06/04/2026
Sell a $40 bottle to a distributor and here's where the money goes:
✔️ Distributor pays you about $20 (50% off retail)
✔️ Distributor sells to the retailer at about $28 (40% margin)
✔️ Retailer sells to the consumer at $40 (30% markup)
Three businesses take a cut on every bottle that moves through wholesale. Yours is the smallest one.
Same bottle, DTC: you keep $35 to $38 net of shipping and fulfillment. Two to three times the margin per unit.
The case for wholesale isn't per-unit profit. It's volume and brand exposure. If you're chasing revenue through wholesale without the volume to support it, the math doesn't work.