Does anyone out there using their site to sell both wholesale and retail? It is possible to let people log in and create a wholesale price level (say, 40% off). We can even make a customer "tax free" since resellers do not pay taxes.
At the same time, it is difficult to tailor a site to both retail and wholesale customers.
Anyone selling wholesale and retail through the same site? What have you learned?
Full Version: Selling Wholesale and Retail
One of my clients has a "dealer" section. The dealers can log in and all the prices are changed just for their dealer level. For example, dealer level 1 has 10% off, dealer 2 has 20% off...and so forth. You can also give each product a specific amount. Like product a is $10 for retail, $8.95 for dealer level 1, $7.99 for dealer level 2 and so forth.
Tech support can help you set this up...it was a little tricky but i found that if i set up the different levels, then set up the product levels next, it was easier to maintain. The manual does not explain anything about this...really bizarre.
Maybe the new release will have better manuals with it.
Tech support can help you set this up...it was a little tricky but i found that if i set up the different levels, then set up the product levels next, it was easier to maintain. The manual does not explain anything about this...really bizarre.
Maybe the new release will have better manuals with it.
We plan on implementing Wholesale/Retail on our site within the next few weeks. However we have seperate product listings for these items and do not require a login for wholesale purchases.
We only wish that ontop of the 'Minimum Purchase Qty' that you could also choose a 'Min. Purchase Qty Increment' so people could only purchase certain items in increments you set. (i.e.: 12, 24, 36...)
Robert Hufault
Not Just Keychains... Ultimate Keychains!
www.ultimatekeychains.com
We only wish that ontop of the 'Minimum Purchase Qty' that you could also choose a 'Min. Purchase Qty Increment' so people could only purchase certain items in increments you set. (i.e.: 12, 24, 36...)
Robert Hufault
Not Just Keychains... Ultimate Keychains!
www.ultimatekeychains.com
As far as being possible, YES, selling wholesale and retail through the same site is possible.....BUT the big quesiton is are your wholesalers going to be happy that you are selling retail?
Many of my clients keep two seperate sites that do their retail and their wholesale business seperately. This really depends on the type of wholesale you are doing and the feelings of your customers.
Many of my clients keep two seperate sites that do their retail and their wholesale business seperately. This really depends on the type of wholesale you are doing and the feelings of your customers.
We sell both retail and wholesale through our site. Like others, we have several levels of wholesale buyers, denoted wholesale 1, wholesale 2, etc. Each is set up as a % mark up from cost.
We have found it very sucessful. The only issue that I would like to change is the shipping. Currenly, we charge our retail buyers $5.00 fixed shipping per order. (We have found that this has increased our sales incredibly). We charge our wholesale customers UPS actual. However, the system is currrently not capable of supporting this. We have to go back and charge the wholesale customer's account again.
We are investigation opening a store just for the wholesale customers. Some view it as having our hands in both pots, and ultimately "stealing sales" from our wholesale customers. We are in the process of polling our wholesale customers
We have found it very sucessful. The only issue that I would like to change is the shipping. Currenly, we charge our retail buyers $5.00 fixed shipping per order. (We have found that this has increased our sales incredibly). We charge our wholesale customers UPS actual. However, the system is currrently not capable of supporting this. We have to go back and charge the wholesale customer's account again.
We are investigation opening a store just for the wholesale customers. Some view it as having our hands in both pots, and ultimately "stealing sales" from our wholesale customers. We are in the process of polling our wholesale customers
I am just starting to offer wholesale. I created a category for that pricing and those items have a minimum quantity, but there is no way to make them meet the minimum total. It will have to be managed somehow.
The problem so far is that some retail customers try to add a wholesale item to their order and want it at that price. I am thinking I need a seperate storefront to offer wholesale.
Wendi
The problem so far is that some retail customers try to add a wholesale item to their order and want it at that price. I am thinking I need a seperate storefront to offer wholesale.
Wendi
You dont need a separate site to accomplish this. Simply give your customer a wholeale discount code where when he logsin he can purchase at wholesale. If you have to make him have a separate login for wholesale only. Like i said you dont have to but i would reccomend you do get a 2n site because you will lose a lot of buyers (wholesale) when they see you sell retail thereby being one of their competitors. It is best to have a separate site and market it as a wholesale site in my opinion. That is what im starting with pretty good success with my 2 sites. Technical support can go more in depth with how to setup wholesale/retail on the same site. 
commerce has the features to make this run smoothly. I believe you have the ability to give someone wholesale discounts on certain items and not necessarily sitewide.
commerce has the features to make this run smoothly. I believe you have the ability to give someone wholesale discounts on certain items and not necessarily sitewide.
After reviewing several posts on this site we've actually decided to just go ahead and create a seperate wholesale site. The bottom line is it will help keep the wholesale/retail customers seperate which means less confusion. Oh yeah, and since they'll link back to each other it should double our exposure and help with search engine ratings.
We are wondering how much difficulty there is in maintaining the 2 separate sites as far as database issues are concerned when it comes to maintaining them.
We are having enough fun with one.
We are having enough fun with one.
I just started a second store. However, the second store will not maintain any actual inventory counts. I'm sure this would be an issue for some. Too bad doesn't allow 'shared inventory' for store owners with multiple stores selling the same products. Maybe this will be in 5.0, hint hint 
doesn't allow 'shared inventory' for store owners with multiple stores selling the same products. Maybe this will be in 5.0, hint hint
That would be awsome to be able to maintain multiple sites from a single database. I could see some serious exposure and sales opportunities there.
Don't tease me with a version 5.0.....I'm about to have a spasm waiting on 4.0!!
Don't tease me with a version 5.0.....I'm about to have a spasm waiting on 4.0!!
Heck yes, multiple sites from one database would be an awesome feature, managing the present adding of products, variations and so on across multiple sites is a nightmare.
Cheers
Chris
Cheers
Chris
Not sure if this was answered. But I am currently running a retail and wholesale site. By using the price level editor you can assign price levels to certain customers. Under each product you can assign a price for that price level. That way when they sign in, they see their price.
I am using 4.0 and have never used an older version. If you are a database guru, there is an easy method of changing ALL your products at once without having to set the price one by one. You must be using Dataport and have access to a database. If you would like more information please shoot me an email.
I use my own SQL database to do major changes to my products, then I export to a file that can be imported into Dataport and then uploaded to the site. Might sound like a lot of steps, but try updating 2000 products or more one by one
Rick Earley Jr. (rick@trmallonline.com)
TRMall Online
Owner
I am using 4.0 and have never used an older version. If you are a database guru, there is an easy method of changing ALL your products at once without having to set the price one by one. You must be using Dataport and have access to a database. If you would like more information please shoot me an email.
I use my own SQL database to do major changes to my products, then I export to a file that can be imported into Dataport and then uploaded to the site. Might sound like a lot of steps, but try updating 2000 products or more one by one
Rick Earley Jr. (rick@trmallonline.com)
TRMall Online
Owner
Unfortunatley, what you can't do at this time is assign a minimum purchase size to a price level. It would be nice to require that anyone at the "wholesale prices level" must buy $300 (or whatever) worth of products to get the wholesale price. At present I don't think this can be done, even in 4.0.
| QUOTE (robert @ Mar 5 2004, 02:28 PM) |
| Unfortunatley, what you can't do at this time is assign a minimum purchase size to a price level. It would be nice to require that anyone at the "wholesale prices level" must buy $300 (or whatever) worth of products to get the wholesale price. At present I don't think this can be done, even in 4.0. |
ok, got what you are trying to do as well. Just would be a shame to have to setup a second site to do all of this. But until they let you set a min. order on a per customer or per price level I guess that is the only option.
Sorry I could not be of much help. Still learning the system myself. only other thing I could think of, not sure it can be done, is a custom ASP page, that you can create, somewhere in the checkout process that checks price level and the total in the cart that would either stop, or allow the transaction based off what you wanted. but I don't know if you can insert pages in the middle of the checkout process.
| QUOTE |
| BUT the big quesiton is are your wholesalers going to be happy that you are selling retail? |
As a retailer who buys merchandise from some vendors who also retail, this is a very valid point. The trick is to sell your merchandise at a higher retail so you aren't competing with your wholesale customers. For example, let's say the normal retail for a product is $10 and you sell it wholesale for $5. You'd want to sell that product on your retail site for more than $10 so you aren't competition for your wholesale customers. Or, you'd want to offer some type of incentive for your wholesale customers to buy in quantity at less than $5, say $4, so they have a better price point to work with -- they can sell it at a lower price and still make their full retail markup. Nothing turns me off more than a prospective vendor selling an item for $10 retail and expecting me to buy it at $7 wholesale!
Just my 2 cents.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.