Are you considering going wholesale? Or are you already running a wholesale business? Either way, you must be clear about the wholesale terms and conditions that you want your customers to agree with. After all, these rules clarify what products you’re selling and the terms you’re selling them on, which can help you avoid costly, headache-inducing misunderstandings in the long run.
For this reason, it’s important to know what terms and conditions you should include in your wholesale terms sheet.
Note: If you want to generate terms and conditions for your wholesale program, use our Wholesale Terms And Conditions Generator tool – it’s absolutely free! And here’s our guide on how to use this nifty tool!
With that in mind, let’s jump into what information you need to include in your wholesale terms sheet!
7 Wholesale Terms And Conditions You Need To Put In Your Wholesale Terms Sheet
When you establish your wholesale terms and conditions, you create a legally binding agreement between you and your clients. Therefore, these rules can encourage compliance with industry regulations, clarify the contractual parties’ rights and responsibilities, protect said parties against abuse, and more.
As every business is unique, make sure your terms and conditions are tailored to your store’s specific needs. Keep this in mind as you explore the rest of today’s post!
Now, let’s get started on the 7 wholesale terms and conditions your wholesale terms sheet needs to be spectacular!
1. Minimum order quantity
You need to set a minimum order quantity or MOQ in your wholesale terms sheet.
What’s a minimum order quantity? Here’s TradeGecko’s definition of the term:
Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) simply means the minimum amount your retailer has to spend per order to be able to stock your products at their store.
When you set your MOQ terms, you let wholesale buyers know the minimum purchase they need to make to receive wholesale pricing. This will let you offer the lowest price possible to your wholesale customers. In addition, you can separate the big players from the small ones, since the former can typically comply with MOQ.
If you have varied wholesale buyers, you can tailor-fit the MOQ as necessary. However, remember to set the minimum price limit without hurting your profit margins.
We recommend installing our Wholesale Prices Premium Plugin plugin, which can help you implement this kind of flexible MOQ functionality in WooCommerce.
2. Wholesale pricing
Wholesale pricing is typically lower than retail pricing. Nevertheless, the former lets you make a significant profit since buyers are purchasing in large volumes.
If you’ve yet to determine specific products’ wholesale price, TradeGecko suggests using the absorption price method by adding the cost plus profit margin. Specifically, you should calculate the cost price by adding the production cost per unit to the total overheads and admin expenses, then dividing the resulting value by the number of units produced.
Download our free guide on how to price retail products for wholesale here.
3. Payment terms
As a business owner, your goal is to make tons of sales and avoid incurring losses. Hence, among the most important wholesale terms and conditions to put in your terms sheet are the payment terms. Basically, these define when and how customers can make payments.
By clearly defining the payment terms, wholesale buyers are informed of the allowable payment period. For example, you can set whether wholesale buyers need to pay before or after the delivery of your goods or services. Alternatively, you can allow them to pay within a specified time frame.
In addition, you should state the method of payment, such as via credit card, cheque, Paypal, or bank deposit.
TradeGecko expounded on the payment terms:
Payment terms are usually either upon shipment of the order, Net-30, Net 60, or Net 90. Net terms just mean you expect your customer to pay the invoice in a specific number of days. But do bear in mind that setting Net-30 payment terms doesn’t mean you will get paid on time, as debtors may still pay late, regardless of when your payment terms are due.
You should make it clear if you allow net payment after 30, 60, or 90 days for wholesale purchases. And to ensure you receive your payment, don’t forget to only offer net terms to repeat wholesale buyers with a good track record and reputation.
4. Minimum retail prices
You can also set minimum retail prices that wholesale buyers will follow. By doing so, you won’t have to create huge differences between the original wholesale prices and retail prices.
At the same time, setting minimum retail prices also ensures that wholesale buyers won’t reduce their prices so drastically that they can no longer make profits.
5. Return and exchange policies
As a business owner, you know that not everything always goes as smoothly as you want it to. For this reason, you need to prepare yourself for worst-case scenarios. This will let you know what to do when customers return items that are defective or the wrong size, for example.
In your wholesale terms sheet, you need to clearly specify your return and exchange policies. Will you offer a 7-days replacement for defective items? Are you going to allow for the exchange of items? Will you offer a 30-day money-back guarantee? These are just some of the things you need to consider.
By setting these policies, you let wholesale buyers know your terms, thus helping them avoid future misunderstandings.
6. Shipping
Your wholesale terms sheet should also include shipping terms. It must also be clear whether the shipping costs will be shouldered by you or the customer.
Consider the method and form of shipment that wholesale buyers can agree with. Let wholesale buyers know whether you ship worldwide or only to certain countries. You should also inform them about the packaging of product orders. In addition, buyers must be made aware of the turnaround time, specifically regarding every shipment’s estimated time of arrival.
Allow for a shipping window. As explained by The Shop Files, a shipping window is
the timeframe between start ship and cancel dates when vendors are expected to ship. Two weeks is a really common ship window; so an order placed on 5/1 would have a cancel date of 5/15. This means as a vendor you can ship anytime within that window, or timeframe – you could ship right away on 5/1 or take the full two weeks and ship out 5/15.
7. Ordering process
The terms sheet should specify the wholesale terms and conditions for ordering products wholesale.
Wholesale buyers need to know how they’ll place orders for your products. Thus, having a quick guide in your wholesale terms sheet specifying the ordering process can be of great help to them.
Conclusion
For your wholesale business to thrive, you should clarify your store’s terms and conditions. This will legally bind all concerned parties to the rules, allowing everyone to enjoy benefits such as compliance with industry regulations and protection against abuse.
To recap, for your terms sheet to be amazing, you need to include the following wholesale terms and conditions:
- Minimum order quantity
- Wholesale pricing
- Payment terms
- Minimum retail prices
- Return and exchange policies
- Shipping
- Ordering process
Do you have any questions about wholesale terms and conditions? How about our Wholesale Suite plugins – a set of tools you can use to create an attractive and lucrative online store? Let us know in the comments section below!
this will be useful we are looking to establish an affiliate program & wholesaler program through Shopify.
We are looking to set up our wholesale terms and policy and this really helps. Thank you.
Glad to hear this helps Jigme!