Retailers want your products. Your store wasn’t built for them.
If boutiques, speciality shops and regional chains are asking to stock your brand, wholesale may be your next growth channel. Each retailer can place larger orders than a single shopper, and a good retailer reorders season after season.
The catch: your DTC store was built for one shopper buying one item at retail price with a card. A retailer buys differently. They need approval, their own prices, case-pack quantities, invoice terms and a fast way to reorder what sold.
When the store can’t handle that, wholesale moves into email threads, PDF line sheets and spreadsheets. Orders get keyed by hand, prices get quoted from memory, and every reorder waits on someone on your team.
This guide covers the six things that change when you add wholesale, what a good buying experience looks like for the retailer, and what each one does for your business.
1. Onboarding: decide who can buy wholesale
On your DTC store, anyone can check out. Wholesale needs a gate, because the people behind it see lower prices and can buy on credit.
A good onboarding flow lets a retailer apply online with their business details, such as a resale certificate, tax ID and store location. Your team reviews the application against clear criteria and approves it. The retailer then gets a business account that can hold several buyers, for example, an owner and a store manager.
Example: a gift shop applies on a Monday. Your team checks its resale certificate and approves it, and the owner signs in to see wholesale prices without waiting for a sales call.
- For the buyer: a clear path to an account and access as soon as they’re approved.
- For your business: you protect retail pricing and brand positioning, and approval no longer depends on one person’s inbox.
Decide before launch: Your approval criteria, who reviews applications, and how fast a new retailer should get access.
2. Catalogs: show retailers what they can buy
Your DTC catalog shows every product to every shopper. A retailer needs a narrower view: the wholesale range, in the units they buy, with the details they need to sell it on.
That usually means case packs instead of single units, prepacks or assortments, and fields DTC shoppers never see. Examples include UPC codes, case dimensions, wholesale-only SKUs and availability dates for the next collection. Some brands also restrict lines by account, so an exclusive range only appears for the retailers who carry it.
Example: A candle brand sells single candles on its DTC site. Its wholesale catalog shows the same scents in cases of 12, plus a 24-piece holiday assortment only available to approved retailers.
- For the buyer: they find the right products and pack sizes without asking for a line sheet.
- For your business: fewer “do you have this in a case?” emails, and you control which accounts see which lines.
3. Pricing: the right price for each account, and only for them
On your DTC store, there is one price per product. In wholesale, price depends on who is buying and how much.
Most brands start with a single wholesale price list, often set from the retail price. As the channel grows, pricing tends to get more specific: volume tiers, distributor pricing, or negotiated prices for key accounts. Wholesale prices should only appear after a retailer signs in, so DTC shoppers never see them.
Example: A retailer sees $14 per unit on orders under 48 units and $12.50 above that. A regional chain sees its own contract price. A DTC visitor sees only the $28 retail price.
- For the buyer: they see their real price before they order, so there are no surprises on the invoice.
- For your business: fewer pricing disputes and credits, and your sales team stops quoting prices by email.
Decide before launch: Your pricing structure on day one, and where the prices are maintained. If your ERP or accounting system holds them, the store should show those same prices.
4. Minimum orders: carts that arrive ready to fulfill
Wholesale only works if each order is worth picking, packing and shipping. That is why most brands set rules your DTC checkout never needed.
Common rules include a minimum order value (for example, $250 for a first order and $150 for reorders), case-pack multiples (sold in sixes only), and per-product minimums. A good buying experience shows these rules while the retailer builds the cart, not as an error at checkout.
Retailers also order differently. They want several sizes and colors at once, so a quick-order grid or SKU entry saves them from opening dozens of product pages.
Example: A boutique wants your new collection in three colors and four sizes, in case packs of six. On a DTC store that is twelve product pages and twelve cart edits. In a wholesale experience, the buyer fills one size-and-color grid, sees the running total against the minimum, and checks out.
- For the buyer: faster ordering and no rejected carts.
- For your business: every order meets your fulfillment economics, and nobody has to email a retailer to fix quantities.
5. Payment terms: let approved accounts buy on invoice
DTC shoppers pay by card at checkout. Many retailers expect to buy on terms, such as net 30, and pay once the stock starts selling.
Terms are a business decision before they are a feature. Finance decides which accounts qualify, the credit limit for each, and what happens when an invoice is overdue. The store then applies those rules: an approved account can check out on terms up to its limit, while a new or over-limit account pays by card.
Example: A retailer approved for net 30 with a $5,000 limit places a $1,200 order and checks out on invoice. A second order that would take them past $5,000 is held or paid by card, without someone in finance checking every order by hand.
- For the buyer: they can order when they need stock, not only when cash allows.
- For your business: terms help win and keep retail accounts, while credit limits keep the risk where finance set it.
Decide before launch: Who gets terms, the default limit, and how invoices and payment status flow back to your accounting system.
6. Repeat buying: make the next order the easiest one
The first wholesale order opens an account. Reorders are where the channel grows. A retailer that sells through your best-seller wants to restock it in minutes, not wait for a reply from your sales team.
A good wholesale experience keeps everything a retailer needs for the next order in their account: order history, one-click reorder, saved lists for regular items, open invoices, and order and shipment status. Accurate stock levels matter too, so a retailer doesn’t reorder something you can’t ship.
Example: A store manager opens last month’s order, removes two slow sellers, adds a new scent, and checks out on terms. Nobody at your company touches the order until it’s ready to pick.
- For the buyer: restocking takes minutes, at any time of day.
- For your business: more reorders without more sales headcount, and your team can spend its time opening new accounts instead of keying repeat orders.
Where does your brand stand on these six?
The Wholesale Launch Readiness Checklist covers retailer approval, pricing, minimums, payment terms and reordering, and shows which gaps to close first.
Where integration fits
Each of the six areas depends on data that usually lives in your ERP or accounting system, not in your store. If the two disagree, the retailer sees one thing and gets invoiced for another. Integration keeps them aligned.
| What the retailer experiences | Data that has to stay in sync | What goes wrong without it |
| Their own price at checkout | Customer and tier pricing | Invoice doesn’t match the cart; credits and disputes |
| Accurate availability | Inventory by warehouse | Backorders and “is this in stock?” calls |
| Checkout on terms | Credit limits, terms, open balance | Finance checks orders by hand |
| Fast fulfillment | Web orders into the ERP | Someone re-keys every order |
| Reorders and order tracking | Order history, shipments, invoices | Buyers email for status |
Not every brand needs all of this on day one. A brand with a single wholesale price list and a few dozen retailers can start simply. As accounts, price lists and warehouses grow, manual syncing is usually where errors start.
Not sure where your ERP data stands? The checklist includes questions on pricing, inventory and order sync. Take the Wholesale Launch Readiness Checklist →
What this looks like in practice: Bombora Supplies
Bombora Supplies distributes coffee equipment and café supplies to cafés, roasters and distributors in Australasia, Asia and North America. Its trade buyers had tier pricing, discount groups and customer-specific contracts, which were hard to keep consistent online while the store ran separately from Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
i95Dev connected Adobe Commerce to NAV so the trade store follows the ERP. The work covered the same areas this guide describes:
- Onboarding: Customer accounts are approved before they’re published, with duplicate accounts prevented.
- Catalogs: Shared catalogs built from each customer’s ERP agreements.
- Pricing: Tier, discount and customer-specific pricing synced from the ERP, in AUD and USD.
- Availability: Stock synced by warehouse, including assembled products.
- Orders: Orders flow both ways between the store and the ERP.
Reported outcome: Trade customers consistently receive their correct contract pricing, stock errors and overselling risk are down, and the team does less manual reconciliation.
Do you need a new platform?
Not necessarily. The right answer depends on your requirements, not on which platform is popular.
Start with the questions in this guide. How many retailers do you expect in the first year? Is your pricing one list or many contracts? Do you need terms and credit limits, multiple warehouses, or account-specific catalogs? Which ERP or accounting system holds your prices, stock and invoices?
- If your needs are simple (one wholesale price list, card payment or basic terms, a modest number of accounts), your current platform’s B2B features may be enough.
- If you need one storefront for DTC and wholesale, look for a platform that can separate prices, catalogs and checkout rules by customer group.
- If pricing, catalogs and credit rules are complex or account-specific, look for deeper B2B capabilities and a reliable connection to your ERP.
Depending on those answers, the right fit may be Shopify, Adobe Commerce or BigCommerce, or extending the platform you already run.
To write those requirements down before you talk to vendors, use the B2B eCommerce requirements template and the integration requirements template.
Find out what to decide before you launch
Wholesale can turn one-off retail interest into accounts that reorder for years. Getting there depends on decisions most brands haven’t made yet: who gets approved, what each account pays, the order minimums, who buys on terms, and how a retailer reorders.
The Wholesale Launch Readiness Checklist walks through each of these and shows which gaps matter most for your business before you change anything.
