Selling wholesale
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Fewer, larger, repeating orders, and a product that has to stand on a shelf alone.
A different business
Retail is many small transactions with you present. Wholesale is few large ones with you absent.
Which changes the packaging, since the band that works at a market may not sell on a shelf between printed cartons.
And it changes the cash cycle: an invoice on terms rather than a card payment at a table.
Pricing and terms
Roughly half of retail is the expectation, so wholesale viability is decided when you set retail.
A minimum order, usually in cases, and a lower reorder minimum.
Terms in writing: payment period, lead time, breakage, and whether unsold stock comes back. Sale or return is a trap for a maker with a six-week cure.
And a line sheet, which is the document buyers expect and makers often do not have.
What a buyer asks for
Consistency, batch to batch, which is the thing that actually loses accounts.
Lead time you can meet, which for soap means stock on the rack rather than a promise to make it.
Liability insurance, frequently as a condition.
Barcodes for anything scanning at a till.
And a label they can shelve without worrying, which is a reason to have the category determination settled rather than argued.
Capacity is the real question
A wholesale order is due on a date, and soap takes six weeks.
So wholesale demand has to be forecast and made in advance, which means capital in stock and space on racks.
Which is the constraint that bites first: the accounts are winnable well before the cure space to serve them is.