Launch and Scale B2B or Wholesale on Shopify: Price Lists, Company Accounts, Net Terms, and Ordering UX End-to-End

Getting B2B right is not about copying your DTC storefront. Business buyers expect negotiated pricing, bulk ordering, purchase orders, and self-serve reorders tied to real account permissions. The good news is that Shopify now ships these capabilities natively for Plus merchants, so you can run wholesale and DTC on one platform without duct taping apps together. McKinsey’s 2024 B2B Pulse found e-commerce has become the leading revenue channel for companies that offer it, with buyers using an average of ten interaction channels and switching suppliers when the experience is not seamless. According to McKinsey’s report, more than a third of B2B revenue now comes from e-commerce for sellers that enable it, and buyers want a smooth omnichannel flow across in-person, remote, and digital self-serve options (the rule of thirds) https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/five-fundamental-truths-how-b2b-winners-keep-growing.

This end-to-end guide walks you through how to launch and scale B2B on Shopify, from company accounts and price lists to net terms, checkout, and the onsite buying experience. If you are still setting up your core store, bookmark eComAmplify’s Ultimate Shopify Set-Up Guide for the fastest path from zero to live store at https://ecomamplify.com/blog/ultimate-shopify-set-up-guide-from-zero-to-live-store.

Is Shopify B2B a fit for your wholesale program

Shopify B2B is a suite of native features included on Shopify Plus. As the Shopify Help Center explains, B2B is available only on the Plus plan and lets you sell directly to businesses using company profiles, tailored catalogs, net terms, and account-based access https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b. If you are evaluating platform fit, start by listing your must-have functions across pricing, payments, and account control, then match those to Shopify’s native B2B feature set.

What you get out of the box

• Company profiles and locations with configurable payment terms, tax settings, and catalog assignments. The overview at Shopify’s Help Center outlines core features including customer-specific catalogs, B2B checkout controls, and self-serve accounts https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/features.

• B2B catalogs and price lists with fixed pricing, overall adjustments, quantity rules, and volume price breaks for each product or variant https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs.

• B2B checkout including one-page checkout, purchase order number capture, submit to draft for review, price locking, and inventory reservation on drafts https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/draft-orders and https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/features.

• Payment terms and deposits, vaulted cards for faster collections, and partial payments to reconcile balances over time https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/payment-terms and https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/vaulted-cards.

• B2B customer accounts with roles, reorders from past purchases, and self-serve returns https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/customer-login-and-accounts.

If you are not on Plus yet, you can still start with a DTC store and validate demand. When you are ready to add wholesale, move to Shopify Plus and activate B2B. To begin your build on Shopify, try the platform with this free trial link at https://shopify.pxf.io/ZQoKa0.

Choose your B2B architecture: blended vs dedicated store

Before you create companies and price lists, decide whether you want a blended store that serves both D2C and B2B, or a dedicated B2B-only store. Shopify’s guidance on store types details the tradeoffs for operations and UX https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/store-type.

• Blended store. One admin, shared inventory, unified theme, and a single domain for all shoppers. You can contextualize content and pricing by customer type using Markets and catalogs. This is ideal when product lines overlap and you want one catalog and one ops stack.

• Dedicated store. Separate admin, separate inventory, and a theme designed for wholesale. You can gate access so only logged-in B2B customers see anything. This is best when wholesale needs a different brand, different workflows, or separate systems.

Contextualization is powerful either way. You can adapt your theme’s sections and blocks to render different content for B2B customers by using Shopify Markets and theme overrides, as described in Shopify’s store contextualization guide https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/customizing-themes/store-contextualization.

Build the B2B data foundation: companies, locations, and roles

In B2B, the buyer is not just a customer profile. You will create companies, then add one or more locations for each company, and finally assign buyers to those locations with permissions. Shopify’s companies and customers documentation explains that each company location can have its own pricing, payment terms, tax IDs, shipping addresses, and contacts https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/companies-and-customers.

• Create companies and locations with their default payment terms, shipping and billing addresses, and assigned catalogs. The Help Center covers creating and managing companies in detail https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/companies-and-customers/creating-companies.

• Add contacts and assign permissions. The Ordering only role can place orders and view their own order history. The Location admin role can edit billing and shipping addresses, manage vaulted credit cards, and view all orders for that location https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/companies-and-customers/adding-customers.

• Let prospects request access. Shopify Forms integrates a wholesale application form that automatically creates a company, a location, and a customer when submitted. You can approve or deny, and even automate approvals with Shopify Flow templates, as outlined in Shopify’s company account requests guide https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/companies-and-customers/company-account-requests.

Tip on intake forms. Ask for tax ID or VAT, expected monthly volume, and shipping constraints to speed underwriting and fulfillment set up. Store these answers as company metafields, which Shopify Forms supports, so they are queryable in your admin and Flow automations.

Price lists that scale: catalogs, volume breaks, and quantity rules

B2B catalog pricing is the heart of wholesale. With Shopify B2B catalogs, you can include or exclude products, set overall percentage adjustments, override fixed prices at the product or variant level, and layer volume breaks per variant https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/creating-catalogs.

Key capabilities to use from day one

• Fixed price and overall adjustments. You can set a global discount for a catalog and then override specific SKUs with fixed prices. Shopify’s example shows how a 20 percent overall adjustment and a fixed price for one SKU interact, with the fixed price winning for that SKU https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/creating-catalogs.

• Quantity rules. Enforce increments, minimums, and maximums at the variant level. If you sell by the case, set an increment of 12 so buyers cannot add 7 units. The quantity rules page explains how these apply per variant and are validated in checkout https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/quantity-pricing.

• Volume price breaks. Add up to ten price tiers per variant so unit price decreases as quantity increases. These breaks stack with your base fixed price or overall adjustment and apply per variant, not across variants https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/quantity-pricing.

• Multiple catalogs per company. Assign more than one catalog to a location. When the same SKU appears in multiple catalogs, the buyer sees the lowest price. Quantity rules and breaks come from the catalog with the lowest price per variant https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs.

• CSV import and export. Export a catalog’s pricing and quantity rules to CSV, edit in bulk, and import to update quickly. Shopify documents fields for fixed prices, compare at to show MSRP, quantity increments, minimums, maximums, and up to ten quantity and price breaks https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/creating-catalogs.

Markets and catalog assignment. If you use Markets for B2B segmentation, you can assign catalogs to B2B markets or directly to company locations. When both are present, the more specific location catalog takes precedence for pricing and quantity rules, as explained in Shopify’s catalog assignment rules https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/creating-catalogs.

Payments that match how B2B buys: net terms, deposits, and vaulted cards

Wholesale rests on the ability to quote, ship, and collect on terms. Shopify B2B lets you configure payment terms per company and per location. According to Shopify’s B2B payments guide, you can set Net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60, or 90, Due on receipt, Due on fulfillment, or a fixed date on draft orders, and even require a percentage deposit at checkout on terms https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/payment-terms.

How to implement a solid B2B payments policy in Shopify

• Assign payment terms at the location level. Start with conservative net days until a customer demonstrates on-time payment behavior, then expand credit limits outside of Shopify in your ERP or finance system if needed. Shopify Flow can send automatic payment reminders on the due date https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shopify-flow.

• Use deposits for large or custom orders. If you require a 30 percent deposit on submission and the balance on net 30, Shopify captures the deposit at checkout for terms orders and sets the invoice to Partially paid https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/payment-terms.

• Vault corporate cards for faster collections. When you use Shopify Payments, buyers can save cards at the company location level and authorize you to charge them later. You can manually capture saved cards on pending invoices, update which card is charged, or request a card update by email from your admin https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/vaulted-cards.

• Accept multiple methods. B2B orders can be paid with credit cards, PayPal, manual payment methods like bank transfer or COD, and partial payments to reconcile split tenders or staged payments over time, which Shopify documents in its partial payments guidance https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/partial-payments and in B2B payments features https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/features.

Taxes and exemptions. Many wholesale buyers are tax exempt. Shopify supports customer-level and company location tax exemptions and custom overrides. The tax overrides documentation explains how to set up exempt customers and apply location-level exemptions for Plus B2B stores https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/taxes/tax-overrides.

Checkout and order submission: approval flows, POs, and safeguarding prices

B2B checkout should feel familiar yet appropriately controlled. Shopify’s B2B checkout features allow you to tailor the flow per location, including one-page checkout and submit-to-draft approvals, with purchase order capture on both draft and regular orders https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/features.

Recommended configuration for wholesale workflows

• Use draft orders for approvals when needed. If your operations team must validate stock, freight, or MAP compliance, set the company location to submit orders as drafts. Buyers will see a Submit for approval button at checkout. You can then review the draft, adjust as needed, and convert to an order. The draft orders guide covers submit-to-draft and conversion behavior https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/draft-orders.

• Lock quoted prices. When you are negotiating or honoring a quote, lock prices on a draft so future product price changes do not affect the order. Shopify shows a lock icon on locked lines and lets you unlock later if needed https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/draft-orders.

• Reserve inventory on drafts. For constrained SKUs, reserve items on a draft so other shoppers cannot purchase that stock while you finalize approvals. Shopify’s draft orders and inventory reservation features are built for this B2B use case https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/features.

• Capture purchase order numbers. Buyers and your team can add a PO number at checkout or on the draft, which remains visible on order records and customer accounts. Shopify documents PO fields in the customer accounts and draft orders help pages https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/customer-login-and-accounts and https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/draft-orders.

• Enable one-time ship-to addresses. For location-based accounts with default addresses, allow one-time shipping addresses on checkout for drop shipments without saving them to the company profile, as outlined in Shopify’s checkout features list https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/features.

The B2B buying experience: fast discovery, bulk add, and reorders

Your catalog and account rules do the heavy lifting behind the scenes. The storefront still needs to make bulk buying effortless. A few native pieces help you achieve that.

• Trade theme for wholesale. Shopify’s free Trade theme is designed for B2B with quick add to cart and a professional buying layout, plus support for quantity rules and volume pricing visuals. The theme listing describes Trade as optimized for wholesale buyers with a Quick order list section and advanced B2B features for Plus merchants https://themes.shopify.com/themes/trade/presets/trade.

• Quick order list. Add a quick order list section to product pages that lets buyers add multiple variants and quantities in a single table. Shopify provides Liquid and JavaScript snippets to insert this section if you are not using a theme version that includes it by default https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/store-customization/quick-order-list.

• Contextual content for B2B. Use Shopify Markets and theme contextualization to display B2B-only content blocks for signed-in company contacts, while keeping public pages clean for DTC audiences in a blended store https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/customizing-themes/store-contextualization.

• Self-serve accounts and reorders. New customer accounts let B2B buyers log in with a one-time passcode, access their company locations, duplicate past orders, and pay down open invoices. Shopify’s customer accounts page explains features for reorder and payment in detail https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/customer-login-and-accounts.

Step-by-step B2B launch checklist on Shopify Plus

Follow this pragmatic sequence to go live quickly and safely.

1. Decide store type and install theme

• Choose blended or dedicated B2B using Shopify’s store type framework https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/store-type.

• Install Trade for wholesale speed or ensure your existing theme supports Quick order list and hide price for guests.

2. Turn on accounts and access

• Enable new customer accounts and add a clear Wholesale or Sign in link in your header. Shopify’s accounts guide shows how to activate passcode login and link placement https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/customer-login-and-accounts.

• Add a “Request wholesale access” form with Shopify Forms that creates company records automatically https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/companies-and-customers/company-account-requests.

3. Create companies, locations, and roles

• For each approved business, create a company and location, set tax status, payment terms, and shipping profiles.

• Add contacts as Ordering only or Location admin and send B2B access email invitations https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/companies-and-customers/adding-customers.

4. Build catalogs and price lists

• Create a base catalog with overall adjustments by tier, then override fixed prices where needed.

• Add quantity rules and volume breaks to enforce case packs and incentivize higher AOV https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/quantity-pricing.

• Export to CSV, bulk update prices and breaks, and re-import for speed https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/creating-catalogs.

5. Configure checkout controls and payments

• Decide if some locations must Submit all orders as drafts for review. Enable PO number entry.

• Set payment terms and optional deposit requirements per location https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/payment-terms.

• Enable vaulted cards with Shopify Payments and confirm your manual payment methods for ACH or wire https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/checkout-and-orders/vaulted-cards.

6. Optimize the storefront for wholesale

• Add Quick order list on PDPs and collections where appropriate https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/store-customization/quick-order-list.

• Use Markets contextualization to show B2B content blocks only to signed-in companies https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/customizing-themes/store-contextualization.

7. Test end-to-end flows

• Impersonate a Location admin and place a large order with quantity rules and volume pricing applied.

• Verify submit-to-draft, price locking, inventory reservation, invoice send, partial payment, and balance capture on a vaulted card.

• Validate permissions for Ordering only users and confirm PO numbers flow into orders and exports.

8. Launch and automate

• Set up Shopify Flow automations for credit approvals, tagging overdue invoices, sending payment reminders on due date, and assigning sales reps to companies as described in Shopify’s Flow documentation https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shopify-flow.

• Define dashboards to track B2B revenue, AOV, reorder rate, and days sales outstanding by market.

If you want a primer on turning workflows into time savings, eComAmplify’s Automate to Dominate playbook covers how to choose the right triggers and actions to offload repetitive tasks at https://ecomamplify.com/blog/automate-to-dominate-how-workflow-automation-can-scale-your-e-com-store.

Scaling operations: fulfillment, returns, SEO, and demand gen for wholesale

B2B is won or lost on reliability. Tighten the post-purchase loop and build steady demand with these fundamentals.

• Fulfillment and freight. Wholesale orders often require carton-label accuracy, ASN workflows, and carrier optimization. If you are selecting a 3PL or freight partner, use eComAmplify’s guide on evaluating fulfillment providers to weigh SLAs, integrations, and per-carton pricing at https://ecomamplify.com/blog/choosing-the-right-fulfillment-partner-factors-to-consider.

• Returns. Enable self-serve returns in new customer accounts so location admins can initiate RMAs and track status. Shopify includes self-serve returns for B2B accounts as part of the customer experience https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/getting-started/features.

• SEO for long tail buyers. B2B buyers search product plus spec terms, such as size or compliance codes. Use our SEO basics guide to build crawlable spec pages and target non-branded queries at https://ecomamplify.com/blog/seo-basics-for-e-commerce-boost-your-store-s-visibility-and-ranking.

• Email and reorder nudges. Trigger replenishment reminders based on purchase cycles and net terms due dates. Our email marketing guide shows how to structure lifecycle flows that convert repeat buyers without clutter at https://ecomamplify.com/blog/how-to-build-an-engaging-email-marketing-campaign-that-converts.

• Paid acquisition. Use account request forms as the conversion goal for LinkedIn and niche placements, then route submissions into a qualification pipeline. See eComAmplify’s social ads guide for creative that balances specs and benefit messaging at https://ecomamplify.com/blog/creating-high-converting-social-media-ads-a-guide-for-e-commerce-entrepreneurs.

If you are hitting throughput limits or onboarding many new accounts at once, our scaling guide outlines how to structure teams and systems to handle growth pains before they hurt margins at https://ecomamplify.com/blog/overcoming-growing-pains-solutions-for-common-scaling-challenges.

Governance and analytics: keep pricing, taxes, and credit clean

• Tax exemptions. Set tax-exempt flags on company locations and capture tax IDs or VAT in the profile. Shopify’s tax overrides and exemptions article explains customer and location-level configuration and how overrides interact with product categories https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/taxes/tax-overrides.

• Pricing governance. Limit catalog count to something practical and use CSV imports to update tiers in lockstep. When you must combine catalogs, remember that the lowest price wins per SKU, and quantity rules come from the catalog that sets that lowest price https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs.

• Terms risk. Use shorter net terms for new buyers and monitor DSO. Vault cards wherever possible to accelerate collections on due dates. Shopify Flow can tag companies approaching overdues and notify finance to intervene https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/shopify-flow.

Why doing this now is a growth lever

B2B buyer expectations have shifted decisively toward digital convenience. McKinsey’s 2024 Pulse data shows buyers are comfortable placing high value orders online and will churn when the experience is disjointed. Sellers that invest in e-commerce as the backbone of their omnichannel strategy are gaining share and accelerating growth, with more than one third of online sellers’ revenue coming from e-commerce itself https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/five-fundamental-truths-how-b2b-winners-keep-growing.

Shopify’s native B2B features let you meet those expectations with price lists, account-based access, bulk ordering, and terms without custom plumbing. If you are starting from scratch or modernizing a legacy portal, there has never been a better time to stand up B2B on Shopify. You can start a trial of Shopify at https://shopify.pxf.io/ZQoKa0 and follow eComAmplify’s step-by-step playbooks to ship faster.