The Case-Pack Ladder: Wholesale Assortment Bundles

Introduction

Wholesale pricing is usually about quantity: buy more units, pay less per unit.

But some wholesale orders are not about one product at all. They are about assortment. A retailer wants one case that covers the whole range, and wants it cheaper the more cases they take.

The default answer is a quantity break. A solutions architect asks:

"What does the buyer actually order: units of a product, or a case of the range?"

For a pet supply wholesaler whose retailers ordered "twelve of each kind," the answer was a case. This case study designs an assortment bundle with rule-based slots, a growing set ladder, and a discount that stacks on top of standing wholesale prices without eroding margin.

Merchant Scenario

Consider Ridgeback Pet Supply, a fictional Shopify brand selling dog treats and chews to independent pet stores.

Retailers did not want 48 of one treat. They wanted 12 each of four treats, as a case, and a better price for the third case than the first.

What a Quantity Discount Got Wrong

A Tiered Quantity Discount counts units of a product. Forty-eight units of one treat earned the tier. Twelve each of four treats did not, because each product was below the threshold on its own.

The assortment was the thing being sold, and no unit-based rule could see it.

Business Objectives

Evaluating the Options

Option 1: Tiered Quantity Discount

Volume breaks on units of each product.

Option 2: Wholesale / B2B Pricing Alone

The accounts' standing wholesale price, with no case reward.

Option 3: Product Bundle With Rule-Based Slots

Four product-type slots of 12 units, repeated per case, with a set ladder, stacked on wholesale pricing.

Comparison Matrix

The Discount Prime Configuration

Four rule-based slots. Twelve units each. A ladder that rewards the fourth case most.

Why Product Bundle Fits

Slots built from product types let a retailer pick any jerky, any dental chew, any training treat. The set completes when 12 of each type are in the cart.

"Repeat for every complete set" turned 96 units into two cases and 144 into three. The ladder gave each case its own rate. And the eligibility setting kept the whole campaign invisible to retail shoppers: only the Wholesale segment ever saw it.

Rule-based slots, optional slots, a set ladder and segment eligibility are Ultimate-plan features. Ridgeback was on Ultimate. On a lower plan the preset still opens, and validation explains what needs upgrading before activation.

Stacking on Wholesale, On Purpose

Ridgeback's wholesale accounts already got Wholesale / B2B Pricing on every product. For this campaign, Combinations & Overlap was set to Stack on top of product discounts, not Best deal wins.

The case discount is added after the wholesale price, as a second layer. That is unusual for retail. For wholesale, it is the whole point: the case discount is a reward for assortment, on top of the account's standing price, and the retailer expects to see both.

Profit Protection at Two Layers

Stacking two discounts is exactly where margin disappears quietly. Profit protection with a 22% floor checked every variant after both layers.

One slow-moving chew had a wholesale price already close to cost. On the fourth case, the ladder's 20% would have pushed it under 22% margin. The reward was reduced on that line only. Everything else got the full 20%.

The retailer saw a slightly smaller saving on one item and a correct one on the rest. Ridgeback never sold a chew at a loss.

The Cart Progress Line

Wholesale buyers do not browse product pages the way retail shoppers do. They build a cart from a list. So the storefront display was Cart progress only, with no product-page block.

As the cart filled, one line tracked the case:

Jerky 12/12 · Dental 12/12 · Training 8/12 · Long-lasting 12/12. Add 4 training treats to complete case 1 and save 10%

Buyer Journey

1. A wholesale buyer logs in and builds a cart from their usual list, already at their wholesale prices.
2. The cart progress line shows which treat type is short of 12 and what completes the case.
3. They top up the training treats. Case 1 completes at 10% off, stacked on wholesale prices.
4. A larger account orders four full cases and gets the 20% rate on the fourth, reduced only where the margin floor applies.

What the Case Bundle Cannot Do

A slot counts units of its type. It does not enforce variety within the slot. Twelve units of one jerky fill the jerky slot. If Ridgeback had wanted "at least three different jerkies," no slot setting expresses that.

The ladder is also per order. Three cases across three orders in a month earn 10% three times, not the 15% a single three-case order would have.

Metrics That Measure Success

• Average cases per wholesale order
• Average wholesale order value against the $1,150 baseline
• Estimated profit per order after both discount layers, from real Shopify cost prices
• Lines where profit protection reduced the case reward
• Share of wholesale accounts completing at least one case per order

Common Mistakes

• ❌ Reaching for Tiered Quantity when the unit of sale is an assortment, not a product.
• ❌ Using Best deal wins on a wholesale account that expects the case discount in addition to its standing price, then fielding "where did my discount go" calls.
• ❌ Stacking two discounts with no profit-protection floor.
• ❌ Leaving eligibility on All customers and showing wholesale case pricing to retail shoppers.
• ❌ Expecting the set ladder to accumulate across orders.

Key Lessons

Wholesale assortment pricing is a bundle problem, not a quantity problem.

Product-type slots described the case without naming a single SKU. Stacking plus profit protection let Ridgeback be generous and safe at the same time.

Conclusion

A quantity discount sees units. A bundle sees sets.

When the thing a wholesale buyer actually orders is "one of each kind, times twelve," Product Bundle with rule-based slots, a growing ladder and stacked combination describes the deal in the buyer's own language.

In this scenario, Ridgeback's average case count per order went from 1.4 to 2.6. The ladder did the asking.