they're handed straight to you.

And if scaling isn't for you, that's fine too. The buyers, the replies and the learnings stay with you either way.

Start free

Ready to scale wholesale?

Two minute application. We review every brand personally, and only four pilots run each month.

Start Your Free Wholesale Pilot500 buyers contacted at no cost

Common questions

Can we keep it local instead of going national?

Yes. The market is yours to define, down to zip code level if shipping economics matter, which for a local roaster or a fresh product they usually do. We size the market before launch, so the scope decision is made on real counts, not guesses.

How do you find the right person at each business, not just info@?

Waterfall. We cross reference over a hundred data sources to find the owner or general manager and their working email. Where a decision maker can't be found, we go to the business inbox rather than skip the buyer. Nobody in your market gets missed.

Does the pilot interfere with our existing reps, distributors or accounts?

No. You give us an exclusion list during onboarding and those businesses are never contacted. The pilot reaches buyers nobody on your side is working.

What happens if we don't continue after the pilot?

Nothing. The pilot is free with no obligation, the buyers and replies belong to you, and the door stays open if you want to scale later.