Why grocery is swiping right for Nicky Jackson’s app sensation RangeMe

Nicky Jackson may not like the comparison but the similarities are uncanny. Set up a profile, put in some attractive photos, add your essential details, and search for the perfect match. What Tinder did for dating, RangeMe is doing for grocery. 

This desire to make things more efficient prompted Jackson to found the company in 2014. She saw for herself the flaws in the process when launching her own children’s organic skincare range, designed to help treat eczema. Despite experience in launching products with Kellogg’s, Britvic, and RHM (now Premier Foods), Jackson found it impossible to distribute her product.

“At that time, the supermarkets were very different. It was a lot of big multinational brands. The keto, paleo, organic brands were just starting to surge on to the market, and there was so much innovation starting to build that retailers couldn’t keep up.”

Jackson switched her focus to RangeMe but quickly realised her home market of Australia “was way too small to make a proper business of it”. When on a business trip to San Francisco in 2015, she recognised the US could offer the necessary scope. She moved to California three weeks later and set up with just 15 employees. Now, the team numbers 120.

“Buyers are some the most time-poor people you can think of. Going to trade shows or relying on brokers is really inefficient.”

RangeMe does have competition. In fact, its success has often made it a target for copycats, Jackson says. “We had one instance in the US with a competitor called Hubba. We always thought we had a spy in our team because we would launch something and then days later they’d announce it,” she chuckles. “Anyway they’ve since gone out of business. There really is only space for one.”

That said, there are others – see Product Guru, which launched in the UK in 2018. But the depth of partnership is what sets RangeMe apart, Jackson argues. The pivotal role for retailers comes during category reviews, she says, when they “do away with the tail that is underperforming.”

At that point, RangeMe helps open the door to new suppliers from all over the world that retailers may otherwise never have found. “If you go to the websites for Tesco, Co-op, Asda, Iceland, and navigate to become a new supplier, they will funnel every single new supplier through RangeMe.”

Today, RangeMe has over 200,000 suppliers registered on its platform, primarily focused on food, drink, and beauty. Four thousand of these are British companies that have signed up since last June. Each one is asked for a comprehensive raft of information when they join, from current listings to potential exclusivity, nutritional content to sourcing detail.

Retailers can also add custom questions to help filter according to their needs. RangeMe reviews every profile before it goes live to make sure it’s well presented and easy to read, says Jackson. “It’s all about a great experience for the buyers.”

Power balance

This seeming focus on catering to buyers has led some suppliers to fear RangeMe is tilting the balance of power even more in favour of retailers – who are, after all, the ones paying for the product. Many smaller companies see their passion for their products as a major selling point. That asset could arguably be silenced if they’re competing with thousands of other products from around the world on a digital platform.

Jackson disagrees, insisting RangeMe is helping level the playing field by giving suppliers access based purely on their objective credentials. “Without RangeMe they’re spamming the buyer, sending PowerPoint attachments in all different formats,” she says. “Now the RangeMe profile lays it out in a beautiful way – it almost looks like a Facebook page. So it brings it to life better than in just a plain PowerPoint.”

While this process is inevitably suited best to smaller brands who may otherwise struggle to get a meeting at a major retailer, Jackson still sees RangeMe as a useful tool for the likes of Unilever of Nestlé. “They use it when they’re trying to cross categories so they may be strong in healthcare but want to get into grocery,” she says.

That RangeMe has already embedded itself within some of the UK’s biggest retailers suggests its influence is only likely to grow. The question will be what kind of effect it has in the long term. In the US, RangeMe has expanded to become not only a hook-up for buyers and suppliers, but a hub for the entire industry, partnering with trade organisations like Fairtrade or USDA Organic, or connecting businesses with services like patent lawyers, compliance officers, of co-packers.

If Jackson has her way, the same will soon be coming to the UK. “It’s not just trying to flog products,” she says. “It really is about helping the underdog and getting these brands the access they need.”