---
title: What is a wholesale price list?
Metadescription: What a wholesale price list is, what belongs on one, why suppliers run several at once, and how a trade price is worked back from the retail shelf price.
author: Dan Edwards
author_role: Founder
author_url: https://danedwardsdeveloper.com
author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-edwards-developer
published: 2026-08-26
---

Token estimate: ~1,000

# What is a wholesale price list?

A wholesale price list is a named set of trade prices covering your whole catalogue, applied to the customers you put on it. Most suppliers end up running several - a full-price list, one or two discounted ones for volume or loyalty - with every account sitting on exactly one of them. The customer sees a price against each product and nothing else.

By **[Dan Edwards](https://wholesalehandler.com/about)**, Founder.

## A price list belongs to an account, not to a catalogue

The list is the wrong way round from how most people picture it. You are not pricing products, you are pricing relationships - the same case of the same product is one price to the cafe that takes two a month and another to the group that takes forty a week.

That is why a supplier with sixty products and twelve customers has three or four price lists rather than twelve. Accounts get sorted into a handful of tiers, and each tier is one list.

## What belongs on the list, and what does not

| On the list | Travels with the account instead |
| --- | --- |
| Product name and SKU | [Minimum order value](https://wholesalehandler.com/articles/set-and-enforce-minimum-order-value-wholesale) |
| Unit of sale and pack size | Delivery days and charges |
| Price per unit | Payment terms and credit limit |
| Whether the product is currently available | Which list the customer is on |

Keeping the second column off the list is what lets one list serve many customers. Two accounts can pay the same prices while one takes Tuesday deliveries on 30-day terms and the other collects and pays on the day.

## A trade price is worked back from the shelf, not up from cost

Cost plus a margin tells you the lowest price you can accept. It does not tell you the price a retailer will pay, because they are working out whether your product clears at their shelf price and still earns them a living.

So set the retail price you want to see first, then work back. Halving it is the usual starting point in general retail - the retailer doubles what they pay - though fresh categories with waste and short shelf life often need more room than that. A trade price that leaves the buyer under their normal margin gets declined even when it is comfortably above your cost.

## Changing a list does not reprice orders already placed

A price list is live, so an update takes effect on the next order rather than the last one. [Wholesale Handler](https://wholesalehandler.com/articles/how-price-lists-work-on-wholesale-handler) snapshots the price onto every line the moment an order is placed, so a Tuesday price change cannot silently rewrite Monday's unshipped orders or the invoices behind them.

Check this before you trust any system with your prices. If yesterday's orders move when you edit a price today, your invoices are being written by whoever edited last.

## Q&A

**Q: Should customers know which price list they are on?**
A: They see their own prices, and that is all most systems show them. Naming the tier invites the conversation you least want, which is a buyer asking what is on the tier above.

**Q: How many price lists is too many?**
A: Once you cannot say from memory why an account is on the list it is on, you have too many. Three or four tiers covers most suppliers, and past that the exceptions are better handled as an overridden price on a single product than as a whole new list.

**Q: Can one customer have different prices for different products?**
A: Yes, and this is the normal reason to override. A customer sits on a tier, and one or two lines get a specific price of their own - a negotiated rate on the product they buy in volume, with everything else following the tier.