Selling Handmade Items Wholesale - Tips & Tricks

So you’ve mastered the art of making your products, selling them, and shipping them out — and now you’re ready to think about selling your handmade products wholesale. That’s a big step, and it can change your business significantly.

Wholesale orders mean larger volumes, steadier revenue, and customers who come back repeatedly for the same products. But it also means tighter margins, more complex inventory management, and a need to know your numbers inside-out before you say yes to your first retailer.

To help you start selling handmade wholesale the right way, this guide covers everything from setting your prices to choosing the right platforms — so you can grow without giving your profits away.

Is wholesale a good option for my handmade business?

Wholesale suits handmade businesses that know their costs, have proven best-sellers, and can produce consistent results — but it’s not the right move for everyone.

Selling handmade items wholesale is attractive for a reason: you sell a bulk order of the same product to the same customer, pack and ship it once, and (if your pricing is right) walk away with a solid margin for the effort.

But wholesale isn’t right for every handmade business — at least not yet.

Selling handmade products wholesale is usually best for craft businesses that:

• Have already experienced success selling directly to consumers
• Know what their best-selling products are, from real data rather than gut feel
• Have SOPs (standard operating procedures) for manufacturing, packing, and shipping — consistent processes that produce consistent results
• Know their base manufacturing costs and profit margins — this is non-negotiable
• Are ready to expand their reach without expanding their chaos
• Are comfortable allowing another brand to sell their products

If you’re not quite there yet, that’s okay — keep reading.

Another option: selling on consignment

If you don’t meet all of the above criteria, consider selling on consignment first. Consignment is essentially the bunny slope for wholesale: you place your products in a retail store, pay a small monthly fee and/or a percentage of each sale, and maintain control over what and how much you put out there.

It’s a lower-risk way to test wholesale pricing, learn what moves in a retail environment, and build relationships with store owners before you commit to large minimum orders.

See our guide: How to sell your handmade products on consignment →

Setting your wholesale prices

This is where most handmade businesses get into trouble. Wholesale pricing feels straightforward until you realize you’ve been undercharging — and by then, you’ve already made promises to a retailer.

The core principle: you cannot set a wholesale price without first knowing your true cost to make each product. That means materials, labor, packaging, overhead, and any platform fees you’ll pay on the sale.

The wholesale pricing formula

There are several pricing formulas out there. Here’s the one that works reliably for handmade businesses:

Step 1 — Calculate your cost price:

Materials cost + Labor cost + Overhead allocation = Cost price (break-even)

• Materials cost: every ingredient, component, or supply that goes into that specific product
• Labor cost: your time at a fair hourly rate (don’t skip this — see our guide on calculating handmade labor costs →)
• Overhead allocation: your share of packaging, shipping supplies, workspace, equipment, software subscriptions — divided across the number of units you produce

Step 2 — Set your wholesale price:

Cost price × 2 = Minimum wholesale price

Your wholesale price should be at least double your cost price. This gives you a 50% margin — and you’ll need it, because wholesale customers expect to mark your products up 2x to 2.5x for retail. If you can’t offer them a workable retail margin, they won’t stock you.

Step 3 — Set your retail price:

Wholesale price × 2 to 2.5 = Suggested retail price (SRP)

If your suggested retail price ends up being dramatically higher than what you’re currently charging consumers, that’s a sign your current pricing is too low — not that your wholesale price is too high. This is a painful discovery, but it’s better to find it now.

You can use our free wholesale price calculator → to run these numbers for your products.

Wholesale pricing worksheet example

Let’s walk through a real example. Suppose you make a handmade soy candle:

Using the formula:

• Wholesale price: $12.42 × 2 = $24.84 (round to $25)
• Suggested retail price: $25 × 2.2 = $55 (round to $54.99)

If you’re currently selling that candle directly for $30, your wholesale math just told you something important: either your consumer price is too low, or your margins are too tight for wholesale. That’s not a failure — it’s useful information that helps you make a real business decision.

What if the numbers don’t work? You have a few options:

• Increase your consumer retail price (often the right call)
• Reduce material costs through bulk purchasing
• Simplify production to reduce labor time
• Accept that this product isn’t suitable for wholesale

Understanding profit margins vs. markup

There’s an important distinction that trips up a lot of makers. If you learn nothing else from this section, learn this:

A 50% markup is not the same as a 50% profit margin.

• Markup of 100% on a $12 cost = $24 sell price → 50% margin
• Markup of 50% on a $12 cost = $18 sell price → 33% margin

Learn more about the difference between markup and profit margins →

Understanding minimum order quantities (MOQs)

Minimum order quantities (MOQs) are a standard part of wholesale — and they serve you as much as they serve your buyer.

An MOQ is the smallest order a retailer must place to buy from you. Setting one protects your time: packing a 6-unit order costs almost as much as packing a 24-unit order, but the revenue is very different.

How to set your MOQ:

• Consider your production batch size. If you make candles in batches of 12, a MOQ of 12 or 24 makes sense — you’re already set up to fill it efficiently.
• Factor in your minimum profitable order size. At what quantity does an order actually make sense for your margins, after packaging and shipping time?
• Consider your product price point. Lower-priced items often have higher MOQs; higher-priced items (jewelry, home goods) can have lower ones.

Common MOQ structures:

• Unit-based: “Minimum 12 units per style”
• Dollar-based: “Minimum order $150”
• Mix-and-match: “Minimum 24 units, can be mixed across fragrances/colors”

Dollar-based MOQs are often easier for retailers to understand and hit. They also give you flexibility to introduce new products without restructuring your whole ordering system.

First order vs. reorder MOQs:

Many makers set a higher MOQ for first orders (to make the onboarding worth it) and a lower reorder MOQ (to keep retailers coming back). For example: first order minimum $200, reorder minimum $100.

Improve your processes

Here’s the part that feels uncomfortable for many makers: going wholesale means leaning into the assembly line mentality, at least for your core products.

Your craft business has heart. You love what you make, and your customers do too. But big volume orders require that you can produce the same result, consistently, every time — which means documented processes, not just intuition.

Your business can only grow when you have SOPs that can be replicated. When you start taking wholesale orders, a retailer is counting on you to deliver 48 units that look exactly like the 12 they sampled. If your process varies, your product varies. That’s a customer service problem waiting to happen.

Now is the time to track how long things actually take. If you can make your product in 15 minutes when you’re in the zone, but 30 minutes when you’re tired or distracted, budget 30 minutes for all your orders. Underpromise, overdeliver — it’s a better reputation than being consistently late.

If you haven’t built out your SOPs yet, see our guide: How to create SOPs for your product-based business →

Identify your best sellers

A common wholesale mistake is offering your entire product line to retailers. Not every product you make is a good wholesale candidate.

Here’s why: a $20 profit margin on a necklace that takes 20 minutes to make is very different from a $20 profit margin on a ring that takes an hour. Volume amplifies that difference. Selling 24 necklaces takes 8 hours; selling 24 rings takes 24 hours. If the margin is the same, the math isn’t.

When deciding what to offer wholesale, ask yourself:

• Is this in my top-selling products, with proven demand?
• Can I make it efficiently and consistently, batch after batch?
• Can I train someone else to make it (if I ever want to hire)?
• Is it durable enough to survive packing and shipping without returns?
• Does it offer me a real profit at wholesale prices?

If Craftybase tracks your sales, you can pull a best-sellers report to see exactly which products move and which margins hold up under the math. That data is worth more than any gut feeling. Find out more about Craftybase reporting →

Pitch potential wholesale companies

Sometimes wholesale comes to you — a retailer reaches out, you vet them, and it’s a natural fit. More often, you’ll need to seek it out. Here’s how:

1. Research potential retail partners — Start with stores you admire: local boutiques, independent gift shops, or online stores whose aesthetic matches yours. The best wholesale customers are ones whose brand complements yours, not competes with it.

2. Vet before you commit — You can be selective about wholesale customers. A retailer will represent your brand in their store. Check their existing product mix, read their reviews, look at how they present the products they carry. You’re choosing a business partner, not just a sales channel.

3. Prepare a simple pitch — You don’t need a polished deck. A clear, concise email works well:

   [Greeting] + [Who you are and why you chose this store specifically] + [What you make and why it would sell well for them] + [How to order]

   Attach a one- or two-page lookbook with product photos, wholesale pricing, and MOQs. A clean PDF goes a long way.

4. Accept the outcome — Some will bite, some won’t. The ones who don’t may simply have a full buyer quota or a budget freeze. Keep a short follow-up sequence and move on — there are plenty of retailers who’d love to stock handmade goods if you show up in front of them.

Online wholesale marketplaces

If you’re looking for an easier way to get in front of retail buyers without cold-pitching, wholesale marketplaces are worth exploring. They bring retailers to you.

Faire

Faire is the dominant online wholesale marketplace for independent makers and brands. Retailers — from boutiques to gift shops to garden centers — browse Faire to discover products to stock.

How Faire works for brands:

• You create a brand profile and list your products with wholesale pricing and MOQs
• Retailers can browse, order, and reorder through the platform
• Faire handles payment processing and offers retailers net-60 payment terms (they pay you upfront and absorb the risk)

Current Faire commission structure (2026):

The 15% can add up on first orders, but the 0% reorder rate means loyal retailers become much more profitable over time. The Faire Direct option is worth setting up early: when you bring your existing wholesale customers onto Faire, you pay no commission at all — just payment processing.

👉 Use our free Faire fee calculator → to see exactly what you’d net on any given order.

Things to know before you join:

• Faire requires you to honor a returns policy for retailers on first orders (they can return unsold items within 60 days)
• Your pricing on Faire must be consistent with your other wholesale channels
• The platform is competitive — strong product photography and clear descriptions matter

Other wholesale marketplaces

Faire is the main player in this space for independent makers. Other options worth exploring:

• IndieMe (formerly Wholesale Crafts) — a marketplace specifically for handmade and independent brands, with no commission model
• Abound — a curated wholesale marketplace with a focus on independent brands and sustainability

Note: Tundra, another popular zero-commission wholesale marketplace, permanently shut down in June 2023. If you have any existing listings or accounts there, they are no longer active.

Managing wholesale with inventory software

When you start selling wholesale, your inventory situation gets more complex — fast. You’re no longer just tracking what you’ve sold to individual customers; you’re manufacturing in larger batches, allocating materials across larger orders, and potentially managing stock across multiple sales channels.

This is where a spreadsheet starts to break down.

Here’s what wholesale makes harder without proper tracking:

• Material allocation — A single wholesale order might consume your entire stock of one ingredient. If you don’t know that until you’re mid-batch, you’ll miss your shipping window.
• True cost per unit — When you’re buying materials in bulk, your cost per unit changes. You need to be recalculating COGS as material prices shift, or your pricing will drift.
• Order fulfillment accuracy — Shipping 48 units when you were supposed to ship 72 is a problem. Without a proper system, pick errors happen.
• Profit visibility — Do you actually know which wholesale accounts are profitable once you account for Faire fees, packaging, and labor? Without clean data, you’re guessing.

Craftybase tracks all of this in one place. When a wholesale order comes in — from Faire or directly — Craftybase deducts the right materials from your stock, updates your manufacturing records, and calculates COGS per unit automatically. You can see exactly what each order cost you to fulfill, not just what it earned.

For makers who connect their Faire account to Craftybase, orders sync automatically. That means no manual data entry, and your stock levels stay accurate even when you’re mid-production on the next batch.

See how Craftybase connects with Faire →

What good wholesale inventory management looks like:

• You know your material stock levels before you accept an order — not after you’ve already said yes
• Your COGS updates automatically when you purchase materials at a new price
• You can pull a report at tax time showing exactly what it cost you to fulfill wholesale orders (essential for Schedule C)
• You’re never guessing what’s on the shelf — you’re checking a number you trust

Starting wholesale without solid inventory management is doable. Scaling wholesale without it is where things fall apart.

Frequently Asked Questions

Moving into wholesale is a significant decision for any handmade business owner. Get the pricing right, document your processes, choose your products carefully, and make sure your systems can handle the volume before you take on large orders.

The makers who succeed at wholesale aren’t the ones with the lowest prices — they’re the ones who know their numbers, deliver consistently, and build relationships with retailers who respect what they make.

Start a 14-day free trial of Craftybase →