Shopify B2B and Wholesale: What Is Actually Involved

Selling wholesale alongside direct-to-consumer sounds appealing until you dig into what it involves. Different prices for different customers. Payment terms instead of upfront card payments. Buyers who want to place orders without picking up the phone. The operational complexity adds up fast.

Shopify has made significant improvements to its native B2B functionality in the past year, and the picture has changed. But it is worth being clear about what is included on which plan, what still requires Shopify Plus, and where the genuine complexity lives before you commit to a setup.

What Shopify B2B Actually Means Now

Until late 2025, native B2B features on Shopify were exclusive to Plus. Shopify has since extended core functionality to all plans, including Basic, Grow, and Advanced, at no extra cost. That is a meaningful shift for brands testing the wholesale channel without committing to a Plus subscription.

On every plan you now have access to company profiles, custom price catalogues, volume discounts, quantity rules, vaulted credit cards, and payment terms. A wholesale buyer can log in, see their specific prices, place an order, and pay on net terms. The whole thing runs without manual intervention from you, which is the point.

Customer-Specific Pricing and Catalogues

The catalogue system is the engine of Shopify B2B. You build a catalogue, set pricing (fixed prices or a percentage off retail), and assign it to a specific company or buyer group. That company logs in and sees only their prices. Your retail customers never see the wholesale rates.

On non-Plus plans you get up to three catalogues. For many brands with simple wholesale tiers (trade, distributor, staff) that is workable. If you need more, you will either need Shopify Plus or a third-party app to manage the additional complexity. It is worth mapping your actual pricing structure before assuming the native system covers it.

Net Terms and B2B Payment Options

Shopify now handles net terms natively across all plans. You assign payment terms at the company level: Net 15, Net 30, Net 60, Net 90, or custom. The buyer places an order, an invoice generates automatically, and they pay through the buyer portal when the terms are due. In the US, ACH bank transfer is also supported, which removes card processing fees on large orders.

One honest limitation: partial payments and deposit functionality require Plus. If a buyer needs to put down a 50% deposit with the balance on delivery, you cannot manage that natively on a standard plan. It is not a dealbreaker for many wholesale setups, but it is worth knowing upfront rather than discovering it after you have migrated.

The B2B Buyer Portal and Ordering Experience

Wholesale buyers on Shopify get a dedicated company portal. They can review order history, manage saved payment methods, view invoices, and reorder without browsing product pages from scratch. Draft orders can be submitted for internal sign-off before payment, which suits buyers with procurement teams or spending limits.

73% of B2B buyers are now comfortable placing orders of $50,000 or more via digital self-service. If your wholesale process still runs through phone calls and emailed spreadsheets, you are making their job harder than it needs to be.

B2B buyer expectations have shifted. If your wholesale process still involves manual invoices and back-and-forth emails, you are adding friction that buyers can increasingly avoid by going elsewhere. The self-service experience is not a nice-to-have; it is becoming the baseline.

What Still Requires Shopify Plus

Being direct about this: not everything is available on standard plans. The following features still require a Shopify Plus subscription:

More than three price cataloguesPartial payments and depositsContextual checkout customisation via Shopify MarketsA fully separate B2B storefront with distinct brandingDirect catalogue assignment to individual company locations

If your wholesale operation is relatively simple, standard plan features will likely be sufficient. If you are managing dozens of trade accounts with varied pricing tiers, deposits, custom checkout logic, or multi-location ordering, Plus is probably the right foundation. Shopify's own B2B documentation is genuinely useful for mapping your requirements against what each plan supports.

Third-Party Apps vs Native Shopify B2B

Apps like SparkLayer and Wholesale Gorilla have long filled the gaps in Shopify's native B2B offering. With the native features now extended to all plans, the case for third-party apps is narrower than it was. That said, they still offer things Shopify's native system does not: more sophisticated order routing, deeper catalogue management, and white-label buyer portals.

If you are starting from scratch, the native Shopify B2B features are a reasonable first step, especially on a standard plan. If you already have a working setup built around a third-party app, switching is not necessarily worth the disruption. The decision depends on what gaps you are actually running into, not on which solution looks cleaner in a product demo.

Is Shopify B2B Worth Setting Up?

The market is moving this way regardless. B2B GMV on Shopify grew 140% in 2024, and the broader B2B ecommerce market is projected to reach $36 trillion globally by 2026. Wholesale buyers increasingly expect the same self-service experience they are used to as consumers.

Before committing to B2B, though, it is worth being honest about your starting point. Most Shopify brands do not have a traffic problem; they have a conversion problem. If your direct-to-consumer store is underperforming, adding wholesale complexity on top will not fix that. Get the core store working first, then build the B2B layer.

For brands with existing wholesale relationships running through spreadsheets and phone calls, moving buyers onto a self-service portal usually reduces admin overhead and improves order accuracy. For brands exploring wholesale for the first time, the lower barrier to entry on standard plans makes it easier to test without a major platform commitment.

The complexity is real, though. Catalogue management, pricing logic, permission levels, and payment configuration all need setting up carefully. Errors here mean the wrong prices showing to the wrong customers, which is a serious problem. A rushed setup costs more to fix than a careful one costs to build.

If you are thinking about moving into B2B or cleaning up a messy wholesale setup on Shopify, our Conversion Growth Retainer is typically where we start: understanding what is already in place before adding anything new. We work with Shopify brands across the UK and beyond from our base in Glasgow.

If you would like to talk through whether Shopify B2B makes sense for your business, get in touch. We will give you a straight answer.