How to Set Wholesale Prices for Clothing Brands on Shopify – 5 Easy Steps

To set effective wholesale prices for clothing brands on Shopify, start with an accurate landed cost. Next, you can use that figure to determine an accurate wholesale price that leaves you a healthy profit while still giving your retailer a strong margin off the MSRP. The last step is to implement a tiered pricing structure or volume discounts on your Shopify store.

The Core Challenge: Balancing the Three Key Numbers

Setting wholesale prices for clothing brands isn’t just about picking a number; it’s a careful balancing act between three figures:
1. your landed cost,
2. your wholesale price, and
3. your product’s MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price).

Clothing retailers typically expect a 50-60% margin, which means your wholesale price must be low enough to leave them room to make a profit while still covering all your costs and target margin.

Let’s break down how to get it right.

The 5 Steps to Setting Wholesale Prices For Clothing Brands

1) Get Your Landed Cost Right (No Guesswork Allowed)

Your landed cost is the total, per-unit cost of getting a finished product to your warehouse door. It’s the most critical number in this entire process.

Calculate your landed cost by adding up every single expense:

• Raw Materials: Fabric, trims, buttons, labels.
• Manufacturing: The CMT (cut-make-trim) or factory price.
• Finishing: Polybags, hangtags, brand labels, and packaging.
• Inbound Freight & Duties: The cost to ship the goods from the factory to your warehouse, including any import duties or customs fees.
• Handling: The cost of warehousing, picking, and packing each unit.
• Overhead: A small allowance for payment processing fees, quality assurance, and sampling.

Mini Example (Unisex Tee, per unit):

Pro Tip: Keep a simple spreadsheet where you can track costs by region. This is crucial if you’re shipping to the EU, for example, where you need to account for import VAT on arrival.

2) Anchor Your Pricing Strategy (Retail-First or Wholesale-First)

Once you have your landed cost, you can decide on your pricing strategy. (You can use a Wholesale Price Calculator for this.)  Most brands use one of two approaches:

• Retail-First (Backsolving): This is the most common method for DTC-heavy brands. You start with the MSRP that the market will bear. If your market dictates a $50 MSRP and your retailer expects a 50% margin, then your wholesale price has to be around $25. With your $9.00 landed cost, this leaves you a healthy gross margin of 64% at wholesale.
  
• Wholesale-First (Rolling Up): You start by setting a target wholesale margin that you need to be profitable (often 55-65% for clothing). You then work backward to set a wholesale price and an MSRP that gives the retailer a competitive margin.

Formulas You’ll Use:

• Your Margin: (Wholesale Price – Landed Cost) ÷ Wholesale Price
• Retailer Margin: (MSRP – Wholesale Price) ÷ MSRP

3) Design Apparel-Friendly Price Breaks and MOQs

Keep your pricing structure simple and familiar to clothing buyers. Don’t overcomplicate things with too many tiers.

A Starter Template for a Tee or Hoodie:

• Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ): 24 units per style, or a “pack” of four 6-packs with a standard size curve.
• Price Breaks:
  • 24+ units: Base wholesale price (e.g., $25)
  • 72+ units: 5% off the base price
  • 144+ units: 8-10% off the base price
• Sizing Options: Offer a standard size curve (e.g., 1-2-3-3-2-1 for XS–XXL) or allow open sizing with a smaller MOQ per size.

This structure works because apparel buyers think in terms of “packs” and “size curves,” and simple tiers are easier to understand and manage. If you offer custom embroidery or printing, keep those “decoration fees” separate from your base pricing to protect your core margin.

4) Implement Your Pricing on Shopify (Plus vs non-Plus)

Now it’s time to put your strategy into practice. The method you choose depends on your Shopify plan.

• If you’re on Shopify Plus (B2B): You can use Shopify’s built-in B2B price lists to assign tiered pricing and MOQs directly to your B2B customers. You can also use the B2B features to set company-specific payment terms.
  
• If you’re on a non-Plus Plan: This is where you use purpose-built apps to create a full wholesale system.
  
• Use Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B to set automated, customer-specific prices, quantity breaks, and MOQs.

• Use Wholesale Lock Manager B2B to hide your wholesale catalog and prices until a buyer is logged in and approved.

• Use WSH Order Form & ReOrder to give your buyers a fast, grid-style ordering experience for bulk purchases.

Pro Tip: Keep your collections clean (e.g., “Core Tees,” “Fleece”) to make it easier for buyers to navigate and for you to manage pricing.

5) Test with Real Accounts and Review Monthly

Before you launch your pricing to everyone, run a pilot program.

• Pilot Group: Invite a few key buyers (a boutique, an online retailer, etc.) to place an order.
• Check and Verify: Watch them check out to ensure the prices, discounts, and tax calculations work correctly after they log in.
• Measure: Track your average order value, how often customers meet your MOQs, and your reorder rate.
• Iterate: If buyers are consistently pushing back on a specific price or MOQ, use that feedback to make small adjustments to your pricing tiers before rolling it out to your entire wholesale network.

Real Example Walk-Through

Let’s say you’re launching a Unisex Heavy Tee:

• Your Landed Cost (US): $9.00
• Your Target Margin: You want to leave a 50% margin for the retailer off the MSRP.
• MSRP: You set your MSRP at $50.
• Wholesale Price: To hit the 50% retailer margin, your wholesale price is $25. Your profit margin is 64%—perfect.
• Pricing Tiers: (Calculate Pricing Tiers using this Wholesale Pricing Calculator)
  • 24+ units → $25
  • 72+ units → $23.75 (5% off)
  • 144+ units → $23.00 (8% off)
• Shopify Setup: You assign a “Wholesale” customer tag and set these tiered prices in your wholesale app. You also use a lock manager to hide the collection until the buyer logs in.

Frequently Asked Questions