If you've started selling wholesale, you've probably been asked for a "line sheet" by a retail buyer and had to quietly search what that meant. It's one of those terms everyone in the trade uses and nobody explains.
The short definition
A line sheet is a simple, no-frills document that lists your products, SKUs, and wholesale prices, built specifically for a retail buyer who already knows your brand and just needs the details to place an order. Think of it as the working document version of a catalog - less marketing language, more straight facts: photo, name, SKU, price, minimum order quantity if you have one.
How it's different from a regular catalog
A consumer-facing catalog is designed to persuade someone to want a product. A line sheet assumes the buyer already wants it - their job is to decide how much to order, not whether to order. That's why line sheets tend to be denser: more products per page, less descriptive copy, and a clear, scannable price column.
What belongs on a good line sheet
- A clear product photo - buyers are often ordering dozens of items at once and rely on the image to jog their memory.
- SKU or style number - this is what actually goes on the purchase order, so it needs to be exact and easy to find.
- Wholesale price - sometimes shown alongside the recommended retail price, so the buyer can see their margin at a glance.
- Stock availability, if you track it - nothing frustrates a buyer more than ordering something that's already sold out.
Do you need different line sheets for different buyers?
Often, yes. A small independent shop and a large regional chain might reasonably get different pricing, and many wholesalers produce a separate line sheet for each tier rather than negotiating from scratch every time. This is also where showing a discounted price next to the original retail price earns its keep - it makes the value of the wholesale relationship obvious without a single word of explanation.
Building one without starting from scratch
If your products already live in Shopify, you don't need to rebuild a line sheet by hand every time your range changes. Exporting your product CSV and running it through a generator like CatalogPress produces a properly laid-out line sheet - or several, at different discount levels - directly from your existing store data, with everything above already accounted for.