For many brands trying to expand distribution into new retail channels, traditional methods of prospecting and outreach can be ineffective, if not outright frustrating. Trying to locate buyers via online searches, then making endless calls and sending cold emails results in a lot of time wasted and no solid leads.
This was certainly the case for John Adiguzel, Sales Executive at i-XTECH, a brand which markets audio equipment and solutions for creators, gamers and podcasters. “I would go on the retailer’s website and find a few people to email,” he says. “I had a CRM system to keep track of who I reached out to, and would often reach out to 10 people at that retailer. Nobody would respond.”
That all changed once Adiguzel signed up for a free RangeMe account last August and uploaded three products to his newly-created i-XTECH brand profile page. He landed a retail deal shortly after, then immediately upgraded to RangeMe Premium, after which he quickly landed one more. And as of the time of this writing, a third is in the works.
“When you are running a business, there are two types of sales outreach you can do,” says Adiguzel. “One is cold outreach, and the other is where you get a warm handoff from someone – like a referral – which helps if you don’t have a large network, and we didn’t have a large network in the U.S., nor do we have the resources to go to trade shows. RangeMe provides that warm handoff online. We just had to post our products, show that we were ready to do business, and the handoffs came our way.”
i-XTECH’s journey from D2C to B2B
i-XTECH, which launched in 2015, sells headphones, microphones and related accessories ideal for a home office, podcasting studio or live streaming setup (in fact, I now use their RGB Gaming microphone for my video interviews, and can vouch for the quality of their products!) Originally they marketed their products on various ecommerce platforms like Amazon. They experienced a boom in sales during the pandemic as many people started working from home, and others used their extra time at home to become online creators.
Last year, however, with the pandemic in the rearview mirror, demand for its products on Amazon and other e-commerce partners dropped significantly. “There was a lot of competition on those platforms, and everyone was fighting for that bottom-dollar,” says Adiguzel. “And since we were priced more on the premium side because of our higher quality, we got beat out a lot. So I was tasked with finding new opportunities, new platforms to work with.”
That’s when Adiguzel started with the cold calls and emails. And while most of the retailers didn’t respond, one actually did, referring him to RangeMe as the means of submitting a product. He saw some potential on the platform, and created a free RangeMe profile and loaded up his brand profile page with three products, content, and some sharp product images.
Within a month, an SVP at social shopping app Flip messaged Adziguel via RangeMe to set up a call. As it turns out, they were looking to expand their consumer electronics offerings and saw i-XTECH as a great fit. The call led to i-XTECH being one of the first consumer electronics sellers on the platform, and the brand’s sales on Flip immediately began outperforming its sales on the 3rd party marketplaces.
An upgrade to Premium adds gas to the fire
Following the successful meeting with Flip, Adziguel immediately upgraded to RangeMe Premium, where he expanded the number of products on his profile, and – with the close guidance of the Customer Success team optimized his content and got RangeMe Verified.
“I remember spending a few hours every day uploading products, cropping the photos, and writing detailed descriptions,” says Adziguel. “I also started applying to RangeMe’s Immediate Opportunities as well as directly to retailers.”
One of the Immediate Opportunities was an overstock campaign by Mercatalyst, an online platform that provides curated, exclusive deals on leading brand products across all major consumer product categories. It reaches millions of customers through its partnerships with digital media and famous TV personalities and shows using its family of websites including: morningsave.com, meh.com, sidedeal.com and mediocritee.com.
Adiguzel applied in November, received a response in December and shipped their products out in January of this year. Based on the success of the first deal, he expects another to come soon. “We shipped them some of our chargers and other accessories, and they sold a few thousand pieces,” he says. “They are very happy, and of course we are very happy as well.”
And just as we were doing the interview, i-XTECH received an approval on an Immediate Opportunity from Shein, another online marketplace that offers deals across various categories, including consumer electronics. They are currently in discussions and i-XTECH expects to have something finalized shortly.
John’s RangeMe Recommendations
With two retail wins in quick succession, I wanted to see what Adiguzel attributed to his success on RangeMe. He broke it down into two key areas: “Spending time on the platform is definitely number one,” he says. “The more time you spend on the platform enhancing your content and product images, as well as submitting to retailers, the more success you are going to have.”
He also recommends following the guidelines provided by RangeMe for building your profile page, and – for Premium and Pro subscribers – reaching out to their account managers with any specific questions they might have.
What’s next for i-XTECH?
Moving forward, Adiguzel plans to continue building on his existing relationships with Flip and Mercatalyst and expanding the range of products for them to offer their shoppers, as well as supporting sales via paid ads when he can. “We’ve just crossed 120,000 impressions on our video on Flip, and sales of our products there have crossed into the five-figure mark,” he says. “We’ll invest in more paid ads to accelerate it. Plus we’d like to maintain the relationship we’ve built with Mercatalyst and explore whether some more of our overstock products might be a fit for their audience.”
In addition to expanding on its new relationships with Flip and Mercatus (and hopefully soon, Shein), Adiguzel will seek to get more retailers in the pipeline from constant participation in RangeMe’s Immediate Opportunity campaigns. Last year, RangeMe hosted 486 campaigns in 2024, drawing over 54,800 submissions and 10,601 approvals from retailers. To date, we’ve already hosted more than 100, so at that pace, and with i-XTECH’s persistence in submitting its products, it’s safe to say that there will be more deals coming in the near future.
And hopefully, I’ll get a chance to meet Adiguzel in person if they decide to participate in ECRM’s Consumer Tech Session this August!
Editor’s note: To read about more RangeMe customer successes click here.