Start Selling Wholesale
You want to start selling your products wholesale? Congrats on making it to this step! Selling wholesale is an exciting step to take knowing your products will be in stores across the country and maybe even the world.
What’s retail? What is wholesale?
Most likely you are selling retail today via your website or in person at markets. When you sell retail you’re selling to the end customer directly.
Selling wholesale means you are selling your products (typically in bulk) by leveraging other retailers where they sell your products in their store. Selling wholesale is a sign that you’re a mature business and you generally have a solid process for creating and manufacturing products.
When it comes to selling retail or wholesale you don’t have to choose one over the other, they are both legitimate sales avenues you can do in parallel.
Why to sell wholesale
Increase your exposure: When your products are sold to wholesalers they are then turned around and put in that wholesalers physical/online retail store. You have a new set of customers who are retailers and on top of that all the customers that come into the retailer’s shop.
Boost your cash flow: Wholesalers typically purchase your products in bulk so you have a surge of cash inflow. Compared to selling on your own website where folks typically buy 1-2 products at a time.
Increases your credibility: Selling wholesale marks you as a professional, this isn’t a hobby. When folks see you sell wholesale they know you are serious!
Foster customer relationships: Care for customer relationships with wholesalers and you have a customer that will order from you time and time again.
Where to sell wholesale
There are a variety of ways to sell wholesale. Here are a couple of options with their pricing structure:
Faire - takes a commission % fee per order
Hubventory - monthly membership fee + takes a commission % fee per order
Stockabl - monthly membership fee + processing fee on orders
IndieMe - monthly membership fee
Do it yourself on your own site - no fees but may have a set up cost
What else to know
You’ll want to think of the following things as you set up the wholesale side of you business:
Research where you should sell wholesale to make sure there is the right demand for your products.
Make/adjust your business plan to factor in for wholesale. Strategies between selling on your own site/markets are different than selling to wholesalers. Take some time to knock out a business plan specifically for wholesale.
Finalize product pricing for wholesale. Generally wholesale prices are 20-60% less than retail. Look at your profit margins to ensure this makes sense for you.
Sit down and write out your policies for each product for wholesale. You’ll want to think about:
What is the order minimum to place an order in the first place?
What is the order minimum for free shipping?
What is the minimum of a certain product/type of product they must purchase?
What is your SLA? How quickly will you ship their products?
Check your packaging to make sure it’s store ready. While your packaging should be thoughtful when you sell directly from your site, you’ll want to think about your product in a physical store. Does it have your branding on it? It is eye catching? Is it clean? When someone picks up the product will it handle wear and tear?
Identify and reach out to retailers you think would be a good fit for their shop. It may surprise you how many retailers are on these wholesale platforms already which makes its super easy for them to place an order.
