Offering your products for wholesale tips

Getting your products into wholesale can help your business grow immensely!

Is wholesale selling something you’d enjoy in your business? I only ask because it's SO important to align your work with your vision.

Do you imagine yourself reproducing greeting cards, packaging big orders and having your products available in boutiques across the country?

If that sounds interesting to you it CAN be a wonderful way to expand your calligraphy business.

I'm excited to share some valuable tips on how to start selling and offering your stationery for wholesale!

1. Think of the product collection you'd like to focus on - are you going to be selling greeting cards and posters? Maybe you'll come up with something very individual and unique and sell engraved mugs / printed t-shirts etc?

From my own experience, I find that wholesale selling works very well if it's structured around seasonal offers. Christmas cards line, Valentine's Day line, Mother's Day line etc.

Little shops love featuring seasonal items in their stores - especially cards.

Do remember though that they'd have to be available way in advance before the season kicks in. You can start listing Christmas cards in Summer etc.

2. Production

You'll probably want to test out a few printing companies to guarantee a good quality outcome. Once you've ordered a few samples and feel confident about the company to use - you can then set your shipping time. It'll depend on how fast you can turn around a print job, how long is it going to take for your cards to get delivered (take into account a need for reprint or replacement if the package gets damaged).

How long will it take you to package the cards? Let's say your processing time is 5 days - make sure you make it clear on the listing.

You don't have to pre-print mountains of cards in advance, but having a clear plan on where you'll be sourcing them is important. There are so many printing companies out there, the one I like is called A Local Printer.

3. Pricing

From what I hear the standard industry wholesale price is normally 30-50% off the recommended retail price. If you're selling your cards for £3.50 on Esty - you'll probably want to offer them for £1.75 for wholesale.

However, I do recommend setting a minimum order quantity (let's say 30 cards per each design).

4. Listing

You can make a wholesale catalogue by combining your pdf product pages on https://issuu.com and then send the catalogue to retailers or have it up on your website.

That is how I started, but later on in my business I started to use platforms like https://www.faire.com and https://www.ankorstore.com

They can be very successful and I love how they handle so many things for you. They also offer great incentives for buyers. When I started selling on Faire, my customer could get £100 off their first order while I sill got paid in full.

You won’t pay commission when you use Faire with your existing customers. Brands only pay commission on new accounts who find them through our marketplace – 25% on opening orders and 15% on reorders.

Here's my referral link - https://www.faire.com/apply/creativefeel

You can read all about their perks on their website.

I truly believe that if you put work into it - it could be a very successful selling model. It wasn’t something I focused on fully as I transitioned into selling wedding stationery mainly, but I saw that there was a lot of potential to explore.

5. Trade Shows

Trade shows are fantastic opportunities to network with retailers, showcase your products, and build relationships within the industry. Consider attending events like the London Stationery Show or the Manchester Stationery Show in the UK.

These could be very good starting points, let me know if you have any particular questions and I’ll make sure to answer them.