How to get a product into Coles or Woolworths: the process, step by step

Before you start: what both retailers require

Each supermarket publishes a minimum requirements list for prospective suppliers. They are almost the same list, which tells you what matters.

The GTIN line is the one that catches first-time brands. A GTIN takes a GS1 Australia membership, allocation, and a verified barcode on a printed pack. If the product is not already barcoded, that is weeks, not days, and it has to be done before the pack is finalised because the symbol has to be on the artwork.

Coles: the five-step onboarding path

Coles runs onboarding through Coles Supplier Central, with the steps published as knowledge articles.

1. Review the retail readiness checklist. The table above, in Coles' words. If you meet it, continue.
2. Engage the buying team. Coles has four routes: RangeMe (its preferred partner platform for all prospective suppliers), Dairy Farmers for milk, the Coles Own Brand team via RangeMe or direct approach, and a direct approach to the category team at a trade show, by email or by phone. Coles says plainly that buyers are focused on running their portfolio and that a direct approach should be paired with a RangeMe profile at minimum.
3. Complete the New Supplier Registration form. This only happens once a category manager wants to bring you on. They create a temporary login to the Coles Supplier Portal and you complete a registration that includes acceptance of key trading terms: net terms, payment terms, delivery terms and any waste and markdown agreements. Coles recommends independent advice at this point. You also nominate an administrator for your supplier account.
4. Registration under review. Coles reviews the registration details and supporting documents and comes back with next steps. If an application is declined, the buying team gives feedback on why.
5. Set up. On receipt of signed Trading Terms, Coles sets you up in its systems and orders can begin.

What a RangeMe profile needs

RangeMe is a product discovery platform. You set up a supplier account, add products with visuals and specifications, and either submit a proposal to the Coles buying team or wait for a buyer to find you in a targeted search ahead of a range review. Coles asks that the profile be kept current. In practice that means finished pack renders or photography, a one-line positioning, the price architecture, the GTIN, the case configuration and a reason this product earns a slot. A placeholder image and a to-be-confirmed RRP is an unread profile.

Woolworths: the six-step path on Partner Hub

Woolworths runs everything through Partner Hub, the portal that later carries orders, promotions and replenishment reporting. The published steps:

1. Register on Partner Hub as a prospective supplier. From the landing page, Start your application now. You receive a welcome email and temporary login.
2. Submit your product for consideration. Products are submitted through the Range Review Calendar into a subcategory and reviewed by the category manager or buyer responsible for that range.
3. If accepted, complete your supplier account details and enrich the article (the product record: dimensions, weights, hierarchy, images, attributes).
4. Agree the terms of supply (Trading Terms) and return them signed.
5. Supplier created; you receive a supplier number. Woolworths' note: the product must be accepted in the range review before the supplier account can be enriched and submitted, and only after all internal approvals is a vendor number created in SAP.
6. Finalise the article submission so the product can be ordered.

When to apply

Woolworths' buying teams schedule product category reviews once or twice every year and consider submissions outside those dates only in exceptional circumstances. Partner Hub publishes the Range Review Calendar. Miss a category's window and the next look is six to twelve months away. Coles works the same way in practice: buyers conduct their RangeMe searches ahead of a review, so a profile that goes live the week after is waiting for the next one.

The product review and the meeting

Woolworths describes what category managers look at in a review: current and forecast sales volumes, customer purchase behaviour and feedback, and the ranges and pricing of competing retailers. The question for a new line is whether it fills a category need or gap those reviews reveal. If it might, you may be invited to meet the category manager, and Woolworths publishes what to bring:

• An overview of the business, including current and planned supply capability.
• How the business aligns with Woolworths' values and responsible sourcing policies.
• A comparison of your product against competing products.
• The unique product features and attributes that make it stand out on shelf and build customer loyalty.
• Product constraints: weight, size, packaging format and supply characteristics that affect sales or supply, positively or negatively.
• Training or support that helps store staff understand and sell the product.

After the yes: trading electronically

Every Woolworths supplier transacts electronically. Smaller partners use Webforms, a free browser tool for receiving purchase orders, acknowledging them, invoicing and printing delivery dockets; it takes two to three weeks to schedule. EDI-capable businesses integrate with the B2B EDI Gateway through an approved vendor, which takes eight to sixteen weeks. Coles likewise trades through its Supplier Portal and EDI. Budget the lead time: a product accepted in a review cannot ship until the transacting is live.

Where the pack fits in the timeline

The sequence, from the packaging side.

The common mistake is treating the pack as a post-approval task. Both retailers ask for images, dimensions and GTINs at submission, judge shelf impact in the meeting, and hold the supplier to the submitted data afterwards. A pack finished to retail standard before the submission is the cheapest way through; a pack redesigned after the buyer's feedback is the most expensive.

What buyers say no to

• Me-too products. If the shelf already has it at that price, the review finds no gap.
• A single SKU with no range plan. Buyers range brands, not products; one line is hard to justify a facing for.
• Pricing that does not work backwards from the shelf. The RRP, the retailer margin, promotional funding and the cost to serve have to leave a viable number for the supplier.
• Supply risk. A one-site maker with no capacity plan is a delisting waiting to happen, and the buyer knows it.
• A pack that will not survive the DC. Soft cartons, weak barcodes, no shelf-ready format in a category that uses one.
• Non-compliant labelling. The compliance gate sits behind the buyer; a pack that fails it costs the buyer a review slot.
• Unfinished presentation. A prototype label on a sample jar tells the buyer the brand is not ready, whatever the product tastes like.

The alternatives to a national listing

A new brand rarely goes national in one step. Coles Local is a small-format banner that ranges premium products from local suppliers; the Coles Nurture Fund offers grants to small and medium businesses. Woolworths runs local and metro formats with their own ranging. Independent grocery through Metcash (IGA) and the specialist channels (Chemist Warehouse for health and beauty, Petbarn and Petstock for pet, Dan Murphy's and BWS for drinks) are often the realistic first listing, and they generate the sales data the supermarket buyer will ask for. The guides on Chemist Warehouse and pet retail cover those processes.

Written by

Morice Kastoun, Founder & Creative Director

Morice Kastoun is the founder and creative director of Morice&Co., an independent Melbourne branding and packaging studio. His packaging has shipped through the compliance processes of Coles, Woolworths, Chemist Warehouse, Priceline, Petbarn, Big W, Myer and Sephora US.