Selling wholesale and to janitorial buyers
Updated
Two wholesale channels that look similar and want opposite things.
Two different buyers
A retail buyer is buying something that will sit on a shelf and be chosen by a consumer.
A janitorial buyer is buying something that will be used all day by staff and judged on cost per use.
The same product rarely suits both, and the packaging certainly does not.
The retail buyer
Wants a line sheet, case quantities, a minimum order, a barcode and shelf-ready presentation.
Will check the label for compliance, and increasingly for the California ingredient disclosure, because their compliance exposure is the same as yours.
Wants consistency: the reorder has to match what is already on the shelf.
And wants a margin, conventionally about half of retail, which has to be designed in before the retail price is public.
The janitorial buyer
Wants cost per use, not cost per bottle, which immediately favors concentrates.
Wants a safety data sheet, which is not optional: supplying a hazardous chemical for workplace use brings the OSHA hazard communication requirements, including an SDS and GHS labeling.
That is a different labeling regime from the consumer one and it catches makers moving into this channel from retail.
Wants dilution control, training material, and a product that works in their equipment, which usually means low foam.
And buys in larger containers, which changes your whole packaging line.
What breaks first
Consistency, when batch forty does not match batch one on a shelf beside it.
Lead time, because component minimums are large and a reorder cannot be made in a week.
And documentation, when a buyer asks for an SDS, a stability statement or a challenge test result and there is nothing to send.