The fastest way to learn what belongs on a line sheet is to look at three of them for three different kinds of product, because the fields that matter change with the category even though the structure does not.
Below are three worked examples, written out as they would appear on the page: a jam maker with six items, an apparel brand with a size run, and a coffee roaster selling by weight. Each one has a different hard problem, and each one is solved on the sheet rather than in an email afterwards.
What to look at in any example
Before the examples, the test. Hand the sheet to someone who has never seen your product and ask them to build a three-hundred-dollar order without asking you anything.
If they can, the sheet works. If they have to ask how many come in a case, whether the price is per jar or per case, what they should charge, or whether it is even in stock, the sheet has a hole in it, and that hole becomes an email you answer forty times.
The structure underneath all three examples is the same eight fields set out in wholesale line sheet. What changes is which extra column each category cannot live without.
Example one: a jam maker with six items
The header. Brand name, contact email, phone. Underneath, one line: "Spring prices, effective March. Opening order 200 dollars, reorders 150 dollars. Ships in 5 business days."
The grid. Six rows, each with a small square photo of the jar on white, then five columns.
Each row reads across as item, wholesale, case pack, case price, retail:
- Strawberry and vanilla 220g — 4.20, case of 12, 50.40 a case, retail 8.50
- Blackcurrant 220g — 4.20, case of 12, 50.40 a case, retail 8.50
- Seville marmalade 220g — 4.50, case of 12, 54.00 a case, retail 9.00
- Fig and port 220g — 5.00, case of 6, 30.00 a case, retail 10.00
- Chilli jam 180g — 4.50, case of 12, 54.00 a case, retail 9.00
- Gift trio box — 12.00, case of 4, 48.00 a case, retail 24.00
The category-specific column. Shelf life. Food buyers will not order without it, and a grocer receiving jars with four months left on them when they expected twelve will send them back. One extra column saying "18 months, minimum 12 on delivery" prevents that entirely.
What this sheet does well. Case price is printed, so a buyer can add up an order in their head. The gift box sits at the bottom where a buyer lands after choosing the singles. And the fig jam having a smaller case is explained by its higher price, which keeps the case values in the same band.
Example two: an apparel brand with a size run
Apparel breaks a simple grid, because one product is eight products.
The header. Same three lines, plus one more that apparel needs: the delivery window. "Autumn collection. Orders close 15 June, delivery 1 to 15 September." Apparel buyers are buying a future season, not stock on your shelf today.
The grid. One row per style and colour, with the size run as its own block.
Style and colour, then wholesale, retail and the size run:
- Harbour shirt, ecru — 34.00 wholesale, 78.00 retail, run of S-M-L-XL at 1-2-2-1
- Harbour shirt, navy — 34.00 wholesale, 78.00 retail, run of S-M-L-XL at 1-2-2-1
- Field trouser, olive — 42.00 wholesale, 96.00 retail, run of 28-30-32-34 at 1-2-2-1
That "1-2-2-1" is the prepack: six units per style and colour, weighted toward the middle sizes. It replaces the case pack column and does the same job, which is to stop buyers cherry-picking mediums and leaving you with extra smalls.
The category-specific column. Fabric and care, in six words. "Washed cotton poplin, machine wash cold." Apparel buyers need it for their own tickets and website copy, and if it is not on the sheet you will send it later anyway.
What this sheet does well. It states the order deadline, which creates a real reason to reply this week. It publishes the size curve rather than negotiating it. And it keeps colours as separate rows, because a buyer takes navy and skips ecru, and a merged row makes that order impossible to express.
Example three: a coffee roaster selling by weight
Coffee has two problems a jam maker does not: the product is sold in formats, and it is perishable in a way that is about freshness rather than safety.
The grid. Rows by coffee, then a sub-row per format.
Coffee and format, then wholesale, case, case price and retail:
- House blend, 250g retail bag — 9.00, case of 6, 54.00 a case, retail 18.00
- House blend, 1kg wholesale bag — 26.00, case of 4, 104.00 a case, no shelf price
- Kenya single origin, 250g retail bag — 11.50, case of 6, 69.00 a case, retail 22.00
- Kenya single origin, 1kg wholesale bag — 34.00, case of 4, 136.00 a case, no shelf price
The one-kilo line carries no retail price because it is not for the shelf, it is for a cafe grinding it. Saying so in the column, rather than leaving it blank, tells the buyer it is deliberate.
The category-specific columns. Roast date policy and grind. "Roasted to order, ships within 3 days of roast. Whole bean unless ground is specified." Both of those are questions every single cafe buyer asks.
What this sheet does well. It separates two buyer types on one page without confusing either. A gift shop reads the 250-gram rows and ignores the rest; a cafe reads the kilo rows. And the wholesale price on the kilo bag reflects that a cafe is buying an input rather than a product, which is a genuinely different pricing decision from the one in wholesale price vs retail price.
What all three have in common
Four things, and they are the four that actually move orders.
Every sheet prints the case price, not just the unit price. Buyers build orders by adding cases.
Every sheet states the minimum and the lead time in the header, above the products, because those two facts decide whether the buyer keeps reading.
Every sheet gives its category's one extra column: shelf life, fabric and care, roast policy. Find yours by writing down the last ten questions buyers asked you and putting the most common one on the page.
And every sheet is scannable in one direction. A buyer reads down the price column. Anything that interrupts that column, a hero image, a quote, a paragraph about provenance, costs you attention you cannot get back.
What the bad version looks like
Worth naming, because these are the four failures that show up over and over.
The mood board. Gorgeous full-bleed lifestyle photography, no prices, one email address in nine-point type. It is a brand deck, and the buyer has to ask for prices, which they usually do not.
The wall of spreadsheet. Forty rows in a raw export with column headers like WSP_EX_VAT and no pictures. A buyer cannot tell what anything looks like, so they order nothing.
The catalogue in disguise. Sixty items across eleven pages because everything you have ever made is on it. Choice at that volume produces delay. If you genuinely have sixty items, split them and keep the sheet for the core range, as in wholesale catalog.
The half-priced sheet. Wholesale prices listed with no suggested retail, or retail with no case pack. Either way the buyer cannot see their own margin, and that is the single number they are shopping for.
Turning an example into your own sheet
Copy the structure, not the styling. Start from the one whose problem matches yours, which is usually format complexity, size runs or perishability.
Then do three passes. First pass, fill in the fields for every item and accept that it looks ugly. Second pass, cut items you cannot make in quantity right now. Third pass, hand it to someone who does not know the product and ask them to build an order, and fix whatever they had to ask about.
A blank structure with every field laid out is in line sheet template, and the case sizes you enter in the case column come out of the decision in case pack.
Once it exists, the sheet's only job is to reach buyers who stock products like yours. Pasting a product link into WholesalePilot previews the retailers and distributors carrying comparable items, which is where a finished sheet should go first.
Questions brands ask about line sheet examples
Can I use a competitor's sheet as a template? Look at several to learn the category conventions, especially which extra column is standard. Copy the conventions, not their layout or their words.
Should the example include prices with tax? State prices excluding tax and say so on the sheet. Wholesale buyers expect that, and it avoids two different numbers in different markets.
How long should a sheet be? One page for under twenty items, two for under forty. Past that you are writing a catalogue and should say so.
Do I need a different sheet per account type? Usually one sheet with clear sections works, as in the coffee example. Separate sheets are worth it only when distributor pricing is involved and should never be visible to a boutique.