How to Write a Price Increase Letter to Wholesale Customers

Sooner or later your landed cost goes up and your wholesale price has to follow. Writing a price increase letter to customers who stock your product is one of the more uncomfortable jobs in wholesale, because these are the accounts that reorder, and you are asking them to pay more for the same thing. Done badly, the letter reads as an apology and invites a negotiation. Done well, it is a short, confident notice that most buyers accept without a reply.

This guide covers when to send it, what a buyer actually needs from it, a template you can adapt, and how to handle the handful of accounts that push back.

Why a price increase letter is normal, not risky

Retail buyers deal with supplier price changes constantly. Freight, packaging, ingredients and tariffs move, and every vendor they carry has sent a version of this letter. What buyers dislike is not the increase; it is surprise, vagueness and short notice. A buyer who finds out about a new price when the invoice arrives has a real problem: they have already set a shelf price, and their margin just shrank without warning.

So the letter has one job: give the buyer enough notice and enough clarity that they can adjust their retail price and their next order calmly. If you are unsure whether you actually need to raise prices, run your current numbers through the wholesale margin calculator first and compare against your updated landed cost. A price increase that turns out to be unnecessary costs you goodwill for nothing.

When to send it

• Notice period. Commonly 30 to 60 days before the new price takes effect. Larger chains often require more; check their vendor terms.
• Timing against their calendar. Avoid landing the letter in the middle of their peak season or right before a big reorder. Just after a season closes is usually easier.
• Bundle changes. If you are also updating case packs, minimums or terms, do it in the same letter. One change a quarter is far better than three.
• Once a year at most. Frequent small increases feel worse to a buyer than one clear annual adjustment.

What the letter must contain

Keep it to one page or one screen. Buyers scan it for five things:

1. The effective date. The single most important line. Put it near the top.
2. The new price, or the size of the change. Stated plainly: "from 12.00 to 13.00 per unit" or "an average increase of about one dollar per unit across the line." Attach or link an updated price list.
3. The reason, in one or two sentences. Real and specific: ingredient costs, freight, a packaging upgrade. No essay.
4. What stays the same. Minimums, terms, lead times, and your suggested retail price if it is unchanged. This reassures them the relationship is stable.
5. A window to order at the old price. Optional, but it turns the letter into a reason to reorder now.

If you publish a suggested retail price, say whether it moves too. Buyers care about their own margin, and a wholesale increase with a flat MSRP squeezes them. Our guide to MSRP, wholesale price and cost walks through keeping the three in proportion.

A price increase letter template you can adapt

Subject: Price update for [brand] effective [date]

Hi [first name],

Thank you for stocking [brand] at [store]. I am writing to let you know that effective [date], our wholesale prices will increase. The updated price list is attached.

The short version: [SKU or line] moves from [old price] to [new price] per unit. Across the range the change works out to roughly [amount] per unit.

The reason is [one or two specific sentences: our main ingredient cost has risen for the second year, and freight from our co-packer has gone up with it. We held prices through last year but can no longer absorb the difference].

What is not changing: our minimum order, [net terms], lead times and our suggested retail price of [MSRP]. At the new wholesale price your margin at that retail is still [describe: roughly in line with keystone].

Orders placed before [date] will be filled at current pricing, so if a restock is coming up, this is a good moment for it.

If you have any questions, reply to this email or call me directly at [number]. Thank you for your continued support.

[Your name] [Brand, role, contact]

Adapt the tone to the account. An owner you text with gets a warmer version. A chain buyer with a vendor portal gets the formal version, plus whatever cost-change form their system requires.

A worked example with round numbers

Say your landed cost was 5 dollars and your wholesale price 12, so 7 dollars gross profit per unit. Freight and packaging push landed cost to 6 dollars. Holding at 12 cuts your gross profit to 6, a meaningful drop across a few thousand units a year.

You move wholesale to 13 dollars, restoring 7 dollars per unit. Your MSRP was 24, a keystone markup on 12. At 13 wholesale, a retailer selling at 24 still makes about 11 dollars per unit, slightly under keystone. You have two choices: hold MSRP at 24 and tell buyers their margin narrows a little, or move MSRP to 26 and keep them whole. Most small brands choose the second and say so in the letter, because a retailer who keeps their margin has no reason to drop you. If you sell on Amazon as well, that new retail price has to appear there too, or you undercut your own stockists; see price parity between Amazon and wholesale.

Handling pushback

Most accounts will not reply, which means yes. A few will:

• "Can we keep the old price?" For a good account, offer a one-time order at the old price before the date, not an exemption. Exemptions leak: buyers talk.
• "That is too much." Ask what they are seeing from comparable vendors. Often the objection is about surprise, not the number. Negotiating price without giving away margin covers the reply structure.
• "We'll have to review the line." Take it seriously. Offer to walk through their sell-through together. A product that is moving survives a small increase; one that is not was at risk anyway.
• Silence, then no reorder. Send a short check-in six to eight weeks after the effective date. Some buyers simply forgot.

Mistakes that make it worse

• Burying the increase in a newsletter or a footnote on an invoice.
• Apologizing three times. State the change; do not plead.
• Blaming the buyer's channel ("Amazon fees went up") when they do not sell there.
• Sending it to a generic info address instead of the buyer who actually places orders.
• Forgetting to update your line sheet, order form and marketplace listings on the same date.

Keep the pipeline growing while you adjust prices

A price increase is easiest to absorb when the account list is growing, because a lost account or two does not dent the quarter. That is why the letter and the prospecting should run in parallel. WholesalePilot handles the prospecting side from a product link: it finds retail and distribution buyers who fit your product, verifies their emails, sends the outreach in your name and books the calls, so a price reset lands on a wider base of accounts rather than a handful you cannot afford to lose.

A price increase letter is not a negotiation opener. It is a calendar note with a reason attached.

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