A wholesale pricing strategy is central to laying the groundwork for a business entering the business-to-business (B2B) market or expanding its sales channels to partners, whether through retail stores, distributors, or large organisations. The goal is to design a pricing strategy that balances returns for the product owner and profit margins for business partners so both sides can grow long-term.
This article explores wholesale pricing and related approaches. It covers key variables in setting wholesale prices, the role of these strategies in the Thai market, popular rate models with real-world examples, and guidelines for implementing them to improve performance and increase returns.
Key takeaways
A wholesale pricing strategy involves establishing rates for bulk purchases that are lower than retail prices to facilitate resale or incentivise large-volume orders, while ensuring reasonable profits for both the product owner and their business partners.
Main factors in setting wholesale prices include actual costs, the level of market competition, order quantity, profit margins, product type, business model, customer value, and various promotions and terms.
The importance of wholesale pricing strategies includes stimulating orders, facilitating inventory clearance, enabling profit control, strengthening relationships with business partners, and supporting expansion.
Stripe Checkout works with Stripe Billing to help create a smooth and flexible payment experience by supporting various wholesale pricing options, such as volume pricing or discount offers. It applies tiered price reductions and accurately calculates the total amount, discounts, taxes, and minimum order value.
Stripe Billing and Stripe Invoicing simplify the billing process, from invoice creation to automated collection, supporting wholesale pricing strategies and enabling businesses to manage bulk orders and individual customer payment terms accurately.
What is the wholesale price?
A wholesale price is the rate manufacturers or sellers offer buyers purchasing goods in large quantities. The per-unit amount is set lower than the standard retail price, allowing shops or other businesses to resell the products for a profit. To illustrate:
One shirt sells for ฿200 at retail, but if you order 20 or more, you can get them wholesale for ฿140 each.
One bottle of drinking water sells for ฿10 at retail, but if you order 100 bottles or more, you get a wholesale price of ฿7 per bottle.
Wholesale pricing strategy
A wholesale pricing strategy involves establishing rates for selling goods or services to customers who purchase in large quantities or to business partners. These prices are set lower than retail levels to facilitate resale and profit generation, or to encourage larger order volumes.
The main aim of determining wholesale prices is to balance the cost of the goods and related expenses, seller earnings, sufficient margins for resellers or attractive discounts for bulk buyers, and a reasonable selling price the market accepts.
Key factors in setting wholesale prices
When setting the wholesale pricing structure, take into account several important factors, including:
Actual cost: The cost of goods or services, which includes production or purchasing costs, shipping, and operating expenses.
Level of market competition: You need to consider competitor rates and how they position their offerings in the market.
Order quantity: Businesses often offer higher discounts based on increased purchases, resulting in a lower price per unit for the customer.
Profit margin: The wholesale pricing system ensures that both the brand owner and business partners achieve satisfactory gross profit margins.
Product category: Determine the product’s classification or category by taking into account its age, purchase frequency, storage costs, market demand, product or market specialisation, and price elasticity.
Business model: Adjust rates to suit manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, B2B businesses, or retail stores in line with their roles and target margins.
Value for the customer: Pricing reflects the value and elements that purchasers see as worthwhile, such as product quality, delivery speed, or after-sales service.
Promotions and terms and conditions: Set a minimum order quantity (MOQ), tiered pricing, or volume discounts consistently.
The importance of wholesale pricing strategies
These approaches play a major role in the Thai market due to these factors:
Increase sales
The Thai landscape features many wholesale and retail businesses. Setting appropriate prices enables effective competition and helps secure larger orders, boosting sales and improving cash flow.
Help sell off products
This strategy can encourage purchases of overstocked, slow-moving, outdated, or near-expiry items, helping reduce leftover inventory.
Profit control
An effective wholesale pricing strategy helps balance expenses and revenue, allowing a business to maintain appropriate profit margins as cost structure or market conditions change.
Strengthen relationships
Setting rates that make customers or business partners feel they're getting a good deal or a special price can increase satisfaction, strengthening business relationships.
Supports business expansion
Setting wholesale prices that align with order volumes and cost structures helps prepare the business for expansion, enhances competitiveness, and supports long-term growth.
Popular wholesale pricing strategies
Popular wholesale pricing strategies in Thailand and implementation examples that can serve as guidelines for setting wholesale prices are as follows:
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Wholesale pricing strategy |
Implementation examples |
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Cost-plus pricing involves setting a price based on the cost of the products and associated expenses, such as raw materials, labour, and packaging, then adding a profit margin calculated as a percentage of the cost. This strategy enables systematic profit control, reduces the risk of pricing below cost, and allows for price adjustments according to fluctuating costs. |
Processed food manufacturer: The product costs ฿80 per box, plus a 20% profit margin. The wholesale price is ฿96 per box. Building materials: The purchase price of cement from the manufacturer is ฿120 per bag, plus shipping costs and a 15% profit margin results in a quote of ฿138 per bag for retailers. |
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Volume-based/tiered pricing is a strategy that sets prices in a stepped structure, where the cost decreases as the order quantity increases; consequently, the price per unit drops with higher volumes. This strategy stimulates sales, increases order value, and encourages customers to combine orders or plan for larger purchase quantities. |
Beverage wholesaler: Selling 1–20 cartons at ฿320, 21–50 cartons at ฿305, and 51 cartons or more at ฿290. Packaging factory: When a restaurant orders 1,000 boxes, the price is ฿3.50 per box, but if they order 10,000 boxes, the price drops to ฿2.80. |
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Retail minus involves setting a wholesale price by applying a percentage reduction to the retail or market price, such as discounting the retail price by 30%–40% so that small retailers can sell it at an accessible price point. This strategy simplifies the calculation of wholesale prices based on market rates and enables small-scale retailers to remain competitive. |
Cosmetic brand: The retail price for the skin cream is set at ฿1,000, and the price for distributors is determined using a "retail minus 30%" model, and distributors then purchase the product at ฿700 per unit. Electrical appliance manufacturer: An electrical appliance has a retail price of ฿10,000, and is sold to distributors at a price of "retail minus 25%," or ฿7,500, resulting in a profit margin of ฿2,500 for the distributor. |
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Customer segmentation pricing involves setting prices and sales conditions to suit specific customer groups, such as retailers, distributors, or major clients, by offering varying levels of discounts based on factors such as payment behaviour and business value. This strategy meets diverse needs while maintaining relationships and ensuring long-term competitiveness. |
Agricultural product supplier: A 5-kilogram bag of jasmine rice is normally sold at ฿250. General wholesale customers receive a 4% discount, bringing the price down to ฿240. Regular customers receive an 8% discount, reducing it to ฿230, and major customers with a consistent purchasing history receive a 12% discount, lowering the price to ฿220. Office supplies: A4 paper (80 GSM) is sold at a regular price of ฿120. Photocopy shop receives a 5% discount (reducing the price to ฿114), schools receive a 10% discount (฿108), and large organisations receive a 15% discount (฿102). |
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Channel-based pricing refers to setting prices differently depending on the sales channel, such as traditional retailers, distributors, modern trade, or marketplaces, due to the costs of the storefront and infrastructure. Profit generation, platform fees, advertising costs, and promotions vary across sales channels. This strategy helps reflect the real costs and effectively addresses customer behaviour specific to each channel. |
Food and beverage manufacturers: The unit price for 250 mL ready-to-drink coffee is ฿25. Hotels, restaurants, and cafes receive it at ฿22, while convenience store chains purchasing in large volumes secure a price of ฿20. Electrical appliance manufacturer: An air fryer costs ฿2,500 per unit, but might be offered to in-store dealers at ฿2,000, while online dealers might get it at ฿2,200. |
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Payment-term pricing involves adjusting prices or offering discounts based on the method, timing, or payment conditions that benefit the company, such as discounts for cash payments or early settlements. This strategy improves cash flow while encouraging customers to buy or settle payments faster. |
Packaging manufacturer: A corrugated box manufacturer sells boxes to restaurants for ฿10 each, with terms of 2/7, n/30, meaning a 2% discount for cash payments within 7 days; otherwise, payment is due within 30 days. The discounted price is ฿9.80 per box. Vegetable oil wholesaler: A wholesaler sells vegetable oil to retailers for ฿48 per bottle, typically offering a 30-day credit term. However, a 1.5% discount applies if payment is made within 10 days, bringing the price down to ฿47.28. For an order of 10,000 bottles, the standard total is ฿480,000, but early payment reduces the total to ฿472,800. |
Guidelines for promoting wholesale pricing strategies
Businesses can manage various factors to support an effective wholesale pricing strategy by following these guidelines:
Comprehensive payment solutions
Businesses can select a solution that supports multiple ways to pay within a single platform – such as credit and debit cards, mobile banking, digital wallets, and PromptPay. This enables efficient management of pricing, promotions, and terms while giving customers the flexibility to choose their preferred payment method.
The system supports differentiated rates by customer segment, including wholesale and retail, as well as tiered pricing structures. It can also distinguish between wholesale and retail orders to ensure transactions and accounting data are recorded automatically. Stripe Payments consolidates payment channels and transaction records into a single platform, improving flexibility and simplifying wholesale pricing management.
Checkout pages that boost conversions
Businesses can prioritise an efficient purchase flow that directly drives conversions. So, choose a secure, customisable checkout page solution designed to simplify the process. Available interface formats include full-page checkout, embedded forms, or payment links that support one-time payments, prorated billing, and subscriptions.
Stripe Checkout integrates with Stripe Billing to create a simple and flexible payment experience. It supports multiple wholesale pricing models, such as volume-based pricing or discounts off the retail price, and ensures accurate calculations of totals, price reductions, taxes, and minimum order values. This is especially helpful for B2B wholesale transactions, which often involve complex rate structures and order requirements, encouraging long-term repeat orders.
Automated invoicing and billing system
Businesses can choose a system that supports automated billing and invoicing, with options for different rate models including volume-based or customer group pricing, as well as handling value-added tax (VAT) and e-Tax invoices. This reduces paperwork, improves accuracy, and speeds up cash flow so funds arrive faster.
Stripe Billing and Stripe Invoicing support wholesale pricing strategies by simplifying the billing process, from invoice generation to automated collection. This allows sellers to manage bulk orders and individual customer payment terms accurately, improving the efficiency of expanding wholesale operations in Thailand and abroad.
Integration with other management systems
Choose a solution that offers flexible and secure integration with various operational tools – such as payment, accounting, warehouse management, customer relationship management (CRM), or customer data analytics systems – via application programming interfaces (APIs), plugins, or add-on applications. This ensures that transaction records, payment statuses, revenue figures, and partner information are recorded, updated, and synchronised between platforms in real time.
This integration enables businesses to segment wholesale shoppers, set prices based on volume or sales channel, track inventory, and consolidate transaction-level earnings data across platforms. It also facilitates more accurate analysis of profit margins, expenses, fees, and prices or discounts for each channel, allowing businesses to adjust wholesale rates to align with distribution costs for specific channels or customer groups.
Monitoring of finances across channels
Tracking overall revenue and payment statuses from individual sales channels lets businesses accurately assess the performance of pricing approaches by channel or customer segment. This supports informed rate adjustments, which can increase revenue opportunities and maintain long-term competitiveness.
Products such as Stripe Dashboard help businesses systematically track payment statuses across all channels – from sales and outstanding balances to transfer statuses and real-time transaction movement. They also facilitate operations by consolidating financial information into a single report.
Data analytics systems for refining pricing strategies
Businesses can implement data analytics systems that support effective and dynamic pricing strategies throughout sales channels. This can be achieved through artificial intelligence (AI) technology that analyses relevant input, such as sales, customer behaviour, competitor pricing, product costs, demand by distribution channel, and high-revenue routes.
These tools can provide precise, efficient rate recommendations, promotions, and package options customised to each channel and market conditions. This can ultimately increase orders and profit margins.
How Stripe Billing can help
Stripe Billing lets you bill and manage customers however you want – from simple recurring billing to usage-based billing and sales-negotiated contracts. Start accepting recurring payments globally in minutes – no code required – or build a custom integration using the API.
Stripe Billing can help you:
Offer flexible pricing: Respond to user demand faster with flexible pricing models, including usage-based, tiered, flat-fee plus overage and more. Support for coupons, free trials, prorations and add-ons is built-in.
Expand globally: Increase conversion by offering customers' preferred payment methods. Stripe supports 125+ local payment methods and 130+ currencies.
Increase revenue and reduce churn: Improve revenue capture and reduce involuntary churn with Smart Retries and recovery workflow automations. Stripe recovery tools helped users recover over US$8.2 billion in revenue in 2025.
Boost efficiency: Use Stripe's modular tax, revenue reporting and data tools to consolidate multiple revenue systems into one. Easily integrate with third-party software.
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FAQs about Thailand’s wholesale pricing strategies
The content in this article is for general information and education purposes only and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Stripe does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, adequacy, or currency of the information in the article. You should seek the advice of a competent lawyer or accountant licensed to practise in your jurisdiction for advice on your particular situation.