When you have a business that generates a lot of sales, it becomes a very good idea to start focusing on wholesale processes. The reason behind that is it will help you expand your business, while pushing the limits and allowing you to generate even more sales no matter the situation. The advantage here is that wholesale can breathe new life and help you boost profits naturally, while also diminishing expenses. Thankfully, Shopify Plus has a wholesale channel, and this can be harnessed to help you expand and reach even better benefits in the long term.
What is the wholesale channel?
The wholesale channel is a service available only to Shopify Plus customers and it’s pretty much a password-protected wholesale store. It’s automatically created when you add this wholesale channel to the Shopify admin. The idea here is that you will need an username and password to login, and you will have to wait a bit after the channel is created before you attempt to use it. That’s a great solution and one of those things that can bring you the benefits and results you want at the highest level.
This channel is based on the online store, but it allows wholesale buyers the same products at different prices. It’s important because you will be able to offer them special prices, based on the number of items they want to buy from you. That’s great since it makes it easier to sell all your inventory, while also having a good understanding of the entire process and not having to worry about any remaining products that you can’t move.
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The wholesale channel is a separate storefront
One of the things to note about this wholesale channel is the fact that unlike other Shopify features, this creates a different storefront. Which means someone that wants to access wholesale prices will pretty much enter a different store. That’s helpful because it can still allow you to improve your branding, while also offering a specialized solution based on the customer type.
In this wholesale store, customers can only buy products that are found in a detailed price list. You will be able to assign that price list to customers and customize it accordingly. This way every client will have its own product list and you can offer special deals based on the purchase size. It’s an amazing approach that will help eliminate any problems, while conveying a sense of professionalism.
What’s important to keep in mind when it comes to Shopify Plus is the fact that products and pages found on the wholesale store will not be indexed by search engines. What this means is that you will not have to worry about a certain price list leaking to any customers. In doing so, you will have the opportunity to fully customize the process and ensure that it always works exactly the way you expect it to. Being able to offer a special, custom approach is exceptional for every customer, and it does help save a significant amount of time.
Custom prices
With Shopify Plus you can also add custom prices and these can be adapted in a variety of different methods. For example, it’s possible to add percentage based discounts either for certain collections or across the entire store. Then there’s also the option to have flat prices for variants and products within a price list.
Another approach here is to offer different prices based on the customer and what they want to acquire. It’s a system that a lot of businesses use, and it’s designed to offer an exceptional result and a very good quality and value. With that being said, it’s also a good idea to insert volume based prices. This can be suitable for variants, but also regular products. It all comes down to the sales systems and methods that you want to use, and the results you can access are very impressive in the end.
Processing wholesale orders
One of the things to consider about wholesale orders is the fact that you will need to invite customers to activate a wholesale account. That’s how you can receive orders, the client needs to have a wholesale account and not a regular account. If they have the latter, then it will not work the way you expect. With that in mind, once a client places a wholesale order, these orders appear as a draft in your admin section as a draft order.
If you receive such orders, then you will be able to process them in different methods, based on the situation. For example, a good idea here is to send an invoice to be paid, usually via a payment provider set within your admin section. You can also choose to send a custom invoice via email, which makes it easy for the customer to pay via another method. If you want to use a wire transfer payment system, then this is the right way to do it.
And yes, you can also choose to accept payments via credit card, or you can mark that invoice as paid once you get paid via a specific system. It certainly helps and you will find it to work very well especially if you have multiple orders from the same client. Being able to process wholesale orders at your own pace is a great solution and it will certainly help save a significant amount of time and effort.
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You can test out whether Shopify is right for your business, without spending a thing,
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Things to consider when you use the wholesale channel on Shopify Plus
What’s crucial to consider about the Shopify Plus wholesale channel is the fact that this can’t be integrated with third party apps or external systems. In case you want to reach a larger audience, you do want to use the expansion store feature. This is only suitable for wholesale clients and it will have limited use. But as your business grows, sometimes you will have to rely on wholesale customers. In that case, using this channel is very simple and it just helps you generate even more sales.
The Shopify Plus wholesale channel also shares only prices with taxes included. The expansion store is where you can see prices with and without taxes. So it’s a very good idea to take your time and asses the store requirements and guidelines. As you can see, an expansion store is usually a better option for most customers, but you can still use the wholesale channel anyway, especially in the long run.
Can you import products from a list?
Absolutely, the wholesale channel feature on Shopify Plus allows you to import products from a list. Having a price list ready to go is very important, since it delivers a fast and very efficient system that you will not have a problem using at any given time. With that being said, you should consider customizing the price list with a CSV editor just to ensure that the prices in question are valid for that particular client. Otherwise you will encounter challenges and that’s the type of thing that you want to avoid.
If you import a price list, you will be able to have an unlimited number of quantity breaks. This can be helpful for a company that offers a volume focused price. Keep in mind that for a high volume you can always adapt prices, in order to make the offer even more appealing for the customer at hand. It’s a very good way to show appreciation to customers, while still implementing a seamless way to reward wholesale clients.
What are the advantages of using this Shopify Plus wholesale channel?
The main advantage is that you can offer flexible pricing. That means customers will be able to access custom prices and even receive a very good deal if they buy in bulk. Since it’s a channel that doesn’t require any extra work or coding, it’s easy to set up and you don’t have to worry about putting in a lot of effort to create such a channel. Another benefit is that you also have the same app integrations as the retail store, so the setup process is minimalist and very convenient too.
With Shopify Plus wholesale you can manage all the products within a list and change prices accordingly for every client. The inventory management process is also simplistic, yet professional as well. And on top of that, you have very good product customization, an excellent solution when you try to offer better quality and value to your customer base.
Conclusion
The Shopify Plus wholesale channel is an exceptional method you can use to sell products in bulk, and it requires minimal setup and customization. You can also have special offers for any client, while also being able to implement a really good return on investment. With that in mind, Shopify Plus includes this within the platform price, so you don’t even have to pay for the feature. That’s incredible, since you have even more ways to generate growth and provide your clients with a tremendous value. if you want to sell wholesale, then using this Shopify Plus wholesale channel is the best option, and well worth taking into consideration!
