22 Oct
Shopify is the biggest and an amazing platform for selling directly to consumers and is perfect for most of the retail business. Now, Shopify have come up with different ways in which you can set up your site to manage wholesale orders.
Shopify is a global leader in e-commerce. They are known for their affordable, easy-to-use and adaptable e-commerce solutions. Many first time e-commerce founders start their retail journey on Shopify. Even if you do not have a Shopify store, you can set one up in no time.
Shopify comes with a number of useful features with a lot of options for customization.
How to sell wholesale on Shopify
If you are Shopify user, and you have decided to enter into the wholesale market, we have three different options for you to consider.
1. Set up A Separate Wholesale Store
You can set up a separate store for wholesaler customers. This will allow you to tailor the store, from the messaging and images used throughout the site, to the way you set up delivery and tax options.
Your wholesale store can have its own domain or on a sub-domain of your retail store and you can also use a wholesale App to enhance your options. A good Shopify developer can also help you to update the site so that pricing is hidden until you login without needing the whole site to be password protected.
This is a good option if a business that does (or is aiming to do) a lot of trade through wholesale and wants the best possible experience for their trade customers.
Why you should use this option?
- If you want to give your wholesale customers a different user experience to your retailer customers.
- You want a fine level of control over tax rules, shipping options etc…
- You want to incorporate trade only content within the site.
Why you shouldn’t use this option?
- You don’t want to have to maintain two sites.
- You’re on a tight budget and want to keep your ongoing costs low.
2. Use a Wholesale App on Your Retail Storefront
There are many apps available on Shopify that can add wholesale features to your Shopify store. They just vary in features offered but some good options are Wholesale Club and Bold custom pricing. To know which one suits you best let’s have an overview on both.
Bold Custom Pricing plays well with other Bold Apps such as Bold Discounts and Bold Bundles, while Wholesale Club offers a solid set of tools including ‘Net’ payment options for customers who prefer to pay on invoice. Both Apps have similar pricing and ratings from other store owners already using them.
Moreover, this will allows you to sell to both the trade and general public from a single storefront but wholesale customers will need to login to your website in order to see the trade pricing options.
This is a good option to go for if a retailer who wants the option to sell to the trade and to the public from a single site but doesn’t want to have to manage more than one site.
Why you should use this option
- It will let you sell to both trade and retail from one site, so you only have one site to keep up to date and manage.
- Give your wholesale customers their own custom pricelist or assign them to a discount ‘band’.
- Both Apps give you a good range of wholesale options to help you to configure your site.
Why you shouldn’t use this option
- It can be complicated to get the Apps configured properly.
- This method doesn’t give you total flexibility with delivery costs, VAT charge setup etc. as some of this is shared with the retail customers.
3. Add a wholesale channel (Shopify Plus)
Shopify Plus is great for merchants who are considering going straight into wholesale or expanding into wholesale on a large scale and requiring more automation and customization. With Shopify Plus you can automate your wholesale processes from signup to checkout. Implement wholesale specific pricing, automated account signups, order review controls and more.
The Wholesale Channel creates a new password-protected site which your trade customers can login to in order to access a customized catalogue of products and their own bespoke pricelist. It uses your existing store as a basis for this site but you can then customize it for your trade customers.
This is a great option for retailers who are using Shopify Plus and want to open up a B2B site that integrates with their existing Shopify site and integrations.
Why you should use this option
- You’re on, or considering using, Shopify Plus.
- It syncs orders, inventory and customers with your existing retail storefront.
- It gives you a lot of control over what your individual trade customers can access and the pricing they qualify for.
- It has good tools for inviting and managing your trade customers.
- If your main site is integrated with your back end systems such as a CRM or OMS, this will work with the same integrations.
Why you shouldn’t use this option
- Wholesale Channel sites aren’t indexed by search engines so don’t appear in Google’s search results.
- You’re not on Shopify Plus and currently doing enough revenue through your site to justify the cost.
Wholesale-friendly” basic features
Some key features that are available on a standard Shopify plan that are critical to a wholesale business include:
Discount codes
The ability to customize prices and give frequent customers distinct discounts is crucial to retaining a loyal wholesale customer base. Shopify allows for discount codes to be created and applied to a customer’s cart for both retail and wholesale.
By using Shopify’s discount code functionality you can also create orders on behalf of your customers. Based on an interested customer’s enquiry, you can create a draft order and use discount codes to enforce minimum order quantities, waive off shipping costs and much more.
Wholesale invoices
Download dedicated wholesale apps on the Shopify app store that allow you to send invoices using the payment provider that powers your Shopify store or send a customized invoice email to allow your customer to pay you using alternative payment methods, such as via bank transfer. You can also use the apps to mark invoices and paid or partially paid as you receive payments.
Final Thoughts
You must have understood up till now that Shopify makes it easy for you to sell to trade customers with options to suit your business. Think before you choose any of the option because every option have its own benefits and drawbacks too.
If you’re looking to get started with wholesale, get in touch today and our team of Shopify experts will be able to help.