National Importer and Distributor Expands ReposiTrak Partnership With Touchless Retail™ Merchandising
ReposiTrak, a provider of retail supply chain, merchandising, compliance and traceability solutions, has announced that a large national importer and distributor of seasonal general merchandise, apparel and accessories is expanding its use of the company’s technology and services to include Touchless Retail™. The solution will provide in-store merchandising and product pack-out services across several major retail chains in the northeastern United States.
The expansion strengthens the supplier’s existing relationship with ReposiTrak by adding physical merchandising execution to its established supply chain technology and data management services. The distributor’s product portfolio includes seasonal merchandise such as hats, scarves and gloves, which typically experiences concentrated demand during specific periods of the year.
For suppliers of seasonal products, ensuring merchandise reaches the selling floor at the right time is critical. Products that remain in store backrooms rather than being unpacked and displayed can miss important sales opportunities, particularly when customer demand is closely tied to weather conditions, holidays or other seasonal trends.
Through Touchless Retail, the distributor aims to improve the speed and consistency of in-store product placement, helping ensure merchandise is unpacked, properly displayed and available to shoppers during important selling periods.
Touchless Retail Targets Cost-Effective In-Store Execution
Touchless Retail is designed to help suppliers improve merchandising performance through a fixed-cost service model supported by a specialized team of experienced merchandising professionals. According to ReposiTrak, the solution is typically approximately 50% less expensive than traditional hourly merchandising services.
The program also emphasizes execution quality and reliability. Only top-performing merchandising professionals qualify to participate, and the company reports that Touchless Retail achieves greater than 99% on-time performance and a revisit rate of less than 0.5%.
These performance measures are intended to address common challenges associated with traditional merchandising programs, including unpredictable labor expenses, inconsistent store execution and the need for additional visits to correct incomplete work.
Under a conventional hourly model, merchandising costs can vary according to the time required to complete store assignments. A fixed-cost approach provides suppliers with a more predictable expense structure while emphasizing the completion of defined merchandising tasks.
For seasonal merchandise distributors, this model can be particularly relevant because product availability and display timing directly affect the opportunity to generate sales. When demand is concentrated within a limited period, delays in unpacking or displaying products can reduce the time merchandise remains available to customers.
Touchless Retail is intended to help suppliers address these challenges by combining dependable execution with a cost structure designed to improve merchandising efficiency.
ReposiTrak Leadership Highlights Seasonal Merchandising Challenges
Randy Fields, chairman and chief executive officer of ReposiTrak, emphasized the importance of getting seasonal merchandise onto retail shelves before the selling window closes.
“Seasonal merchandise has a very short window of opportunity. If products are sitting in the backroom instead of on the selling floor, those sales opportunities can disappear quickly,” Fields said.
He explained that Touchless Retail addresses this challenge by providing experienced merchandising professionals at approximately half the cost of traditional merchandising services.
Fields highlighted the combination of execution quality and improved economics as a central feature of the solution. For suppliers operating across multiple retail locations, this approach is intended to help ensure that products are displayed when customers are most likely to purchase them.
Seasonal categories often require retailers and suppliers to coordinate inventory delivery, unpacking, display preparation and replenishment within a compressed schedule. A product may be physically present in a store but still unavailable to shoppers if it has not been moved from the backroom to the selling floor.
By adding merchandising services to its existing supply chain solutions, ReposiTrak is seeking to address this gap between inventory availability and actual shelf presentation.
SPAR Group Supports the Fixed-Cost Merchandising Model
William Linnane, chief executive officer of SPAR Group, also highlighted the potential benefits of the Touchless Retail approach.
“Touchless Retail is changing the economics of in-store merchandising,” Linnane said.
He explained that the combination of experienced merchandising professionals and a fixed-cost model, which is approximately half the cost of traditional merchandising, offers suppliers a more efficient way to get products onto retail shelves.
Linnane identified seasonal merchandise as a strong example of where consistent execution can make a meaningful difference. When a product has a limited selling period, getting the right items displayed at the right time is particularly important.
The comments underscore the role of store-level merchandising in the broader retail supply chain. Efficient distribution alone does not guarantee that products will be visible or accessible to customers. Retailers and suppliers must also ensure that merchandise is unpacked, organized and displayed according to the needs of each store.
Touchless Retail is intended to provide a structured service that supports these activities while helping suppliers manage costs and maintain consistent execution across multiple retail locations.
Existing ReposiTrak Solutions Provide Inventory and Compliance Visibility
Before adopting Touchless Retail, the national importer and distributor was already using two additional ReposiTrak solutions: ReposiTrak SBT 2.0 and ReposiTrak Compliance & Risk Management.
ReposiTrak SBT 2.0 provides store-level sales and inventory visibility. The solution helps suppliers understand product movement and stock availability, supporting replenishment decisions and efforts to reduce out-of-stock situations.
Access to store-level information can help suppliers identify where inventory is moving quickly, where additional products may be needed and where stock levels may require attention. This visibility can support more informed decisions about product distribution and replenishment.
The supplier also uses ReposiTrak Compliance & Risk Management, which automates supplier compliance documentation, monitoring and verification. These capabilities are designed to reduce administrative work and help companies manage compliance-related risks.
Supplier compliance processes can involve collecting and maintaining documentation, monitoring requirements and verifying that relevant information is available when needed. Automating these activities can help organizations streamline workflows and improve the management of supplier information.
Together, the two existing solutions support the distributor’s data management, inventory visibility and compliance activities.
The addition of Touchless Retail expands this relationship beyond digital tools and information management to include physical execution at the store level.
Connecting Supply Chain Data With Store-Level Merchandising
The expansion demonstrates how technology and field services can complement each other within retail supply chains.
Inventory and sales data can help suppliers understand product availability and demand patterns, while compliance tools support the management of required documentation and verification processes. However, these capabilities must often be supported by effective in-store execution to ensure merchandise is presented to shoppers.
Fields described the expansion as an example of how ReposiTrak’s integrated platform can create additional value for existing customers.
The company’s technology already helps the distributor manage inventory information, sales data and compliance requirements. With Touchless Retail, ReposiTrak is extending that support to the physical process of moving products from backrooms to retail shelves.
Fields emphasized that the additional service combines experienced merchandising professionals with a significantly lower cost structure.
For the distributor, the expanded arrangement brings together several functions that contribute to retail product availability. Store-level data can support inventory decisions, compliance management can streamline administrative processes, and merchandising services can help ensure products are properly displayed.
This integrated approach may be particularly useful for suppliers managing large product portfolios across multiple retail chains, where coordination between inventory management and store execution is essential.
Expanding Beyond Grocery and Traditional Distribution Categories
The agreement also illustrates the potential application of Touchless Retail beyond traditional grocery and direct store delivery categories.
Seasonal general merchandise, apparel and accessories present distinct merchandising requirements. Products such as hats, scarves and gloves may need to be introduced, displayed and replenished within a specific selling window, making timely store execution especially important.
The solution offers suppliers a service model for managing product pack-out, shelf replenishment and seasonal displays without relying exclusively on traditional hourly merchandising arrangements.
A fixed-cost structure can help make expenses more predictable, while the program’s reported on-time performance and low revisit rate emphasize execution consistency.
For distributors supplying several large retail chains, maintaining consistent presentation across locations can be challenging. Differences in store layouts, inventory arrival times and local operating conditions can affect how quickly merchandise reaches the selling floor.
A dedicated merchandising service can help suppliers address these operational demands and reduce the risk of products remaining unavailable to shoppers despite being present in the store.
The latest expansion therefore demonstrates the applicability of ReposiTrak’s merchandising offering to a broader range of retail product categories.
Supporting Seasonal Sales and Retail Supply Chain Efficiency
The national distributor’s decision to expand its ReposiTrak relationship reflects the importance of connecting supply chain visibility with reliable in-store execution.
By adding Touchless Retail to its existing inventory visibility and compliance solutions, the supplier is extending its use of ReposiTrak from data and administrative support into physical merchandising operations across several major northeastern retailers.
The service is intended to help ensure seasonal products are unpacked and displayed on time, while its fixed-cost model aims to reduce merchandising expenses compared with traditional hourly arrangements.
For products with limited selling periods, improved execution can help suppliers make merchandise available to customers when demand is strongest. Combined with inventory information and compliance management, the approach provides a broader set of tools for supporting retail supply chain performance.
As retailers and suppliers continue to seek more efficient ways to manage labor, product availability and store operations, integrated solutions that combine technology with physical execution can play an important role.
Through Touchless Retail and its existing supply chain offerings, ReposiTrak is expanding the services available to its customers, helping connect product data, compliance processes and in-store merchandising within a more coordinated retail supply chain strategy.
