Did you know you can have a wholesale channel in your Shopify store? Yes, you can launch a Shopify wholesale business alongside your retail online store to create an additional revenue stream for yourself.
Selling to retail customers is more than Shopify's only capabilities. As mentioned, you can sell wholesale products to other businesses. This will be highly beneficial to you if you are manufacturing your products or have access to suppliers that sell wholesale to you at a very low price.
In this article, we’ll talk about selling wholesale in Shopify by tackling various business models, discussing the platform’s B2B features, and showing some examples of Shopify stores that have both a retail and a wholesale business model in their online store.
If that sounds interesting to you, you should stay with us till the end of this article. Let’s begin.
What Is Shopify Wholesale?
Source: Pexels
Shopify is a massive ecommerce platform that’s designed to take all kinds of businesses – from brick-and-mortar to global prominence online.
As such, it isn’t just a platform to serve retail customers. It’s also a very potent one for B2Bs because of its tailor-made features that can support a Shopify wholesale store.
What’s great about Shopify is that you can use the same retail platform that you’re using to launch a wholesale business with just some tweaking, and it doesn’t take an expert to do so.
But before we dive deeper into Shopify wholesale, let’s first talk about what a wholesale business is in general.
What is a wholesale business?
A wholesale business is an entity that sells goods in large quantities to other businesses rather than individual consumers.
There are two parties in a wholesale business:
- The wholesaler (seller) - Wholesalers typically offer volume discounts, incentivizing buyers to purchase large quantities. As such, this business model helps manufacturers distribute their products widely and at a faster rate.
- The buyer (retailer).- Wholesale customers or wholesale buyers purchase products in bulk so they can purchase them at lower prices which allows them to make profits. Wholesale buyers benefit from reduced costs and the ability to mark up prices when selling to end customers.
With access to modern ecommerce tools such as Shopify, retailers can also act as wholesalers if they can offer large quantities at a discount to other retailers. Later in this article, we’ll provide some Shopify stores that are selling wholesale on Shopify.
Wholesale Pricing Vs. Retail Pricing
Wholesale Pricing
Wholesale Pricing is the cost set by the manufacturers or wholesalers for their products which they sell in bulk to wholesale buyers. Their prices are much lower than retail prices to allow the retailer to purchase in bulk and to make a profit out of them.
Some manufacturers or wholesalers even offer tiered pricing wherein the larger the quantity, the larger the discount is. Thus, allowing retailers to benefit from volume discounts. At the same time, these lower prices are crucial for businesses that need to maintain a competitive edge while offering attractive prices to their customers.
Retail pricing
Retail Pricing is the price set by the retailers when selling products directly to their end customers. You can usually find retail prices in department stores, convenience stores, and other direct-to-consumer stores.
As retailers sell smaller quantities per customer, their prices are higher to accommodate their operating expenses and profits. Additionally, as retail customers usually purchase in smaller quantities, they do not benefit from the same volume discounts available to wholesale buyers.
Getting the retail pricing right is essential for retailers to sustain their businesses, allowing healthy margins to provide services such as customer support, warranties, pay for their operating expenses, and marketing campaigns.
Wholesale vs. B2B
As defined above, the wholesale business model primarily focuses on bulk or volume selling of products at lower costs to resellers or retailers.
This means that wholesale businesses deal with other businesses and not with customers. As such, the wholesale business model falls under the B2B umbrella.
For instance, a company offering marketing services to other businesses falls under the B2B category. In the same way, companies that offer volume products to other companies also fall under B2B.
Based on its definition above, a B2B business has a wider scope than a wholesale business. And the latter is only a category of B2B.
Wholesale vs. Dropshipping
A wholesale business and a dropshipping business somehow intertwine in definition in that both business models involve selling items in bulk at a discount.
You already know that wholesale businesses primarily cater to retail businesses. Similarly, dropshipping suppliers also cater to retail businesses – thus still under the B2B umbrella.
However, they are entirely different when it comes to fulfillment methods.
Wholesale suppliers transfer physical possession of their products to the retailers by delivering the products to the latter’s warehouse.
Whereas in dropshipping, the retailers don’t take physical possession of their products. Thus, the supplier no longer needs to deliver products in bulk to the retailer. Instead, they send products directly to the end users upon the retailer’s request.
Shopify Plus Wholesale
Source: Shopify
Shopify has a tiered pricing for its four subscription plans:
- Basic - $39 per month ($29 per month if paid yearly)
- Shopify - $105 per month ($79 per month if paid yearly)
- Advanced - $399 per month ($299 per month if paid yearly)
- Plus - Starts at $2000 per month
This tiered pricing allows Shopify to give the right features for every plan chosen by the merchants.
You can launch a Shopify wholesale business using any of these plans. However, Shopify B2B features are only available in the Plus plan.
But does that mean that selling wholesale on Shopify using non-Plus plans is not recommended?
No. in fact, we recommend starting with lower plans when establishing your Shopify wholesale store. That’s because the Plus plan is very pricey and you might not be able to maximize it if you aren’t familiar with everything Shopify has to offer.
So to clear things up: You can launch a wholesale business and accept wholesale orders even if you’re not on the plus plan. The B2B features that we’re about to discuss below, however, are only available in the Plus plan. However launching a Shopify wholesale business is possible regardless of the plan.
Quick read: Shopify vs Shopify Plus: An All-around Review (Pricing + Features)
Shopify B2B Wholesale Features
Source: Pexels
Now, let’s discuss some of the many B2B features of Shopify Plus wholesale.
Company or Customer Profiles
Establish unique permission levels, payment terms, tax exemptions, and payment methods for your wholesale customers. With this feature, you can establish unique pricing structures for your customer depending on their locations, volume, and longevity of business relations with you.
Additionally, with the latest Shopify Editions Summer ‘24, you can now create up to 10,000 ship-to locations per company for your B2B customers I’m (exclusive for Shopify Plus).
Product Catalogs
If you’re handling a multitude of SKUs in your business, you can curate unique product catalogs for each of your wholesale buyers. With this, all your wholesale customers get a unique experience wherein they will only see the products that they are interested in.
Thus, improving buyer experience as distractions are minimized.
Moreover, you can curate customized product catalogs if you’re selling to multiple countries alongside location-specific storefront.
Volume Pricing & Quantity Rules
In a wholesale business, pricing for wholesale buyers may differ because of a lot of factors. In proposing pricing structures to your customers, the price must always be a win-win in that it should be able to maximize your profits while the retailer could still make a profit while pricing the products competitively.
Because of that, a bulk product management function will come in handy in your Shopify wholesale store to encourage your customers to buy in larger quantities.
Customer Accounts
With Shopify Plus B2B, your customers can manage their accounts and have their dashboards to track all their purchases from you.
Selling wholesale has also become easier with these customer accounts because the customers can make repeat purchases using the quick bulk-ordering tool right from their accounts.
Sales Reps
With Shopify B2B, you can create unique accounts for your sales reps all over the world. This gives your sales team more control as they can place wholesale orders from customer accounts. This access to customer accounts is not unlimited though, they only access necessary information according to the permission levels granted to them.
These are just some of the features of Shopify Plus B2B. Shopify has a lot more to offer to B2B entrepreneurs.
Follow these links to learn more:
- Full list of Shopify B2B feature - B2B Commerce
- Latest improvements in the Shopify platform - Shopify Editions | Summer ’24
Where To Find Shopify Wholesale Suppliers?
If you’re not manufacturing your products for your Shopify wholesale business, the most important thing that you need to figure out is where you can source your products.
For that, you can look for manufacturers or other wholesalers.
Below are some of the sources where you can find wholesale suppliers for your Shopify store.
Alibaba
Source: Alibaba
Alibaba is the world’s largest wholesale marketplace that connects suppliers and manufacturers with wholesale buyers from all over the world. With almost 6000 product categories, Alibaba offers everything – from electronics, apparel, home goods, automotive, and even industrial equipment.
This platform is ideal for Shopify wholesale businesses who are looking to source products at the lowest prices possible so they can resell at higher profit margins to other businesses or end customers.
Alibaba’s robust supplier vetting process and trade assurance services ensure that B2B customers get the best services possible. However, you should still do your due diligence before transacting with suppliers for the first time to ensure that you’re getting the product quality that you expect.
Alibaba suppliers and manufacturers usually have various MOQs or minimum order quantities in place wherein a larger order volume usually gets lower prices. As such, this is very advantageous for businesses with large capitals.
Be that as it may, smaller wholesalers can still find great deals on Alibaba.
Faire
Source: Faire
Faire is an online wholesale marketplace that’s designed to connect independent retailers with unique, high-quality products from emerging brands and makers.
Unlike Alibaba, Faire has limited product categories particularly dealing with items for personal use such as body care, accessories, apparel, home decor, and more.
Additionally, Faire has more unique product selections as sellers within the platform are other entrepreneurs as well, rather than large manufacturers.
As such, if you want to find unique products for your Shopify wholesale business, you should consider checking out Faire’s selection. All you have to do is sign up for an account to access the wholesale prices of the products listed in their website.
Lastly, it is worth noting that as of this writing, Faire is only available in North America and Europe.
Wholesale Central
Source: Wholesale Central
Wholesale Central, from its headline, is America’s leading B2B directory. That’s because Wholesale Central connects American wholesalers to American customers.
With categories spanning from fashion, electronics, home goods, and more, Wholesale Central provides a vast selection for wholesale businesses.
Upon browsing their product categories, all listed businesses are located in the US. As such, that’s how it sets itself apart from suppliers like Alibaba.
So if you’re looking to establish an all-American wholesale business, you should check this platform out.
Note, that you don’t buy wholesale products directly from Wholesale Central. Instead, you can use it as a platform to find suppliers for your Shopify wholesale business.
Which Shopify Wholesale App Should You Use?
As we mentioned in the previous sections, you don’t need a Plus account to launch a Shopify wholesale store. In fact, you can start selling to wholesale buyers even when you’re just using a Basic Shopify account which only costs $39 per month.
Here’s the caveat, if you want to maximize the capabilities of your online store when selling wholesale, you’re going to need some purpose-made apps.
For that, let’s talk about these wholesale solutions that you’ll find in the Shopify app store.
SparkLayer B2B & Wholesale
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.9 out of 5 (200+ reviews)
Pricing: Starts at $49 per month. Free to install.
SparkLayer brings in some of the unique B2B features of Shopify Plus to lower Shopify subscription accounts. Should you use this app, you’ll open up 100+ B2B features such as payments, quantity rules, wholesale orders, rapid checkout, and more.
Additionally, you get access to a sales rep feature where your sales agent can place wholesale orders on customer accounts.
Of course, you can use SparkLayer alongside your retail store so you have all your sales channels in one place.
B2B Wholesale Hub
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.7 out of 5 (700+ reviews)
Pricing: Starts at $19 per month. Free to install for development stores
B2B Wholesale Hub is the cheapest Shopify wholesale solution in this list. But that’s not to say that it has the least features of them all.
It has all the essentials needed to establish a Shopify wholesale store. You can set wholesale prices for each of your product variants, set MOQs, volume discounts, quantity breaks for tiered pricing, and even set shipping rates according to product volume.
This app also works with Shopify Flow so you can design it to blend in seamlessly with your workflow.
Wholesale Gorilla
Source: Shopify App Store
Rating: 4.6 out of 5 (200+ reviews)
Pricing: Starts at $34.95 per month. Free to install for development stores
Wholesale Gorilla offers a full suite of B2B tools for Shopify wholesale businesses of all sizes. With customer accounts, you can create tailored and custom experiences depending on the needs of your customers.
With automated set rules, you can simplify your wholesale pricing and shipping, and more importantly, quantity breaks for larger orders from your loyal wholesale buyers.
Sample Businesses That Are Selling Wholesale On Shopify
Now that you know the apps that you should use for your Shopify wholesale store as well as where to get your products, you’re ready to start selling wholesale.
But before that, take a look at these Shopify stores to have an idea on how they combine their retail businesses alongside selling wholesale in their online stores.
Maker Gear
Source: Maker Gear
The first Shopify wholesale store in our list is Maker Gear. This Shopify store sells 3D printers for a wide range of uses – for businesses, education, personal, and industrial operations. They also sell filaments for 3D printers for those who are looking for refills.
Browsing their online store, specifically their main products, we noticed that not all prices are indicated and potential customers need to contact their sales team for wholesale pricing inquiry.
They have their authorized resellers all over the world, making it a true wholesale business.
Made In
Source: Made In Cookware
The second Shopify wholesale store in our list is Made In – a brand that sells cookware made from copper, stainless, iron, etc. for home and business applications. They also have kitchenware such as plates, and knives, as well as grill pans and griddles.
Individual users can buy products directly from them. But for wholesale customers such as restaurants and dealers who want access to wholesale pricing, they need to email Made In for prices.
Click Industry Pricing on the top-left corner of their online store and choose the wholesale option that applies to you.
Verve
Source: Verve
Verve is a California-based coffee brand that sells a wide range of roasted beans. Unlike other online stores that only sell in retail, Verve has a subscription program wherein they send customers coffee depending on their selected frequency.
Verve is also open for wholesale customers. As such, if you want to be a coffee retailer, you should send them an inquiry to know their wholesale pricing.
Scroll down to the online store footer and click Wholesale under the About Verve menu.
Au Lit Fine Linens
Source: Au Lit Fine Linens
Au Lit Fine Linens is a luxury brand that sells lines for bedroom, bathroom, and decorative applications. They have two physical stores in Toronto, Canada.
Although they mainly sell retail on their online store, they are also open to supplying wholesale customers at discounted prices
To access their wholesale pricing, scroll down to their online store’s footer and click Trade under the Programs menu.
Tofino Soap Company
Source: Tofino Soap Company
The last Shopify store in our list is the Tofino Soap Company. This brand boasts traditionally handcrafted products made from ethically sourced ingredients that ensure long-term sustainability.
Aside from soaps, they have candles, essential oils, and skincare products.
Right from their retail online store, customers can buy soaps in bulk, thereby getting a substantial discount. In addition to that, they also have a program for wholesalers and retailers, which provides more discounts for volume purchases.
Scroll down to their online store footer and click Wholesale | Retail under the Discover menu,
Conclusion
As you’ve learned in this article, you can combine a retail business and a wholesale business in a single online store. If you’re planning to launch an enterprise-level wholesale business, you should consider using a Shopify Plus plan – that is if you have the capital to do so.
However, it is worth reiterating that you can establish a B2B store with other Shopify plans by using the apps mentioned above.
But if you want a simpler wholesale business model, you can imitate an inquiry-based wholesale business like the one employed by the sample businesses mentioned above. With this simplistic approach to wholesale, all you have to do is accept customer emails, respond to them, and create a custom order when you have a deal.
To create a custom order:
- Go to your Shopify admin
- Select the Orders menu and choose Drafts
- Select the Create order button
You will then be able to create a custom order for your wholesale customers.
There you have it. You now know how to establish a Shopify wholesale. All you have to do is apply your learnings from this article and you’ll be on your way towards creating a profitable wholesale business.
Read more: How to Create a Successful B2B Store on the Shopify Platform?
