Wholesale

I used to offer various products from ankepanke’s shop for wholesale. This means that other shops could buy products from me for a lower price so they could sell them in their own shop. For me this is good because it I can enjoy a bit of their reach (to their buyers) and the more you are online, the better.

When I started with this, I had no idea how to do this and I couldn’t really find any (real) information online. Luckily I had build a good network of awesome people who I could ask. I’m a strong believer of (and that’s the main reason why I write these blogs) whatever you send into the world, you will receive back in threefold. I regularly receive emails with questions about where I have things made or what’s a good way to do something. I think, because I always answer these, I’m ’allowed’ to ask others too.

There are various ways you can do this, but this is how I did it. I’m not saying this is the best way, but this works for me.

CATALOGUE
Are not all your products available for wholesale? Make a catalogue to show interested people an overview of what they can buy.

A few tips:
> As a designer I have the option to make it look fancy, but a text-document with links to your shop will work just as well.
> Link the catalogue directly from you shop. This way people can check it out before contacting you (they might not want to at first).
> Don’t add the prices. Costumers can see them too and might be offended by the price-difference. Have people who are seriously interested contact you and you can email them a price list.

CONDITIONS
Decide for yourself what you feel is important, for example:
- Minimum of 5-10 pieces and/or minimum order of €100,00
- Credit in the product description
- Ship after payment (I’ve added this recently, at first I didn’t do this. Unfortunately people can take advantage of that, so I’d advice you to add this one)
- Maintain same prices as your own shop

PRICING
This is really personal and completely depends on your costs, etc. But it’s normal to give a 30-50% discount. This is my ’formula’:
Costs for production + X amount = Wholesale price
Wholesale price x about 2 times = Client price

GENERAL TIPS
> Charge taxes on the shipping. I don’t know exactly how it works, but my accountant says I need to.
> Save paper and only send digital invoices via email. If they also need a print, they can do it themselves.
> It can happen that a shop might put your product in sale. This can suck, but if for example they don’t sell any, it’s understandable. Of course, they’re not suppose to start selling at a low price, but lowering the price can happen.
> It’s totally ok to say no! If you don’t want your products in a certain shop, just tell them it’s not a good fit. They’re you’re products, so you get to say what happens with them.