How to Sell Wholesale: A Step-by-Step Guide for Brands

To sell wholesale, check that your margins can carry a lower price, set your terms, build a line sheet, find the buyers, pitch them, fulfill the first order and earn the reorder. That is the whole sequence of how to sell wholesale, and every brand that moves from direct sales to stores and distributors runs through it in that order. The steps below cover each one in turn.

1. Decide whether wholesale fits your margins

Wholesale only works if your product can be sold at roughly half its retail price and still make you money. Retailers price by keystone: they double what they pay you. If your product sells for $20 on your site or on Amazon, a store will expect to buy it for about $10 and put it on the shelf at $20. So the real question is whether $10 covers your cost of goods, your packaging, your share of freight and a margin you can live on.

Work it out on one unit before you go further. Take your landed cost per unit, the number that includes manufacturing, inbound shipping, packaging and any labeling. Subtract it from the wholesale price you would have to offer. If the gap is thin, you have three choices: raise the retail price so there is room underneath it, cut the cost of goods with a larger production run, or accept that this product is a direct-to-consumer product and pick a different one for wholesale. The math is laid out in how to price wholesale products, and it is the step that decides whether the rest of this guide applies to you.

One more check: the retail price room. If you have been discounting heavily online, buyers will see it, because they search your product before they answer. A store cannot sell at $20 if your own site shows $14 every other week.

2. Set your wholesale terms

Terms are the handful of numbers and rules a buyer needs before they can place an order. Decide them once and write them on a single page. Most brands need six:

• Wholesale price per unit, and whether it drops at higher volumes.
• Minimum order quantity (MOQ), the smallest order you will accept, usually expressed in dollars or units.
• Case pack, how many units ship in one carton, because stores order in cases, not single units.
• Payment terms, either payment up front for new accounts or net terms, such as net 30, for accounts that have ordered before.
• Lead time, how many days from purchase order to shipment.
• Minimum advertised price (MAP), the lowest price any reseller may advertise, so that a store never undercuts your own listing.

A low MOQ helps you win the first order from an independent store; a case pack that matches your shipping cartons keeps fulfillment simple; a MAP policy protects the retail price you checked in step one. If any of these are unfamiliar, MOQ and wholesale terms explained defines each one and shows what a typical first-time terms sheet looks like.

3. Build the line sheet and samples

A line sheet is the one document every buyer expects. It lists each product with a photo, a short description, the SKU, the wholesale price, the suggested retail price, the case pack and the MOQ, with your terms and contact details on the last page. It is not a brochure. Buyers scan it in a minute to decide whether the numbers work, so keep the layout plain and the numbers easy to find. How to write a line sheet for wholesale shows the layout and the fields buyers actually read.

Samples matter almost as much. A buyer who can hold the product, see the packaging and judge the shelf presence will say yes far more readily than one working from photos. Budget for a small number of samples per month, send them only after a buyer has shown interest, and follow every sample with a call or an email within a week.

4. Choose your buyer types

Wholesale buyers are not one group, and the pitch, the terms and the order size differ for each. Independent retailers are single stores or small local chains; the owner usually buys, decisions are quick, and orders are small but loyal. Chains have professional buyers, planograms and vendor onboarding, so orders are large, but the sales cycle is long and the compliance demands are real. Distributors buy from you and resell to many retailers in a region or a channel; they take a margin on top of yours, so your price to them must be lower than your price to a store, but one distributor can open dozens of doors at once. Wholesalers are similar, but they usually hold stock and fill orders without doing any selling on your behalf.

Start with the buyer type that fits your inventory and your patience. A brand with a few hundred units and no vendor compliance experience belongs with independents first. A brand with deep stock and a proven sell-through record can go to distributors and chains. What is a distributor vs wholesaler vs retailer compares the three in more depth.

5. Find the buyers

Once you know the buyer type, the list builds from a few dependable sources.

Competitor stockists come first. Brands that already sell wholesale publish where-to-buy pages; pick a few brands at your price point and you have a list of stores that already buy products like yours. Trade association directories and buyer directories add the stores that opted in to be found. Trade shows put you in front of buyers who came specifically to order, and even without a booth the exhibitor list tells you who your competitors are and where they sell. Wholesale marketplaces such as Faire let retailers find and order from you, with the marketplace handling payment terms, in exchange for a commission on each order. And direct outbound, a short personal email to a named buyer, works for any buyer type once you have the contact.

Use more than one source. A marketplace listing brings small orders with little effort; direct outreach to a curated list brings the accounts you actually want. The stores that never appear on a marketplace, and the distributors that never will, are reachable only by outreach.

6. Pitch and follow up

The pitch is short. A buyer wants to know what the product is, why their customers would buy it, what it costs them, what it sells for and what the minimum is. Put those five things in the first few lines of an email, attach the line sheet, and ask for one thing: a call, a sample, or an opening order. Personalize the opening with something true about their store, such as a brand they already carry that would sit next to yours. How to cold pitch a retail buyer has the structure and a worked example.

Then follow up. Buyers are busy, and a silent inbox usually means they have not read it, not that they said no. Send a second and a third email spaced a week apart, each one shorter than the last, and be ready to pick up the phone for the accounts that matter. Keep a simple record of who replied, who asked for a sample and who said not now, because "not now" is a lead with a date on it.

7. Fulfill the first order and earn the reorder

The first order is a test. The buyer is checking whether you ship on time, pack properly, invoice correctly and answer emails. Pass all four and the reorder comes on its own; fail one and the relationship ends quietly.

Confirm the purchase order in writing, ship within the lead time you promised, and pack in the case quantities on your line sheet with a packing slip in the box. Invoice on shipment with your payment terms printed on the invoice. Then, a couple of weeks after delivery, ask how the product is selling and whether the store needs anything, such as shelf signage or a product description for their website. That check-in is when the reorder is decided. How to get repeat wholesale orders covers what to do in the weeks after the first shipment.

8. Scale with reps, distributors and marketplaces

Once a handful of accounts reorder, you have proof that the product sells through, and that proof opens the next tier. Sales reps and rep groups carry your line to stores in their territory for a commission on every order. Distributors take the same proof and put your product in front of every account they serve. A marketplace profile with real reviews from stores does some of the selling for you. Each of these costs margin, and each works better the more sell-through you can show, so scale in that order: win the first accounts yourself, then hand the pattern to people and partners who can repeat it.

Frequently asked questions

How much inventory do I need before selling wholesale?

Enough to fill several first orders at your MOQ and still keep your own direct channel in stock. If your MOQ is 24 units and you want to open ten independent stores, you need a few hundred units on hand or a production run you can trigger within your promised lead time. Distributors and chains need far more, so start with independents until your production can keep up.

Should I sell on Faire or reach out to stores directly?

Both, because they do different jobs. A marketplace such as Faire brings small opening orders from stores that are already browsing, with payment terms handled for you, in exchange for a commission. Direct outreach reaches the specific stores and distributors you want, including the ones that never browse a marketplace. Most brands list on a marketplace for the inbound orders and run outreach for the accounts that matter.

What is the difference between selling to a distributor and a retailer?

A retailer buys from you and sells to consumers, so your price to them is roughly half of retail. A distributor buys from you and resells to many retailers, taking its own margin in between, so your price to a distributor must sit below your price to a store. In exchange, one distributor can open dozens of accounts you would otherwise have to win one at a time.

The part that takes the time

The steps that take the longest are five and six: finding the right buyers, getting the actual contact, writing the pitch and following up across dozens of accounts. WholesalePilot does that part for physical product brands: it finds the US distributors, wholesalers and retail buyers for your product and emails them in your name, so you can spend your time on the terms, the samples and the orders.