Wholesale for a DTC brand: the volume is real, the customers aren't yours
Selling your products in bulk to shops that sell them on. It brings volume and reach, and it hands the end customer to somebody else.
- 152Wholesale
- The sale of goods in large quantities, typically to be retailed by others. In ecommerce, it involves selling products to other businesses rather than directly to consumers.
- Also called
- Trade, or selling through stockists and retailers
- Priced at
- A trade price, below what the shop charges the public
- You don't get
- The end customer's name, email address or order history
- Clashes with
- Your own sales, whenever your emails undercut the shop
What wholesale changes in a DTC brand's numbers
Wholesale is a trade plenty of growing brands make. A stockist orders by the case, pays on terms and puts you in front of people who'd never have found your website. In return you sell at a trade price, so the shop can add its own margin and still charge the public what you charge.
So the orders get bigger and the margin per unit gets thinner. That's a fair swap when the stockist reaches customers you couldn't. It's a bad one when it's your own customers buying the same thing somewhere you can't see them.
The stockist's customer never reaches your list
The awkward part for retention is simple. When somebody buys your product in a shop, the shop gets the sale and the relationship. You get no name, no email and no say in whether they come back. If they love it, they'll probably go back to the shop.
The way across is the product itself. Packaging, an insert or a QR code that offers something worth an email address: a refill, a recipe guide, a warranty registration, first look at new flavours. Point it at a page built for people who already own the thing, then send a short flow written for an owner, the same route the marketplace page lays out.
Agree it with your bigger stockists first. Some won't love a card in the box that sends their customer to you, and that's a conversation better had before the print run.
Keeping your own emails from undercutting stockists
This is where wholesale and email bump into each other. A sitewide sale, a generous welcome code or a flash sale to your list all sell the product below the price your stockists charge. They notice, and it comes up at the next reorder.
- Keep a public price you'll defend, and let your own site win on range, bundles and early access
- Tell stockists about a sale before their customers do
- Tag trade accounts in Klaviyo, so consumer campaigns can exclude them
- Give stockists their own emails: new lines, reorder reminders, point of sale material
Related terms
FAQs
Should a DTC brand sell wholesale?
If the stockist reaches customers you couldn't reach yourself, usually yes. It's reach and steady volume without buying every visit. If it mostly sells to people who'd have bought from your website anyway, it's thinner margin on the same customers. Look at who shops with a stockist before you sign.
Can I add my stockists to my marketing email list?
You can email them, but keep them off your consumer list. In the UK a company address sits outside the consent rule for marketing email, a sole trader's doesn't, and both need a way to opt out. Most stockists want trade news, not consumer offers, so give them their own segment. This isn't legal advice.
How do I stop my promotions upsetting stockists?
Decide your public price and protect it. Win on your own website with range, bundles, subscriptions and early access, not deeper discounts. When you do run a sale, warn your stockists first, and keep trade customers out of the consumer send so they don't read about it in their own inbox.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
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