A Guide on How to Sell Wholesale on Shopify

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Selling wholesale is the way to go if you want to boost your eCommerce business. You’ll be able to ask for bigger orders, bigger margins, and better sales. And the best part is, that you don’t need huge start-up capital. All you need is a relatively small investment on your end. We’ve seen some eCommerce businesses expand their reach simply because they took the opportunity to sell wholesale.

This guide is designed to teach you the basics of selling wholesale on Shopify and after reading it, you should have a better idea of its benefits, and how to do it.

What is Wholesale?

Wholesale is the sale of products to retailers who then resell them to their customers. The term "wholesaler" refers to both the individuals who purchase from suppliers and sell products at a profit and to companies that purchase goods for resale in large quantities.

In order for you to understand why wholesale is such a valuable option for eCommerce entrepreneurs, you first need to understand the basics of what it means. Wholesale essentially refers to the practice of buying goods from a manufacturer or distributor at a price lower than their retail value. Vendors can then sell these products for more money than they paid for them. The price difference between the vendor's cost and their selling price is called the margin (this is also called the mark-up).

Wholesalers may be found at all stages of the supply chain, and some individuals act as both wholesalers and retailers. Wholesalers are usually independent businesses that are not affiliated with the original manufacturer or brand, but they still buy from manufacturers and often sell to retailers, as well as directly to consumers through discount websites or other means.

A wholesaler typically purchases a full truckload or container of goods, often from foreign countries, which reduces transportation costs for the manufacturer. The wholesaler then breaks up that shipment into smaller quantities for resale by the retailer, who may also add its own services like customer service and delivery. The wholesaler's profit comes primarily from providing convenience rather than selling products at a lower price than the retailer can find elsewhere.

Targeting the Right Audience

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When it comes to finding the right audience for your products, you need to know your audience. You’ll want to get a sense of who will be interested in what you have to offer before reaching out and contacting them. Knowing this will allow you to focus on selling wholesale rather than wasting time marketing to the wrong people.

This starts with understanding their needs, wants, and likes as well as things they don't like or aren't interested in. This can be done through research on social media sites such as Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups for example. You'll want to know exactly who these people are before reaching out because if someone does not fit into this category then chances are they won't buy from your Shopify store at all!

You also want to think about things like whether or not they are looking for something specific such as art prints, jewelry, etc. Some may not care about those types of products but instead might prefer clothing items like t-shirts instead which means they might not even look at what we have available because it's unrelated; whereas others may still browse around regardless just because there is nothing else worth browsing right now (this happens more often than we think).

Planning A Strategy

When you begin to plan your wholesale strategy, it's important to keep in mind that you will not be able to achieve your goals overnight. That said, there are some key things that you can do to increase your chances of success:

• Set Goals: Make sure that you have a clear idea of what goal or goals you want out of this business. Do you want more sales? More profit? Better brand awareness? Once these goals are identified, they need to be broken down into smaller steps so they're easier to achieve over time (e.g., if one of your main objectives is increasing profit by 10%, what actions must occur before then?).
• Set a Budget: Before going through with any plans for selling wholesale on Shopify or anywhere else online, set aside a budget for inventory costs and other expenses (such as shipping). By doing so early on in the process, it will help ensure that everything goes smoothly when ordering products from suppliers and/or manufacturers later on down the line when making orders from them directly - something which could save you from having some serious issues later down the road if done incorrectly without first being prepared financially!

Logistics

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In order to keep track of your inventory and sales, you will need to have a system in place. You can use a simple spreadsheet or accounting software like Quickbooks. It doesn't matter what you use as long as it works for you and gives you the information that's important for making business decisions.

Another important part of logistics is being able to process orders quickly and accurately so that customers are happy with their purchases and won't be left waiting too long before receiving their items. This means having processes in place such as labeling each package with its contents and price, preparing shipping labels on time, knowing where packages are at all times (by using tracking numbers), and updating customer records once orders are placed/shipped/delivered, etc.

Running a Wholesale Business

Once you have determined the type of wholesale business you are going to start, it’s time to figure out how to get organized.

• You need a good customer service team in place. Having a solid customer service team is one of the most important things when running a wholesale business. If your customers are not happy with what they receive from your company then they will not be happy about purchasing from you again and may tell others about their experience. This could lead to more people not wanting to work with you and could even lead some people into thinking negatively about your business which can then result in fewer sales or even losing customers altogether if nothing changes at all.
• You need a good marketing team in place too! Marketing your products online or offline is essential when trying to sell wholesale on Shopify as well as other platforms like eBay or Amazon because it allows potential buyers who haven’t heard about this product yet from multiple sources such as social media channels like Facebook Ads (Facebook) or Instagram Ads (Instagram).

Pricing Strategies for Your Products

Pricing strategies can help you attract the right customers and increase your sales, profit, and brand awareness. Here are some examples of pricing strategies that might work for your store:

• The value-based price strategy helps you to sell a product at a much lower price than the market average. This way, you can position yourself as a low-cost provider of quality goods or services in comparison to other competitors who may be charging higher prices for similar products or services.
• The psychological pricing strategy uses consumer psychology to make your products seem more desirable by using numbers like 9 and 99 instead of $9 or $99 (i.e., 9/12 months instead of 8%) in order to make consumers perceive that they are getting more value out of their purchase by paying less money upfront rather than more money upfront over time; this is also known as "psychological discounting."

Creating A Wholesale Storefront on Shopify

For merchants to begin selling wholesale on Shopify, they first have to decide which approach they would like to take. Wholesale selling on Shopify comes with a variety of options. The following is a brief explanation of the three ways to sell wholesale on Shopify.

1. Create a dedicated wholesale selling store

A dedicated wholesale selling store is a great approach, especially if you sell mostly wholesale. This is recommended for merchants that already have an existing e-commerce business and want to sell wholesale from their online store. This option is more time-consuming and technical than the other two, but it gives you complete control over your product pricing and your customer account system.

If you already have an existing Shopify store and want to do your wholesale business on that same store. You can. Just add a Wholesale option to your Shopify store, go to the Dashboard and select "My Shopify." Here, you can create a “Customer Account”. After you've made the account, go to your "customer account page" and click on the "Wholesale" tag at the bottom of the page.

2. Install third-party wholesale selling apps from Shopify Store

Third-party apps from Shopify Store also offer a good way to start selling wholesale on Shopify. You can find a variety of solutions that offer discounted pricing or special configurable options for your products. These applications can be bought for less than $50/month, making it easy and inexpensive for merchants to sell wholesale and offer discounts. 

3. Use discount codes

Discount codes are an easy way to make your products available for bulk purchase. First, create the discount code in your shop admin, then share it with your customers via email, website, or social media channels. Some merchants choose to use it as a marketing tool because they can change the code without editing the product page itself.

Building Your Brand Through Your Customers' Experiences

The customer experience is one of the most important factors in building a successful brand. The way you interact with your customers, from their first contact with your business to their last interaction, will determine whether or not they return to make another purchase. To create a positive and memorable experience for each customer, follow these guidelines:

• Marketing: The first part of establishing a great customer experience is getting the customer in the door—and that's where your marketing comes in. Your advertisements should be clear and eye-catching so as to draw in as many potential customers as possible; however, once someone has decided to visit your store, you need to focus on keeping them there. The customer experience should be seamless from beginning to end: from browsing the store to purchasing the products.
• Offer reasonable prices: Build trust by providing high-quality products at an affordable price. This is especially important if you're offering an item that's usually expensive or hard to find elsewhere, such as designer clothing or jewelry. You'll have more luck selling through word-of-mouth than simply putting up ads on Facebook or Instagram without any kind of story attached—in other words, don't just post pictures of your products without telling any backstory at all! Tell people why they should buy from you instead; what makes this product different from its competitors? Why should someone trust that buying from this store won't result in getting scammed into paying more money than they bargained for? What sets it apart from similar businesses?
• Hire amazing CSRs: A customer's experience can be affected by many different aspects of a business, including the customer service representatives (CSRs) who answer the phone and take orders, the salespeople who help customers select items from a menu or catalog, and even the details of how a company delivers its product. As customer service managers and owners, it is important to focus on every aspect of the customer experience because each person that interacts with your customers can have an enormous impact on them.

You can make your wholesale products a success once you understand what you are doing.

If you're looking to make money by wholesaling, you'll have to ask yourself some hard questions. The first thing that you need to do is understand your customers, their needs, and what they are looking for in a product. You need to know exactly why they would buy from you instead of going elsewhere. A good way to do this is to get out and talk to people who like the things you sell, which can be tricky if what you sell is something that people tend not to brag about. But if you're selling something like scented candles or air fresheners, or anything related to food or drink, it can be easier—just go where those products are being sold, and start talking!

The second thing is knowing yourself as an entrepreneur; this includes understanding what type of person am I? What kind of goals do I want for myself? Is this something that I'm good at? Do I enjoy working hard or playing hard? How much time do I have available each day/weekend etc. Wholesaling is rewarding when done right, but it's a lot of work. If you aren't sure about any of these things, it might be best to start small with a part-time business until you get a better feel for whether or not it is the right career path for you. Either way is great but you need to be 100% in it.

Conclusion

There are a lot of ways to sell wholesale on Shopify. From building wholesale customer lists and creating discounts to setting up an entire wholesale pricing section, you’ve got plenty of options. The key is figuring out which one works best for your business and then integrating that strategy into your Shopify store. Wholesale sales can be a huge source of revenue so it’s important to know the best practices for selling directly to retailers through Shopify. We hope this guide has given you the tools you need!

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