The same product often carries very different markup expectations depending on whether it’s being priced for a wholesale buyer or a direct retail customer. Understanding why prevents pricing either channel incorrectly.
Wholesale markup
Typically lower, since wholesale buyers purchase in volume and expect to apply their own markup before reselling. Wholesale pricing needs to cover your costs and margin while leaving room for your buyer’s markup.
Retail markup
Typically higher, since it needs to cover the full cost of reaching an individual end customer: marketing, smaller order fulfillment, customer service, returns. Costs a wholesale transaction doesn’t carry in the same way.
Selling through both channels
A business selling both wholesale and direct-to-consumer needs genuinely separate markup structures for each, not the same percentage applied across both. Using one flat markup across both channels almost always underprices one of them.