Deals, pricing & terms · 40 articles
Wholesale Pricing, Terms and Retail Math
Wholesale pricing is not your retail price with a discount applied. It is a second price list built from cost up. Landed cost comes first: unit cost plus freight, duty and packaging. The wholesale price sits on top of that, and the shelf price sits on top of the wholesale price. Keystone, the old rule, means the store doubles what it paid. Around those numbers sit minimum order quantity, payment terms and volume breaks.
The expensive mistakes happen early. Price the wholesale tier off your retail price instead of off cost and the deal loses money at volume. Confuse margin with markup and every quote is wrong by a predictable amount. Offer net 60 to a buyer you never credit checked and you have made an unsecured loan. Publish a price you cannot defend and every later account demands the same number.
The counterintuitive part is that the retailer's math decides whether you get reordered, not yours. Buyers watch sell-through, return on inventory and the open-to-buy budget already committed for the season. A fat margin on a slow seller loses to a thin margin that turns. The trap is winning the order and losing the margin afterward, through slotting fees, co-op advertising and chargebacks for a late or mislabeled shipment.
Start with how to price wholesale products and the worked margin example, then read margin versus markup before you send another quote. If a chain buyer is already talking to you, the slotting fee, chargeback and MAP policy guides explain what comes next. The sell-through and open-to-buy guides show you the numbers the buyer is looking at.
Start here
How to Price Wholesale Products (With a Worked Example)
How to price wholesale products as a brand owner — keystone markup, MSRP, tiered pricing, and protecting your Amazon price, with a simple worked example.
9 min readHow to Write a Line Sheet for Wholesale Buyers
How to write a line sheet buyers can order from: what to put on it, how to lay it out, and how to attach it to outreach so no call is needed.
9 min readMOQ and Wholesale Terms Explained in Plain English
A plain-English guide to MOQ and the wholesale terms every Amazon brand needs when selling to buyers — Net-30, FOB, case packs, MAP, and more.
9 min readAll guides
How to Run a Credit Check on a New Wholesale Buyer
Before shipping on net terms, learn how to check a business credit profile: trade references, credit reports, public records and how to set a buyer limit.
7 min readInvoice Factoring for Product Brands: Cash Flow on Net Terms
Invoice factoring turns a net 30 or net 60 wholesale invoice into cash in days. How it works, what it costs, recourse vs non-recourse and when it makes sense.
7 min readNet 30 vs Net 60: Which Terms to Offer and When
Net 30 vs net 60: what the extra 30 days really costs you, which buyers ask for longer terms, and a simple rule for when to say yes, counter or hold the line.
6 min readTrade Promotions and Co-op Advertising: What Buyers Ask For
Trade promotion is the money retailers expect you to spend on discounts, ads and sampling once on the shelf. The types, what to say yes to and how to budget.
7 min readRetail Compliance and Chargebacks: Protect Your Margin
Retail compliance is the shipping, labeling and paperwork rulebook chains enforce with chargebacks. What it covers, why deductions happen and how to avoid them.
6 min readPlanograms: How Retailers Decide Where Your Product Sits
A planogram decides where your product sits on the shelf and how many facings it gets. How they are built, when they change and how a new brand gets on one.
6 min readSlotting Fees: What They Are, Who Pays and How to Negotiate
Slotting fees are what some retailers charge to put a new product on the shelf. Which buyers ask for them, the forms they take and how a small brand negotiates.
7 min readPrice Parity: Keeping Amazon and Retail Prices in Line
Price parity means your Amazon listing, your site and your retailers all sell at the same price. Why buyers check it first, where it leaks and how to hold it.
7 min readMAP Pricing: How a Minimum Advertised Price Policy Works
MAP pricing sets the lowest price anyone may advertise your product at. What a minimum advertised price policy covers, how to enforce it and when you need one.
7 min readTiered Pricing Strategy for Wholesale Accounts
A tiered pricing strategy gives each wholesale account a price that fits its size and commitment. How to build the tiers, set the gaps and keep your floor safe.
7 min readBreak-Even Analysis for Wholesale Orders
A practical break even analysis for wholesale: how many units an order needs to cover its costs, how to set a floor price, and when a discount still pays.
7 min readUnit Economics for a Product Brand: Amazon vs Wholesale
Unit economics for a product brand, worked side by side for Amazon and wholesale: what one unit earns in each channel after every cost, and how to compare them.
7 min readCost of Goods Sold: What Goes In and How to Calculate It
Cost of goods sold for a product brand: what belongs in COGS, what does not, how to calculate it from inventory, and why getting it wrong distorts every margin.
7 min readLanded Cost: How to Calculate It Before You Price Wholesale
Landed cost is what a unit really costs on your shelf, freight and duties included. What goes in, a worked example, and why pricing without it loses money.
7 min readContribution Margin: When a Wholesale Order Is Worth It
Contribution margin tells you whether a wholesale order adds money to your business or takes it away. Formula, a worked example and rules for accepting orders.
7 min readGross Margin vs Net Margin for Product Brands
Gross margin vs net margin: what each includes, why a healthy gross margin can hide a losing business, and how to read both by channel before going wholesale.
7 min readMargin vs Markup: The Difference That Costs Brands Money
Margin vs markup are not the same number, and mixing them up is one of the most expensive pricing mistakes a product brand makes. Formulas, examples and fixes.
7 min readGMROI Explained: The Number Buyers Use to Judge Your Product
GMROI, gross margin return on inventory investment, is how retail buyers compare products on a shelf. The formula, a worked example and how to raise yours.
7 min readOpen-to-Buy: How Retail Buyers Budget and When to Pitch
Open to buy is the inventory budget a retail buyer works from. Learn how it is calculated, why a buyer who loves your product still says no, and when to pitch.
7 min readSell-Through Rate: Why Retail Buyers Obsess Over It
Sell through rate is the number retail buyers use to decide whether to reorder, expand or drop your product. Learn how it is calculated and how to improve it.
7 min readConsignment vs Wholesale: Which Deal Is Actually Better?
A clear comparison of consignment vs wholesale for Amazon brand owners — how each deal works, who carries the risk, the real economics, and when to pick which.
8 min readHow to Calculate Wholesale Margin (With a Worked Example)
Calculate wholesale margin step by step: the formula, a worked example, and how to find your price floor before you quote a buyer a number.
8 min readHow to Negotiate a Wholesale Deal
Practical moves to negotiate a wholesale deal as an Amazon brand owner — how to hold price, trade terms, and close without giving away the margin you set.
8 min readHow to Offer Wholesale Samples Without Losing Money
A sample policy for wholesale that closes deals instead of draining margin: when to send free samples, when to charge, and what to ask for.
7 min readHow to Set Wholesale Prices for Amazon Products
A guide to setting the wholesale price for an Amazon product — how to price B2B profitably without undercutting your own Amazon listing or your retail buyers.
8 min readHow to Set Your Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)
How to set MOQ for wholesale orders: the math that protects your margin, when to flex it, and how to avoid scaring off a good first buyer.
8 min readKeystone Pricing Explained (and When to Break It)
Keystone pricing is the 2x rule retailers live by. Here is what it means for Amazon brand owners selling wholesale, how the math works.
7 min readMSRP vs Wholesale Price vs Cost: How to Set Each
MSRP vs wholesale price vs cost, and how to set each one. Build a full price ladder with a worked example that keeps every channel profitable.
8 min readNet 30 Payment Terms for Wholesale: Should You Offer Them?
A practical guide to net 30 terms wholesale for Amazon brand owners — when to extend credit to buyers, how to protect yourself.
8 min readPurchase Orders 101: How a Wholesale Order Actually Flows
How a wholesale purchase order flows from buyer request to fulfillment: what a PO must include, who issues it, and where orders usually go wrong.
8 min readShould You Offer Free Shipping on Wholesale Orders?
A brand owner guide to free shipping wholesale orders — the real cost tradeoffs, threshold strategies, and how to offer it without quietly killing your margin.
7 min readVolume Pricing: How to Reward Bigger Wholesale Orders
A step-by-step guide to volume pricing for wholesale — how to structure quantity price breaks that push buyers to order more without giving away your margin.
8 min readWhat Retailer Margin Do Buyers Expect From Suppliers?
Retailer margin expectations by channel: the markup buyers need before they say yes, and how to price wholesale so it works for both sides.
8 min readWholesale Contracts: What to Put in a Buyer Agreement
A practical guide to the wholesale contract clauses that decide whether an order is worth taking: pricing, payment terms, MOQ and returns.
8 min readWholesale Discount Structures That Work
Build a wholesale discount structure that rewards bigger orders without eroding margin: tiered and volume models, with worked examples for each.
8 min readWholesale Payment Terms: How to Get Paid on Time
Wholesale payment terms explained for brand owners: deposits, purchase orders, net 30, and the checks that keep a big first order from becoming bad debt.
8 min readWholesale Reorders: Turning One Buyer Into Recurring Revenue
Turn wholesale reorders into recurring revenue: the terms, timing and follow-up that get a first-order buyer reordering every single month.
8 min read