Shopify B2B: How to Sell Wholesale on Shopify

Selling a few bulk orders is easy enough. Running a proper B2B channel is more involved.

Wholesale buyers often expect different pricing, larger order quantities, flexible payment terms, tax handling, and a smoother way to place repeat orders. Managing all of that manually can become difficult as your B2B customer base grows.

That is where Shopify B2B comes in. Shopify now provides built-in tools for managing business customers, catalogs, wholesale pricing, quantity rules, payment terms, and self-service ordering from the same platform.

In this guide, we’ll explain how Shopify B2B works, how to set it up for wholesale selling, how to manage pricing and order rules, and which Shopify plan is best suited for your B2B needs.

Shopify B2B is Shopify’s built-in set of tools for selling products directly to other businesses.

Instead of selling only to individual shoppers, merchants can use Shopify to serve B2B buyers, including retailers, distributors, resellers, corporate buyers, and other organizations.

The main difference is how those customers buy. In direct-to-consumer, or DTC, selling, shoppers usually purchase smaller quantities at standard retail prices and pay at checkout. In B2B or wholesale selling, buyers may order in larger volumes and expect different pricing, minimum order quantities, volume discounts, payment terms, tax exemptions, and account-specific purchasing rules.

Shopify B2B is designed to manage these requirements within Shopify. Merchants can create company accounts, assign catalogs and pricing, set quantity rules and payment terms, manage multiple company locations, and give approved buyers a self-service ordering experience through the storefront.

Shopify B2B works by organizing business buyers into a simple structure of companies, company locations, customers, and catalogs. Understanding these terms makes the setup process much easier.

Companies

A company represents the business you are selling to.

For example, if a retail chain buys products from you for resale, that retail chain would be set up as a company in Shopify.

Company Locations

A company location represents a specific branch, office, warehouse, or buying location within that business.

Each location can have its own shipping address, billing details, payment terms, tax settings, and purchasing rules. This is useful when one company operates across several locations.

B2B Customers

B2B customers are the individual people who are authorized to place orders on behalf of a company or company location.

A company can have multiple buyers, each linked to the locations they are allowed to purchase for.

Catalogs

Catalogs control what B2B buyers can purchase and how much they pay. They can determine which products and variants are available, along with the pricing, quantity rules, and volume discounts that apply.

Shopify also supports two main B2B store setups: a blended store, where B2B and retail customers shop from the same storefront, and a dedicated B2B store created specifically for business buyers.

For years, merchants selling wholesale on Shopify often had to build their own workaround. That could mean using discount codes, password-protected pages, draft orders, third-party wholesale apps, or even a separate Shopify store for B2B customers.

Shopify B2B changes that by bringing many of those wholesale functions directly into Shopify.

With Shopify B2B, merchants can manage company accounts, assign catalogs, set wholesale pricing, define quantity rules, offer volume discounts, and configure payment terms without relying entirely on manual processes or external tools.

The terms Shopify wholesale and Shopify B2B are closely related, but they are not exactly the same. Shopify wholesale is the broader practice of selling to other businesses, while Shopify B2B refers specifically to Shopify’s native set of tools for managing those business-to-business sales.

In short, Shopify B2B is now the platform’s built-in way to run a more structured wholesale operation.

Once you understand how Shopify B2B is structured, the next step is setting up the store experience, customers, catalogs, pricing, and order rules.

Step 1: Choose Between a Blended or Dedicated B2B Store

Start by deciding how you want wholesale buyers to access your store.

A blended store lets you serve both retail and B2B customers from the same Shopify store. Retail shoppers continue seeing regular prices, while approved B2B buyers can access their assigned catalogs, pricing, and payment terms after logging in.

A dedicated B2B store is a separate storefront created specifically for wholesale customers.

A blended setup is often easier if you sell many of the same products to both audiences. A dedicated store can make more sense if your B2B operation has different products, branding, workflows, or access requirements.

It is worth making this decision early because it affects how the rest of your B2B setup is organized.

Step 2: Choose What You Want to Sell Wholesale

You do not need to make your entire retail catalog available to B2B buyers.

Start with products that are suitable for larger orders and still provide healthy margins. Consider:

• product demand
• stock availability
• shipping costs
• fulfillment requirements
• your ability to supply larger quantities consistently

Some products may perform well at retail but become less profitable when sold at wholesale prices.

It is usually safer to begin with a focused B2B range and expand it as demand grows.

Step 3: Create Companies and Add B2B Customers

Next, create the businesses you want to sell to.

Shopify organizes B2B buyers using a simple structure:

• Company: the business purchasing from you
• Company location: a specific branch, office, warehouse, or buying location
• Customer: the individual person authorized to place orders

For example, a retailer with stores in three cities could be set up as one company with three company locations.

Each location can have its own addresses, contacts, payment terms, tax information, and ordering rules. This gives you flexibility when different branches of the same company operate differently.

Step 4: Create B2B Catalogs

Catalogs determine what a B2B customer can buy and what price they pay.

You can use catalogs to control:

• which products are available
• which variants are included
• product pricing
• quantity rules
• volume discounts

This makes it possible to create different buying experiences for different customer groups.

For example, distributors may have access to a wider product range and lower pricing than smaller retailers.

On the Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans, B2B catalog features are available only if your store uses new Shopify Markets. Shopify Plus offers additional catalog capabilities, including more flexible catalog assignments for specific companies and company locations.

Step 5: Set Wholesale Pricing and Volume Discounts

Wholesale pricing should reflect both order size and your margins.

Common approaches include:

• a percentage discount from retail
• fixed B2B prices
• tiered volume pricing

For example:

10–24 units → $18 each
25–49 units → $16 each
50+ units → $14 each

The goal is to reward larger orders without reducing your margin too far.

Avoid choosing wholesale prices based only on a standard discount percentage. Product costs, fulfillment, shipping, payment fees, and the buyer’s resale margin should all be considered.

Step 6: Set Quantity Rules

Quantity rules help you control how much a B2B customer can order.

You can define:

• minimum quantities
• maximum quantities
• quantity increments
• case-pack requirements

For example, if a product is packed in cases of six, you might set:

Minimum quantity: 12
Increment: 6

This means the buyer can order 12, 18, 24, and so on.

Quantity rules are especially useful when your fulfillment process depends on carton sizes or minimum production quantities.

Step 7: Configure B2B Payment Terms

B2B customers do not always pay at checkout.

Shopify supports common payment terms such as:

• due immediately
• Net 7
• Net 15
• Net 30
• Net 60
• Net 90

For example, Net 30 gives the buyer 30 days to pay after the order date.

You can assign different payment terms to different companies or locations based on the agreement you have with them.

More advanced payment options, such as deposits and partial payments, are available on Shopify Plus.

When offering longer payment terms, consider the effect on your cash flow as well as the buyer’s convenience.

Step 8: Configure Shipping and Tax Settings

Wholesale shipping can work very differently from regular eCommerce shipping.

Large orders may need different shipping rates, free shipping thresholds, local pickup, freight services, or negotiated delivery arrangements.

You should also review tax settings for each B2B customer.

Depending on the buyer and location, this may include tax IDs, exemptions, or different tax treatment. Keep this setup aligned with the tax requirements that apply to your business and customer locations.

Step 9: Test the B2B Buying Experience

Before inviting real wholesale customers, test the entire buying process yourself.

Shopify recommends creating a test company, company location, catalog, and B2B customer and then placing a test order.

Check that:

• the customer can log in correctly
• the right products are visible
• wholesale prices are displayed
• minimum quantities and price breaks work
• payment terms appear correctly
• shipping options are appropriate
• checkout works as expected

Testing helps you catch issues before real buyers encounter them.

Once the full order flow works correctly, your Shopify B2B setup is ready for launch.

Shopify B2B is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Shopify Plus, but some capabilities depend on the plan you use.

Basic and Grow

Basic and Grow include the core features many merchants need to start selling B2B. You can create companies and company locations, set B2B pricing, apply quantity rules, offer volume pricing, use payment terms, and let approved buyers place orders through your storefront.

These plans are a good fit for smaller or less complex wholesale operations. The main limitation is flexibility around catalogs and more advanced B2B customization.

Advanced

Advanced includes the same core B2B tools but gives merchants more control over how different B2B markets experience the storefront and checkout.

This is useful if you sell to business customers across different regions and need more tailored market-specific experiences.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is better suited to larger or more complex B2B operations.

It supports unlimited B2B market catalogs and more granular catalog assignment, making it easier to create customer-specific product and pricing experiences. Plus also adds advanced payment capabilities such as deposits and partial payments.

In short, you no longer need Shopify Plus just to start selling B2B. Standard plans cover many common requirements, while Plus is mainly useful when your catalogs, markets, and payment workflows become more complex.

Here’s a quick comparison:

B2B Capability	Basic	Grow	Advanced	Shopify Plus
Core B2B features	✓	✓	✓	✓
Companies and company locations	✓	✓	✓	✓
Quantity rules and volume pricing	✓	✓	✓	✓
Net payment terms	✓	✓	✓	✓
Active B2B catalog assignments	Up to 3	Up to 3	Up to 3	Unlimited
Direct catalog assignment to companies/locations	—	—	—	✓
Contextual B2B storefront experiences	—	—	✓	✓
Deposits and partial payments	—	—	—	✓
Best for	Simple B2B setups	Growing B2B stores	Multi-market B2B selling	Complex B2B operations

Shopify’s native B2B tools are enough for many businesses, especially if you only need company accounts, catalogs, wholesale pricing, quantity rules, payment terms, and self-service ordering.

A third-party app becomes more useful when your sales process has requirements that go beyond Shopify’s built-in features.

For example, you may need an app for:

• quote or request-for-quote workflows
• custom wholesale order forms
• advanced bulk ordering
• downloadable or specialized invoices
• approval workflows for new buyers or large orders
• ERP or accounting integrations
• more customized B2B storefront experiences

Shopify itself points merchants to third-party apps for certain specialized workflows, including quoting, CSV order uploads, downloadable invoices, and ERP integrations.

The best approach is to start with Shopify’s native B2B features first. If you later identify a specific gap in your ordering, approval, invoicing, or integration workflow, add an app that solves that need rather than building your wholesale setup around apps from the start.

A good B2B setup should make ordering simple for buyers while still protecting your margins and inventory.

• Keep pricing and MOQs clear: Make wholesale prices, minimum order quantities, case-pack requirements, and volume discounts easy to understand so buyers know exactly what they need to order.

• Keep B2B and DTC inventory accurate: If both channels share stock, make sure inventory updates stay synchronized so you do not oversell products or promise stock that is no longer available.

• Make repeat ordering easy: B2B customers often buy the same products regularly. A smooth reorder process can save time and encourage repeat purchases.

• Maintain complete product information: Accurate titles, descriptions, SKUs, dimensions, images, and variant details make it easier for buyers to place the right orders.

• Monitor profit margins, not just order size: Large wholesale orders can still be unprofitable if discounts, shipping, fulfillment, and payment costs are too high.

Setting up Shopify B2B does not require building a completely separate wholesale operation. For many merchants, the best approach is to start simple: choose products that make sense for B2B, create the right catalogs and pricing, set clear quantity rules and payment terms, and test the buying experience before launch.

As your B2B channel grows, you can add more advanced catalogs, specialized apps, ERP or accounting integrations, and higher-tier Shopify features where needed.

The goal is to build a wholesale setup that is easy for buyers to use and simple for your team to manage as order volume increases.