RangeMe, the ECRM-owned online platform for retail product discovery, launched RangeMe Verified brands, a premium service that allows retail buyers to more easily identify those products and companies that are business-ready, and provides product suppliers increased visibility on RangeMe’s platform.

"In order to keep up with consumer demand and stay competitive in our industry's fastest moving and most innovative category, we need the ability to onboard on-trend brands quickly and efficiently," says Sarah Groves, Buyer for Natural and Organic Foods at Southeastern Grocers. "RangeMe Verified brands help streamline our category review process by making it easy to identify high-quality manufacturers that are ready to do business now."

For suppliers, getting the RangeMe Verified certification increases their visibility to buyers by up to seven times over non-verified suppliers, according to the company. Verified brands and products appear on buyers’ dashboards above non-verified brands, feature an eye-catching badge to stand out to buyers, and will show up in advanced searches where buyers can request to see only verified brands.

“Being a RangeMe Verified brand has absolutely changed how retail buyers view and discover my products,” says Kenney Joyal, Founder of Snowflakes Candy. “In a short time, I have been able to leverage the opportunities created on RangeMe to launch with three retailers, including Hy-Vee.”

RangeMe collaborated with retailers to determine the necessary criteria suppliers needed to meet to give buyers confidence they are sourcing the best products that are ready for market. These criteria include high-quality images, insurance, barcodes, and nutritional labels, and are verified by the RangeMe team.

“Getting a product on store shelves can be a challenging task for both the buyer and the supplier, but it doesn’t have to be,” says Nicky Jackson, founder and CEO of RangeMe. “By launching RangeMe Verified brands we are defining a new industry measure for product sourcing as well as creating increased opportunities for both suppliers and buyers.”

Since its US launch in 2015, RangeMe has had more than 95,000 brands join their platform, and has established retail partnerships with dozens of large retail chains such as Whole Foods Market, Target, Albertsons, Rite Aid and Sephora.

“RangeMe is the future for not only our product sourcing efforts, but for the industry as a whole," says Southeastern Grocers’ Groves. "Now, by identifying and highlighting business-ready brands, RangeMe has taken the next step in creating the standard in which buyers discover amazing brands.”