When we were building Chubbies, we didn’t have a demand problem in wholesale.

Retailers wanted the product. The brand had momentum.

We avoided wholesale longer than we should have because our operational systems couldn’t handle it.

And, we didn’t know how to do it. It was new and scary.

Inventory lived in too many places. Forecasts were fragile. Every new channel introduced more operational risk we didn’t feel equipped to manage.

So we waited. And, waited.

The Real Cost of Avoiding Wholesale

Looking back, that hesitation cost us early growth and we wish we’d just done it earlier.

Wholesale isn’t just a revenue line. It’s brand diversification. It’s brand awareness. It’s resilience when consumer behaviors shift. And, when done right, it was our most profitable channel by a mile at Chubbies.

But without inventory clarity, wholesale feels like gambling with your balance sheet.  

One of the hardest parts about wholesale isn’t getting into b2b sales, but staying in it. The true challenge is keeping accounts happy, having excellent sell-throughs and managing an increasingly complex web of inventory demands. 

That’s the part most founders don’t talk about.

What We Learned the Hard Way

Wholesale introduces:

• Future-dated inventory commitments
• Channel-specific trade-offs that have to be made
• Increasingly complex fulfillment operations
• Administrative burden in managing payment records

Treating it like “extra Shopify orders” is where brands get burned.

This is why Chubbies ultimately went to legacy ERP, and also why so many brands regret implementing them with time.

What We Built Instead

At GoodDay, we set out to build a centralized operating system where inventory is the atomic unit and virtual inventory capabilities enable simple inventory flows from that trustworthy source of inventory truth. 

We built a dynamic system for Shopify brands adventuring into wholesale for the first time. It gives you the operational control you need to protect and grow your wholesale business without overwhelming you.

The core of this product suite centers on:

• Easily reserving inventory utilizing virtual inventory segmentation
• Bulk allocation and fulfillment operations utilizing GoodDay sales order Blocks Automated available-to-sell and available-to-promise reports 
• Centralized view of sales & COGs reporting including wholesale, as well as Shopify-driven sales
• No custom integrations required, native integrations with WMS, EDI, B2B Selling platforms and financial platforms.
• Dynamic invoicing & payments structures. GoodDay Wholesale Invoicing & Payments [Coming Soon]
• GoodDay Inventory Agent to power inventory allocations [Coming Soon] 

This isn’t conjecture, this is already happening. 75% of the brands coming to GoodDay are joining to enable multi-channel operations. 

Brands like The Normal Brand unlocked $1.5M in incremental wholesale and retail revenue simply by placing inventory correctly across channels. And, now that they’ve moved on from their legacy ERP, they have a trustworthy system they can build and grow with over time.  

The unique power of GoodDay is that the same technology that powers a large multi-channel business like The Normal Brand, Poncho Outdoors and Lola Blankets is also used by teams of less than 10 operators who are getting into Wholesale early. 

As they should. It’s never been easier. 

Yardsale plans to scale wholesale 270% now that they’ve got GoodDay on their side. They started on GoodDay with only 2 founders shipping from a garage office. 

And, this is why SENIQ implemented GoodDay on day 1, so they could expand wholesale without adding costly headcount over time.

Wholesale operations aren’t scary.

Bad, legacy systems are.

If you’re a Shopify brand thinking about wholesale or you’re already in it and feeling the strain, the unlock isn’t more people or more spreadsheets.

It’s a trustworthy operating system that lets you say Yes to growth without breaking operations.

Want to see how D2C brands built on Shopify are saying YES to wholesale and B2B?

Book a demo.