Running a successful online store requires meeting the needs of both individual retail customers as well as bulk wholesale buyers. WooCommerce’s flexibility and customizability make it a great platform for e-commerce stores wanting to sell products at wholesale rates. However, the base WooCommerce plugin alone does not provide the functionality required for managing a wholesale operation.
This is where WooCommerce wholesale plugins come into play! Wholesale plugins empower store owners to easily set up tiered pricing, create separate wholesale customer accounts, manage bulk orders, and automate key tasks associated with running a wholesale e-commerce business.
With the right plugin, WooCommerce stores can seamlessly cater to both retail and wholesale customers. But with so many wholesale plugin options available, it can be tricky to determine the best one for your unique needs. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the key benefits of using a WooCommerce wholesale plugin, and factors to consider when choosing one, followed by in-depth reviews of the 12 best plugins for 2024.
Why Use a Wholesale Plugin on your WooCommerce Store?
For business owners, branching out into wholesale in addition to retail sales opens up new revenue opportunities and allows you to grow your customer base. However, managing the operations of a wholesale e-commerce store requires some specialized functionality. Here are the key reasons for using a dedicated WooCommerce wholesale plugin:
Simplified Tiered Pricing
The core functionality any good wholesale plugin must provide is the ability to set special bulk or tiered pricing that is only shown to wholesale customers. Manually configuring different product prices for different customer groups is extremely cumbersome. Wholesale plugins streamline the process with intuitive controls and bulk editing tools.
Wholesale Customer Account Management
You need the ability to easily distinguish between retail customers and wholesale buyers. Wholesale plugins make it simple to set up wholesale customer accounts, approvals, and user roles with permission to view special prices.
Wholesale Order Management Tools
Managing numerous bulk orders and purchases requires tailored order, inventory, and shipping management tools. Wholesale plugins provide the infrastructure to smoothly handle large wholesale orders.
Discount Rules and Coupon Management
Offering discounts, percentage discounts, or automated coupon generation helps attract and retain wholesale customers. Robust wholesale plugins include tools to create discounts tied to order quantities, customer groups, products, and more.
Sales & Order Reporting
Tracking the performance of your wholesale sales channels and customers requires specialized reporting features. The right wholesale plugin will include sales analytics to provide those business insights.
The bottom line is that WooCommerce wholesale plugins eliminate the complexity of running both retail and wholesale operations within a single store. They enable automating time-consuming manual tasks and provide the infrastructure to handle large wholesale orders.
Factors To Consider Before Picking Up a Wholesale Plugin
With the importance of wholesale plugins established, let’s look at the key factors to evaluate when choosing one:
Tiered Pricing Options
At a minimum, the plugin should offer an easy way to configure product prices for your different customer groups – retail, wholesale, distributors, etc. Robust tiered pricing logic to set prices based on order quantities, product categories, customer attributes, etc is preferred.
Wholesale Customer Account Management
The ability for customers to self-sign up as wholesale buyers or distributors is extremely beneficial. Approval workflows to review signups also add a layer of control. Creating and managing separate wholesale user roles, permissions, caps, and restrictions is also key.
Bulk Order Creation & Management Tools
Look for specialized tools like bulk order forms, one-page checkouts, automated order processing, and customized fulfillment options that simplify wholesale order management.
Discount Rules and Coupon Management
Flexible options to create percentage discounts, set discount amount thresholds, generate single-use coupons or batch coupons, and restrict coupons to wholesale groups streamline promotions.
Reporting and Analytics
Robust sales reporting and analytics focused on wholesale order activity provide crucial business insights. Important for identifying top-selling products, and quantities, and tracking customer purchase metrics.
Seamless WooCommerce Integration
The plugin should play well with standard WooCommerce functionality related to payments, shipping, tax, inventory, etc. This ensures smooth management of your hybrid retail/wholesale storefront.
Keeping these factors in mind, let’s look at the top wholesale plugin options available for WooCommerce stores in 2024:
12 Best WooCommerce Wholesale Plugins In 2024
After extensive research considering features, performance, support, and overall user reviews – here are the 12 best WooCommerce plugins for setting up a wholesale system:
1. Wholesale Suite: The #1 Wholesale WordPress Plugin
Wholesale Suite by Woosuite is the premier all-in-one solution for adding powerful and customizable wholesale functionality to your WooCommerce store.
It packs in multiple dedicated tools to cater to wholesale customers alongside retail buyers seamlessly. Store owners can create the optimal wholesale experience with tiered pricing, bulk order forms, approvals, and robust reporting.
Key Features:
- Set special bulk or tiered pricing rules for wholesale products
- Create intuitive wholesale order forms for bulk purchases
- Approve/deny wholesale account signup requests
- Generate and email bulk order forms to customers
- Detailed analytics on wholesale orders and customers
- Role-based permissions for wholesale access
- Supports WooCommerce Subscriptions and WPML
Wholesale Suite integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce allowing you to run a unified hybrid storefront catering to both retail and wholesale segments. The optimized order forms and robust tools make wholesale order fulfillment smooth and efficient.
In summary, Wholesale Suite provides all the infrastructure and tools needed to successfully operate a wholesale ecommerce operation. The extensive features coupled with stellar support and updates cement its spot as our top choice among WooCommerce wholesale plugins.
2. WholesaleX: The Simplest WooCommerce B2B Solution
WholesaleX focuses on providing a streamlined B2B solution tailored for WooCommerce stores. It makes the process of showcasing tiered pricing to wholesale buyers and managing bulk orders simpler through its suite of tools.
Key features:
- Customizable bulk order forms for easy wholesale purchasing
- Dynamic pricing rules based on quantities, user roles etc
- Request a Quote option to initiate custom price negotiation
- Manage and restrict visibility for users, products, pricing
- Multi-layered user roles for tailored account types
- Registration forms to easily onboard wholesale customers
- Special B2B-focused dashboard
A big advantage of WholesaleX is the flexibility it provides in configuring pricing rules, user roles, and customizations. Wholesale customers also benefit from the bulk order creation tools and the options for quotes.
Overall, WholesaleX succeeds in offering a lightweight B2B ecosystem purpose-built for the needs of a WooCommerce wholesale operation. It’s a great solution for stores that need B2B capabilities without overwhelming complexity.
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3. WooCommerce Wholesale Pro: The Most Powerful Wholesale Suite
WooCommerce Wholesale Pro by Barn2 is one of the most full-featured and configurable wholesale solutions available. It combines deep tiered pricing options with robust order and account management tools.
Key features:
- Create unlimited wholesale customer roles
- Global or category-specific tiered pricing
- Individual product-level wholesale pricing
- Separate wholesale registration and login
- Bulk ordering and quote requests
- Hide retail pricing from wholesalers
- Automations for order processing & shipping
This plugin provides store owners fine-grained control when it comes to configuring and managing every aspect of their wholesale operations from pricing to accounts to automation. Bulk order creation and requests are streamlined for wholesale customers.
The extensive options do mean a slightly higher learning curve, but for stores needing maximum flexibility, WooCommerce Wholesale Pro is a top choice among commercial plugins. The available multi-site licenses provide excellent value for established wholesale businesses.
4. WooCommerce B2B Plugin: An Ultimate Wholesale Solution
The aptly named WooCommerce B2B plugin by Addify focuses on transforming your standard WooCommerce store into a feature-rich B2B ecosystem. In addition to robust tools catering to wholesale customers, it also provides options to enhance the retail side of your store.
Key features:
- Dynamic tiered pricing for wholesale customers
- Option to hide retail pricing from guests
- Wholesale customer account registration and management
- Custom catalog and cart experiences for wholesalers
- Quote requests and approvals
- Rule-based tiered pricing
- Options to improve retail experience
A major advantage of this plugin is the deep integration and cohesion between both wholesale and retail features. Store owners can craft targeted experiences for each customer group.
The extensive options for automation and customizations do mean a larger learning curve. Overall, stores wanting to build a highly customized and conversion-optimized B2B ecosystem will find this plugin extremely useful, albeit with a steeper setup.
5. Wholesale Prices & Tiered Pricing
This WooCommerce extension by VillaTheme focuses solely on empowering business owners to configure tiered and dynamic wholesale pricing for their products.
Key features:
- Simple UI to set tiered prices
- Quantity-based bulk pricing
- Role-based pricing for customer groups
- Category-level pricing rules
- Option to schedule timed pricing deals
- Display savings compared to retail
- Sync prices across linked variations
While the plugin concentrates mainly on advanced pricing, it provides a robust rule-based system to tackle even complex bulk pricing requirements. The bulk editing capabilities coupled with the intuitive UI helps streamline pricing configuration.
Overall, stores wanting a straightforward and affordable solution solely for configuring flexible wholesale pricing rules will find this plugin perfectly fits the bill.
6. ELEX WooCommerce Wholesale & Role-Based Pricing
Another plugin that concentrates specifically on tiered, role-based pricing – ELEX WooCommerce Wholesale & Role Based Pricing by ELEXtensions allows setting specialized pricing for different user groups.
Key features:
- Create and manage wholesale customer roles
- Role-based tiered pricing
- Set pricing rules based on categories
- Individual product-level pricing overrides
- Option to show pricing discounts
- Quote requests and negotiations
- Catalog-mode and cart customizations
The specialized tools for managing user roles and granular control over pricing policies make this a great free choice for stores wanting to delve into tiered pricing. The free version works for simple products while the paid plans unlock further configuration options and product types.
7. B2BKing: #1 WooCommerce B2B & Wholesale Plugin
B2B King provides a solid set of features tailored to help your transition into managing wholesale customers alongside regular buyers on your WooCommerce store.
Key features:
- Separate wholesale storefront
- Quantity-based tiered pricing
- Wholesale customer registration and management
- Bulk order management with special statuses
- Wholesale focused reporting
- Set shipping and payment rules
- Wholesale customer satisfaction surveys
- Quote requests with approvals
A useful option is the ability to establish a separate wholesale storefront accessible only to approved wholesale buyers. Useful customizations like tailored order statuses, shipping rules, surveys, and reporting provide a streamlined wholesale ordering experience.
Stores wanting a straightforward plugin for managing segregated retail and wholesale customer groups will find B2B King a practical choice.
8. WooCommerce Wholesale Pro Plugin
This aptly named plugin – WooCommerce Wholesale Pro Plugin focuses on the core functionality needed to cater to wholesale buyers on your WooCommerce site.
Key features:
- Quantity-based tiered pricing
- Product-level discounts and pricing overrides
- Wholesale customer account registration
- Bulk order creation and discounts
- Order approvals and statuses
- Dedicated reporting on wholesale metrics
- Basic role-based permissions
It covers all the essential wholesale order and pricing management capabilities. While not as feature-rich as some commercial plugins, its budget-friendly pricing and ease of use makes it a great option for stores starting out with wholesale or having basic needs.
9. Whols – WooCommerce Wholesale Prices Plugin
Whols is an easy-to-use WooCommerce extension that allows storing owners to set special wholesale pricing. It also provides some useful extras surrounding the customer experience.
Key features:
- Set tiered pricing based on quantities
- Options to set minimum order quantities
- Ability to display savings compared to retail
- Approval workflow for wholesale registrations
- Role-based permissions and access
- Free shipping and discounts for wholesalers
- Hide wholesale-only products from retail buyers
A useful free plugin for basic wholesale pricing and account management. The approval systems and role-based tools help segregate retail and wholesale customers. While not as feature-rich as paid solutions, it works great for stores with straightforward needs.
10. Booster for WooCommerce
Booster for WooCommerce is a popular plugin with 100+ modules to enhance different aspects of your store. It includes a dedicated module for Wholesale Pricing that provides basic capabilities for tiered pricing.
Key features:
- Role-based pricing rules
- Minimum quantity thresholds for pricing levels
- Wholesale pricing for all or individual products
- Option to override or limit other discounts
- Customize visibility of discount information
- Support for different customer groups
As it is a module within a larger plugin, the capabilities are limited compared to standalone wholesale plugins. However, if you are already using Booster for WooCommerce, the Wholesale Pricing module is a convenient option for basic tiered pricing needs.
11. Premmerce Wholesale Pricing for WooCommerce
Premmerce Wholesale Pricing delivers just the pricing features needed for a basic wholesaling operation.
Key features:
- Create wholesale prices for different user roles
- Role and product-specific pricing
- Bulk price editing capabilities
- Set fixed or percentage discounts
- Compatible with other plugins
- Simple configuration
The strength lies in its intuitive interface and bulk editing tools that make price configuration straightforward. While light on advanced features present in premium plugins, it gets the job done for basic wholesale pricing needs.
12. Tiered Pricing Table for WooCommerce
This free plugin has a specific focus on allowing bulk-tiered pricing tables on product pages to display quantity-based discounts.
Key features:
- Show pricing tables on product pages
- Helps show tiered quantity pricing clearly
- Supports custom labels and colors for UI
- Option to disable on specific products
- Additional customization options
If you specifically want well-formatted pricing tables on the front end rather than backend pricing configuration, this plugin delivers that capability handily. A useful addition if you need pricing tables alongside any of the plugins that focus more on configuration and reporting.
Related:
- Best Free and Paid WooCommerce Plugins
- Best WooCommerce Currency Switcher Plugins
- Best Dropshipping Plugins for WooCommerce
- Best Gutenberg Blocks Plugins
Conclusion
The right WooCommerce wholesale plugin provides the infrastructure and tools needed to successfully run a hybrid retail and wholesale operation from the same storefront. Start with determining your key requirements and priorities when it comes to managing and automating your wholesale workflow.
The plugins reviewed above represent the top solutions available for tiered pricing, bulk order management, wholesale customer accounts, discounts, and analytics. Leading options like Wholesale Suite, WooCommerce Wholesale Pro, and WooCommerce B2B offer robust enterprise-level capabilities. While extensions like Whols, ELEX Role Based Pricing, and Premmerce Wholesale provide lighter yet effective functionality.
We hope this guide gives you clarity in choosing the WooCommerce wholesale plugin that best meets your business needs and budget. The world of e-commerce wholesaling is complex, but the right plugin makes it infinitely manageable for your store. Let us know if you have any other questions as you evaluate these plugins for your WooCommerce wholesale operation!