Wholesale Pricing After the Opening Order

by Karen
(North East, MD - USA)

Thank you for the answer regarding wholesale pricing and tax. It was very helpful. Now that I have established a relationship with a shop, what should my policy be?

The owner purchased an initial amount of my products and I gave her the wholesale price. Is it customary to give her the wholesale price from that point forward, or should I continue to have a minimum amount purchase per sale to offer the wholesale rate?

I know that when I buy raw materials from some of my standard suppliers, they always give me the wholesale rate.

Others who I buy from only when I find something of interest at a show require the minimum purchase each time to gain wholesale pricing.

Thanks for your help!

Answer:

Pricing for Opening Orders vs. Re-orders When Wholesaling Your Jewelry

© by Rena Klingenberg; all rights reserved

That's a good question - what to charge after a shop (or other jewelry client) has purchased at least your minimum wholesale opening order quantity.

Remember that offering wholesale pricing is only profitable to you if an order is big enough to be worth your while to fulfill at the lower price.

It isn't worth your time to process a tiny order and then wait 30 to 90 days to be paid for it at your wholesale discount price.

Also, you want to be sure that a wholesale customer doesn't use their status to do their own personal shopping of one or two pieces of jewelry at a time at your wholesale prices.

So wholesale pricing after the opening order is usually handled in one of these two ways:

1. • First, a minimum opening order of a certain number of pieces (for example, one dozen), or a certain dollar amount (for example, $200).
   
   
   • Then, minimum "refill" orders of a slightly smaller number of pieces (for example, 6), or a smaller dollar amount (for example, $100).
   
   
   ~ OR ~
   
   
2. All orders, regardless of the customer, are priced on a volume discount scale that awards lower pricing to bigger orders.
   
   For example:
   
   
   • 1 item = $20 each
   
   
   • 10 items = $15 each
   
   
   • 20 items = $10 each
   
   
   With this second method, you don't have official "wholesale" pricing - you simply offer lower prices to all customers who place larger orders.

Of course, the numbers I used here are just made-up examples to illustrate what I'm talking about. They're not necessarily what you should use.

Each jewelry artist's products and pricing are different, so you'll need to come up with your own minimum order quantities or price breaks that work well for you.

I hope this helps!


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