Shopify B2B & Wholesale

Deliver the best B2B Shopify Experience
to wholesale customers.

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Last updated: July 5, 2024

Leveraging the power of Shopify & Shopify Plus to build a B2B and Wholesale channel so your online store can sell with volume.

Charle is a Shopify Agency with a wealth of knowledge and experience in designing, developing, optimising, and launching Shopify B2B and Shopify Wholesale stores across a multitude of industries. We pride ourselves in helping B2B businesses, enterprises, and partners help reach their long-term strategic goals and build a truly powerful wholesale ecommerce experience. From navigation, checkout, to shipping, we have the tools, APIs and integrations to transform B2B companies to reach their best potential and stand out from the competition.

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What is Shopify B2B and Wholesale?

Several approaches are available for B2B & wholesale on Shopify. You can offer a password-protected commerce storefront that functions as an extension of the main store, you can grow your business and take your brand to the next level by selling wholesale by using Shopify's dedicated B2B ecommerce channel. Alternatively, you can leverage Shopify's newest B2B features that allow you to change prices and offer unique B2B experiences all from one single store too! Shopify B2B features include the ability to create unique rates for specific wholesale customers, product bundles, volume based discounts, unique customer profiles and the portal or making specific products available to B2B customers that have wholesale accounts on the site.

The native Shopify wholesale features are only natively accessible through Shopify Plus, so be prepared to spend a considerably more if you want to use this solution. A Shopify Plus plan costs $2000 per month to start, and the cost rises on a percentage of commerce sales as your company expands. One of the numerous advantages that the Shopify Plus platform would be having a dedicated Shopify Plus wholesale channel or built-in B2B features for your store. Other advantages include having endless customisation, functionality, and automation possibilities through different Shopify apps. The number of B2B features and systems that the Plus plans offers to wholesale business do help justify the price tag with high-yield results.

If you do not have the budget for the Shopify Plus pricing plan though, it’s definitely not all doom and gloom. There are B2B ecommerce workarounds available in which you can sell to other businesses – B2B Shopify wholesale apps such as SparkLayer for example provide a good alternative for companies looking to start selling to B2B buyers. Benefits of using a wholesale app such as SparkLayer, Wholesale Lock Manager or Wholesale Club of course include the price advantages for those not on the Shopify Plus plan, but it is also rapid to set up and use, connects seamlessly to your business data, helps automate your wholesale operation, and gives your customers a beautiful self-service product experience, allowing you to scale effectively and truly take your brand to the next level.

Why is Shopify and Shopify Plus good for B2B and Wholesale?

Shopify and Shopify Plus are a powerful tool for B2B and Wholesale stores that integrates seamlessly with your business. Managing stores is considerably simpler with the B2B channel- you can spend too much time operating two (or more) distinct stores if you run a wholesale business in addition to your retail Shopify store, so combining this together makes the experience much more streamlined. If you opt for the native B2B features then you only will have one single store and update prices and the experience based on the customer visiting.

The inventory, orders, and all other customer data is also in one location on Shopify wholesale, enabling you to manage retail and wholesale clients from the same platform as your standard DTC customers. This maximises efficiencies and allows your business to follow one seamless process - all managed via the Shopify platform.

The channel also provides a variety of choices for billing and pricing. For instance, you could add a volume discount in addition to setting the same discount for all products. Alternatively, you might create customised wholesale price lists for various clients, such as exclusive prices or payment terms for your top customers and partners, prices in different currencies, or a list that includes a personalised purchase quote.

Perhaps most importantly, using Shopify’s B2B functionality would enable you to operate a wholesale order centre where clients can place orders whenever it was convenient for them. This will be especially helpful if you intend to start selling products internationally or wholesale to companies and an audience in different locations or time zones around the world. You can get rid of your manual order forms and lengthy order processes and manage B2B orders in the same way you manage your ecommerce DTC customers.

What are the B2B and Wholesale features on Shopify?

There are a plethora of Shopify Wholesale and B2B commerce features that any merchant can benefit from. If you are just starting with selling to companies or don't have enough sales from your existing store to justify the $2000 a month price tag for the Shopify Plus plan, there are a few more options to start selling products using a B2B solution without Plus. Some of the features included with Shopify B2B and Wholesale functionality include:

• Use one store but offer unique pricing options, products, customer lists & profiles (Shopify B2B). Easy management products and collections from one store with wholesale pricing manager.
• Alternatively, create a second multistore location, separate to your B2C or DTC store, where you only sell wholesale goods (Wholesale Channel).
• Make exclusive discount codes that you can distribute to wholesale customers or certain clientele.
• Offer volume based discount levels and rules to reward B2B customers when they purchase anything.
• Offer unique prices and specific price lists for different B2B customers.
• Provide net payment terms to your customers so they can pay as they usually would.
• Seamlessly integrate with Handshake marketplace.
• Manage large orders or credit limits.
• Offer a unique checkout experience with NET payment terms for B2B customers.
• Benefit from Shopify's great features such as hosting and security for both DTC and B2B customers.
• Unlock a wholesale ready storefront for your buyers through B2B apps.

But there are many cutting-edge capabilities that Shopify Plus program and the specialised wholesale channel offer. Let's examine a few of those attributes. Get in touch if you'd like a demo of the configuration or B2B platform.

What are the limitations of using Shopify B2B?

The following factors should be taken into account before commerce merchants decide to utilise B2B in their operations:

•For access to B2B functionalities, new customer accounts must be created.
•Because Shopify B2B is new functionality, certain third-party applications may not have been updated to support it yet.
•Subscriptions cannot be implemented with B2B.
•There can only be up to 500 line items in any order. If an order consists of more than 500 different products or variants, it will be rejected from the wholesale system.

We also advise you to consider whether you feel you need an entirely separate storefront experience for your customers or whether pricing and product changes via your existing store are enough to manage the B2B side of your business.

B2B & Wholesale Shopify storefront and custom domain

Firstly, Shopify's most recent B2B feature release is designed to function directly through your original Shopify Plus storefront. Meaning that the content and experience remains consistent however the pricing and b2b checkout options change based on the customer that is logged in. The benefit of this is that you do not need to manage multiple stores and the B2B store does not become a burden to your team. However there is not a native way to change content for B2B customers unless you employ a Shopify agency, who can write custom coding that creates dynamic content that appears only for B2B customers. Offer B2B directly from your existing store is great when you are getting started or even wish to trial B2B on Shopify Plus.

The more traditional step to B2B is to offer a separate password-protected store just for your wholesale clients. Shopify Plus offers a separate storefront known as the Wholesale channel. These types of protected pages are not visible on search results from search engines. Instead, they only provide wholesale or B2B purchasers access to the store if you have given a page link and they have their own customer accounts there. This means that normal retail customers won't have access to this area of your website and won't be able to place B2B orders there or take advantage of the special offers or personalised discounts you have set for others. With wholesale on Shopify, the platforms uses your existing store and changes all the price to match the B2B settings. So, this means you are only running a singular store and all the price settings update if a B2B customer logs in. If you are using Shopify Plus then you can leverage an expansion store instead of the wholesale channel however advanced development may be needed to achieve the features you require as a B2B merchant.

Additionally, Shopify Plus sellers can now give their b2b business stores a custom domain. Retailers can provide a branded customer experience across channels with a customised domain while also making it simpler for customers to locate their wholesale storefronts.

However, you should be aware that there aren't many customisation possibilities available through the wholesale storefront.

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Custom pricing, order limits & payment terms

The ability have full customisation of the prices on the B2B site is the second best feature of Shopify Wholesale (and overall, the Plus plan). The specific Shopify wholesale channel allows you to:

• Set volume- or percentage-based price discounts.
• Specify fixed wholesale product prices for the goods.
• Have the option to set order restrictions for minimum and maximum quantities.
• Make several pricing lists with various prices for different types of B2B customers or customer groups.

While the volume discounts might help you draw in businesses, the minimum and maximum order limitations can help you manage the quantity amount of product that B2B customers can order. Additionally, you can use the pricing lists to extend a unique thank-you offer to your most devoted wholesaling customers by offering a pricing discount.

With payment terms, merchants can automate the manual procedure of draft orders in the admin page and assigning payment terms. With B2B & Wholesale on Shopify, you can specify the terms of payment. Then, keep track of, group, and collect payments for orders as they become due. As usual, the buyer chooses things to add to their cart, but this time the prices are those that you listed in your price list for that business. Payment terms for Wholesale & B2B on Shopify include are set to 'None' by default. At checkout, visitors immediately pay for their orders.

However, merchants can choose 'Net' (period) if they wish to allow customers to pay for orders at any time between the time the order is made and the due date. Net 7, Net 15, Net 30, Net 60, and Net 90 are the terms available to wholesalers. Merchants can also offer 'Due on fulfillment', whereby B2B customers can pay for orders at any time between when they’ve placed the order and when it is fulfilled. When all of the things in the order are delivered, that is when the money is due.

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Streamlined Account Area

The account area on Shopify's B2B channel are something that your wholesaler clients will like (and will also save you a tonne of time). They receive a unique login account and dashboard from Shopify, which they can use to make purchases, keep track of them, and place new orders without the need for additional assistance from you. Through their B2B account, they can place orders whenever they want, without having to speak to you directly to facilitate the sale. Additionally, they have access to all your store's recent and ongoing data through their customer account, including order status, order history, tracking information, and bills.

The wholesale channel account area will give you and your clients access to all the information you require, saving you the time it would take to manage ordering and make a sale over the phone or via email, a massive benefit to your CRM. Of course, a bonus of having this feature is that resources can then be allocated to other more productive business operations such as marketing, research, and planning to grow your business further. With increased efficiency comes improved profits which again, makes the investment value in Shopify Plus B2B functionality that extra bit more worthwhile.

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Processing B2B & Wholesale Orders on Shopify

You can manage orders with ease by using Shopify Wholesale's order processing services. The way it works is that any orders placed through the wholesale store will show up as draught orders in your Shopify admin. You can send the customer an invoice with payment instructions after reviewing the orders. Following that, you can choose from one of the several options for processing orders:

• Send invoices to customers with a payment request using the Shopify account's payment provider.
• Send a personalised invoice email asking for payment through different payment methods, like a bank wire transfer.
• Accept ahead payment from customers by accepting credit cards, checks, or plenty of other payment options.
• Accept payments made through other payment gateways such as Afterpay, a Buy Now Pay Later app which lets customers pay in instalments and runs automatic collection.

In conclusion, while setting up and running Shopify Wholesale and B2B operations for your commerce business might seem daunting and a bit of work, you can have peace of mind knowing that expert Shopify agencies such as Charle are available and on-hand to do all the nitty-gritty processes involved. Whether you're looking to optimise and exiting B2B or wholesaling store, or launch a completely new store, be sure to get in touch with Charle to learn more about our services.

Have a question about Shopify B2B? Get in Touch

How can we help you to develop the Shopify B2B website?

If you’re a commerce merchant looking to start selling wholesale, it’s recommended to work with an expert Shopify agency to assist you in the process of transfering your store’s data, designing the store’s theme and layout, developing and build the bespoke and advanced code or help you provide a unique B2B experience for your customers. As a Shopify agency, we can build wholesale sites either from scratch, or if you have history selling with B2B ecommerce and wish to migrate over from another place or platform such as Magento, BigCommerce, or Brightpearl, you can also benefit from a Shopify wholesale agency to help migrate all your content and B2B data over with the best in-class practices and on-hand support throughout the process. If you want a chat about all things Shopify wholesale or B2B, don't hesistat to get in touch. We're here to assist no matter what industry, company profile, or company location you operate in.

At Charle, we’ve assisted brands of all shapes and sizes, in any country, launch or migrate their B2B Shopify store, putting the most powerful technology to work and unlocking the full potential of what merchants are able to achieve through the sophisticated Shopify and Shopify Plus platform. We use the best practices when building your wholesale store, with a full consultation beforehand of what your personal needs and requirements are, your vision, and your long-term strategic goals. Our team of experts including designers and developers are able to build a fully customised storefront, with bespoke themes that look visually stunning, and integrate custom apps made specifically for your B2B store, so that you can deliver the best B2B ecommerce experience possible time after time again, without question.

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Shopify B2B & Wholesale Frequently Asked Questions

Is B2B and Wholesale possible on Shopify?

Yes, B2B and wholesale capabilities are possible on the Shopify platform. For native wholesale and B2B functionality, merchants need to be subscribed to the Shopify Plus platform. While online stores can also sell business-to-business through third-party apps, the functionality may be limited doing this.

Can I offer B2B customers different prices on Shopify?

Yes, merchants have full customisation of price lists for different customers, giving the option to offer exclusive discounts for the most loyal customers as a thank you, or to incentivise higher bulk quantity orders, repeat purchases, etc.

Can I offer net payment terms to B2B customers on Shopify?

Yes! Store owners can choose to offer net payment terms if they wish to allow customers to pay for orders at any time between the time the order is made and the due date. Net 7, Net 15, Net 30, Net 60, and Net 90 are the terms available to wholesale customers.

How much do B2B and Wholesale features cost on Shopify?

The cost of Shopify B2B will vary based on the particular requirements of each wholesale company. With that said, by taking a look at some of the features offered, we can give you a basic estimate of how much B2B & wholesale costs on Shopify. Merchants wanting to use Shopify's native B2B and wholesale capabilities have to be subscribed to the Shopify Plus plan. This plan costs $2,000 per month, or a variable fee for higher volume businesses. For those wishing to operate wholesale and B2B without being subscribed to Shopify Plus will have to pay fees associated with whichever app they decide to use. To find out the specific costs and fees of each Shopify app, check details within the app store marketplace.

Payments: Companies can accept credit cards and other payment options from customers using Shopify Payments. Shopify Payments does not have a monthly cost, but there is a transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per sale that must be paid by B2B businesses.

Marketing: Companies can promote their goods and services to more wholesale consumers by using Shopify's range of marketing capabilities. These tools are free to use on a monthly basis, but businesses are still responsible for any promotions and advertising expenses (e.g., Google AdWords).

Shipping: Companies can handle orders and print shipping labels using Shopify's shipping tools. These features are free to use on a monthly basis, however companies are still responsible for any delivery fees (e.g, postage).

Customer Engagement: Companies may interact with users and forge relationships with Shopify's customer engagement interface. The use of these consumer engagement tools ars free every month.

I'd like expert support in launching or optimising a wholesale Shopify store, how can I get in touch?

If you're interesting in designing, developing, optimising and/or launching a B2B store, you can contact us via phone, email or our contact form. Our professional team of Shopify and Shopify Plus experts are on-hand to help merchants create and deliver the best ecommerce ecommerce possible, so that wholesale customers convert, every time. From improving sales channels, inventory management, to generating demand, integrating reviews, improve volume of products orders, implementing loyalty programs, upsells, product options, currency converters, popups, wishlists, language translation, adding a blog, improving elements of visbility, maximimising compatability, improving customer service integrations, and having more control over your store, merchant tech stack, and everything in between, our b2b wholesale services can help you take your market offering to the next level.

“Working with Charle Agency was an absolute dream, we really felt they had the time for us and the whole project was seamless start to finish.”

Alexa - Marketing Manager | Doisy & Dam

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Doisy & Dam

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