An online retailer is a shop with no shelf, which changes what they need from you and almost nothing about what they want. They still need margin, a product their customers search for, content good enough to sell without being touched, and a supplier who ships when they say they will.
What varies is the commercial model, and the model decides everything else. There are three common ones, and a brand that agrees to the wrong one for its stage spends a year working for somebody else's site.
The three models, and what each one costs you
Stocking wholesale. The retailer buys cases, holds them, lists them and sells them. You invoice, they pay on terms, and the inventory risk is theirs. Your margin is the ordinary wholesale margin, and this is the healthiest arrangement for a small brand because it behaves like any other stockist.
Dropship. The retailer lists your product, takes the order, and passes it to you to pick, pack and ship in their packaging or yours. They hold nothing. You are paid a wholesale price minus a handling arrangement, usually monthly. No inventory risk for them and no stock commitment at all, which is why so many sites prefer it.
Marketplace or commission. You list, you price, you ship, and the site takes a cut of each sale. You are effectively renting a storefront. The margin can look better than wholesale, but you carry the returns, the customer service, the advertising and the stock.
| Model | Who holds stock | You are paid | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stocking wholesale | The retailer | On terms, per order | You want a real account |
| Dropship | You | Monthly, per sale | Testing a retailer |
| Commission | You | Per sale, less a cut | You want reach, not a buyer |
The trap in dropship is that it is not a wholesale relationship, it is a logistics obligation. Every unit still sits in your workshop, and the retailer has no reason to promote something they have not paid for. It is a reasonable way to start with a site you want to prove yourself to, and a poor place to stay. The fuller comparison is in wholesale vs dropshipping for DTC brands.
What an online buyer asks that a shop owner never does
A boutique owner asks what it looks like on a table. An online buyer asks for a spreadsheet.
Expect a product data request covering, for every variant: a unique product code and a registered barcode, exact dimensions and shipped weight, materials, country of origin, care or usage instructions, ingredient lists where relevant, and any compliance documentation. Expect image specifications: a set number of shots, a required background, a minimum resolution, a particular aspect ratio, and often a lifestyle image on top.
Then expect questions about performance. What does the product return at, and why. What is the review rating on your own site. What does it convert at when it has traffic. How often does it go out of stock. Those are answerable from your own store, and answering them precisely is the single biggest advantage a DTC brand has in this conversation.
Prepare the data before pitching. A brand that can send a clean product sheet and an image pack the same day looks like a supplier; one that promises to put something together looks like a project.
Margins and the price question
Stocking online retailers expect the same broad split as physical retail, sometimes a little deeper because they compete on price and carry the cost of delivery. If your product retails at forty dollars and wholesales at twenty, that still works. If you have been quoting boutiques a shallower discount, expect to defend it.
Dropship pricing sits between wholesale and retail, because you are doing the fulfilment. A common shape is a modest discount off retail, with you paying the shipping to the customer. Model it properly: an order of one small item shipped individually can cost more to fulfil than the discount leaves you.
Returns are a real cost online in a way they are not in a shop. Agree in writing who owns a return, whether the retailer can send goods back to you, in what condition, and within what window. A dropship arrangement with unlimited returns to you is a liability, not a channel.
Channel conflict is the real risk
An online retailer competes with your own store for the same search result, and that is a different situation from a boutique two hundred miles away.
Three things keep it manageable. A stated retail price that everyone holds, so the competition is on service rather than on price. A clear position on which products the retailer gets; giving a site your entire range including the pieces your own customers buy directly is the fastest way to make your store the expensive option. And an honest look at your own discount habits, because a retailer who sees you running a sitewide sale will match it or ask for compensation.
Write the pricing policy down before the first conversation. A brand that already publishes its terms looks professional, and a retailer that will not respect them is telling you what the relationship will be. The small-brand version of the policy is in MAP policy for a small brand.
There is also the exclusivity question. Some sites will ask to be the only online stockist in a market. That is worth something, but it should be paid for in volume commitments, not in goodwill, and it should expire.
How to pitch an online retailer
The pitch is shorter than a physical one and far more numeric. Write to the category buyer or merchandising manager, and put four things in the email: what the product is in one line, the retail price and the margin, proof it sells, and the fact that the data and images are ready.
Proof means your own numbers. Units sold in the last year, repeat purchase behaviour, review count and rating, the search terms people use to find it, and any physical stockists carrying it. This is the evidence a buyer cannot get anywhere else, and it is far more persuasive than adjectives.
Then ask for the model you want rather than accepting the one offered. If the site normally dropships, propose a small stocking order as a test with the dropship arrangement as the fallback. Asking costs nothing and sometimes works.
Finally, be selective. A hundred small online shops with no traffic are not a channel; three good ones are. Look at whether the site ranks for what your product is, whether it has an audience that is visibly active, and whether it merchandises the brands it carries or just lists them. The general question of when a marketplace beats your own storefront is covered in wholesale marketplace vs own website.
To see which online retailers already stock products in your category, paste your product link into WholesalePilot and look at the preview of stockists before building an outreach list.
Running the account once it exists
Online accounts are maintained rather than visited, and three habits keep them alive.
Keep the data current. A price change, a new variant or a packaging change has to reach the retailer's feed, or their listing quietly goes wrong and the sales stop with no explanation.
Watch the listing yourself. Check the images render, the description is yours rather than a rewrite, the variants are all live, and the product is not marked unavailable. Nobody at the retailer will tell you.
And feed them content. New photography, a seasonal angle, a short piece of copy about a new variant. Online buyers plan campaigns and slots, and the brand that turns up with usable assets gets into them. The mechanics of selling wholesale through and alongside your own site are in online store wholesale.
Questions brands ask about online retailers
Is dropship worth doing at all? As a test with a site that will not commit stock, yes. As your main arrangement across many sites, it turns you into a fulfilment operation with wholesale margins.
Should the whole range go to one retailer? No. Hold something back for your own store, and give each significant retailer a reason to be different.
What if they discount below the stated price? Raise it once, politely, in writing. If it continues, stop supplying. A retailer that trains your customers to wait for a sale costs more than the revenue they bring.
How big is a first order? For a stocking retailer, often similar to a good boutique order, with faster reorders if it sells. The velocity, not the opening order, is what makes the account worth having.