How Do I Offer Net 30 Terms to Wholesale Customers on OpoShop?
What Net 30 Actually Means for a Small Brand
Net 30 means the full invoice amount is due 30 days after the invoice date. Not 30 days after delivery, not 30 days after the retailer sells through, unless you have written it that way.
That precision matters more than it sounds. A buyer who reads net 30 as starting from when the pallet arrives has just given themselves an extra week, and if your invoice does not say which date starts the clock, they are not exactly wrong.
You are also extending credit, not offering a payment option. When you ship $4,200 of product on net 30, you have made a short-term loan to a business you probably have not credit-checked. That loan sits between your bank account and your next production run.
Retail buyers ask for terms because their own cash arrives after they sell your product. A boutique buying inventory in September for a holiday season does not have that revenue yet. Terms are how the gap gets bridged, and for brands on OpoShop they are frequently the difference between winning a stockist and losing them to a supplier who says yes.
Should You Offer Terms at All?
Not every brand should, and the honest answer depends on your cash position rather than your ambition.
Run this simple test. Take your typical wholesale order value, multiply by the number of accounts you expect to have on terms at once, and ask whether your business can operate normally with that amount unavailable for a month. If a $4,000 average order across five accounts means $20,000 outstanding, and $20,000 is your entire production budget, terms will strangle you before they grow you.
There are real reasons to offer them anyway:
- Larger opening orders: Buyers commit to more when payment is not due the same week.
- Credibility: Terms are a normal expectation among established retailers, and refusing outright can read as inexperience.
- Competitive position: If two suppliers quote a similar price and one offers net 30, that one usually wins.
- Better reorder rhythm: Retailers on terms tend to reorder before selling through, which smooths your production.
And real reasons to hold off:
- Thin cash reserves: Terms convert a cash business into an accounts receivable business overnight.
- No collections process: If you have no plan for a late invoice, you will have an unpleasant discovery about 45 days from now.
- Unproven buyers: A new account with no order history is the worst possible candidate for credit.
Deciding Who Gets Terms and How Much
Terms should be earned, and the criteria should be written down before anyone asks. Deciding in the moment always produces inconsistency you will later have to defend.
A structure that works for most small brands:
- First two orders prepaid: Card or bank transfer on approval. No exceptions for new accounts.
- Net 15 on order three: A short runway that proves the buyer pays without much exposure.
- Net 30 after a clean payment history: Usually two or three on-time payments at net 15.
- A credit limit per account: Cap total outstanding, not per order. A $5,000 limit means they cannot have $5,000 open across three unpaid invoices.
- A hold rule: New orders pause while an invoice is past due.
The credit limit is the part most merchants skip, and it is the one that actually contains risk. Without a limit, a good buyer with a bad quarter can quietly accumulate $18,000 of exposure one order at a time.
Set the first limit low, around one to two times their typical order value, and raise it as they pay. Buyers rarely object to a modest starting limit when they can see the path to a larger one. A wholesale portal app like Bulkroom stores that limit on the account itself so an OpoShop merchant is not tracking exposure in a side spreadsheet.
How to Set Up Net 30 Step by Step
Treat it as a policy you are implementing rather than a toggle you are flipping. The setup takes an hour. The policy is what keeps it working in month six.
Here is how the parts that matter play out.
1. Put the terms on the account, not the checkout
Payment terms belong to the buyer, not to the order. When net 30 is a property of the approved trade account, the right payment path appears automatically and nobody has to remember which buyer gets which treatment.
This also stops the most common leak, which is a buyer selecting invoice payment because the option was visible to everyone. If terms are account-level, an unapproved buyer simply never sees the choice, and your retail customers on OpoShop keep checking out exactly as they always have.
2. Make the invoice unambiguous
Every invoice should carry the invoice date, the due date as an actual calendar date, the purchase order or quote reference, and the payment methods you accept. Write out the due date rather than the phrase net 30, because a date cannot be interpreted two ways.
If you charge a late fee, state it on the invoice from the first one. A late fee introduced after an invoice goes past due is a negotiation. A late fee printed on every invoice is a policy.
3. Follow up on a schedule, not on a feeling
Three touchpoints handle most of it. A friendly reminder five days before the due date, a notice on the due date, and a firmer follow-up at seven days past due that mentions the hold on new orders.
Most late payments are not disputes, they are a buyer whose accounts payable runs on a cycle nobody told you about. Asking early and politely resolves the majority of them without any tension. For merchants on OpoShop, having those reminders fire from the same place the order lives means the follow-up does not depend on your memory.
Pay Now vs Net 15 vs Net 30 and Net 60
Payment terms are a ladder, and moving buyers up it deliberately is how brands offer credit without getting hurt.
| Terms | Best for | Why it works | Watch-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay on approval | New accounts and first two orders | Zero credit risk and cash lands immediately | Some established retailers will decline to order at all |
| Net 15 | Proving a new account's payment behavior | Short exposure with a real test of their process | Too short for retailers whose own payables run monthly |
| Net 30 or net 60 | Proven stockists and larger chain accounts | Unlocks bigger orders and matches retail buying cycles | Ties up cash and needs a real credit limit and collections process |
Pay on approval is the correct default, and it is not an insult. Plenty of established brands require prepayment on opening orders as a matter of policy.
Net 15 is underused. It gives a buyer the dignity of terms while limiting your exposure to two weeks, and it tells you almost everything you need to know about whether they pay.
Net 60 should be reserved for accounts large enough to justify the cash cost, usually chains that genuinely cannot operate any other way. If a small boutique asks for net 60 on a first order, that is a signal about their cash position, not their size.
Whichever rung a buyer sits on, the terms should travel with the quote and the order automatically. Restating them by hand on every deal is how OpoShop merchants end up with three accounts that each believe they have a different arrangement.
Getting Paid Without Constant Chasing
The best collections process is one that mostly does not run, because the structure prevents lateness in the first place.
Four things do the heavy lifting. Clear due dates on every invoice. Automatic reminders before the date rather than after. A hold on new orders while something is past due. And a credit limit that caps how bad any single account can get.
The order hold is the strongest of the four and the one merchants most hesitate to use. It feels confrontational. In practice it is the most reliable prompt in wholesale, because a buyer who wants their next delivery for a seasonal window will find the invoice quickly.
Offer a small incentive if you want to accelerate payment. A two percent discount for paying within ten days on net 30 is a common structure. Run the math before offering it, because two percent of every invoice is a real cost that only makes sense if your cash is genuinely tight.
Finally, keep receivables visible. A single view of who owes what and how old it is should exist somewhere you look weekly. Buried in an accounting export you open quarterly, it will not change any decisions, and terms only stay safe while somebody is watching them in your OpoShop back office.
What We Recommend for Merchants Offering Terms
Start conservative and be transparent about the ladder. Telling a new buyer that terms open up after two prepaid orders is a much better answer than a flat no, and it gives them something to work toward.
Set a credit limit on every account from day one, including the accounts you trust. Limits are not an accusation, they are a cap on how wrong any single relationship can go.
Keep the exposure math in view. Total outstanding receivables should stay within a number you have chosen deliberately, not whatever it happens to add up to this month.
And write the late-payment consequence down before you need it. Whether that is a hold, a fee, or a return to prepayment, deciding it in advance means you enforce it evenly instead of based on how the conversation feels that day.
Terms are worth the trouble when they unlock orders you would otherwise lose. They are not worth it when they simply move your cash into someone else's business for a month. That call is yours, and the OpoShop merchants who get it right tend to be the ones who wrote the policy down before the first buyer asked.
Best answer: Offer net 30 by approving individual trade accounts for invoice payment, assigning each one a credit limit, and creating orders that invoice rather than charge. Start new buyers on prepayment, move them to net 15 after a clean order or two, and reserve net 30 for accounts with a payment history. Running terms on the account level in your OpoShop store keeps the option invisible to buyers you have not underwritten.
FAQs
Do I have to offer net 30 to sell wholesale?
No. Many brands sell wholesale successfully on prepayment only, especially early on. Terms become more important as you approach larger retailers whose purchasing processes assume invoicing.
What credit limit should I start a new account at?
One to two times their expected order value is a sensible starting point. Raise it after a few on-time payments rather than at the moment a buyer asks for more.
When does the 30-day clock actually start?
It starts on the invoice date unless you have agreed otherwise in writing. Print the actual due date on the invoice so there is nothing to interpret.
Should I charge a late fee on overdue wholesale invoices?
You can, and stating it on every invoice from the beginning makes it enforceable in practice. A common structure is a small monthly percentage on the outstanding balance after the due date.
What do I do when an invoice goes past due?
Contact them early and politely, since most late payments are process delays rather than refusals. Hold new orders while the balance is outstanding, and move a repeatedly late account back to prepayment.
Can I offer terms to some buyers and not others?
Yes, and you should. Terms belong on individual approved accounts based on their history with you, which is exactly why they should be an account setting rather than a public checkout option.
Ready to offer terms without losing track of who owes what? Run trade accounts and invoicing where your orders already live.
