Running a Weekly Special for Your Wholesale Customers

What to put on special

Start with what you have too much of, or what is at its best this week: field tomatoes in August, a good run of halibut, a pallet of oil that came in heavy. Three to six products is plenty. A special with forty lines is a price list, and nobody reads it.

How much off each

Not everything needs the same discount. Tomatoes you need gone by Friday might take 20%; peppers that are simply good this week might take 10%. Work it out from your margin on each line, not from a round number. In Supligo each product in a campaign takes its own percentage, and the email says “up to 20% off” with each line’s own price.

How long it runs

A week is the sweet spot for most distributors: long enough for every customer to reach their next order day, short enough to stay a special. Give it a clear first and last day. When the last day passes, prices go back on their own; if the product runs out on Tuesday, stop the campaign and they go back at once.

Telling every customer, once

One email, in your name, to every customer who agreed to your news: a line or two from you, each product with its old and new price, the days it runs, and a button to order from your page. Customers who would rather not get these can stop them from the email itself, as the law expects. Then leave it — one email per special is enough.

Keeping it fair

Two rules keep a special from costing you more than you planned. First, a customer who already has a better price keeps it — the campaign never stacks on top of their own discount. Second, the special applies to orders placed while it runs: an order placed during the week keeps that price even if they change it later, and a new order after the last day is at the normal price. Supligo works both out for you, on your ordering page and on the orders you take by phone.

You can see where campaigns live on the online ordering page.