You can sell to shoppers and to businesses from the same online store by using quantity pricing: one product, one stock count, and a price that drops as the quantity goes up. A shopper buying one pays the retail price. A shop owner buying two hundred pays the wholesale price. Nobody needs a separate website or a price list sent by message.
Retail and wholesale: the difference
| Retail | Wholesale | |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer | The person who will use it | A business that will resell or use it in bulk |
| Quantity | One or a few | Tens to thousands |
| Price | Full price | Lower price per item |
| Margin per item | Higher | Lower |
| Order value | Smaller | Larger |
| What matters most | Convenience and trust | Price, reliability and stock |
Doing both evens out your income: retail brings margin, wholesale brings volume.
How quantity pricing works
You set price tiers on a product. The price per item depends on how many are in the cart.
| Quantity | Price each |
|---|---|
| 1 to 9 | Retail price |
| 10 or more | A first bulk price |
| 50 or more | A lower price |
| 200 or more | The lowest price |
The buyer sees the tiers on the product page, so the saving for buying more is obvious. Some shops set the wholesale price by total order value instead: any order above a certain amount gets wholesale prices.
How to set your tiers
- Start from your cost, including packaging and the payment fee.
- Decide your lowest acceptable margin. That sets the bottom tier.
- Make each step worth taking. A saving of one or two percent will not move anyone to a bigger order.
- Keep to three or four tiers. More than that is hard to read.
- Set the tier sizes around how you pack: a box, a carton, a pallet.
Why one store is better than two
- One stock count. A wholesale order and a retail order cannot both take the last carton.
- One catalogue to keep up to date. Change a photo or a description once.
- Wholesale buyers order by themselves, at any hour, without waiting for a quotation.
- Retail shoppers sometimes buy more when they see the bulk price.
Things to check before you sell wholesale online
- Minimum order. Decide whether a wholesale price needs a minimum quantity or a minimum order value.
- Delivery. Bulk orders are heavy. Price delivery by weight or by district, or arrange it after the order.
- Payment. Large orders are often paid by bank transfer, so offer it alongside cards.
- Stock. Show what you really have. A wholesale buyer who is let down once does not come back.
- Returns. Write the rule for bulk orders before the first one is needed.
- Retail partners. If shops resell your products, think about how your own retail price compares with theirs.
Should every product have a wholesale price?
No. Give wholesale tiers to products you can supply in quantity and that businesses actually buy in bulk. Leave one-off and made-to-order items at a single price.
Doing it with Ceylumen Commerce
Ceylumen Commerce sells retail and wholesale from one catalogue. Wholesale prices apply automatically, by quantity or by order value, and a shop can be retail only, wholesale only or both. Wholesale pricing is part of the one-time licence, from $229, and of the hosted Marketplace plan; the hosted Starter plan is retail only.
The short answer
Use one store with quantity pricing. Set three or four tiers from your real costs, show them on the product page, keep one stock count, and decide your rules for minimum orders, delivery and returns before the first bulk order arrives.