From Factory to Shelf: How Manufacturers Can Enter the US Market With the Right Product, Pricing, and Retail Strategy 

Why do so many manufacturers with strong products still fail in the US market?

Usually, it is not the product. It is the market fit. The assortment is wrong for regional demand. The pricing does not land. Ecommerce is underbuilt. And the brand expects retailers to do the heavy lifting. Tom’s main point is clear: success in the US comes from understanding how the market works, then building the right local relationships and channel strategy around it.

In Episode 5  of Growth Files, Sathish speaks with Tom, a veteran retail executive and advisor, about what manufacturers get wrong when entering the US, what retailers actually want, and why ecommerce, local execution, and patience matter more than most brands expect.

Episode TL;DR

Tom’s Journey: From Black Monday Refugee to Four-Decade Retail Veteran

Sathish: You had an incredible journey, from buyer to leading merchandising at Saks Fifth Avenue. What actually drew you into the retail sector?

Tom’s answer isn’t the calling story people expect. It was a consolation prize.

Tom: “When I graduated, there was a time period called Black Monday. The stock market went down 30 percent or more, and all of the bankers put big black X’s on their recruiting charts and said, ‘Sorry, we’re not hiring anymore.'”

A college lacrosse teammate was recruiting for the Lord & Taylor executive training program and reframed retail for him.

Tom: “He said, ‘It’s not just all about fashion. There are a lot of numbers in it as well.’ So I went, I interviewed, and I got the job.”

Sathish: After four decades, when did you actually feel like you understood how retail works? Is it after five years, ten years?

Tom: “I’m really not kidding when I say it’s a journey that I’m still on. That’s actually what makes it exciting.”

The frame Tom keeps returning to: retail is part math, part taste, part relationships. Getting one right doesn’t save you if you miss the others.

Tom: “I live in a neighborhood where most of my neighbors are bankers. I always joke and say I’m the pauper of the neighborhood, but I have the best stories.”

Product-Market Fit in the US Starts With Seasonality, Sizing, and Local Context

Sathish: Suppose I’m a manufacturer outside the US and I want to get in. What are the big misconceptions I’d be carrying?

Tom’s answer starts with scale, and how scale deceives foreign brands.

Tom: “The size of our market and the buying power of our consumer is intoxicating. But before you get here, you really got to do your homework. We really are like five marketplaces in one: the Northeast, the Southeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West Coast.”

Three variables shape every assortment decision.

1) Seasonality Northern winters demand heavy outerwear. But Florida now has more residents than New York, and those customers want lightweight product in Q3 and Q4, exactly when Northern-climate brands are pushing coats.

Tom: “With love in my heart, we do business with so many Italian brands. They really struggle with understanding the US marketplace from a seasonality perspective, because at home they’ll wear coats up until the end of May. For a guy down in the south, he wants to get a lightweight knit shirt on as quickly as possible.”

2) Sizing The US is the most physically diverse customer base in the world. Tall Northern European heritage in the Midwest. Smaller average sizes in the South. Designers must maintain design integrity across the entire size scale.

Tom: “You want it to look the same on a little guy as it looks on a big guy. To understand the grading in the paper and the design is really super important.”

3) Local customs Each region has selling nuances that take years to learn. This is where Tom’s most-repeated advice lands.

Tom: “Brands coming here need what I call boots on the ground. They probably need a trusted local person to take them through the nuances of the US marketplace.”

Roughly 30 to 35% of a typical overseas assortment needs rework to perform stateside. That isn’t a translation problem. It’s a product problem.

America’s Retail Segments: From Dollar Stores to Bergdorf

Sathish: Beyond product quality, what do US retailers actually look for?

Before you pick a retailer, know which retail America you’re selling into. Tom walks through the full landscape, bottom to top.

Segment	Key Players	What It Takes
Dollar stores	Dollar Tree, Family Dollar	Extreme price discipline, volume
Emerging off-price (sub-$5)	Dd’s Discounts, Five Below	Design at entry prices
Discount	TJ Maxx, Ross, Burlington	Branded closeouts, treasure-hunt assortments
Price clubs	Costco, Sam’s, BJ’s	Massive volume; Kirkland alone rivals a full luxury group
Specialty value	Abercrombie, Gap, Old Navy, American Eagle	Targeted demographics, vertical control
Opening-price department	JCPenney, Kohl’s, Target, Walmart	Middle-America family reach
Mid-tier department	Macy’s, Von Maur, Dillard’s, Nordstrom	Curated brand halls
Luxury	Saks, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf, top Nordstrom	Service, experience, story
Independent specialty	Owner-operated boutiques	Proprietor advocacy, high-touch selling

Tom: “So many different segments to contemplate when you come here, and I don’t think you can play in all of them. It’s important for a brand to think about who the target audience is, understand the resources needed to trade in each segment, and be focused.”

Trying to live in dollar stores and luxury at the same time doesn’t read as ambition. It reads as confusion.

What US Retailers Actually Look For (Beyond Quality)

Sathish: How does a US retailer pick a manufacturer? What goes through a buyer’s head?

Tom: “It’s really hard to enter the marketplace because every day they have so many people knocking at their door. You need to be persistent, you need to have stick-to-itness, and more than anything, you need to be patient.”

Three non-negotiables across every segment:

1) Value, not price

Tom: “Whether it’s at the dollar store or super luxury Bergdorf Goodman, at the end of the day there’s one common denominator. It’s value. Customers will spend a little bit more if they can understand what went into that product. The customer is smarter than we give them credit for.”

2) Brand identity integrity

Tom: “Not that you’re selling the top-end luxury guy, and at the same time you’re sticking it into the off-pricers. They’ll look at you and be like, ‘What’s going on here? This doesn’t make any sense.'”

3) Customer service and “hang around the hoop.”

Tom: “Being able to take the negative news that we’re not going forward. To come two months down the road and say thank you so much for your time during the last marketplace, I’d love for you to see the new offering. You have to have stick-to-itness. You need to be polite, appropriate, and patient.”

The 3-Season Rule: Why Breaking In Takes 18 Months

Sathish: How long does it actually take to enter the US marketplace?

Tom: “It’s going to take three seasons or 18 months to really enter the marketplace. You could spend the first year just knocking on doors, having appointments, trying to make friends. Hopefully by that third season, you’ll start to see some orders and some payoff for all your hard work.”

And the rule runs both directions. Tom argues retailers owe the same patience to new brands.

Sathish: How many seasons should a retailer give a brand before walking away?

Tom: “It’s three. All the way around. If you believed enough as a retailer to buy a collection, you can’t have it one season and be gone.”

The Isaia Story: How One Brand Grew From $150K to $25M

Sathish: Is there any brand you’ve worked with that got it right?

Tom: “A men’s tailored clothing brand called Isaia. I started with them in 1995. We started with about $150,000 worth of business, and by the time I was done with that group in 2018, we had grown the business to about $25 million.”

Sathish: What did they do right?

Tom: “They really understood the marketplace. Fits, finishes, fabrics. They worked with the top sellers in the stores so that the top sellers really became partners in the whole process. They would call their top clients. They would show the product in such a way that it was really a success.”

When Isaia hit cash flow issues, Saks prepaid orders. When the store needed help, Isaia flexed back.

Tom: “It was about true partnerships through the years and trusting your partner. Really growing up with your partner.”

That’s Tom’s template for what a real wholesale partnership looks like. Not a vendor contract. A two-way commitment that survives bad seasons, disruptions, and cash flow crises.

The Collection That Bombed (And What It Taught)

Sathish: Any brand or project that failed miserably, and what caused it?

Tom: “We had a project to have a brand and a line that was going to be inspired by the younger people in the office. We actually put this collection together by committee. The group picked the actual items, the fits, everything.”

The talent on the project was top-tier, including the now-president of Brunello Cucinelli USA.

Tom: “We put that collection in and it was a bomb. The sell-throughs were the worst sell-throughs I saw in my career.”

Sathish: Do you know why it failed?

Tom: “To this day, I’m really not sure whether it was recognition or what we were doing. But the important learning was not to give up on trying. You win some, you lose some.”

Ironically, the failed project deepened the relationship with the Cucinelli team, a partnership that paid off for decades afterward on unrelated business. Even losses compound into trust if you handle them right.

Real Retail Relationships: Three Layers, Not One

Sathish: Everyone talks about retail relationships. From your perspective, what does a real one actually look like?

Tom’s definition has three layers.

1) Supplier and retailer partnerships that survive crises

Tom: “One of my key trading partners at the time of 9/11 called me the first day we were back in the office and said, ‘Tell me what I need to do. Tell me how much goods I need to cancel.’ I didn’t even ask him.”

2) Vendor cover at the highest stakes

As a young buyer at Lord & Taylor, Tom had orders out in a gray area. When the CFO pulled vendors in like a congressional committee to hunt for open-to-buy problems, Ronnie Wurzburger of Peerless looked the CFO in the eye and said Tom had no uncommitted goods, protecting him at personal risk.

Tom: “30-something years ago, I still recall the story. Those relationships are invaluable.”

3) Cross-silo internal relationships

Tom stayed famously close to the stores organization. When a Florida store manager called for linen in a heatwave, Tom hustled to find it. The store sold through it, because Tom had stuck his neck out.

Tom: “I could tell you countless stories of doing seemingly foolish things for them, and them doing seemingly foolish things for me, in order to drive the business. First, believe in the relationship.”

How a Supplier Becomes a Trusted Partner

Sathish: When does a manufacturer go from being just another supplier to a trusted partner? Does it take time, or does it happen through the relationship with the merchandiser?

Tom: “It’s a lot like dating. You meet, you develop trust, you think about the next journey. These things take time. And an old boss used to tell me: you can’t kiss all the girls. If you’re a brand, you need to pick and choose your partners. Not that you can’t have multiple relationships. You need to treat them differently and respectfully.”

The modern failure mode Tom calls out:

Tom: “People lead right away with confrontation. ‘I’m going to sue you.’ A lost art form is coming in positive: ‘Hey, I could really use your help here,’ or ‘I could help you here.’ Looking at relationships from a positive perspective rather than the negative tear-down.”

Tariffs, Logistics, and the New Supply Chain Reality

Sathish: How impactful is this tariff environment for manufacturers outside the US? Is it going to be tough for them?

Tom: “Yes, a complete disaster. I wish I could tell you it’s anything easier.”

His countermove is diversification. He references a major moderate brand now manufacturing across China, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia.

Tom: “By diversifying your factory base or your partnerships, if tomorrow somebody wakes up and puts a tariff on any one of these five countries, you can move stuff around.”

Sathish: How critical is reliability on inventory, delivery, and communication today?

Tom: “Super critical. Big pain point today. Supply chain, understanding duties, prices. What a disaster. Honesty is the best policy. Be a good communicator and be out ahead of it. If there are time periods where you need to do the right thing and take a loss for the long-haul relationship, that’s something you got to do.”

His operational recommendation is direct:

Tom: “You really need to have a top logistics and supply chain person that works at your company today if you want to do business with the states.”

Smart Pricing: Why $10.37 Kills a Launch That $9.95 Would Win

Sathish: On the pricing side, what mistakes do manufacturers generally make when negotiating with US retailers?

Pricing is where most international brands sabotage themselves without realizing it. Tom calls it “smart pricing,” localizing price points, not just converting them.

Tom: “Some people do a straight-line retail price point stateside. That might include tariffs, duties, transportation, and it could come out to $10.37. They’ll put $10.37 on the price tag because that’s the markup they usually use. Clearly it needs to be $9.95. That’s worth everything.”

Two pricing principles for US retail:

1) Competitive relevance. If 50 brands sell a category at $9.95, your reason for being at $9.95 has to be answerable in one sentence.

Tom: “If you really can’t answer that question, you probably shouldn’t come.”

2) Segment-appropriate price endings. $.95 endings for volume categories. Clean numbers for luxury ($995 vs $1,035).

Sathish: Can a small manufacturer actually negotiate with larger US retailers?

Tom: “Hustle, determination, and grit. Is it easy? No. But can a little guy come here and win? Yeah. Isaia was a small little business.”

The reason a retailer should care about emerging brands:

Tom: “There’s no reason for a customer to come in your store to buy the same product they could buy in another store. Find something new, different, special. When the customer turns the price tag over and says, ‘Wow, that’s actually a good price.’ That’s what you get excited about as a merchant.”

DTC First, Then Wholesale: Tom’s Preferred Launch Sequence

Sathish: Should manufacturers start by selling D2C online first, or go straight to retailers? A lot of retailers don’t want brands selling direct to customers.

For premium to opening-luxury brands, Tom’s recommended sequence is clear.

Tom: “Open up your own stores here first. A physical store coupled with your e-com business. The reason is to have a footprint, to demonstrate to the marketplace what the product is all about, to learn and listen, and then to think about retail distribution.”

The new gatekeeping question from buyers:

Tom: “Almost the first question out of a buyer’s mouth will be: ‘Where’s your Instagram site? What influencers are you working with?'”

Sathish: If a manufacturer is getting initial traction, how do they create explosive growth from there?

Tom: “Once you’re determined to be a player here, it’s grit and determination through eventing, partnerships, social influencers. All need to be part of the game. Then it’s tireless work with retailers to get launched.”

His playbook for scaling: a bifurcated wholesale strategy.

• Specialty stores. The proprietor is on the selling floor and becomes a brand advocate.
• Majors. Volume plus an exclusivity narrative.

Tom: “You have to work as hard with a specialty store about their single store’s purchases as you do with a major department store that’s buying for 30 or 40 stores.”

Sathish: How can manufacturers help retailers actually sell more product?

Tom’s separator between good suppliers and great ones: they don’t hand off product and walk away.

Tom: “Pick a dozen Walmart stores that are big volume producers and do some kind of eventing in that store. A giveaway, product knowledge conversations, enhanced assortments. During Coachella weekend, the local Walmart and Target were insane with people coming in. What a great opportunity to get in front of them to talk about features and benefits, and also to show the Walmart executives what could happen with the product in their stores.”

Tom: “You need to own it all the way through the end consumer. It shows that you care about the brand, you care about the customer experience.”

The principle underneath: own the sale all the way to the end consumer.

AI, Social Selling, and the Next Frontier

Sathish: AI is changing how buyers discover product. How is this going to affect retail as a whole, and the retailer and manufacturer relationship?

Tom splits the answer by segment.

Commoditized retail. AI compresses buyer workflows. Some relationship dependencies fade.

Tom: “What may have taken weeks to do can be done in hours. That relationship part of it probably will go away, sadly.”

Luxury. AI informs decisions but won’t replace the intuition that defines the category.

Tom: “In luxury, the art part trumps anything conventional. But AI will help the luxury sector base decisions on analytics they maybe never saw before.”

Sathish: Do you think companies are overinvesting in AI right now, or should they wait and watch?

Tom: “For companies that have a budget for it, treat it like R&D. Have realistic expectations. It’s not press a button and the product sells itself. Prioritize where AI helps the quickest. A slow, gentle rollout is the way to proceed.”

Sathish: Anything on the AI side that feels more like hype than reality?

Tom: “I’ve not heard anything that doesn’t live up to the hype. I’m really excited about AI in social selling. That’s the next frontier.”

The area Tom is most excited about: AI avatars in social selling.

Tom: “If you’re on Whatnot and Johnny Smith is in a garage doing a terrible job presenting a $5,000 sport coat, now imagine Maria Grazia on the Arno River in Florence showing you the product, or John Smith on Madison Avenue in Manhattan talking about features and benefits. That’s there. That’s a huge capability from AI to professionalize social selling.”

Tom: “Will AI be as big as e-commerce? I believe even more so.”

Tom’s Three Non-Negotiables Before Entering the US

Sathish: If you had three pieces of advice for a manufacturer entering the US, what would they be?

Tom: 

“Number one: prep work. Do as much advanced work as possible on understanding the marketplace, your reason for being, and why you want to come to the States. 

Number two: embrace e-commerce, marketplace, and dropship. It has to be a priority. 

Number three: get that boots-on-the-ground person you trust implicitly to guide and navigate your business stateside. Those would be the three rules of engagement.”

What Manufacturers Must Do Now (Checklist)

If you only do one thing this quarter, commit to the first three. That’s how you convert US interest into paid shelf space.

• Audit your assortment for US regional fit (climate, sizing, taste)
• Localize your pricing architecture before your first buyer meeting
• Hire or contract a “boots on the ground” US operator you trust implicitly
• Build a DTC footprint (physical plus e-com) before chasing wholesale
• Diversify your factory base across at least 2 to 3 countries
• Commit to a 3-season minimum investment horizon before measuring success
• Define a bifurcated distribution strategy across specialty and majors
• Activate social selling and influencer plans before wholesale pitches

Ready to Build a US Retail Strategy That Actually Scales?

At CommerceShop, we help international manufacturers translate US market opportunity into sell-through by aligning:

• Market-entry strategy with real retailer economics and pricing segments
• DTC, marketplace, and wholesale channel architecture built to scale
• B2B digital and commerce experiences that match how US buyers evaluate in an AI-first world

Talk to a Growth Expert

Keep the Conversation Going

This is Episode 4 of Growth Files by CommerceShop, inside stories and strategies from manufacturing and B2B leaders navigating the shift to AI.

Also Watch ←

• Episode 1: AEO & GEO in B2B Manufacturing
• Episode 2: Building Tomorrow’s Manufacturing Workforce