Wholesale-to-trade store marketing agency

Shopping is built on prices any visitor can pay, which means a gated wholesale catalogue cannot be the source of a feed. If you sell direct as well, run Shopping on the public retail catalogue at retail prices and keep the trade catalogue entirely separate, since feeding wholesale prices behind a login causes price mismatch disapprovals across the account.

Paid search is where trade intent is captured. Campaigns target wholesale supplier queries in your category, stockist and distributor searches, and terms about minimums and dropship arrangements, with copy that states the opening order minimum and the approval time because both filter out unsuitable applicants. Volume is low, so conversions are counted as approved accounts and first orders rather than form submissions. Budget lifts around the buying periods and trade shows in your sector, when buyers are actively researching suppliers rather than reordering.

Two audiences matter and they need different work. Retail buyers can be reached with targeted campaigns showing the trade proposition: the margin, the case pack, the opening order minimum, the support you provide, and evidence that the product moves off a shelf. Creative that shows the product merchandised in a real store does more than a studio shot.

The second audience is the consumer, and reaching them is a service to your stockists. Demand you build in a region makes shelf space more valuable and makes the reorder automatic, which is the strongest argument you have when recruiting new accounts. A stockist locator that consumer traffic can use gives that work somewhere to land. TikTok content that makes a product visibly desirable is quoted by buyers as a reason to stock it, so it serves both audiences at once when it is genuinely good.

The governing rule is that the price and availability in the feed must match what any visitor sees on the landing page without signing in. Trade pricing that only appears after login cannot be fed, and a landing page that shows a login wall instead of a product will not pass review. Keep the advertised feed on your public retail catalogue and keep the trade catalogue out of it entirely.

Where you supply retailers who advertise your products themselves, the feed work worth doing is the data you hand them: accurate barcodes, consistent titles, clean images, full attribute sets and up to date availability. Retailers with good product data sell more of your line and reorder faster, and it costs you very little to provide it. If you operate a dropship programme, availability accuracy becomes critical, since your stock position is what their listings promise.

Trade search is small, specific and badly served, which makes it winnable. Build a wholesale page that answers the questions buyers actually ask before applying: minimum opening order, reorder minimum, wholesale and recommended retail pricing structure, case packs, lead times, payment terms, shipping and returns, territory and stockist protection, and whether you sell direct to consumers.

Those facts published as plain text are exactly what an AI assistant needs when a shop owner asks how to stock a brand or which suppliers in a category accept small opening orders. Most brands hide all of it behind a form, so the ones that publish get quoted. Add pages for dropship and distribution enquiries where relevant, a stockist locator that serves consumers and rewards retailers, and content that helps retailers sell your product, which earns links from the people who stock you.

Email carries the entire wholesale lifecycle. Trade show and enquiry follow up is the first flow and the most commonly neglected: contacts collected at a show go cold within a fortnight, so a sequence with the line sheet, the terms and a simple route to an opening order should start immediately rather than when someone finds time.

After approval, an onboarding sequence delivers product knowledge, display guidance, images and copy the retailer can use, because sell through decides whether there is a second order. Reorder prompts follow each account's own interval with the previous assortment loaded. New line and seasonal range announcements go to buyers ahead of their buying period, not yours. A dormant account flow triggers after a missed cycle so someone can call while the shelf is still yours. SMS is best kept for order and delivery updates during a buying period.