10 Things to Consider When Buying Wholesale Soap Dishes

I've just recently started a soap business and am getting ready to go into wholesale, but despite having run several businesses for over 10 years, this would be my first time selling wholesale so I have questions.

In general what should the price structure be regarding my cost VS wholesale price VS retail price? On my website I charge about 4 times my cost for the soaps, how would that breakdown into wholesale and retail prices?

Also, what's the best way to get stores like health food stores to get to sell my soaps? Should I directly talk to the manager, mail a letter/samples, or something else?

I also make soaps in a few different shapes, should I give them samples of my different shapes so they can decide which they prefer based on size/cost?

In general do the stores pay you for the soaps in advance or do you get paid as they sell?

What else should I know before approaching stores to get them to sell my soaps?

Thanks If you are wanting to sell wholesale there are a few things you need to do.

I created a catalogue to show my product line including photos of the different shapes and swirl methods. Your wholesale price is x 2 of your cost and retail is x 4. Set a minimum order, what you feel should be a wholesale order. I require 50% deposit upon order placement and the balance due prior to shipping. There are of course exceptions, but those are my general rules.

I always deal with the buyer whether that is the manager or a buying agent. And then follow-up on your calls and your samples. Hi all. I'm in the same situation at the moment with a local business wanting to buy my soaps to stock in their organic beauty shop, but wanting to cut my price way down & get me to do private label for them. I'm feeling really stressed about it now. If I'm not careful I'm going to be doing all the work and she's going to get all the money. As it is, if I sell them to her for $2.50 and my cost is $1.00, she'll sell them for $4.95 (she said) and make $2.45 while I make $1.50. I wonder if it's worth it.

I reformulated my soap recipe for this lady so that my ingredients cost per bar is $1.05 per bar. She reckons customers won't pay $6.50 per bar and she'll have better turnover if she prices them at $4.95. The business is in an exclusive suburb so I'm sure they could afford it.

Lindy, when you say cost, do you mean ingredients only or do you factor in other expenses (eg paper towels etc) and labour? If I made 50 bars in batch, I estimate my total time for making, cutting, washing up and wrapping to be 3 hours. At $40/hr that works out to $2.20 per bar, which is obviously too much. To get this figure down I could work faster or pay myself less.

I don't mean to hijack this post - I got carried away. I'm mainly interested about how to include my labour in the cost and how others do this. I hope it all adds to the discussion.

Thanks There has been several topics along these lines before, and the generally consensus was as Lindy said: 2x cost for wholesale, 4x cost for retail. Cost including everything from initial design to wrapping plus materials, so labour is included. I also remember several posts which discussed labour costs, and $40 is really very high. Soap making labour has different aspects: initial design, measuring, the actual mixing process, clean-up, cutting and packaging. Obviously some parts are more skilled, the design and mixing/pouring (depending on how fancy your soaps are), while the measuring, clean-up and packaging are lower skill labour.
Perhaps it's okay to charge $40 an hour for the more skilled aspects, but charging that much for the clean-up, cutting and packaging seems too high. It might price you out of the market, maybe if you paid yourself less for that part it would bring your cost down and make your wholesale price more attractive. As for the store owner making more money, that just seems the way it is, they have all their overheads to cover etc.,. I think with wholesale you just have to decide if you are happy with what you come away with and not think about what happens to the soap once it is in the store.


Sent from my iPad using Soap Making Thank you ladies. I so appreciate your comments.

AU$40 is a figure my husband suggested (US$37.87). For comparison, here in Perth I have to pay a domestic cleaner AU$25/hr (US$23.67). But I understand what you're saying and I'll rework my figures as you suggest using different rates for the different tasks.

I'm not just in it for the money as I will be so happy just to be able to make soap all day, but I must be careful I don't under-value myself because I've worked like a slave for employers in the past and got paid very little for it. I've put countless hours into learning this craft and developing my recipes and designs and I think that is worth something. But then, the market dictates and people aren't going to pay $7 for a bar of soap.

It's great to hear your perspective on things and I hope that in a few years I'll have that experience and will be able to help others too.

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