A wholesale price sheet is the one document that gets you taken seriously by a cafe or shop owner. Below is a fill-in template with every field a wholesale account expects, plus a filled-in example for four bakery products. Use the cost and pricing guidance under each field to fill in your own numbers.
Key takeaways
- A wholesale price sheet needs eight fields in one place: product, unit size, retail price, wholesale price, minimum order, delivery terms, payment terms, and shelf life.
- A common sanity check: retail price runs about 2 to 2.5 times your wholesale price. If your numbers fall far outside that range, recheck your costs before you send the sheet.
- Your true cost per unit — ingredients, packaging, labor, and overhead — is the floor. No wholesale discount should push your price below it.
- A minimum order quantity (MOQ) protects your time. Without one, a wholesale account is just a retail customer getting a discount.
- Net 30 payment terms can strain a small bakery's cash flow. COD or Net 7–15 keeps money moving.
- Wholesale pricing sets a floor, not a fixed number. Volume and the relationship still shape the final deal.
The wholesale price sheet template
Every wholesale price sheet needs the same eight fields, whether you're emailing a cafe owner or handing over a printed sheet. Fill in one row per product.
- Product and unit size — what it is and how it's sold ("1 loaf," "1 dozen," "6-pack")
- Retail price — what you charge an individual customer
- Wholesale price — what the account pays you per unit
- Minimum order quantity — the smallest order you'll fill
- Delivery terms — lead time, delivery days, and any fee or pickup instructions
- Payment terms — COD, Net 7, or Net 15
- Shelf life — how many days the product stays sellable after delivery
- Notes — allergens, storage instructions, or substitution limits
Example: a filled-in wholesale price sheet
Here's how those fields look filled in for four common wholesale products. The numbers below are a labeled example — swap in your own costs before you send a sheet to a real account.
| Product | Unit | Retail price | Wholesale price | Minimum order | Delivery terms | Payment terms | Shelf life |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic sourdough loaf | 1 loaf (1.5 lb) | $26.00 | $13.00 | 8 loaves | 3-day lead time, Monday delivery | Net 7 | 3 days |
| Chocolate chip cookies | 1 dozen | $30.00 | $14.00 | 6 dozen | 2-day lead time | COD | 5 days |
| Blueberry muffins | 6-pack | $22.00 | $10.00 | 6 packs (36 muffins) | 3-day lead time | Net 7 | 3 days |
| Cinnamon rolls | 6-pack | $34.00 | $16.00 | 6 packs (36 rolls) | 2-day lead time | COD | 2 days |
Keep your retail prices off the sheet you hand the account, even though you worked them out to set the wholesale number. Showing both invites comparison and negotiation you don't want.
How to set your wholesale price
Two checks keep a wholesale price from losing you money. First, it has to clear your true cost per unit, covered in the next section. Second, check it against your retail price with a simple ratio.
A commonly cited rule of thumb: retail price runs about 2 to 2.5 times wholesale price. If your wholesale price is more than half your retail price, the retailer has little room to mark it up, and may pass on the account.
One home-bakery pricing guide takes a different angle on the same idea: markup over cost, not discount off retail. In its worked example, a cookie that costs $2.00 to make gets a 30% markup for its wholesale price ($2.60). The same cookie gets a 45% markup for retail ($2.90). Markup guides disagree on the exact percentage, so treat any single number as a starting point, not a rule.
Here's why checking both numbers matters. Say a sourdough loaf costs $8.62 to produce — a hypothetical example; calculate your own cost using the steps below.
| Retail price | Wholesale at 50% of retail | Your cost | Profit per unit | Viable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $14.00 | $7.00 | $8.62 | -$1.62 | No — you lose money |
| $18.00 | $9.00 | $8.62 | $0.38 | Barely — not worth the effort |
| $22.00 | $11.00 | $8.62 | $2.38 | Maybe — depends on volume |
| $26.00 | $13.00 | $8.62 | $4.38 | Yes — solid margin |
If your retail price can't support a wholesale price that clears your cost, wholesale isn't the right channel for that product yet. That's useful information, not a failure.
How to calculate your true cost per unit
Your cost per unit is the non-negotiable floor under every row of your price sheet. It has four parts.
Ingredients. Price one unit — one loaf, one cookie, one 6-pack — using what you actually pay, including any bulk discount. Example: a sourdough loaf using $2.80 in flour, $0.15 in salt, $0.10 in yeast, and $0.20 in oil costs $3.25 in ingredients.
Packaging. Wholesale packaging is simpler than retail, but it still costs money. A kraft bag, label, and twist tie might run $0.30–0.50 per loaf. A box of 12 cookies with a sticker might run $0.75–1.00. Track it precisely.
Labor. Pay yourself an hourly rate, then divide your production time across the units you make. If you bake 12 loaves in a 4-hour session at $25/hour, labor costs $8.33 per loaf. Make 24 loaves in the same session, using a more efficient batch baking process, and that drops to $4.17 per loaf.
Overhead. Utilities, equipment wear, delivery fuel, insurance, and cottage food license fees are real costs. Divide your total monthly overhead by your total monthly units. One bakery pricing guide's cupcake example uses about $0.50 per unit.
| Cost component | Sourdough loaf example | Cookie dozen example |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | $3.25 | $2.10 |
| Packaging | $0.40 | $0.85 |
| Labor (at $25/hr) | $4.17 | $2.50 |
| Overhead | $0.80 | $0.60 |
| Total cost per unit | $8.62 | $6.05 |
If you haven't nailed down your retail pricing yet, start there first. Our guide on how to stop undercharging for your baked goods walks through the full cost-based system. Our free home bakery pricing calculator runs this same math on your own recipe.
If you're weighing wholesale as part of a bigger shift in how your business runs, the free Home Bakery Pro masterclass covers structuring your business for consistent orders.
How to set minimum order quantities
An MOQ is the most important boundary in wholesale. Without one, you end up doing retail-level work at a wholesale price. An account that orders 4 cookies at a time is a retail customer with a discount, not a wholesale account.
One wholesale pricing calculator's starting guidance: begin at 12–24 units per product, or a minimum order value of $100–200, then adjust from there. Treat those as a starting point to test against your own production time, not a fixed rule. As a baseline to test:
- Bread: 6–12 loaves per order
- Cookies: 6–10 dozen per order
- Pastries and muffins: 3–6 dozen per order
- Cakes: wholesale cakes are tricky for home bakers — weigh whether this is really the right product for wholesale
Don't be afraid to set an MOQ that feels high. An owner who balks at ordering 8 loaves at a time probably doesn't have the volume for a real wholesale account. You can still sell to them at retail prices instead. Setting a clear boundary here is the same instinct behind saying no to orders that lose you money.
How to write delivery terms
Your delivery terms field should state three things: how much notice you need, which days you deliver, and who pays for getting the product there.
We'd suggest at least 48 hours of lead time as a starting point. That's long enough to shop and bake without rushing, and short enough that an account doesn't plan weeks ahead. Adjust it to match your own production schedule.
For delivery cost, you have three options: build it into your wholesale price, charge a flat fee, or require pickup. For accounts within a short drive, many home bakers build delivery into the price for simplicity. For accounts further out, a delivery fee covers the extra time and fuel. If you're already driving past an account on another delivery, free drop-off costs you little.
How to write payment terms
Payment on delivery (COD) is simple and reasonable for a home bakery: you deliver, they pay.
Net 7 or Net 15 means the account pays within 7 or 15 days of the invoice. That means you're floating the cost of ingredients and labor for one to two weeks. Say a wholesale account brings in $300 a week — floating that for a week or two under Net 15 is usually manageable for an account that size. A much larger account on the same terms ties up more of your cash for longer.
Net 30 is common in larger wholesale relationships, but we'd recommend avoiding it as a home baker. You're effectively giving a month-long, interest-free loan on every delivery. If your business model is already tight, Net 30 terms can break it.
Whatever terms you choose, put them in writing. A one-page wholesale agreement covering price, MOQ, delivery, and payment protects both sides.
Does wholesale make sense for your bakery?
Not every wholesale opportunity is worth taking. Before you say yes to an account, ask yourself these four questions.
- What's my effective hourly rate on this account? Take the order's total revenue, subtract total costs, and divide by total hours — production, packaging, and delivery. If that's well below what you'd earn on a retail order, think hard about whether it's worth your limited time.
- What am I giving up? Every hour on wholesale is an hour not spent on retail orders, which usually carry a higher margin. If you're already fully booked with retail, adding a lower-margin wholesale account is a step backward.
- Does this account lower my overall risk? A standing weekly order is worth something beyond its per-unit margin — it's revenue you can plan a week around. That's worth more if your retail orders are inconsistent.
- Can I actually deliver every week? Wholesale accounts expect reliability. If you're working around a family schedule, confirm you can fulfill the order every single week before you commit.
Corporate and office accounts sit a little differently — standing weekly orders at a smaller discount than a cafe would expect. See our guide on landing corporate orders for how to structure those.
Wholesale tends to fit when you have spare production capacity, your products travel well, and your retail prices are high enough that a wholesale price still leaves you profitable. It's a poor fit when your retail prices are already low for your market. In that case, you likely need to raise your retail prices first. It's also a poor fit when you're already at capacity with higher-margin retail work.
Frequently asked questions
What should a wholesale bakery price sheet include?
List each product with its unit size, retail price, wholesale price, minimum order quantity, delivery terms, payment terms, and shelf life. Leave your retail prices off the version you actually hand to the account — list them only in your own working copy.
How do I set a wholesale price for baked goods?
Start from your true cost per unit — ingredients, packaging, labor, and overhead — and don't price below it. Then check the number against your retail price. Retail typically runs about 2 to 2.5 times wholesale. If your wholesale price is close to half your retail price or higher, the retailer may not have room to mark it up.
What minimum order quantity should I set for wholesale baked goods?
Set your MOQ at the point where batch production gets meaningfully more efficient. A starting point to test is 6–12 loaves of bread, 6–10 dozen cookies, or 3–6 dozen pastries per order — or a minimum order value around $100–200. The right number is high enough that you're not doing retail-level work at a wholesale price. It should still be low enough that a local cafe can realistically commit.
Should I accept Net 30 payment terms from a wholesale account?
We'd avoid it if you can. Net 30 means floating a full month of ingredient and labor costs on every delivery, which strains a small bakery's cash flow fast. Payment on delivery or Net 7–15 keeps your money moving without tying up working capital for weeks at a time.
How do I handle delivery for wholesale baked goods accounts?
Build delivery into your wholesale price, charge a flat delivery fee, or require the account to pick up — all three are standard. For nearby accounts, many home bakers fold delivery into the price for simplicity; for accounts farther out, a flat fee covers the extra time and fuel.
Sources
Written by
Co-founder, BakingSubs
Co-founder of BakingSubs, where he turns the science of ingredient substitutions into tested, reliable guidance for home bakers.
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