Are You a Brand? Shopify Isn’t For You

Brands may consider using Shopify for their online operations. It’s important to note that brands can’t do many things with Shopify.  A key Shopify problem for a brand is that the brand has to have separate “stores” for retail and wholesale customers.  The reason is that Shopify doesn’t know what to charge the customer because it doesn’t know if it’s a general public shopper (that pays retail) or a retailer (that pays the wholesale price).  

A brand does not likely want to operate two stores. But, it gets even worse. interior designers often pay a third price (40% off retail).   Want to allow interior designers to use your Shopify store? Shopify would require you (the brand) to open a third store that shows designer pricing.  

At the heart of this painful predicament is the fact that Shopify doesn’t by default allow brands to track a business’s type (e.g. retailer, interior designer, etc.) and thereby can’t help but make the brand open multiple storefronts.

Shopify has no interface for a retailer to request wholesale access. And there is no system for a brand to grant access to wholesale pricing for a specific entity. It has to literally send you to a site that only has wholesale pricing. This is a very primitive and redundant “solution.” 

Sadly, Shopify generate more in fees when it causes brands to duplicate stores. Each additional store costs the brand money and enriches Shopify.  

What position is Shop Local in to know the above and report on this? Shop Local helps 1,300 retailers and 100 premium brands (including Baccarat, Le Creuset, and Versace) operate online stores.  Our system allows a brand to have one store to sell to the general public, retailers, and interior designers—all at different prices. We even help brands offer other prices to other business types. The result:  brands can use one set of product data and one store to service many customer bases. This helps the brand save time, reduces errors, and ensures consistency. 

Let’s check out an example.  Pickard China, founded in 1893, uses our Shop Local store to service its retailers and general public customers (https://www.pickardchina.com/).  Using one store and product data set, it sells items at different prices to the different groups. Shop Local allows retailers to request wholesale access, and Pickard to grant it. Once it does, the retailer sees wholesale instead of retail prices. Using our service, Pickard even offers a gift registry to general public customer.  

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Read more about the limitations of Shopify wholesale services here on Aeolidia:
https://aeolidia.com/wholesale-accounts-on-shopify/
 

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Shopify online store for brands

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