Riverbend Consulting Launches Project Retail to Help Bring Winning Online Brands into Retail Stores

Riverbend Consulting announced that it has partnered with Irving Safdieh, CEO of Fashion Industries, to launch Project Retail, a division that helps winning brands that were born and developed in ecommerce marketplaces transition to the brick-and-mortar retail environment.

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“That’s certainly true in brick-and-mortar retail, and at Project Retail, we have established, quality connections in the industry and can help online brands get a foot in the door.”

Project Retail includes experts in both online and in-store retailing, and provides multiple services for brands including market research, product/line development, relationship building, merchandising and ongoing product management, while also helping retailers determine what online brands and products to consider for their stores.

Safdieh says brand owners want their products in brick-and-mortar stores, but every product that a retail store agrees to sell is a point of risk. The buyer doesn’t know whether the product will succeed or fail.

“We take successful products from Amazon that we believe can win at retail and help the brand owner re-package, negotiate deals and handle all the details,” said Safdieh. “We also minimize risk for retailers by bringing them high-value products backed by online sales data and reviews that indicate the items will likely perform well in their stores.”

Joe Zalta, a partner at Project Retail and co-founder of Riverbend, says that while many online brands may have proven success, many still lack connections in the traditional retail world.

“The saying goes that it’s not always what you know, but who you know,” said Zalta. “That’s certainly true in brick-and-mortar retail, and at Project Retail, we have established, quality connections in the industry and can help online brands get a foot in the door.”

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Lesley Hensell, also a partner and co-founder of Riverbend, adds that, on the flipside, Project Retail helps retailers address their wariness of online brands through data and expertise.

“From the retailer’s perspective, our goal is to mitigate and reduce risk,” Hensell said. “With our combined experience in online and in-store marketplaces, Project Retail is in a unique position to provide retailers with advice, insight and analysis on how a product could perform in their stores and on their websites.”