The Complete Guide to Wholesale Coffee Sales on Shopify (2026)
Here’s the math that changes everything: A single café ordering 100 pounds of coffee per week at a $6/lb profit generates $31,000 in annual profit. Land five accounts like that, and you’ve added $150,000+ to your bottom line—with customers who reorder every week without you lifting a finger.
That’s the wholesale opportunity for coffee roasters. But capturing it requires more than great beans. You need systems: pricing that protects your margins, payment terms that don’t kill your cash flow, and technology that scales without adding headcount.
This guide covers everything you need to build a wholesale coffee program on Shopify—from pricing strategy to landing your first café accounts to scaling beyond 50 customers. Whether you’re a small-batch roaster exploring B2B for the first time or an established operation looking to systematize, you’ll find actionable frameworks you can implement this week.
What we’ll cover:
- The three types of wholesale coffee customers (and which to prioritize)
- How to price wholesale coffee without leaving money on the table
- Setting up B2B ordering on Shopify (three approaches compared)
- Landing your first café accounts (the sample strategy that works)
- Scaling from 5 to 50+ accounts without hiring a sales team
- Common mistakes that kill wholesale programs
Part 1: Understanding the Coffee Wholesale Landscape
Before setting prices or building systems, you need to understand who you’re selling to. Coffee wholesale isn’t one market—it’s three distinct customer types with different needs, margins, and operational requirements.
Your Three Customer Types
1. Cafés & Restaurants
Volume: 50-200 lbs per week (per location) Margin potential: Highest (40-50%) Payment expectation: Net 30 is standard
Cafés are your best wholesale customers. They order consistently, they’re loyal once you’ve earned their trust, and they’ll pay premium prices for quality and reliability. A single busy café might order 100+ pounds per week—and they’ll do it every week for years.
Why cafés stick with their roasters: Switching means retraining baristas, updating recipes, and risking customer complaints. Most café owners won’t consider a change unless something goes seriously wrong with their current supplier.
That loyalty cuts both ways. Cafés are hard to win but harder to lose. Your job is to make switching painful by providing value beyond the beans: training, equipment support, and consistent quality.
Key requirements:
- Net 30 payment terms (non-negotiable for most)
- Consistent roast profiles (their drinks depend on it)
- Flexible delivery schedules
- Barista training and support
2. Grocery & Retail Stores
Volume: 24-100 bags per month Margin potential: Lower (20-35%) Payment expectation: Net 30-60, sometimes consignment
Grocery is a different game. Volumes are lower, margins are thinner, and you’re competing for shelf space. Larger chains require slotting fees ($500-5,000 per SKU), promotional allowances, and compliance with their systems.
Start local. Independent grocery stores and specialty food shops are more accessible than chains and often eager to support local roasters. They’re also more flexible on terms.
Key requirements:
- Retail-ready packaging (UPC codes, nutritional info)
- Longer shelf life (30-60 days minimum)
- Promotional support
- Consignment or net 60 terms for new accounts
3. Offices & Hotels
Volume: 20-50 lbs per week Margin potential: Medium (30-40%) Payment expectation: Net 30 or credit card
Office coffee programs are steady but unglamorous. Hotels can be lucrative—a 200-room property might need 50+ pounds per week—but they often require equipment packages and have long procurement cycles.
Key requirements:
- Equipment leasing or lending programs
- Simple reordering (subscription or standing orders)
- Flexible packaging (whole bean and ground options)
- Volume pricing for multi-location accounts
What Wholesale Buyers Actually Want
Based on industry patterns and what wholesale buyers prioritize, the same themes emerge. Here’s what matters most:
Consistency over variety. Your café customers don’t want 47 single-origin options. They want two or three reliable blends that taste the same every time. Their espresso recipe depends on predictable extraction—and that requires consistent beans. Most cafés prefer one excellent espresso blend they can count on over a rotating menu that requires constant recipe adjustments.
Flexible payment terms. Cash flow is tight in food service. Net 30 is table stakes for cafés. Some accounts will need Net 60 to start. Others will pay by credit card to earn points. Your ordering system needs to handle all of these.
Training and support. Coffee is technical. Cafés need dialing-in support when beans arrive. They need barista training when staff turns over. The roasters who provide this become partners, not vendors.
Easy reordering. Nobody wants to call or email every week. Standing orders, subscription options, and simple online reordering are expected—not nice-to-haves.
Custom and white-label options. Many cafés want house blends. Some want their logo on bags. This isn’t about ego—it’s about differentiation. Offering customization creates switching costs and deepens relationships.
Part 2: Pricing Your Wholesale Coffee
Get pricing wrong, and you’ll either leave money on the table or price yourself out of deals. Here’s how to build a pricing strategy that protects your margins while remaining competitive.
The True Cost Calculation
Most roasters underestimate their costs. Before setting prices, calculate your true landed cost per pound.
Important context: Green coffee prices hit 47-year highs in late 2025, with arabica futures exceeding $4/lb on the commodity market—up 70% from 2023. Specialty-grade green now runs $4.50-7.00/lb depending on origin and certifications. If you haven’t raised wholesale prices recently, you’re likely losing money.
Direct costs:
- Green coffee (specialty-grade: $4.50-7.00/lb as of late 2025)
- Roasting (labor, energy, equipment depreciation)
- Packaging (bags, labels, boxes)
- Labor (roasting, packaging, QC)
Indirect costs (often forgotten):
- Samples (you’ll give away 5-10% of production)
- Freight and delivery
- Slotting fees and promotional allowances (grocery)
- Bad debt and late payments
- Sales time and relationship management
Example cost breakdown for a specialty blend (late 2025 prices):
| Cost Component | Per Pound |
|---|---|
| Green coffee (specialty) | $5.50 |
| Roasting labor & overhead | $2.00 |
| Packaging | $1.00 |
| Freight/delivery | $0.75 |
| Samples & losses | $0.50 |
| Total landed cost | $9.75 |
If your total cost is $9.75/lb and you sell at $12/lb wholesale, your gross margin is only 23%—not sustainable. You need to be at $16-20/lb wholesale to build a healthy business in the current market.
Margin Benchmarks by Channel
Different channels support different margins. Here’s what to expect with current pricing:
| Channel | Your Cost | Wholesale Price | Gross Margin | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cafés (per lb) | $9-11 | $16-20 | 40-50% | Best margins, highest loyalty |
| Cafés (per kg) | $20-24 | $35-44 | 40-50% | Same math, metric units |
| Retail bags (12oz) | $6-8 | $11-15 | 35-45% | Volume-dependent |
| Grocery (with slotting) | $6-8 | $8-11 | 20-30% | Thinnest margins |
| Offices | $9-11 | $14-18 | 30-40% | Often includes equipment |
Reality check: Cafés focus on cost per cup, not cost per pound. A $40/kg wholesale price (~$18/lb) translates to roughly $0.70-0.80 per double shot. With specialty lattes now selling for $6-7 in most markets, that’s still a healthy margin for the café.
Tiered Pricing That Makes Sense
Volume discounts should reflect your actual cost savings, not arbitrary breaks. Here’s a framework:
| Tier | Weekly Volume | Discount | Logic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | < 25 lbs | 0% | Full price for small accounts |
| Bronze | 25-50 lbs | 5% | Delivery efficiency gains |
| Silver | 50-100 lbs | 10% | Roast batch optimization |
| Gold | 100+ lbs | 15% | Dedicated production runs |
Standing order discounts: Customers who commit to weekly orders with no variance deserve an additional 3-5% off. Their predictability saves you planning headaches and reduces waste.
Seasonal considerations: Coffee prices fluctuate. Build in quarterly price reviews for long-term contracts, or use a cost-plus model that adjusts with green coffee prices.
Part 3: Setting Up Wholesale on Shopify
You’re already on Shopify for direct-to-consumer. The question is: how do you add B2B without building a separate operation?
Why Shopify for Coffee Wholesale?
Many roasters use purpose-built platforms like RoasterTools or Cropster Commerce for wholesale. These are excellent tools—but they add complexity if you’re already running Shopify for DTC.
The case for keeping everything on Shopify:
- Single inventory: No syncing between platforms. Sell the same SKUs to consumers and cafés.
- Unified analytics: See all revenue in one dashboard.
- Familiar interface: Your team already knows Shopify.
- App ecosystem: Integrate with your existing tools (shipping, accounting, email).
The trade-off is that Shopify wasn’t built for B2B. You’ll need apps or workarounds to handle wholesale-specific features like customer-specific pricing, Net 30 terms, and minimum order quantities.
Three Approaches Compared
| Approach | Monthly Cost | Setup Time | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Plus B2B | $2,300+ | 2-4 weeks | 100+ wholesale accounts, enterprise needs |
| effizient Wholesale | $39 | 1-2 days | 10-100 accounts, growing roasters |
| Separate Store | $39+ | 1 week | Full control, complex catalogs |
Shopify Plus B2B: Native wholesale features, customer-specific catalogs, payment terms built in. Powerful but expensive. Makes sense if wholesale is 50%+ of revenue.
effizient Wholesale: Add wholesale pricing to your existing store without the Plus price tag. Tag customers, create tiered price lists, offer Net 30/60/90 terms, and track receivables—all using Shopify’s checkout. No separate storefront, no inventory syncing headaches.
Separate Store: Create a password-protected wholesale store. Full control but double the inventory management.
For most roasters doing $100K-$1M in wholesale annually, an app-based approach hits the sweet spot: affordable, fast to set up, and powerful enough to grow with you.
Step-by-Step: Tag-Based Wholesale Setup
Here’s how to set up wholesale pricing using customer tags (works with most wholesale apps):
Step 1: Create customer tags
Organize customers by pricing tier:
wholesale-cafe— Standard café pricing (40% off retail)wholesale-distributor— Distributor pricing (50% off retail)wholesale-retail— Retail partner pricing (35% off retail)
Step 2: Set up price lists
Create a price list for each tag with the appropriate discount:
| Price List | Tag | Discount | Payment Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Café Partners | wholesale-cafe | 40% | Net 30 |
| Distributors | wholesale-distributor | 50% | Net 30 |
| Retail Partners | wholesale-retail | 35% | Due on receipt |
Step 3: Configure payment terms
For Net 30 accounts, you need a system that:
- Allows checkout without payment
- Generates invoices automatically
- Tracks outstanding balances
- Sends payment reminders
This is where most DIY approaches break down. Manual invoicing works with 5 accounts. At 20+, you need automation.
How effizient handles this: When a tagged wholesale customer checks out, effizient automatically applies their Net 30 terms, generates an invoice, and tracks the balance. No manual work, no spreadsheets. Payment reminders go out automatically when invoices are due. See how it works →
Step 4: Enable wholesale-only products
Some products are wholesale-only (5 lb bags, case packs). Hide these from retail customers using:
- Customer-tag-based visibility rules
- Separate collections with password protection
- App-based catalog restrictions
Step 5: Test the buyer experience
Create a test wholesale account and place an order. Check:
- Correct pricing displays at checkout
- Payment terms work as expected
- Order confirmation includes Net 30 details
- Customer can easily reorder
Skip the Setup Hassle
If this feels like a lot of configuration, you’re right. Most roasters spend 2-3 weeks getting wholesale working on Shopify—and still end up with gaps in payment terms or pricing logic.
effizient Wholesale handles the technical setup so you can focus on landing accounts. Tag-based pricing, Net 30/60/90 terms, volume discounts, and AR tracking—all working in your existing Shopify store within a day.
Start your 14-day free trial →
Part 4: Landing Your First Wholesale Accounts
Systems are useless without customers. Here’s how to build your wholesale roster from zero.
The Sample Strategy That Works
Most roasters leave samples with prospective cafés and hope for calls. This rarely works. The sample sits on a shelf, gets lost, or gets cupped once during a busy shift and forgotten.
Instead, schedule a tasting:
- Reach out with value: “I’d love to bring by some samples and dial them in on your machine—no strings attached.”
- Prepare coffee together: Show up with beans, dial in espresso, make drinks. This is a working session, not a sales pitch.
- Discuss their needs: What’s not working with their current roaster? What would make their life easier?
- Follow up with a proposal: Send a wholesale catalog within 48 hours with pricing specific to their volume.
The goal isn’t to “sell” coffee. It’s to demonstrate competence and start a relationship. Café owners buy from people they trust.
Where to Find Café Buyers
Trade shows:
- Specialty Coffee Expo (US) — The big one. Buyers attend specifically to find roasters.
- Coffee Fest (regional) — Smaller, more targeted, easier to get meetings.
- Regional food shows — Cast a wider net.
Local outreach:
- Join restaurant associations
- Attend chamber of commerce events
- Partner with equipment dealers (they know who’s opening)
Cold outreach that works:
Subject: Quick question about your coffee program
Hi [Name],
I walked by [Café] last week and loved the space. Curious if you’re happy with your current roaster or open to exploring options?
I run [Roastery] here in [City]. We supply about 15 cafés locally and focus on [your differentiator — single origin, sustainability, etc.].
Would you be open to a 15-minute tasting? I’ll bring beans, dial them in on your machine, and you can see if the quality is there. No pressure either way.
[Your name]
Keep it short. Make it easy to say yes. Focus on their needs, not your story.
The Pitch: What Café Owners Care About
When you get the meeting, focus on what matters to them:
Cost per cup, not cost per pound. A café owner doesn’t care if coffee is $35 or $44 per kilo. They care that their cost per double shot stays under $0.80. With lattes selling for $6-7 in most markets, that’s still excellent margin. Do the math for them.
Roast date guarantees. Cafés need fresh coffee. Commit to roast dates within 7 days of delivery. This is a real differentiator—many distributors ship coffee that’s already 3-4 weeks old.
Reliability. Can you deliver every Tuesday at 7am? Will you have stock when they need it? Cafés can’t run out of coffee on a Saturday morning.
Support. Will you help train new baristas? Will you answer the phone when their grinder settings are off? This is where relationships are built.
Part 5: Scaling From 5 to 50+ Accounts
Landing your first accounts is exciting. Scaling without chaos requires systems.
From 5 to 50 Accounts
Standing orders reduce chaos. Convert ad-hoc ordering customers to standing weekly orders. Offer a 5% discount for commitment. Benefits:
- Predictable production planning
- Reduced order management time
- Fewer stockouts and rush orders
Route optimization for local delivery. If you’re delivering within 50 miles, group deliveries by geography. Tuesday is the east side. Thursday is downtown. This cuts delivery time in half.
When to add a sales rep. At 30-40 accounts, you’ll spend 15+ hours per week on wholesale management. Consider:
- Part-time sales rep (commission-based to start)
- Customer success hire (manages existing accounts)
- Outsourced delivery (focus your time on relationships)
The math: If a full-time hire costs $60K/year and can land 20 new accounts worth $4K each in annual profit, they pay for themselves in year one.
Adding Value Beyond Coffee
The roasters who dominate wholesale offer more than beans:
Equipment programs. Partner with equipment dealers to offer leasing or lending. A café that uses your grinder is less likely to switch roasters.
Barista training. Monthly or quarterly training sessions build relationships and ensure your coffee is prepared correctly. Bad extraction reflects on your beans, not the barista.
Café consulting. Help with menu development, workflow optimization, even interior layout. This positions you as a partner, not a vendor.
Operational Efficiency at Scale
MOQs by production logic. Don’t set arbitrary minimums. Tie them to your roasting batches:
- 12 lb minimum = one roast batch
- Free delivery at 25 lbs = route efficiency threshold
- Case pack pricing at 6x 2lb bags = packaging efficiency
Standing order automation. Use subscription functionality or standing order apps to auto-generate weekly orders. Customers can adjust quantities but don’t need to reorder manually.
Self-service reordering. Give wholesale customers a portal to view order history, reorder with one click, and update payment information. Every manual order is time you’re not roasting.
Part 6: Common Mistakes That Kill Wholesale Programs
After watching roasters struggle with wholesale, these mistakes appear repeatedly:
Pricing Too Low to “Win” Accounts
Racing to the bottom destroys margins. If a café chooses you because you’re cheapest, they’ll leave when someone cheaper appears.
Instead: Compete on quality, service, and reliability. The cafés worth having will pay for value.
Offering Too Many SKUs
Cafés don’t need 15 options. They need:
- One great espresso blend
- One solid drip option
- Maybe a rotating single origin
Complexity kills operations. Every SKU is inventory to manage, freshness to track, and decisions for customers who’d rather just reorder.
Ignoring Payment Terms
Net 30 is standard—but it’s a cash flow killer if you’re not prepared. At 50 accounts ordering $500/month each, you’re financing $25,000 in receivables.
Protect yourself:
- Credit check new accounts
- Set credit limits based on history
- Automate payment reminders
- Cut off accounts at 60 days overdue
No Exclusivity for Loyal Accounts
Your best customers should get something others don’t. Ideas:
- First access to new releases
- Custom blends only they can order
- Better pricing locked in annually
- Priority during supply shortages
Exclusivity creates loyalty. Loyalty creates switching costs.
Your 90-Day Wholesale Roadmap
Days 1-30: Foundation
- Define pricing by channel and tier
- Set up wholesale on Shopify (app or Plus)
- Create wholesale catalog and order form
- Identify 10 target cafés in your area
Days 31-60: First Accounts
- Schedule tastings with 5 prospects
- Land 2-3 accounts (realistic for month one)
- Dial in fulfillment and delivery processes
- Collect feedback and iterate
Days 61-90: Systematize
- Convert accounts to standing orders
- Automate invoicing and payment reminders
- Build out Net 30 tracking
- Start outreach to next 10 prospects
At the end of 90 days, you should have 5-10 wholesale accounts, a repeatable sales process, and systems that don’t require daily attention.
Ready to Build Your Wholesale Program?
If you’re on Shopify and want to add wholesale without the Shopify Plus price tag, effizient Wholesale handles the hard parts: customer-specific pricing, Net 30 payment terms, and volume discounts—all working seamlessly with your existing store.
Start your 14-day free trial and see how it works with your products.
About the author: Michael Wallbaum has built custom e-commerce systems for Shopify merchants since 2019. He’s the founder of effizient and creator of effizient Wholesale—a wholesale pricing app for Shopify merchants who’ve outgrown manual processes but don’t need Shopify Plus.