ECRM hosts record number of participants at Global Market: Fall Experience
ECRM hosted a record number of participants at its 2021 Global Market: Fall Experience, which was held in October.
The organization shared that more than 3,700 buyers and sellers from 68 countries attended the virtual event, which focused on product discovery, face-to-face meetings and thought leadership.
“ECRM’s 2021 Global Market platform continues to grow in reach and scope,” Greg Farrar, CEO of ECRM said. “The Fall Experience spanned categories and geographical borders, and has been embraced by retail, foodservice and CPG buyers and sellers around the world.”
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Combined with RangeMe’s digital product discovery platform and ECRM Connect, the virtual meetings gave brands the opportunity to showcase their products to relevant buys from retailers and foodservice operators of various sizes and locations, the company said.
“My team and I have been using RangeMe and ECRM for years to find new, innovative and emerging brands,” Emma Padden, supplier development manager at Community Marketplace, UNFI said. “Being able to choose which suppliers you want to meet with really allowed us to customize our approach and gain the contacts we were looking for. With our new Community Marketplace by UNFI, we are expanding our category offerings and were able to meet with suppliers that may not have approached UNFI in the past. The ECRM Connect platform is very user friendly and intuitive, making the whole process seamless. We look forward to the next Global Market.”
In addition, the event included a presentation from “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary and keynotes from Ahold-Delhaize USA, CVS, Petco, Sam’s Club, Walgreens, Walmart and WSL Strategic Retail’s Wendy Liebmann.
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Categories covered during the event included food, beverage, foodservice, baby, household, housewares, pet, school, office, toy, seasonal, camping, beauty, health care and personal care.
“ECRM’s Global Market was quite the experience for us,” Todd Kite, vice president of sales for Zot Organic said. “We ended up with six buyer meetings, and of those six we have deals already with two smaller retailers and are in discussions with a larger chain. In addition, I learned more from Kevin O’Leary’s hour-long presentation at Global Market than I’ve learned in the past 20 years."
ECRM will host Global Market programming in 2022 with spring, summer and fall experiences scheduled.