The Best Tips on Using Shopify For Wholesale -- From a Shopify Pro
In the Wholesale In a Box course, we dive deep into helping makers find the best ways to share their lines with shops, set up a wholesale ordering system, make it easy for store owners to find you, and improve wholesale sales (among other things.)
There is one thing makers sometimes get stuck on in this process — their website.
So I was super happy to meet Erin Alexander of Product Powerhouse the other day. I got to talk about wholesale on her podcast (you can find that interview here).
Erin Alexander of Product Powerhouse
It turns out, Erin is a total treasure. She is humble, straightforward, direct, and kind — plus, a complete pro when it comes to using Shopify to grow your handmade or indie product business.
I sat down with Erin recently and asked her all of my questions about using Shopify to grow wholesale, including:
Should I hire help or DIY my first Shopify site? (You’ll be surprised by what Erin says!)
What wholesale apps are best for a Shopify website?
What mistakes am I making on my website that could be hurting sales?
Do I need a separate wholesale website?
Erin was extremely generous in sharing her expertise and giving practical ways forward that make sense for makers. If you use (or are thinking of using) Shopify and growing wholesale, read on!
What is Product Powerhouse and how do you work with makers and brands?
Product Powerhouse is a design agency and education resource for handmade and product-based business owners. My favorite thing that we do is teach business owners how to use Shopify to build, grow, and scale their business, with our podcast, digital products and courses. We also offer done for you Shopify design services, because we know that not everyone wants to do it all themselves.
How did you get into this work and what do you love most about it
I’ve always been into web design and blogging, I took HTML classes in high school and blogged for years. Offline I had a position in print design for a few years. Then in 2016, I started my company doing freelance graphic design, but realized I could charge more if I offered web design. It’s just evolved from there. I’ve also always kind of had my foot in the e-commerce and retail world through different avenues, like running an Etsy shop for printables and working as an assistant for a handmade jewelry brand.
Eventually those two worlds just merged and I realized, “hey I do have a lot of knowledge in the e-commerce industry.” So, I started leaning in to it, it was a huge turning point in my business.
What I love most is helping women ,especially fellow moms, see the potential in their business and being on their team while they start taking action and fulfill their dreams. There’s this one amazing artist that’s been in my community for a few years and when we first met she wasn’t selling any of her artwork. Now she has an Etsy store and products in local shops! That makes my heart so happy.
If a maker has an Etsy site but not a Shopify site yet, do you recommend they build a simple one themselves for a first version (and get pro help later) or is it better to get pro help (like from you) from the start?
Absolutely do it yourself! You don’t need a super fancy store to start making sales. As you start making money you can put some aside to invest in a professional design, if that’s what you want to do. I do recommend that when you start your Shopify store to invest in a good theme that has the features you want. You can accomplish a lot with the right theme!
A lot of the people we work with actually do want to learn to create their own shop which is one of the reasons why I created DIY Shop-ify, our self-study course that teaches our design methods to create a unique shop that helps convert traffic into buyers.
I also believe 100% that you need to be able to manage and update your shop on your own, even if you have a designer. Otherwise, you’ll get stuck and won’t be able to post new products or make changes because someone else left you high and dry with no instruction or guidance. You wouldn’t believe how often this happens. One of the core reasons I love Shopify is because it was created so makers are able to update things fairly easily on their own!
What are the most common mistakes (or missed opportunities) you see small brands/makers make in their Shopify sites?
Oh I love this question.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is they don’t put enough or the right information on their site. They will try to quickly work through setting up a store and not include things like reviews, shipping policies, return and exchange information, or contact info. Missing these details creates a lack of trust with potential customers. It’s hurting their credibility. It’s really important to fill out EVERY detail for your shop. I actually see this so often, that I made a free checklist to help make sure nothing gets missed!
I also see so many shop owners filling in a template’s pre-set sections with their brand info, instead of taking time to make the template fit their business. This is what makes so many Shopify stores look exactly the same. I always recommend you pick a theme and delete all the pre-set sections before you start building your own shop. Not every store needs the same sections and the best way to make your store stand out is think creatively within the sections available in your chosen theme. This is what I teach in DIY Shop(ify).
As for a missed opportunity, a lot of handmade business owners are afraid to show their face on their website. And always hear things like “well Anthropologie doesn’t show the owners face” but that’s because they’ve already been through this phase. You can bet when the founder was creating his first store (Urban Outfitters) he was showing his face talking to people. Customers who love shopping with small business love to have a face and story behind their purchase! They will say “oh I got these earrings from this small business owner I found on Instagram and I just love all her stuff.” or “I saw this company at a boutique when I was on vacation and then I looked them up online and fell in love with all her stuff.” This is something I literally did when I visited Kansas City and when I got home, I ordered a bunch of things from the makers websites to give as gifts!
Moral of the story - don’t be afraid to show your face!
When it comes to handling wholesale on a Shopify site, do you have any general recommendations?
I set up the tech for this in Shopify all the time, so I have lots of thoughts!
First, I always recommend you consider the entire customer experience, not just the order. Most people worry about how to get the wholesale orders, you also need to think about how you are gathering information from potential wholesale customers, how you will communicate with them, your wholesale terms and conditions, and shipping to those wholesale customers.
Once you’ve determined the entire wholesale customer sales journey, then you can figure out the best tech to make it happen.
If I use my retail site (plus a discount code that gives 50% for wholesale prices) for wholesale customers, how do I get it to not charge them sales tax and/or shipping?
I love this option because it’s simple for makers to set up. There are settings in the customer profile that will allow you to select that they are tax exempt. If you want to offer different shipping rates you can use an app like Bespoke Shipping and a customer tag to create different shipping profiles.
The most important step is to create an onboarding process for new wholesale customers, so that when you get a new wholesale application and you are creating their account in Shopify you remember to include all the right customers tags and settings. Even just setting up a simple checklist for yourself is good. This will make it easier for you to remember and seem like a really streamlined process for your customers. I say this as someone who resisted systems and processes for years! I promise they help.
Do you recommend any particular apps for managing wholesale on a Shopify site?
Most of the time, we recommend Wholesale Club. This app uses customer tags to show different price points, so when a wholesale customer logs in they will see their wholesale pricing. What I like most about this app is that you set it up once and you don’t really have to make any big changes except for syncing new products. For your wholesale customers it seems more “official” than using a discount code.
However, it does come with a monthly fee ($29/month or $59/month depending on the features you need) but if wholesale makes up a big percentage of your sales then it might be worth the price to streamline your process with Wholesale Club. The biggest benefit with this app is that you can allow customers to pay with net terms on their professional plan.
I also recommend a few other apps to make your entire process streamlined, like a form app (this one is my favorite) to create an application for wholesale inquiries, and you might need an app to create different shipping rates like Bespoke Shipping. Sometimes our clients want special pages that only wholesale customers can view and that requires a page locking app, like EasyLockdown.
Do you recommend having two Shopify sites (wholesale and retail) or is it better to use apps or other methods to manage wholesale on the same site folks use for retail?
It really depends on your business. There are pros and cons to either solution and I have clients that use both methods. The most important thing to consider is your own workflow. Also remember that it’s not just two stores, for example, you might also need to have two email service provider accounts. Having two stores can give you a little more control over certain things like what information a customer provides when they place an order, but it can also be a lot more work to manage two separate stores. On the other hand, using apps to manage wholesale on your retail store can seem cumbersome and really technical to get set up. See what I mean, it really depends on you and your business style!
Thank you, Erin, for sharing your expertise and guidance with us!
Looking for more help with wholesale ordering and wholesale websites? Check out these free resources…
Fun Bonus For Our Makers: LIVE Website Reviews with Aeolidia
Simplify Your Wholesale Ordering Process: 15 Do’s and Don’ts
5 Simple Fixes To Wholesale Terms Mistakes That Cost You Sales
Erin Alexander is a curly-haired, plant-loving, iced-coffee maven, that helps shop owners show up online with confidence. Her design agency, Product Powerhouse, helps product sellers build, grow and scale their online shop with the power of Shopify. She also teaches how to grow the visibility and online presence of their store through her podcast, digital products and DIY courses.