How to Price Handmade Items for Wholesale (Line Sheet)

To price handmade items for wholesale, work out the full cost of one item, meaning materials, packaging, your labor and a share of overhead, and double it: that's the wholesale price. Double the wholesale price for the suggested retail price, because gift shops commonly work on keystone, doubling what they pay you. Then check the retail price against what shoppers actually pay for something similar. If it's too high, the fix is in the cost or the product, not in a smaller wholesale price. For a 4 oz jar of whipped body butter that costs $5.16 to make, that's $10.50 wholesale and $21 retail. Below are the steps, consignment compared, the line sheet a buyer expects, and a free template.

The short version

1. Full cost per item: materials over the units that came out sellable, packaging, labor at a real hourly rate, overhead.
2. Wholesale = full cost × 2. Round up to a tidy price.
3. Suggested retail = wholesale × 2 (keystone).
4. Sell at the retail price everywhere you sell direct. Undercutting your own shops loses them.
5. Check the retail price against the shelf. Too high means fix the cost, not the markup.
6. Send a line sheet: products, wholesale and retail prices, case packs, minimums, terms.
7. TaroStack keeps the cost under the price current and the shops' orders in one place. More below.

Step 1: the full cost of one jar

The example is the whipped body butter from the cosmetic batch record article, made up for these articles. A batch of 4,002 g filled 33 sellable jars of 4 oz:

Divide by 33, not by the 35 the formula should have made: the two jars' worth left in the bowl cost the same as the rest. The labor is the maker's own time, at what a helper would be paid; if you do pay someone, the full rate includes payroll taxes, worked through in how to compute labor cost.

Step 2: wholesale at twice the cost

$5.16 × 2 = $10.32. Round up to $10.50, which leaves $5.34 a jar, a margin of 51%.

That's a much bigger margin than a bakery's 30% (see pricing baked goods for wholesale), and it needs to be. Wholesale has costs that don't show up per jar: samples for buyers, a stall at a trade show, the jar that arrives cracked, waiting 30 days to be paid, and the months between making a batch and a shop reordering. A jar of body butter also sells far more slowly than a loaf of bread, so each sale has to carry more of the business.

Step 3: retail at twice wholesale

$10.50 × 2 = $21.00. That's the price on the shop's shelf, and it should be your price at your own market stall and on your own website too. If you sell it online for $15 because "it only costs me $5," the shop that pays you $10.50 can't compete with you, and it won't reorder.

Retail is your best channel, not your cheapest one: selling a jar yourself at $21 keeps $15.84 instead of $5.34. Wholesale is worth it for the volume and the shelves you don't have to stand behind.

Step 4: check it against the shelf

Walk into two or three shops you'd like to sell to and look at what a 4 oz jar of body butter sells for. If $21 sits comfortably among them, you're done. If everything similar is $14, you have three honest options: lower the cost (a bigger batch, jars bought by the case of 500, fewer scents), make the product clearly better or different, or decide this one is a retail-only product where you keep the full price. Cutting the wholesale price to $7 is the option that looks easiest and quietly makes every wholesale order a loss once the samples and shipping are counted.

The same rule applied to the rest of the range:

The unscented jar costs 15 cents less to make and sells at the same price, which is normal: shoppers don't pay less for the absence of lavender, and one price per size keeps the line sheet simple.

Wholesale or consignment

Some shops will offer consignment instead: they put your jars out, pay you a share when one sells, and give back what doesn't. At a 60/40 split you'd get $12.60 a jar, more than the $10.50 wholesale price. Here's the same 12 jars over two months, when 8 of them sell:

Consignment pays more per jar and less in total, later, with your stock in a shop you don't run. It can be a good way into a shop that won't risk an unknown maker. As a standing arrangement, wholesale is simpler.

The line sheet

A buyer's first question after "can I see it" is "send me your line sheet": one page with everything needed to place an order. Here's what goes on it:

Get the template

Download the wholesale pricing template and line sheet. It has the pricing tab for the three products, with the full cost, wholesale and retail worked out and rows for your own; a line sheet that fills itself from the prices, ready for your name and terms; and the consignment comparison. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Full cost        =ingredients + packaging + labor + overhead
Wholesale        =ROUNDUP(full cost * 2 * 2, 0) / 2      (twice cost, up to the next 50 cents)
Suggested retail =wholesale * 2

Where this stops working

The $5.16 is right for the shea butter you bought in August. Then the next delivery costs more, the jar supplier changes the price per case, and a new scent with a $200-a-kilo essential oil joins the line at the same $10.50 as the others. The line sheet still says $10.50 because nobody re-costed it, and the margin quietly goes from 51% to 40%. Meanwhile the wholesale orders, the market stall and the website are all drawing on the same jars, and the spreadsheet doesn't know that the six jars promised to a shop on Friday are the six you sold at the market this morning.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps the cost under the wholesale price current. Shea butter and jars come in at the price you paid, freight included, and each batch you record is costed from what it actually used, divided by the jars that came out good, so a pricier delivery or a smaller batch shows up in the cost the day it happens. Margins are reported per product on that actual cost, and a price-creep report shows which supplier has been moving. So the moment a product needs a new price is something you see, before the next line sheet goes out.

Shops are customers, and their orders are sales orders, with a picking list and a delivery note, drawing on the same stock as everything else. Connect your Shopify store and its sales come off the same shelf, so the six jars promised on Friday aren't sold twice; each early store is connected by hand, with us. And every shipment carries its batch's lot, so if a batch ever has a problem, you know which shops have it.

Customers, sales orders and lots are on every plan, from $49 a month; recipes, batches and true cost are on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, and your products, customers and open orders import from a spreadsheet. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

What is the formula for wholesale pricing?

A common one for handmade goods: full cost × 2 = wholesale price, and wholesale × 2 = retail. Full cost includes materials, packaging, your labor and overhead, not materials alone.

What is keystone pricing?

Doubling the wholesale price to set the retail price, so the shop keeps half. Gift and boutique shops commonly work this way, which is why a maker's wholesale price is usually half the retail price.

Should my retail price be the same as the store's?

Yes. Selling direct for less than your stockists undercuts them, and they stop reordering. Sell at the suggested retail price everywhere, and keep the difference as the reward for selling it yourself.

Is consignment better than wholesale?

It pays more per item sold but less in total when not everything sells, later, and you carry the unsold stock. It's a useful first step into a shop; wholesale is the better standing arrangement.