How to Make a Wholesale Line Sheet: 7 Must-Haves and Steps

What is a wholesale line sheet?

A wholesale line sheet is a clean, scannable sales document that presents your products, wholesale prices, and ordering terms to retail buyers in one place. Think of it as the menu a store owner uses to decide what to stock and how much to order. It is not a lifestyle lookbook and not a full retail catalog. It is built to do one job: make it easy for a buyer to say yes and place an order.

Most brands share a line sheet as a PDF, sent by email or linked from a website, when a boutique, retailer, or distributor asks "can you send me your wholesale info?" A strong line sheet answers every question a buyer has before they commit, so you spend less time going back and forth and more time filling orders.

What should a wholesale line sheet include?

A complete wholesale line sheet has seven must-have elements. Miss one and buyers stall, email you with questions, or move on. Include all seven and your line sheet does the selling for you.

1. A branded cover. Your logo, brand name, the collection or season, and full contact details (name, email, phone, website). Buyers should know exactly who they are ordering from at a glance.
2. A short brand intro. One or two sentences on who you are and why the product sells. Keep it tight; buyers care about sell-through, not your origin story.
3. Product details. A clean product photo on a white background, plus the product name, SKU, sizes or variants, and a one-line description. Consistent photography makes the whole sheet look credible.
4. Pricing. Show both the suggested retail price (MSRP) and the wholesale price (WSP). The standard wholesale price is roughly 50 percent of retail, a 2x markup, though this varies by category.
5. Minimum order quantities. State any per-product MOQ or minimum opening order value so buyers know the smallest order you will accept.
6. Wholesale terms and policies. Lead times, shipping, payment terms, and returns. This is where you set expectations and avoid disputes later.
7. Ordering instructions and a call to action. Tell buyers exactly how to order: reply by email, fill an order form, or visit your wholesale store. Make the next step obvious.

How to make a wholesale line sheet, step by step

You do not need a designer. You can build a professional line sheet in an afternoon with tools you already have.

1. Gather your assets. Shoot or collect clean product photos on a white background, and pull your SKUs, sizes, and descriptions into one spreadsheet.
2. Set your wholesale pricing. Decide your MSRP and wholesale price for each item. If you are unsure how to price, start from your costs and target margin (see our guide on how to calculate wholesale price).
3. Choose a layout tool. Canva, Google Slides, Microsoft Word, or a ready-made line sheet template all work. Use a simple grid: photo, name, SKU, price, MOQ.
4. Add your cover and terms. Build the branded cover and a terms page covering lead times, shipping, payment, and minimums (including your minimum order quantities).
5. Export as a PDF. Keep the file under a few megabytes so it emails cleanly, and name it clearly, for example BrandName-Wholesale-Line-Sheet-2026.pdf.
6. Send it with a clear next step. Attach it to your outreach or link it from your site, and always tell the buyer exactly how to place an order.

Line sheet vs order form vs digital catalog: which do you need?

These three tools are related but do different jobs. For a brand just starting out, a PDF line sheet plus a simple order form is enough. Once order volume grows, a live digital catalog on your Shopify store wins on accuracy and buyer experience because it never goes stale and lets buyers order themselves.

A PDF line sheet is the fastest way to look professional on day one, and it travels well as an email attachment. Its weakness is that it is a snapshot: the moment you change a price, add a product, or sell out, every copy in a buyer's inbox is wrong. An order form fixes ordering but still relies on you to keep pricing accurate by hand.

A live wholesale catalog is the modern upgrade. Because it runs on your Shopify store, pricing and stock are always current, buyers order themselves, and you can gate wholesale prices behind a login, apply hidden prices until logged in, set tiered pricing by customer group, and enforce MOQs automatically. That removes the manual work and the errors that come with maintaining a spreadsheet and a PDF forever.

Common line sheet mistakes to avoid

Most weak line sheets fail for the same few reasons. Watch for these:

• Missing prices or MOQs. If a buyer has to email you to learn the price or minimum, many will not bother.
• Inconsistent or low-quality photos. Mixed backgrounds and lighting make a serious brand look amateur.
• No clear call to action. Always spell out how to order. Confusion kills conversions.
• Letting it go stale. An out-of-date PDF quotes prices you no longer honor and products you no longer stock.
• Overloading it. A line sheet is not a lookbook. Keep it scannable so buyers can decide fast.

When to replace your PDF line sheet with a live wholesale catalog

If you are emailing the same PDF to a handful of buyers a month, a line sheet is fine. But once you are re-exporting it every time pricing changes, fielding order-status emails, or juggling different prices for different customer tiers, the manual PDF becomes the bottleneck.

That is the point to move your line sheet onto your Shopify store as a gated wholesale catalog. PortalSphere adds custom tiered pricing, volume discounts, MOQs and pack sizing, gated access, and net terms to the store you already run, so approved buyers log in, see their pricing, and place bulk orders themselves. Your "line sheet" is now always accurate, and orders flow straight into Shopify.

Frequently asked questions

What is a wholesale line sheet?

A wholesale line sheet is a concise sales document that shows retail buyers your products, wholesale prices, and ordering terms in one place so they can decide what to stock and place an order. It typically includes a branded cover, product photos, SKUs, MSRP and wholesale pricing, minimum order quantities, terms, and ordering instructions.

How do you make a wholesale line sheet?

Collect clean product photos and product data, set your MSRP and wholesale prices, lay everything out in a simple grid using Canva, Google Slides, or a template, add a branded cover and a terms page, then export it as a PDF and share it with buyers alongside clear ordering instructions.

What is the difference between a line sheet and an order form?

A line sheet presents your products, pricing, and terms so a buyer can decide what to order. An order form is where they actually record what they want to buy and in what quantities. Many brands send both, and a live wholesale catalog combines the two so buyers browse and order in one place.

What should wholesale pricing be on a line sheet?

The common benchmark is a 2x markup, meaning the wholesale price is about 50 percent of the retail price (MSRP). This varies by category and margin structure, so calculate from your own costs rather than defaulting to 50 percent.

Do I still need a PDF line sheet if I sell wholesale on Shopify?

Not necessarily. A gated wholesale catalog on your Shopify store does everything a line sheet does and stays current automatically, lets approved buyers order themselves, and applies tiered pricing and MOQs at checkout. Many brands keep a short PDF for cold outreach and use the live catalog for ordering.