Shopify B2B and Wholesale: A Complete Guide for Merchants

Selling to other businesses on Shopify used to mean a separate wholesale store or a stack of pricing apps. That has changed. B2B is now built into the Shopify admin, and since April 2026 it is no longer limited to Shopify Plus. This guide covers what the native B2B features do, which plan you need, how to set up a wholesale channel step by step, and what usually goes wrong.

Shopify B2B in 2026: what changed

Shopify retired its old Wholesale channel on April 30, 2024. That channel was a separate, password-protected storefront that sat next to your retail store. Its replacement, B2B on Shopify, lives inside the same admin, products, and inventory as your direct-to-consumer business. You can run a blended store that serves both retail and wholesale buyers, or a dedicated B2B store.

If you still have setup steps written for “Channels > Wholesale”, they are out of date. Price lists, wholesale customers, and order workflows from the old channel need to be moved to native B2B or to a third-party app.

Which Shopify plans include B2B

B2B on Shopify is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans. It is not available on Starter or Retail.

• Basic, Grow, and Advanced: company profiles, up to three B2B catalogs in total, volume pricing, quantity rules, payment terms, and vaulted cards.
• Plus: everything above with unlimited catalogs, plus extras such as collecting a deposit at order time and limiting staff to specific company accounts.

The three-catalog limit applies across all markets combined, so it is usually the first ceiling a growing wholesale business hits.

The core B2B features

Companies and locations. A company represents the business you sell to. Each company can have several locations (stores, warehouses, offices) and several buyers, each with their own login. Pricing, payment terms, and shipping can be set per location.

Catalogs and price lists. A catalog controls which products a company location can see and what it pays. You can set a percentage adjustment for the whole catalog or fixed prices per variant, so one buyer sees a curated range at wholesale prices while retail shoppers see the normal store.

Volume pricing. Price breaks based on quantity, for example a lower unit price at 50 and again at 100 units. Shopify allows up to 10 quantity price breaks per product.

Quantity rules. Minimum order quantities, maximums, and increments per variant. Increments are how you sell in case packs, so a buyer can order 12, 24, or 36 but not 13.

Payment terms. Net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60, or 90 days, or due on fulfillment. Buyers can check out without paying up front, and you get an invoice workflow instead of an instant charge.

Vaulted cards and draft orders. Buyers can save a card for later charges, and your team can build orders on a buyer’s behalf with draft orders when deals are negotiated by phone or email.

How to set up a wholesale channel on Shopify

1. Decide on blended or separate. A blended store keeps one catalog and one theme. A separate B2B store makes sense when wholesale branding, content, or currency differs a lot from retail.
2. Create companies and locations. Add each business customer, its locations, and the buyers who will log in.
3. Build catalogs. Choose which products each location can see and set the price adjustment or fixed prices.
4. Add volume pricing and quantity rules. Set minimums and case-pack increments first, then price breaks.
5. Set payment terms. Choose the default terms for each location and decide which buyers can pay by invoice.
6. Configure shipping. Wholesale orders are heavier and often ship by pallet or freight, so review rates and methods for B2B locations separately.
7. Test the whole flow. Log in as a test buyer, check that the right products and prices appear, place an order, and confirm the invoice and fulfillment steps work before you invite real customers.

Managing wholesale customers

Wholesale buyers expect a different experience from retail shoppers: their own prices, net terms, fast reordering, and a single point of contact. A few habits keep that manageable:

• Segment buyers by how they buy, not only by size. A buyer who reorders the same 20 SKUs every month needs a different catalog from one who browses seasonal ranges.
• Automate the routine. Use Shopify Flow or an app to send invoice and payment reminders, tag new B2B orders, and alert your team when a large order arrives.
• Review customer reports to see which companies are growing, which have stopped ordering, and where payment terms are being stretched.
• Give buyers self-serve accounts so they can reorder, view invoices, and manage locations without emailing you.

Bulk ordering, inventory, and integrations

Large orders put pressure on inventory in ways retail rarely does. One wholesale order can wipe out stock that retail shoppers were counting on.

• Track inventory across locations and set low-stock alerts so you never sell wholesale quantities you cannot ship.
• Hold back retail stock for key products if wholesale demand is lumpy.
• Connect your ERP or accounting system through Shopify’s APIs or an integration app, so orders, invoices, and stock levels sync without manual entry.
• Use apps for the gaps. Quick order forms, wholesale registration forms, and advanced pricing rules are common additions. Check that each app still adds something now that pricing, quantity rules, and terms are native.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Unclear payment terms. If buyers do not know when an invoice is due, you end up chasing payments. Set terms per location and put them in your welcome email.
• Complex price structures that nobody maintains. Ten catalogs with overlapping rules become impossible to audit. Fewer, clearer catalogs are easier to keep correct.
• Overselling. Wholesale orders without inventory checks lead to backorders and cancelled deals.
• Skipping the test order. Pricing and visibility bugs are much cheaper to catch with a test buyer than with your biggest customer.
• Following old guides. Anything that tells you to install the Wholesale channel predates native B2B.

Why theme and catalog health matter more in B2B stores

B2B buyers order in volume and come back often, so small storefront problems repeat on every order and cost more each time. A few issues show up again and again in wholesale stores:

• Leftover wholesale app code. Many stores ran a pricing or wholesale app before native B2B existed. Uninstalling the app often leaves snippets, scripts, and price-swapping code in the theme, which can show the wrong price or slow down product pages.
• Themes that do not show B2B features. Shopify’s current free themes display quantity rules and volume pricing on product pages, but older or heavily customized themes may not, so buyers never see the case-pack rules or price breaks you set up.
• Incomplete catalog data. Products with missing descriptions, images, or SEO fields look unfinished to a professional buyer and are harder to find through search and AI assistants.
• Broken links in B2B navigation. Wholesale menus often point to order forms, price sheets, or B2B-only pages that move or get deleted.
• Stale discount codes that overlap with volume pricing and give buyers a bigger discount than you intended.

Store Health scans your theme, scripts, metafields, files, navigation links, products, discounts, and AI visibility in one read-only pass, and shows exactly where each issue sits. It is a quick way to check a store before inviting wholesale buyers, and to recheck it after you remove an old wholesale app. You can start with the free Shopify audit, or install Store Health from the Shopify App Store and run your first scan in minutes.