A wholesale price list is the one document every buyer will ask for, usually in the first reply. It answers the only question they cannot answer from your website: what does this cost me, and what can I sell it for? This wholesale price list template gives you the columns buyers expect, the order they expect them in, and how to fill each one in without underpricing yourself.
A price list is not a line sheet or a catalog. A line sheet sells (photos, story, best sellers); a catalog shows the full range; the price list is the spreadsheet a buyer opens next to their budget. If you need the selling version, how to write a line sheet for wholesale covers it.
What a wholesale price list template needs to contain
Buyers scan a price list left to right, product by product. The columns below are what they expect, roughly in this order. Keep it to one row per orderable item.
- SKU or item number. Your internal code. Buyers order by it, so it must match your order form and invoice exactly.
- Product name. Short, consistent, with variant in the name if that is how it is sold ("Lavender Candle, 8 oz").
- UPC or GTIN. Retailers with a scanning system need it; distributors will not set up an item without one. See do you need a UPC to sell wholesale if you do not have them yet.
- Case pack. How many units in a sellable case. "6" means the buyer orders in sixes.
- Wholesale price per unit. The number they pay.
- Wholesale price per case. Unit price times case pack. Buyers appreciate not doing the math.
- MSRP. Your suggested retail price. The buyer uses it to check their margin instantly.
- Minimum order. Per item if you have one, or a note at the top for the whole order.
- Dimensions and weight, unit and case. Needed for shelf planning and freight quotes.
- Lead time or availability. "In stock" or "ships in 10 days."
Optional columns: country of origin, shelf life for consumables, inner pack, and a short notes column for "new," "seasonal," or "limited."
Header and footer: the parts people forget
The top of the sheet should carry your brand name, contact for orders, the effective date, and the currency. The effective date matters: price lists get forwarded and saved, and you want a buyer six months from now to know they are looking at an old one.
The footer, or a short block at the top, holds your terms summary: opening order minimum, reorder minimum, payment terms, shipping policy, and a note that MAP applies. Keep the full terms in a separate document and link or attach them.
How to fill in each price
This is where most brands get nervous, so here is the method in order.
Start from cost, not from retail
Know your landed cost per unit first — product, packaging, inbound freight, duties. Then set the wholesale price so it covers that cost with a healthy margin for you, and set MSRP so it gives the retailer a margin they will accept. The relationships between the three are laid out in MSRP vs wholesale price vs cost.
Check the retailer's margin at MSRP
Most independent retailers expect roughly to double the wholesale price at retail, a convention known as keystone. Some categories (grocery, consumables) run tighter; some (gifts, jewelry) run wider. Keystone pricing explained covers when to break the rule. If your MSRP does not leave the retailer that kind of room, the price list will get a polite "not for us."
Sanity check against your own channels
If you sell the same product on Amazon or your own site, your MSRP must match what you charge there, or your retailers are competing with you at a disadvantage. Put the numbers side by side in the free wholesale margin calculator and make sure a wholesale order still pays you well after the retailer's cut.
Decide on tiers before you publish
If you want to reward bigger orders, add a second and third price column: for example a base price, a lower price above a certain case count, and a distributor price for pallet quantities. Label them clearly and make the thresholds simple. Volume pricing shows how to structure tiers that do not give away margin to buyers who would have paid full price.
A worked example
Say you make a hot sauce that lands at 2.50 dollars a bottle including packaging and inbound freight. You want to make at least 3 dollars a bottle at wholesale, so wholesale is 5.50 dollars. A grocery buyer will want more margin than keystone on a consumable but you can still target retail near 10.99, which leaves them a little over 5 dollars a bottle. Case pack is 12.
The row on your price list reads: SKU HS-ORIG-5, Original Hot Sauce 5 oz, UPC, case 12, wholesale 5.50, case price 66.00, MSRP 10.99, min 1 case, 5 oz bottle, case 9 lb, ships in 3 days.
Add a tier column at 5.00 dollars for 10 or more cases and a distributor column at 4.50 dollars for pallet orders, and the same sheet works for a corner store and a regional distributor. The margin check for each tier is worth thirty seconds in the calculator before you publish.
Formatting that makes buyers say yes faster
- One file, two formats. A spreadsheet for buyers who want to sort and paste into their system, and a PDF for buyers who want to print it. Same numbers, same date.
- Group by category if you have more than a dozen SKUs, and keep best sellers at the top of each group.
- No prices hidden in images. If your PDF is a screenshot, buyers cannot copy the numbers. Use real text.
- Round, clean numbers. 5.50 is easier to work with than 5.47, and buyers notice when a price looks reverse-engineered.
- Version it. Put the date in the file name. When prices change, send the new file with a short note on what moved and when it takes effect.
Mistakes that cost brands orders
- Leaving out MSRP. Buyers then have to guess their margin, and many will not bother.
- No case pack. The buyer orders three units, you ship a case of six, and the first invoice is already a dispute.
- Pricing per case only. Small stores think in units; distributors think in cases. Show both.
- Sending a retail price list with a discount note. "Take 50 off the website price" is not a wholesale price list; it looks improvised and it invites haggling.
- Changing prices silently. Every buyer who finds out from an invoice instead of a notice trusts you a little less.
If you want the price list to sit inside a bigger, browsable document, the wholesale product catalog template shows how to combine the two without duplicating the numbers.
Getting the price list in front of the right buyers
A well-built price list is only useful once a buyer asks for it, and that first ask is the part most founders struggle with. WholesalePilot finds the retailers, distributors, and independent stores that fit your product, verifies the buyer's email, sends the outreach in your name, and books the call, so your price list goes to buyers who have already said they are interested.
A price list should answer every question a buyer has about money before they have to ask it.
See which buyers would be opening your price list: paste your product link and preview them for free.