From DTC to Wholesale: The Line Sheet That Gets You a Meeting

Wholesale is the channel that changes the shape of a young apparel brand, because somebody else's purchase order is a forecast you can actually order against. It is also the channel most new brands approach badly, by sending a beautiful lookbook with no prices in it to a buyer whose entire job is comparing prices.

The margin arithmetic first

Before anything else, check that wholesale is possible for you. The convention in US independent apparel retail is roughly keystone — the retailer doubles the wholesale price to get the shelf price, sometimes a bit more. So your wholesale price is broadly half the retail price you already publish.

That is the number your cost of goods has to sit under, with room for a profit. A brand selling a hoodie direct at $80 with a $40 cost of goods has a fine DTC business and no wholesale business at all, because the wholesale price would be about $40 and the margin would be zero.

This is where volume genuinely matters. Wholesale orders are the evidence that justifies moving up a pricing tier — a committed order is not a forecast, it is a commitment, and it is the right reason to order at 250 or 500 rather than at the minimum.

What has to be on the line sheet

1. 1A clear product image per style, on white or a plain ground. Editorial shots belong in the lookbook; a buyer needs to see the garment.
2. 2Style name and a style number. The number is not optional — it is how the order gets written and how you avoid shipping the wrong thing.
3. 3Wholesale price and suggested retail. Both. A buyer who has to calculate their own margin is being asked to do your job.
4. 4Available sizes and colourways, exactly as orderable.
5. 5Fabric composition and weight. Retail staff get asked this on the shop floor and a buyer knows it.
6. 6Your minimum order — per style and total — and any case pack requirements.
7. 7Delivery window and order cut-off dates.
8. 8Payment terms, plainly stated.

Terms: say what you mean early

New brands are often asked for net 30 or net 60 and agree without thinking about what it does to their cash. Extending credit to a retailer means you have paid for production, paid for freight, shipped the goods and are waiting a month or two to be paid — while your next production run needs a deposit.

It is entirely reasonable for a new brand to ask for payment before shipping, or a deposit with the balance on dispatch. Established retailers will push back and some will decline, and that is a legitimate trade-off to make consciously. What is not sensible is agreeing to terms you have not modelled and discovering the gap when the next order is due.

What a buyer is silently assessing

• Can this brand deliver on the date. Late delivery to a retailer is worse than no delivery, because the shelf space was held.
• Will it be here next season. Retailers invest in brands, and a brand that vanishes leaves them with orphaned stock.
• Does it sell itself. A product that needs explaining does not work in a shop where nobody is there to explain it.
• Can I reorder. A one-off drop is hard to stock; a carry-over style that can be replenished is much easier to justify.

How production supports the answer

The reorder question is the one you can answer with your supply chain. A 10 to 15 working day production window from artwork approval, on an already-approved design, means a mid-season replenishment is genuinely possible rather than theoretical. Say that to a buyer explicitly — it addresses their real anxiety, which is committing shelf space to a brand that cannot restock it.

And keep your own inventory position honest. Selling wholesale from stock you do not have, on the assumption the factory will make it in time, is the fastest route to the one failure a retailer does not forgive.