Wholesale Checklist

Apr 30, 2022

La Onda is a newsletter by Sandra Velasquez, founder of Nopalera, with actionable insights around brand building and selling.

Hi Founders!

One of the questions I received the most from you all is about getting into wholesale.

Wholesale is 55% of my business and DTC is the other 45%.
It's a nice mix.

BUT.

Would you be surprised if I told you that the wholesale accounts that are my bread and butter are the ones you've never heard of?

That's right. It's not Nordstrom, Credo, Free People, or even Whole Foods, that are fueling my revenue.

Big retailers have Net payments terms and often times chargebacks. This means you are waiting to get paid for 2 months sometimes and then when you DO get paid, there are deductions. You don't get as much money as you thought.

I sell to over 300 boutiques nationwide. They pre-pay (money goes straight to the bank account!) and they don't ask for anything. I love them.

I want to give you a checklist and some things to think about.

Questions for you:

1/ Why do you want to get into wholesale accounts?
2/ What does that mean to you? Do think it will make you money ?
3/ Do you have the operational backend to support fulfillment?
4/ Do you have a warehouse with a loading dock?
5/ CAN YOU AFFORD TO SELL WHOLESALE?

#5 is the most important, ya'll.
You need to have strong margins to be able to AFFORD to sell wholesale.
So many brands do not and then they end up making no money.

If you are unclear about cogs and margins, you are welcome to attend my next Margin Magic Masterclass. Info here: https://lu.ma/lo8mk960

Wholesale checklist ✅
1/ Have GS1 barcodes for all your SKUs
2/ Have case packs built at the manufacturing level
3/ Have your assets ready: hi-res photos on white, product briefs for each SKU for retailer education, a training video for retailers, founder bio, founder headshot.
4/ Hi-res digital sell sheet. Full color bleed. Product pics with barcodes, case packs, order contact.
5/ Order & fulfillment system. Create a company email for orders. Determine the workflow. Who will process, ship, invoice?
6/ inventory management system (who's tracking it?)

These are all the things you want to have in place before you start trying to sell into wholesale accounts.

Let's say you have all of that.
How do you actually get into the accounts?

This is a deeper question. There are no tricks.
You have to have a strong brand that is adding to the store's assortment or category.
Think like a buyer. They get hundreds of submissions regularly.

What is your brand bringing to the table that is missing in the marketplace and can help the retailer make more money?

Did I get my brand into Nordstrom because my products perform well?
Absolutely not.

I got into Nordstrom because I created a strong brand (visually) with a unique point of view that looks good on their shelves and makes them look good because now they can say they have diverse founders on their shelves.

Everything comes back down to "will this sell?"

As a former sales rep, I want to leave you with one piece of advice about pitching your brand:
It's not about how good it works (or tastes, if you have a food brand).

The presentation & positioning is everything (translation: branding and value proposition)

How did I get into the 300 boutiques?
They came to me.
How?
Because I ran facebook and instagram ads and they saw them and reached out.

Be ready. Have a wholesale application form on your website.

Discovery is a mythical unicorn. All of us like to feel like we discovered things but the reality is it was put in front of us. Usually through some sort of paid method.

I've talked about advertising in other posts. Scroll my previous posts for that info.

I hope this answers some questions. If you need more clarity on this, reply back with your question.

I may hold a live Q&A for everyone on this list if there is still any confusion.

But you need to speak up if you need more help!

P.S did you hear the latest episode of The Nopalera podcast? https://the-nopalera-podcast.captivate.fm