How Do You Build a Wholesale Line Sheet?

2026-11-01 00:40:59

POD Business & Ecommerce

A wholesale line sheet is a working price and specification document, not a catalogue. It tells a retail buyer what the product is, what it costs at each quantity break, what the minimum is, and how long the order takes to ship. Buyers use it to build a purchase order without calling you, so every field that would otherwise need a question has to be on the page.

What a Line Sheet Contains

Five blocks cover almost every wholesale line sheet: product identity, sizing and colour range, price breaks, minimums and lead time, and the terms that apply to the order. Anything outside those blocks belongs in an attached terms document rather than on the sheet.

Product identity means the style number, the fabric and weight, and the construction notes a buyer needs to compare you against another supplier. A buyer who cannot see the fabric weight will assume the cheapest comparable product, which is rarely the one you want to be judged against.

Sizing and colour range are often the reason a sheet gets rejected. A buyer planning a twelve-store rollout needs to know which sizes are stocked, which are made to order, and which colours hold across the run.

How to Structure Pricing Tiers

Set price breaks against the cost driver, not against round numbers. If the moq is 50 units because the screen setup or the cut minimum lands there, the next break should sit where the next real cost step sits, which is usually a few hundred units rather than a thousand.

Three tiers are enough for most wholesale programs: a minimum order, a mid volume where the per unit cost drops, and a program tier for repeat accounts. More tiers look generous and confuse the buyer, because the buyer has to guess which one they qualify for.

Shopify's published B2B documentation keeps catalogues and price lists as separate objects, which is a useful reminder that the same product needs a different price per account without a second product record.

Express each tier as a unit price and as a landed cost per dozen. Retail buyers plan in dozens and cases, and a sheet that only quotes single units forces them to do arithmetic before they can compare you with a competitor.

Keep the margin logic behind the sheet in one model. A contribution margin model per SKU shows which tiers still work after freight and payment fees, and it prevents a discount tier that looks fine on paper and loses money on the invoice.

Line Sheet Fields Compared

The table below separates the fields a buyer needs from the ones that only look professional. The third column is the question a buyer asks when the field is missing.

Field	Why it belongs	Question if missing
Style number and fabric weight	Lets the buyer compare against an existing supplier	What am I comparing this to?
Size run and colour range	Determines whether the order can be planned at all	Can I get a full size run in navy?
Price breaks per unit and per dozen	Drives the buyer's own margin calculation	What does 200 units cost me?
moq and replenishment moq	Separates the first order from the repeat order	Can I reorder 30 units later?
Production and lead time	Sets the buyer's in store date	Will this land before the season ends?
Payment and shipping terms	Removes the negotiation that stalls the first order	When do I pay and who pays freight?

Two fields in that table are commonly left off and both cost time. The replenishment moq is different from the opening order moq, and buyers assume they are the same until told otherwise. Shipping terms decide whether your price is comparable with a domestic competitor's delivered price.

What Changes Between Seasons

Blank cost moves, and a line sheet with a printed price and no validity date becomes a liability the moment the blank price shifts. Add a validity window, usually one season, and state how a mid season change is handled.

The reasons wholesale blank prices change between seasons are mostly outside a decorator's control, which is exactly why the sheet should carry a date rather than an open ended commitment.

A second seasonal factor is capacity. A sheet that promises two week lead time in November and cannot hold it damages an account more than a longer published lead time would have.

How to Set the Minimum

Set the minimum from the production step that creates the fixed cost. For decorated goods that is usually the setup, and for cut and sewn goods it is the marker. The moq negotiation for semi custom programs explains how a minimum can drop when the buyer accepts a shared setup or a narrower colour range.

Then publish the minimum as a quantity and as a value. A buyer who needs 40 units in four colours may clear a value minimum even when each colour sits below the quantity minimum, and saying so prevents a dead enquiry.

Where a Line Sheet Does Not Help

A line sheet does not replace a sample. Buyers who handle fabric before committing will still ask for a physical piece, and a sheet that claims a hand feel without a sample invites a return.

It also fails for fully custom programs. When every order is a new artwork and a new colour, there is no fixed product to list, and the document becomes a quote template instead. Trying to force a custom program into a line sheet produces a price list that is wrong on the first order.

Small accounts are the third exception. A buyer ordering 20 units once does not need tiered pricing, and offering tiers to a one time order teaches the buyer to ask for a discount they will never qualify for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many products should a line sheet include?

Enough to show a range, not enough to dilute it. Ten to twenty styles per season is typical for a small brand, and each one should carry the same field structure so a buyer can scan down the page.

Should wholesale prices be shown as margins or as multipliers?

Show the unit price. A multiplier tells the buyer what your cost is, which invites a cost conversation instead of a value one. Keep the keystone markup logic in your own model.

Does a line sheet need images?

One clear flat per style is enough. Studio photography belongs in a lookbook, and mixing the two makes the price page harder to read, which is the page buyers spend the most time on.

How often should the sheet be reissued?

Once per season, plus a revision when a blank price changes mid season. Give each version a date so a buyer cannot quote an expired sheet back to you.

What is the difference between a line sheet and a lookbook?

A lookbook sells the range and a line sheet sells the order. The lookbook carries styling and story, while the sheet carries numbers, minimums and dates that a buyer needs to place a purchase order.

Build the wholesale line sheet as a document a buyer can order from without a phone call: style and fabric, size run, three price tiers in units and dozens, minimums, lead time and terms. Review the wholesale and retail accounts route for POD brands, check the tier structure against pricing tiers across product lines, and keep the product range on the custom product catalogue in step with the sheet.