Gautham Srinivas · Last updated 1 September 2026 · 5 min read
What Is a Line Sheet? The One Page a Buyer Actually Reads
tl;dr
A line sheet is the one or two page document a buyer orders from. Product, SKU, plain image, size, wholesale price, RRP, minimum, terms. It is a working document, not a mood piece. Send a PDF, show the margin, and make the minimum impossible to miss.
What a line sheet is
It is the document a buyer orders from.
Every product you sell wholesale, with the information needed to decide. Nothing else.
It is not a lookbook. A lookbook sells a feeling with styled photography.
A line sheet answers four questions. What is it, what does it cost me, what can I sell it for, and how many do I have to take.
What goes on it
Every line should be something that changes their answer.
If a field would not change the decision, it is decoration.
- Product name and a SKU, so ordering is unambiguous
- A clean image on a plain background, not a lifestyle shot
- One line of description, plus ingredients or materials if they matter
- Size or weight, and any variants
- Wholesale price per unit
- RRP, so they see their margin without doing sums
- Minimum order, and what it applies to
- Case quantity if you ship in cases
- Payment terms, lead time, freight
- Your name, email and phone, on every page
Show the margin. Do not make them calculate it
Wholesale price and RRP side by side is the highest value thing on the page.
The buyer is running one calculation. What does this earn me per unit, and does that justify the shelf.
Make them work it out and some of them will not bother.
If your margin is good, showing it is the argument.
| SKU | Product | Size | Wholesale | RRP | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TEA-001 | Breakfast blend, loose leaf | 150g | $9.00 | $18.00 | 50% |
| TEA-002 | Peppermint, loose leaf | 120g | $8.50 | $17.00 | 50% |
| TEA-010 | Gift set, three tins | 3 x 80g | $24.00 | $52.00 | 54% |
What to leave off
Your founder story. Your sustainability page. Your Instagram grid. Your values.
All of that belongs in the email or on a separate one page brand sheet. Not here.
Also leave off anything you cannot reliably supply.
A line sheet is a promise about availability. The fastest way to lose a new stockist is to take an order for something that turns out to be six weeks away.
The format buyers want
A PDF. One to two pages. Opens on a phone, prints on A4 without anything falling off the edge.
Buyers forward these internally and scribble on them. A file they can save beats a link that wants an account.
Name it so it is findable six weeks later in a crowded inbox.
brandname-linesheet-2026.pdf does more work than it looks like it does.
The four that cost orders
A missing or ambiguous minimum.
No RRP, so they cannot see their margin.
Lifestyle photography that makes it impossible to tell what the thing looks like on a shelf.
And going out of date. Last season prices or a discontinued SKU still listed tells a buyer exactly how you run everything else.
Questions
- What is the difference between a line sheet and a lookbook?
- A lookbook sells the feeling with styled photography and usually has no prices. A line sheet is the ordering document: SKUs, wholesale, RRP, minimums, terms, plain images. Buyers browse a lookbook and order from a line sheet.
- How long should a line sheet be?
- One to two pages for most small brands. If the range genuinely will not fit, group by collection and lead with your best sellers. Nobody reads page four.
- Should a line sheet include retail prices?
- Yes. RRP is how a buyer sees their margin at a glance. Leaving it off makes them do arithmetic before they can say yes, and some will not.
- What format should I send it in?
- PDF. Renders the same everywhere, opens on a phone, prints cleanly, and can be forwarded and marked up without anyone needing a login.
Sources
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