B2B ecommerce is forecast to hit $36 trillion globally by 2026—roughly six times the size of B2C. For Shopify merchants, that opportunity used to be locked behind expensive Shopify Plus pricing and clunky third-party apps. Not anymore.
Shopify's native B2B features (rolled out across 2023-2025 and significantly matured by 2026) now ship on Shopify Plus and increasingly on Advanced plans. They turn a standard Shopify store into a serious wholesale platform with tiered pricing, customer-specific catalogs, NET payment terms, purchase orders, and quote workflows.
This guide walks you through building a B2B operation on Shopify—from positioning and pricing strategy through technical setup and the operational workflows that make wholesale profitable rather than chaotic.
Why B2B on Shopify Now
A few years ago, "B2B on Shopify" meant either using clunky wholesale apps or building a separate Magento/BigCommerce instance. The economics were brutal: a separate platform meant separate inventory, separate ops, and a permanent integration tax.
Shopify's native B2B changes the math. You run one platform, one inventory pool, one fulfillment workflow. Customers see catalogs and pricing tailored to them. You get the same admin, the same apps, the same checkout extensions, but applied to wholesale buyers.
This consolidation matters. B2B merchants we've worked with consistently cite operational complexity—not platform fees—as the largest cost. Running everything on Shopify cuts that cost dramatically.
DTC Brands Adding Wholesale: The Strategic Decision
Before you turn on B2B, decide if you should.
Wholesale dilutes brand control. Once your products are on a retailer's shelf or another marketplace, you lose grip on positioning, pricing displays, and customer experience. For premium brands, that's often disqualifying.
But wholesale also unlocks volume that DTC alone can't. A single wholesale account ordering 500 units monthly is more reliable revenue than chasing the equivalent in retail customers. For categories with strong physical retail (beauty, food, apparel, gifts), wholesale is often where most of the market actually is.
The decision framework:
- Add wholesale if: you have proven product-market fit DTC, healthy margins (60%+ to absorb wholesale discounts), distribution that competitors don't have, and bandwidth to support B2B operations.
- Skip wholesale if: your DTC margins are tight, your brand depends on scarcity/exclusivity, or you can't dedicate resources to B2B-specific operations.
The Shopify B2B Architecture
On Shopify Plus, B2B isn't a separate platform—it's a layer on top of your existing store. The key concepts:
Companies and Locations
A "company" in Shopify B2B is a wholesale account. Each company has one or more locations (Walmart's warehouses in different states, for example) and one or more customer contacts.
This hierarchy matters because pricing, payment terms, and shipping rules attach to companies—not individual customers. A buyer at Acme Corp gets Acme's pricing whether logged in as Sarah or Tom.
Catalogs
A catalog is a curated set of products with custom pricing. You assign catalogs to companies. Acme Corp might see your "Wholesale Tier 1" catalog with 30% off retail; another company might see "Wholesale Tier 2" at 40% off.
You can create unlimited catalogs and slice products in any way—maybe Acme can buy your full line, while a smaller account only sees core SKUs.
Price Lists
- Within each catalog, price lists define the actual numbers. You can:
- Apply percentage discounts off retail
- Set fixed prices per product
- Set volume-based prices (1-9 units = $X, 10-49 units = $Y, 50+ = $Z)
Price lists support multiple currencies, which becomes critical for international wholesale.
Payment Terms
Shopify B2B supports NET 15, NET 30, NET 45, NET 60, and NET 90 payment terms natively. Customers check out with terms instead of paying immediately; you invoice and track open balances in the admin.
This is the feature that historically required a separate platform or expensive apps. Now it's native.
Quote and Draft Order Workflow
For larger B2B orders, customers often want a formal quote before committing. Shopify's draft orders + quote requests handle this: a buyer requests a quote, your team reviews and adjusts, then sends back a finalized version the buyer can convert to an order.
Setting It Up: Step by Step
Here's the operational sequence for going live with B2B.
1. Plan Your Pricing Tiers
Before touching the admin, document your wholesale pricing strategy:
- Volume tiers: how do prices change with order size?
- Customer tiers: do strategic accounts get better pricing than small shops?
- MOQs (minimum order quantities): what's the floor for opening an account? Reordering?
- MAP (minimum advertised price): what price floor must wholesale customers respect when reselling?
Write the strategy down. The admin setup that follows will go 5x faster.
2. Create Companies and Catalogs
In the admin, create a "company" for each wholesale account, add their location(s), and add buyer contacts. Each contact gets their own login.
- Build catalogs reflecting your pricing strategy. Most stores need 2-4 catalogs:
- Tier 1 (largest accounts)
- Tier 2 (mid-size)
- Tier 3 (small shops)
- International (if relevant)
Assign companies to catalogs. Companies can have one catalog assigned at a time, but you can change it as relationships evolve.
3. Configure Payment Terms
Decide which terms you'll offer to which tiers. Default rules of thumb:
- New accounts: payment up front for first 1-2 orders
- Established accounts (3+ orders, no payment issues): NET 30
- Strategic accounts: NET 45 or NET 60
Don't offer NET 60+ unless you've vetted credit—either via D&B reports, Resolve, or simple gut-check on the brand's stability.
4. Set Up Customer-Specific Storefront Experience
- When a wholesale customer logs in, they should see:
- Their negotiated pricing
- Wholesale-specific products (if any are hidden from retail)
- B2B-appropriate copy ("Order quantity" vs "Add to cart")
- Their company's address pre-filled at checkout
Theme apps like B2B/Wholesale Solution by Shopify or extensions to your existing theme handle this. On Plus, the native B2B-aware sections in many themes work well out of the box.
5. Implement MOQ and Order Rules
Shopify B2B supports minimum order quantities at the catalog level and per-product. Set them based on your operations—a $50 minimum order doesn't make sense if your packing/shipping costs $30.
- Common rules:
- Minimum order value (e.g., $250)
- Minimum order quantity per SKU (e.g., 6 units, must order in case packs)
- Maximum order quantity (rare but useful for scarce inventory)
6. Configure Shipping and Tax
- Wholesale shipping is usually different:
- Often shipped via LTL freight for large orders
- Different rate tables than retail
- May offer "buyer's account" (customer's UPS/FedEx number)
Tax: B2B customers often have resale certificates. Shopify Plus B2B supports tax exemption certificate uploads tied to companies. Ensure your tax automation tool (Avalara, TaxJar, or Shopify's native tax) handles exempt status correctly.
7. Train Your Team
- The biggest implementation failures aren't technical—they're operational. Your team needs to know:
- How to onboard new wholesale accounts
- How to adjust catalogs when pricing changes
- How to handle quote requests
- How to chase aging invoices
A simple internal SOP doc + a 30-minute training session covers it.
Pricing Strategy That Actually Works
Wholesale pricing is harder than DTC because every account negotiates. A few principles that hold up:
Anchor on contribution margin, not retail price. Don't think "30% off retail." Think "what contribution margin do I need to keep this account profitable after fulfillment, payment terms float, and account management?"
Use volume tiers to reward growth. A flat 40% discount across all volumes leaves money on the table from large accounts. Tier pricing (e.g., 30% off for 100 units, 40% off for 500 units, 50% off for 2,000 units) aligns your discounts with the value of the relationship.
Don't underprice MOQs. The minimum order should generate enough revenue to cover the operational cost of the order. If picking, packing, and shipping a wholesale order costs you $50, your minimum order shouldn't be $200—it should be $500+.
Reset annually. Wholesale pricing should be reviewed and updated yearly. Costs change, the brand grows, and pricing should reflect the current market.
Operational Workflows
Where most stores struggle isn't setup—it's running B2B once it's live.
Quote Management
- For larger orders, expect quote requests. Build a workflow:
- Buyer submits quote request via your B2B portal
- Sales/account manager reviews within 24 hours
- Issue formal quote (Shopify draft order)
- Follow up at day 7 if no response
- Convert to order or close out at day 30
Tools like Pipedrive, HubSpot, or simple Slack-based workflows can run this. The point is consistency—no quote request should sit unanswered.
Accounts Receivable
- NET terms create AR. AR creates risk. Manage it:
- Send invoices immediately on order
- Auto-reminder at 7 days before due
- Auto-reminder at due date
- Manual follow-up at 7 days past due
- Hold on new orders at 30 days past due
- Collections at 60 days past due
Apps like Resolve, Apruve, or Shopify's Net Terms financing handle the credit risk side—they pay you on invoice, then collect from the buyer themselves.
Inventory Allocation
The hardest B2B operational problem: do you reserve inventory for wholesale, or first-come-first-served with DTC?
Most stores: reserve a percentage of new product launches (20-40%) for wholesale, allocated to top accounts before the launch.
Stores that get this wrong: take a huge wholesale order, then run out of stock for DTC customers (and miss the higher-margin sales).
Common Pitfalls
A few mistakes that consistently cost merchants:
Pricing wholesale too low. Once a customer locks in a price, raising it is brutally hard. Start higher than you think you need to.
Ignoring MAP enforcement. Without MAP policies, retailers undercut each other (and you), destroying brand value. Define MAP, enforce it.
Mixing DTC and wholesale fulfillment. Pick/pack workflows for wholesale (case packs, palletization, freight) are fundamentally different from DTC. Most stores need separate workflows or even separate fulfillment partners.
Letting AR slip. NET terms turn into NET-never if you don't chase. Build the AR workflow before you need it.
Underestimating support load. Wholesale customers expect more support than DTC—they're spending more, ordering more frequently, and have more complex questions. Budget the headcount.
Should You Start with Shopify B2B or Wait?
Shopify B2B is genuinely production-ready in 2026—but it requires Shopify Plus ($2,300/month minimum) and operational maturity.
Pre-revenue: stick with DTC, prove product-market fit first. $0-500K wholesale revenue: third-party apps on Shopify Advanced can work. $500K+ wholesale revenue: Shopify Plus B2B is the right call. The Plus pricing is small relative to the operational gains.
Closing Thought
B2B on Shopify is no longer a workaround—it's a real business unit run on the same platform as your DTC. The merchants getting this right are treating it as a strategic investment: thoughtful pricing, real account management, disciplined AR, and platform-native operations.
The opportunity is large, the platform is finally ready, and the merchants who move now will have meaningful advantages over competitors still stuck on legacy B2B platforms or chaotic spreadsheet workflows.