The short answer: retail sells to consumers in small quantities at higher margins, usually paid instantly; wholesale sells to businesses in bulk at lower margins, usually on credit. The same product can move through both, but the customers, pricing, margins and cash cycle are fundamentally different.
The core differences
| Retail | Wholesale | |
|---|---|---|
| Customers | Consumers | Businesses |
| Order size | Small | Large / bulk |
| Margin per unit | Higher | Lower |
| Volume | Lower per sale | Higher |
| Payment | Usually instant | Usually on credit |
| Pricing | Fixed shelf price | Tiered / negotiated |
What the differences mean in practice
- Cash cycle: retail collects instantly; wholesale waits, so credit management is central.
- Pricing: retail uses one shelf price; wholesale uses tiered pricing.
- Margin discipline: thin wholesale margins mean cost accuracy (including landed cost) matters more.
- Relationships: wholesale is fewer, deeper, repeat relationships; retail is many, lighter ones.
Running both together
Many businesses do both — a shop that also supplies other shops. That works well if your system can handle both models at once: consumer sales at shelf prices and business customers on tiered pricing and credit, from one stock pool.
One system for retail, wholesale, or both
RushFlow supports retail POS and wholesale (tiered pricing, credit, bulk orders) from the same inventory and accounts — so you can run either or both cleanly. See the live demo.