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How to make a wholesale line sheet: step by step
A wholesale line sheet lets a store buyer place an order without emailing you first. Here's what goes on one, how to build it in an afternoon, and a free AI prompt that checks it for you.
- What a line sheet is
- What to put on it
- How to build one, step by step
- Keeping it up to date
What a line sheet is (and isn't)
Think order form, not lookbook. A good line sheet gives a buyer "codes, prices, margins and terms in a form a buyer can put straight into a purchase order" (SKULaunch). Faire calls it the tool that "turns retailer interest into an actual order" (Faire).
The buyer has usually seen your product already, on Instagram, at a show, or in your pitch. Now they want the boring, useful details.
What to put on your line sheet
- One clear photo per product, shot the same way on a plain background
- Product name and SKU, with a separate SKU for each color or size
- A short description: materials, fit, care
- Wholesale price and suggested retail price (MSRP), side by side
- Case pack and minimums: opening order and reorder
- Your terms: payment, lead time, shipping, returns
- How to order: email, an order form, or a wholesale platform link
Sources: Open Shelf, Faire, SKULaunch.
A quick word on price. A common starting point is a suggested retail price about twice your wholesale price, often called keystone pricing (Faire). Open Shelf notes most shops expect a margin of around 50% (Open Shelf). Your category may differ, but if you're well under 2x, expect questions.
How to make a line sheet, step by step
Step 1. Write your terms once (20 minutes)
Decide these before you open any AI tool. They're business decisions, and an AI should never guess them.
| Term | Example answer |
|---|---|
| Opening order minimum | $300 or 12 units |
| Reorder minimum | $150 |
| Case pack | 4 per style |
| Payment terms | Prepay first order, then net 30 |
| Lead time | Ships in 2 to 3 weeks |
| Shipping and returns | Who pays, damages policy |
| How to order | Email or order form link |
Step 2. Export your products to a spreadsheet (20 minutes)
Export from your shop (Shopify, Etsy, or wherever you keep products) to a CSV. You want one row per SKU with: product name, SKU, color or option, sizes, materials, care, wholesale price, MSRP, case pack, photo file name and season. Add missing columns even if they're blank for now.
Step 3. Let AI check it like a buyer would (10 minutes)
Open ChatGPT, Claude or Grok Bot, attach the CSV, and paste:
You are a wholesale buyer reviewing a new brand's product data before placing an opening order. Here is my product export (CSV) and my terms (pasted below).
1. For every SKU, check for: product name, SKU, materials, wholesale price, MSRP, case pack, and photo file. List every missing field in a table (SKU, field, problem). 2. Flag any SKU where MSRP is less than 2x wholesale, and show the multiple. 3. Flag duplicate SKUs and SKUs whose name or color doesn't match the pattern of the others. 4. List any question a buyer would still need to ask me after reading my terms. 5. Do not invent or estimate any price, term, or product fact. If something is missing, mark it MISSING.
My terms: [paste your Step 1 table]
That last rule matters. AI will happily fill a blank with a number that looks right. Tell it not to.
Step 4. Fix the spreadsheet, not the PDF (30 to 60 minutes)
Make every fix in your master spreadsheet, then run the check again until the problem list is empty. One source of truth means your line sheet, your shop and your wholesale listings never drift apart.
Step 5. Lay it out (20 minutes)
Ask the AI to lay the cleaned list out as a landscape line sheet: your brand, season, date and terms on page 1, then a product grid. Or paste the clean table into a template you like (Open Shelf has a free one). Put the season and date in the file name, like YourBrand-LineSheet-SS27.pdf.
Step 6. Check before you send
- Every price matches your master spreadsheet exactly
- Your terms are on page 1
- Photos match the right SKU and color
- The season and date are on the cover and in the file name
- The file is small enough to email, and it reads well on a phone
"Fernbrook Knit Co.," an invented two-person knitwear brand, ran the check on 34 fall products. It found six with no case pack, two scarves priced at 1.7x wholesale, no lead time anywhere, and two products sharing a code. Fixes took under two hours, and the new sheet answered the three questions buyers kept emailing about.
Keeping your line sheet up to date
SKULaunch puts it well: a line sheet "goes stale faster than any other document a brand produces, because it carries price and availability, and both move" (SKULaunch). Date every version, keep old ones in an archive folder so you know what a buyer was quoted, and rebuild from your master spreadsheet each season.
Common mistakes
- Letting AI fill in a missing price or minimum
- Editing the PDF instead of the spreadsheet
- Leaving off terms, which guarantees a "what are your minimums?" email
- Sending a huge file that bounces or never gets opened
Get the free Founder's Wholesale Checklist
Eight parts of selling into stores on four pages, each with one AI prompt you can copy. Plus The Sell-In, one short wholesale email every Tuesday.