Answer a wholesale inquiry with a short reply that thanks the buyer, asks where they sell and how much they expect to move, and attaches a one-page price sheet. Quote a wholesale price at half your Amazon retail price, a minimum of one case per product, and payment up front for the first order.
That is the whole formula. The rest of this article is the wording, the numbers behind it, and the objections a store will raise once you send it. If you are still deciding whether the inquiry is worth answering at all, start with what a wholesale inquiry means for an Amazon seller and come back.
The first reply, word for word
Send this within a day. It works whether the message came through Buyer-Seller Messaging, your brand site or an Instagram DM. Adjust the product name and nothing else.
Hi Dana, thanks for reaching out about the lavender candles. Yes, we sell wholesale to independent stores. Two quick questions so I send you the right information: where will you be stocking them (store, your own website, both), and roughly how many units a month do you expect to move? Once I hear back I will send the price sheet and terms the same day.
Notice what it does not do. It does not quote a price, because you do not yet know whether this is a boutique or a marketplace reseller. It does not send a catalog, because you do not have one yet and you do not need one. It does not apologize for being an Amazon brand. It sets an expectation (same day) that you must then meet.
If the reply arrives via Amazon's messaging system, keep it inside Amazon's rules: no links to outside sites and no request to move the conversation off-platform. Ask the two questions and say you will send the wholesale information to the email address they prefer. Most buyers will volunteer a business email at that point.
Building the price you will quote
Your Amazon retail price is the anchor, and it needs to be the same price the store will charge. If your listing says $24, the store sells at $24, and the wholesale price is $12. Buyers call this keystone, and it is the default expectation in gift, home, beauty and most consumables categories. Some categories run thinner (grocery, electronics), some fatter (jewelry, apparel), but $12 on $24 is the number to start from.
Check it against your own cost before you commit. Landed cost of $6 leaves $6 gross per unit at wholesale. Shipping a case of twelve costs you around $14 by ground, so $1.20 a unit, leaving roughly $4.80 net. Compare that with what you actually keep on Amazon after the referral fee, the FBA fee, returns and Sponsored Products spend, and for a lot of products the wholesale unit is not far behind, with none of the ranking risk.
If your landed cost is $9 on a $24 product, keystone does not work. You have two honest options: raise the retail price on Amazon first, or offer a smaller discount (say $14 wholesale) and accept that some stores will pass. Do not quote $12 and lose money on every case in the hope of making it up in volume.
The price sheet
One page. A store buyer wants to glance at it and know everything. Columns:
- Product name and a small photo
- SKU and UPC (you already have both in Seller Central)
- Wholesale price per unit
- Suggested retail price, matching your Amazon listing
- Units per case
- Case dimensions and weight, if you know them
Below the table, three lines: minimum order, payment terms, shipping. Export it as a PDF. Do not send a spreadsheet, and do not send a link to your Amazon storefront as a substitute.
The terms to quote, and why each one
Minimum order: one case per SKU, three cases total. A first order of 36 units at $12 is $432. Small enough that any real store can say yes, large enough to cover your shipping and handling. Lower than that and you are running a retail business with extra steps.
Payment: card or bank transfer before shipping on the first order. Every store expects this from a new supplier. After two or three reorders, offer net 30 to the ones you trust; it removes friction and they will order more. Never open with net terms, and treat a new store asking for net 60 up front as a red flag.
Shipping: quoted at cost, or built in above a threshold. Many brands ship the first order at cost and then offer shipping included on reorders above, say, $500. Buyers understand this and it nudges order size up.
Where they can sell it. Add one line: "Wholesale pricing is for sale in your physical store and on your own website. Resale on Amazon, Walmart Marketplace or eBay is not permitted." This is the sentence that protects your Buy Box, and it costs you nothing to include. It also gives you the written policy that Brand Registry's reporting tools expect if a rogue seller ever appears on your listing.
Lead time. State it. "Orders ship within three business days" is a promise you can keep from home stock or via Multi-Channel Fulfillment. If your stock is entirely in FBA and you would need a removal order, say ten business days, and start holding a few cases outside Amazon.
Answering the objections that come next
The buyer reads the sheet and replies. Almost every reply is one of five.
"Can you do better on price for a larger order?" Yes, with a real step. Offer a second tier at $11 for ten cases or more. Do not haggle on the first case. This is where a tiered structure helps, and it is the same logic you would use for Amazon Business pricing on the platform: the discount is tied to quantity, not to who asks nicely.
"Your Amazon price is lower than the suggested retail." They looked, and they will keep looking. If you run coupons or Lightning Deals that pull the effective price under $24, a store at $24 cannot compete. Either commit to a floor on Amazon or tell the store honestly that promotions happen a few times a year. Stores that carry Amazon brands know this; what they hate is being surprised.
"Do you offer exclusivity?" For a single boutique, offer a soft version: you will not sell to another store on the same street or in the same small town. Do not promise regional exclusivity to a first-time buyer.
"Can we get samples?" Send one unit of each product they are considering, and invoice it at wholesale with the note that it will be credited against the first order. Stores rarely take you up on the credit, and the sample gets the product into their hands, which is the whole point.
"Can you drop-ship for us?" This is usually a website-only "store" with no shelves, and the answer is no unless you want to run their fulfillment at wholesale margin. Politely decline.
What to do if the buyer is a distributor
A distributor is not a store. They buy in pallets, sell to stores, and expect a price around $8 on your $24 product, because they resell to the store at $12 and the store sells at $24. If the inquiry is from a distributor, the same first reply works, but the price sheet is different, and you should know the answer to "what territory and which accounts do you serve" before you quote. The differences between the two kinds of buyer, and how each behaves after the first order, are laid out in Amazon seller wholesale customers.
Do not send a store price sheet to a distributor. It signals that you have never worked with one, and the conversation gets harder from there.
Private label questions the buyer may raise
If your product is private label, a store may ask whether it is "your own" or something they could source themselves. Answer plainly. Your brand, your packaging, your listing, your reviews. What they are checking is whether the same product will show up under another name at a lower price next season, and whether your brand is worth the shelf space. The distinction, and how to talk about it, is in white label vs private label wholesale.
After the order
Confirm in writing: quantity, unit price, total, ship date, payment received. Ship on time, with a packing slip that shows your brand, not an Amazon box if you can avoid it. Three weeks later, email to ask how it is selling and whether they need anything.
That follow-up is the difference between a store that ordered once and a store that orders every six weeks. The reply you send today is worth a case. The reorder relationship is worth a hundred.
If the inquiry made you realize there are many more stores like this one, and you would rather find them than wait, WholesalePilot will show who would stock the product from a pasted listing link. The reply template above works just as well when you are the one starting the conversation.