Two years ago, if a client asked us about Shopify B2B, we'd have a long conversation about tradeoffs. Shopify Plus had wholesale features, but they were bolted on, and anything sophisticated meant a third-party app or custom development.
That's changed. Shopify has rebuilt its B2B offering from the ground up, and as of 2026 the native tools (B2B on Shopify) cover what 80% of wholesale businesses actually need: company accounts, per-customer price lists, quantity rules, and net payment terms. We've migrated several wholesale merchants to this setup over the past year, and this guide is the playbook we now start every engagement with.
You'll learn how Shopify B2B works architecturally, the exact setup order we follow, the Plus-versus-app decision, and the mistakes that cost merchants the most time.
How the Wholesale Architecture Works
The core concept is the company. In B2B on Shopify, a company is a container that holds one or more customer accounts, each with their own login, plus a shared set of rules: price lists, payment terms, checkout permissions, and shipping addresses.
This maps to how wholesale buyers actually operate. A retail chain doesn't have one buyer, it has a purchasing manager who orders, a store manager who reorders, and an accounts payable person who pays. On Shopify, all of them sit under one company, each with their own credentials, seeing the same negotiated prices.
The second concept is the price list. Instead of discount codes or variant hacks, you attach a catalog of products at wholesale prices to a company or a group of companies. Prices can be fixed amounts, percentage discounts, or volume-based breaks by quantity. Checkout automatically shows the right prices to the right company. No codes, no "contact us for pricing" workarounds.
The third piece is contexts. One Shopify store can serve both retail (DTC) and wholesale customers. Shopify detects which context a logged-in customer belongs to and shows the appropriate catalog, prices, and checkout options. One store, two businesses, clean separation.
One important note: the full B2B feature set is a Plus-only feature. We'll cover what that means for your budget and alternatives below.
Shopify B2B Setup: Step by Step
This is the order we use on client builds. Sequence matters because each step builds on the last.
Step 1: Confirm Your Plan
B2B on Shopify requires Shopify Plus. Current Plus pricing starts around $2,000/month on a three-year term, higher on shorter terms. Before anything else, do the math: if your wholesale channel does under roughly $30K–$50K/month in volume, a third-party app is usually cheaper. If wholesale is your primary revenue channel, Plus pays for itself quickly through better margins, native features, and checkout control.
Step 2: Enable B2B and Set Up Your Markets
In the admin, go to Settings > Markets and create a dedicated market or sales channel for wholesale if you want your B2B catalog siloed from DTC. Then configure your B2B settings under Customers > Companies. Shopify will prompt you through enabling the B2B features on your store.
Decide early whether wholesale customers can also see retail products. Our default for clients: B2B sees a wholesale-only catalog with minimum order quantities, while retail sees the standard store. Keeping the catalogs separate avoids the confusion of dual prices on one product page, which generates constant "why does it show two prices?" tickets.
Step 3: Create Companies and Locations
Under Customers > Companies, create a company for each wholesale account. Add the buyer's email as a customer, assign them to the company, and set their role (ordering only, or ordering plus account management).
For each company, add one or more locations, the physical ship-to addresses with their own tax registration numbers and shipping settings. This matters more than it seems. A distributor ordering for three warehouses needs each location tracked separately for tax and fulfillment, and getting this structure right on day one saves painful cleanup later.
Step 4: Build Your Price Lists
Under Products > Price lists, create your wholesale price lists. Attach each to a company or a company segment (for example, "Gold tier: 40% off MSRP, 25-unit minimums").
Three rules we apply on every build:
Set quantity rules on every product. Minimum order quantities and quantity increments (ordering in cases of 12, not units of 1) are the difference between a wholesale store and a retail store with a discount. Wholesale fulfillment breaks when someone orders 3 units of something shipped by the pallet.
Use percentage discounts off retail where possible. Fixed prices are more precise but become maintenance debt; every retail price change requires a wholesale update. Percentage-based lists stay in sync automatically.
Create tiered lists, not one-off negotiations. When a buyer asks for better pricing at higher volume, add them to a higher tier rather than editing their individual prices. Ten clean tiers beat two hundred custom price lists when you're auditing margins six months from now.
Step 5: Configure Payment Terms and Checkout
This is where B2B on Shopify earns its keep. Under your company settings, assign payment terms: net 30, net 60, due on fulfillment, or payment at checkout. Shopify tracks what each company owes, and buyers can pay open invoices from their account page.
For most of our clients, we configure checkout to allow "pay now by card" alongside net terms: buyers below their credit limit check out with terms selected, and over-limit buyers must pay upfront. You control this per company.
If you need true credit limits, custom approval workflows, or sales-rep-specific pricing, that's where native features end and either Plus checkout extensibility (custom apps on the checkout) or a platform like SparkLayer comes in. SparkLayer is the app we recommend most for merchants who need B2B features but aren't on Plus yet.
Step 6: Build the Wholesale Buying Experience
B2B buyers reorder. They don't browse. Design the wholesale experience around that reality:
- Reorder button on past orders in the customer account. This is the single highest-value feature for wholesale retention.
- Quick order form, a searchable table where buyers type SKUs and quantities. Apps like Shopify's Search & Discovery can help organize, but for true quick-order tables, SparkLayer or a custom section works better.
- Clear net-term status on the account page: what's owed, what's due, what credit remains.
- Draft orders workflow for your sales team. Reps assemble orders for buyers over email or phone, send a checkout link, and the buyer confirms and pays. This mirrors how wholesale sales actually happen.
Step 7: Onboard Your First Buyers
Send each wholesale customer an invite to their company account, with a one-page PDF or short video showing them how to log in, see their prices, and reorder. We include a link to book a 15-minute walkthrough call, and uptake is high, and it cuts "how do I log in?" tickets to near zero.
Plus vs. Apps: The Honest Cost Breakdown
B2B on Shopify (Plus, ~$2,000+/month): Native, fast, deeply integrated with checkout and Shopify Flow. No app fees, no app conflicts, checkout control. Right when B2B is a serious revenue channel.
SparkLayer (~$99–$499/month plus Shopify plan): The strongest non-Plus option. Covers price lists, company accounts, quick ordering, and payment terms. Some features feel app-like rather than native, and checkout control is limited compared to Plus, but for sub-$50K/month wholesale channels it usually wins on cost.
Wholesale Gorilla, B2B Wholesale Club, or similar: Fine for simpler needs: percentage discounts and basic customer tagging. They break down at volume tiers and quantity rules.
Full custom on standard plans: We advise against this now. Custom company architecture on a non-Plus store means fragile customer-tag hacks that snap every theme update. If your wholesale requirements exceed SparkLayer, the answer is Plus, not a bigger hack.
Mistakes We See Most Often
Skipping quantity rules. Wholesale stores without minimums get retail-sized orders with wholesale prices. Margins quietly die.
One giant price list. When every company shares a single list, you can't give your best account better terms without giving everyone better terms. Build tiers from day one, even if you only have three customers.
Ignoring tax IDs per location. B2B tax exemptions and cross-border VAT depend on accurate location data. Set this up when creating companies, not when the accountant asks.
Treating the wholesale store like the retail store. Wholesale buyers are task-driven. Every piece of lifestyle imagery and "discover new arrivals" copy on their buying path costs you reorders.
Launching before testing the full order cycle. Place a test order as a B2B customer with terms, receive the invoice email, pay the invoice, and confirm inventory and fulfillment behave. We still catch edge cases, usually around backorders and split shipping, in this test pass.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Shopify good for B2B wholesale?
Yes, more than its reputation suggests. B2B on Shopify (the Plus feature set) handles company accounts, custom price lists, quantity rules, and net payment terms natively. For simple wholesale needs, apps like SparkLayer add similar features to standard plans. Where Shopify is weaker: complex quoting workflows, CPQ, and multi-tier distributor portals with commission tracking.
Do I need Shopify Plus for B2B?
For the native B2B features, yes. If Plus pricing doesn't make sense yet, apps like SparkLayer deliver roughly 70–80% of the functionality on a standard plan. The gap shows up in checkout customization and payment-terms depth. Most merchants can run wholesale profitably on apps until wholesale volume justifies Plus.
Can one Shopify store handle both retail and wholesale?
Yes, and this is one of Shopify B2B's strengths. You run a single store where logged-in wholesale customers see different prices, catalogs, and payment options than retail visitors. One codebase, one inventory pool, two customer experiences. Inventory syncing between two separate stores is a problem this setup eliminates entirely. If the constraint is inventory rather than pricing, our Shopify inventory app comparison covers tools built for one pool across channels.
How do net payment terms work on Shopify B2B?
You assign terms (net 30, net 60, etc.) to each company in their settings. At checkout, eligible buyers select terms instead of paying by card, and Shopify tracks their outstanding balance. Buyers can view and pay invoices from their account page. Note that Shopify facilitates the terms but doesn't extend credit. You carry the receivable, so set credit limits per company if you offer high volumes.
What's the best app for Shopify B2B if I'm not on Plus?
SparkLayer is our default recommendation for clients not on Plus. It covers company accounts, price lists, quantity rules, quick ordering, and payment terms at a fraction of Plus's cost. Wholesale Gorilla and similar apps work for simpler percentage-discount models but lack volume tiers and quantity rule depth.
Get Help With This
Wholesale setup has a lot of moving parts, and the mistakes are expensive to unwind once buyers are placing orders. If you want it built right the first time, our Shopify development team designs and launches B2B storefronts, from price list architecture through checkout configuration and buyer onboarding.
