A Level of Trust

by Abe Sherman – CEO, BIG – Buyers Intelligence Group

August 5, 2025

Trust. Such an easy word to write, but not so easy to earn. As I wrote the word to begin this article, trust evoked images of people who I trust completely and a couple who I do not trust at all. I’m sure if you close your eyes and let the word roll around for a bit, you’ll also be thinking of people you trust. And probably some you don’t.

After attending several back-to-back tradeshows between June and July, the Balance to Buy and BIG Network teams met and shared similar experiences and feedback. Something became strikingly apparent to us all: data sharing between retailers and suppliers has fundamentally changed relationships for the better, and in many cases, it comes down to trust.

It may take years to build trust. When we launched the BIG Network more than 10 years ago there was a great deal of reluctance from both retailers and suppliers. Retailers believed that sharing their sell-through data with their vendors would lead to salespeople wanting to push more product on them constantly. And in some cases, they weren’t wrong.

Vendors were reluctant to enroll in the BIG Network because they believed they could just ask the retailers for reports and figure it all out on their own – manually. And while they could often do that, it was incredibly inefficient, and many retailers were skeptical of their guidance anyway. Trust on both ends of the business was a rarity, not a resource.

But slowly at first, one vendor and one retailer at a time, trust was built. We didn’t just supply reports (heck, everyone has reports), but we trained suppliers and sales reps how to work with retailers on one side and explained to retailers how to improve their relationships with their suppliers on the other. We helped our clients build trust with each other based on a strong foundation of good people, better data, and best practices.

From the BIG Network launch in 2015 to today, when we speak with our clients – suppliers or retailers – the shift in attitudes has been nothing short of remarkable. When we started out, it wasn’t often that retailers or suppliers would just say, YES! Finally, we can work together! But today, it’s rare when that’s not the primary goal between a buyer and a rep. There are very few vendors who don’t know and respect who we are or what we do. Suppliers we don’t work with are coming to us at trade shows, often sent by the retailers themselves. Our BIG Network vendors are signing up new retailers to work with them every day. Every. Single. Day.

Yep, things are certainly different. As I’m writing this near the beginning of August, we have 115 brands that participate in the BIG Network. Last I checked, we were working with about 1,600 stores, nearly all of whom share data with their suppliers – a measure of trust highly relevant in the jewelry industry.

We owe this success in large part to the people who work here at BIG. Their dedication to onboarding retailers from more than 40 different POS systems (and growing), importing vendor’s catalogs, mapping retailer’s styles to a standard, training store owners and buyers, vendors and sales reps, is what makes this collaboration work.

But even given all the work that our teams are doing to make The BIG Network successful, none of it would be possible without the level of trust that exists between retailers and their suppliers, which has been fortified over the past 10 years. Seeing firsthand the interchange between buyers and salespeople at trade shows is incredibly rewarding. Knowing that both parties are there to see the retailer and the brand work together towards truly mutual success has been heartwarming to say the least.

BIG started on August 15, 2000, and this August, we celebrate our 25th year. I’d like to thank everyone who has helped to make our little company successful in what we set out to do – help fix the jewelry industry where we can.

To our 35 employees, 115 brands, hundreds of Balance to Buy and Plexus clients and the 1,600 stores who work with us, we thank you for giving us your Level of Trust.