Trade account vs cash sale: what’s the difference

You can buy SJ Stickys product two ways: walk into our yard with cash (or your card) and pay retail-ish for what you take, or open a trade account and get trade pricing on everything. Most tradies who do five or more jobs a year save more on a trade account than they spend on coffee in a month.

Here’s the practical breakdown.

Cash / card sale

Walk-up rate. No setup required, no ABN check, no account application. You pay retail or near-retail and walk out with product the same visit.

This works for the occasional buyer — homeowners doing their own bathroom (not really our target market), or a contractor needing one tub of Gripset 38FC for a one-off job. It does NOT work as your default purchasing path if you’re a regular contractor; you’re leaving real money on the table.

Trade account

Trade pricing is meaningfully better than cash pricing. We don’t publish exact percentages because they vary by product and by typical monthly volume — but a contractor on a trade account typically saves 15–25% on standard lines versus walk-in retail.

The application takes three minutes. You need:

• A trading business name and ABN
• Your trade type (tiler, waterproofer, builder, etc.)
• Contact details and delivery address
• An estimate of typical monthly spend (this is just for our planning — no minimum)

We come back within one business hour during trading hours. Once approved, you have an account live the same day.

Other things you get with a trade account

• Pricing emailed direct from the JG Build Team — never visible online, never undercuts your margins to your clients.
• Dedicated rep for orders, technical questions, callbacks. No call centre.
• Scheduled delivery across the Hunter — next-day to most postcodes, same-day pickup for urgent jobs.
• SMS ordering — text us your order from the jobsite, we confirm and schedule by reply.
• Account terms — discuss with us if your business needs them.
• Trade-day invitations — supplier-rep training mornings, BBQ included.

The break-even maths

If you do roughly ten standard bathroom-renovation runs per year and you’re buying retail, the savings on a trade account easily cover the (zero) cost of setting one up.

For larger contractors doing 30+ jobs per year, or estate-build supply, the savings are substantial — case rates on bulk lines start to make a real dent in your COGS.

Either way, there’s no minimum and no setup cost. Apply now — three minutes, one form, same-day approval.