Running a wholesale business may be challenging. Thankfully, with the right strategies in place, you can enjoy steady and impressive profits. And one of the best strategies just happens to be offering product variation exclusivity to specific customer roles.
By giving certain customers access to some product variants, you increase your chances of making huge sales. You may even win over a significant number of lifelong patrons!
For this reason, today’s article will discuss what product variations are and how making them exclusive to some customers can help your business grow. Then, we’ll guide you through three simple steps to make your product variations exclusive to specific wholesale customer roles.
So let’s get started!
What Are Product Variations?
Product variations are different versions of a particular product that are available to customers. Typically, these variations typically differ in one or more attributes such as size, color, shape, features, materials, or configurations.
For example, a t-shirt can come in various sizes (small, medium, large) and colors (red, blue, green). Similarly, a sofa can be available in different upholstery materials (leather, fabric).
Offering multiple variations of an item can benefit a store in many ways. For starters, it provides customers with more choices, which increases the likelihood of meeting their specific needs. This allows enterprises to tailor their offerings to various market segments so that they can cater to diverse customer preferences and requirements. As a result, businesses increase their likelihood of enjoying more sales and boosting their revenue.
We outline the other advantages of product variations in our article “The 2 Best Ways To Display Lists Of Product Variations On Your Online Store (4 Easy Steps).”
Why Should You Offer Product Variation Exclusivity To Certain Customer Roles?
Offering product variations is already an excellent idea. However, making item variants exclusive to certain customer roles can lead to even greater benefits.
Customer loyalty: the #1 reason to offer product variation exclusivity
When you provide product variations exclusively to specific customer roles, you create a sense of exclusivity and differentiation. This strategy can make customers feel extremely special and valued, which, in turn, can foster stronger partnerships with customers and promote their loyalty toward you. And the more loyal a customer is, the more likely they’ll keep purchasing from you instead of leaving you for your competitors.
Customer loyalty is a factor you should never underestimate. After all, according to data gathered by Acquia, 59% of American consumers express that once they’ve become loyal to a brand, that loyalty endures for a lifetime.
Furthermore, in regard to their spending habits, loyal customers pay an average of 33% more per order.
And let’s not forget that boosting a brand’s customer retention rate by 5% can result in a profit increase ranging from 25% to 95%. Meanwhile, acquiring new customers is five times more costly than retaining existing ones.
However, the benefits don’t end there…
Other benefits of offering product variations to specific customer roles
There are other advantages of making item variations exclusive to certain customers.
For one thing, it allows wholesalers to provide tailored solutions that address unique needs. As you can imagine, this can enhance customer satisfaction and strengthen relationships.
For another, wholesalers can offer value-added services alongside exclusive product variations. For instance, they can provide specialized training and support, adding value to the customer experience and establishing trust.
Furthermore, by targeting different customer roles with exclusive product variations, wholesalers can effectively segment their market. This can help in the development of tailored strategies to reach each segment more efficiently.
Lastly, exclusive product variations create opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. Consequently, this can expand sales and increase revenue by offering higher-value products or complementary items.
Our 3-Step Guide On How To Make Product Variations Exclusive To Specific Wholesale Customer Roles
We’ve discussed the benefits of product variation exclusivity. Now, it’s time to learn how to offer product variants to certain wholesale customers only.
However, take note: for the following tutorial to work, you’ll first need to acquire, install, and activate two tools:
- The WooCommerce e-commerce platform
- Our Wholesale Prices Premium plugin
Wholesale Prices Premium is a WooCommerce expansion that lets you set wholesale prices for your online store. Among many other things, it also allows you to create special product variations for your wholesale customers.
In addition, we’re going to assume you already know how to add products and product variations to your online store.
With that in mind, let’s begin the tutorial!
Step 1: Select a product with a variation
First, you need to select a product with a variation that you can offer exclusively to certain customers.
On your WordPress dashboard, head to Products > All Products. Then, click on the name of the product you wish to edit. Alternatively, you can hover your mouse button over the product and click its Edit button.
This will bring you to the product’s Edit Product page.
Now, scroll down to the Product data box just under the Product description box.
Next to the Product data label, make sure the dropdown menu says “Variable product.” If the chosen product comes with variations, this should already be the selected option.
Now, you’re ready to create product variation exclusivity.
Step 2: Make the product variation exclusive to specific customer roles
In the Product data box, select the Variations option to reveal all of the item’s variants.
Basically, to offer a variation to one or more customer roles, you have to edit said variation. Begin the process by clicking the variation’s Edit button.
Next, scroll all the way down to the Wholesale Exclusive Variation section.
As the section’s description says, “Specify if this variation should be exclusive to wholesale roles. Leave empty to make it available to all.”
To do the former, simply click on the dropdown menu below the description. Then, choose the customer role to whom you wish to offer variation exclusivity.
Take note that you can offer exclusivity to one or more customer roles:
And that’s it! Now, only your chosen wholesale customer roles can see and purchase the product variation. In other words, regular customers won’t have access to it.
Step 3: Save your changes
Once you’re happy with the changes you’ve made to your product variation, click the Save changes button. Finally, click Update in the Publish box.
Conclusion
Giving specific customer roles exclusive access to certain product variations can boost your business performance, ensuring its long-term growth and success.
For starters, this strategy can promote customer loyalty, which can, in turn, boost your sales and revenue. In addition, it allows you to provide tailored solutions and value-added services. It can even help with market segmentation and the expansion of sales via upselling and cross-selling.
Thankfully, offering product variations exclusively to certain wholesale customer roles is easy. All you need to do is install and activate WooCommerce and Wholesale Prices Premium. Then, you simply have to observe three simple steps:
- Select a product with a variation
- Make the product variation exclusive to specific customer roles
- Save your changes
Do you have any questions about how to make product variations exclusive to certain customer roles? Let us know in the comments section below; we’d be happy to help you out!
