Shopify B2B in 2026: Wholesale on Every Plan (and When You Need Plus)

Wholesale used to be the moment many Shopify brands started shopping for Shopify Plus, a second store or a B2B app. A retailer asks for trade pricing, a distributor wants net 30 terms, a trade show brings in ten new accounts, and suddenly the team is managing price lists in spreadsheets and keying orders in by hand.

That changed on April 2, 2026, when Shopify extended its native B2B features to the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans at no extra cost. This guide explains what Shopify B2B includes on each plan, how companies, catalogs and payment terms fit together, whether to run a blended or dedicated store, the setup steps we follow, and the point where the 3-catalog limit means you need Plus. Everything here is based on the Shopify Help Center, checked on October 28, 2026. Shopify updates B2B often, so confirm details in the B2B features by plan page before you build.

What is Shopify B2B?

Shopify B2B is a set of features built into the Shopify admin for selling to other businesses: wholesale buyers, retailers, distributors, salons, clinics, contractors. It is not a separate product or a locked "wholesale page". Your B2B buyers log in to the same online store, and see their own prices, products, minimums and payment terms. Orders, inventory and reports stay in one admin with your direct-to-consumer (D2C) business.

Shopify says merchants using B2B see up to a 4.1x increase in reorder frequency compared with D2C orders. Treat that as Shopify's own best-case figure, not a forecast, but the reason is real: once a buyer can log in and reorder in a few clicks, they stop emailing your team and start ordering more often.

Shopify B2B features by plan

B2B works on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. It is not available on Starter or Retail. Most features are on every plan; the differences are catalogs, advanced payments and contextual experiences. This is a summary of Shopify's B2B features by plan table:

Two details catch people out. First, on Basic, Grow and Advanced the limit is 3 active catalogs across all your B2B markets, not 3 per market. Second, those plans must be using the new Shopify Markets to use B2B catalogs. ACH payments are available on every plan but only in the United States.

How companies, catalogs and terms fit together

Shopify B2B has its own vocabulary. Getting it right before you import anything saves a lot of rework:

• Company: the parent organization you sell to, for example a regional retail chain.
• Company location: each business or branch that orders. A location can have its own tax ID and exemptions, ship-to and billing address, pricing and payment terms, and can be set to submit every order as a draft for your review.
• Customers: the buyers who log in on behalf of a location, with location-level permissions (location admin or ordering only).
• Catalog: which products a buyer can see and at what price. If several catalogs give a buyer different prices for the same product, the lowest price is shown. A single location can have up to 25 catalogs assigned.
• Quantity rules and volume pricing: minimums, maximums and increments (for example, cases of 12), plus price breaks for larger quantities.
• Payment terms: pay at checkout with a card (cards can be vaulted), or net terms with invoices and payment reminders.

Blended or dedicated B2B store?

Shopify asks you to make this choice first, and it is the decision we spend the most time on with clients:

• Blended store: one Shopify store serves both D2C shoppers and logged-in B2B buyers. You manage one catalog of products, one inventory and one theme. This suits most brands adding wholesale to an existing D2C store.
• Dedicated B2B store: a separate store used only for B2B. It makes sense when wholesale needs a very different catalog, brand or checkout, or when B2B volume justifies its own setup. On Plus, this is often an expansion store.

In a blended store your theme is shared. On Advanced and Plus you can customize content by market in the theme editor (with a free Shopify theme version 11.0 or later), and on Plus you can also customize by customer type, B2B versus D2C. On custom themes, developers use the customer.b2b Liquid variable to show trade-only content, and add quick order lists, quantity rules and volume pricing in code.

How to set up Shopify B2B: 8 steps

This is the order we follow, based on Shopify's setup checklist for blended B2B stores:

1. Migrate existing wholesale customers. If trade buyers are already customers in your admin (often tagged "wholesale"), Shopify provides a built-in tool to move them and their order history into companies.
2. Create companies and locations. Add them in the admin, import them in bulk with a third-party app such as Matrixify, or build a custom migration with the Company API. Set payment terms, tax details and draft-order review per location.
3. Build catalogs. Decide your price tiers first (for example Retailer, Distributor, Key account), then create catalogs, exclude products buyers should not see, and hide B2B-only products from D2C shoppers.
4. Turn on customer accounts. B2B requires customer accounts so buyers can log in. You can keep legacy accounts for D2C and add the customer accounts login link for B2B buyers.
5. Set payment and shipping methods. Add manual methods such as bank transfer if you need them. The free Checkout Blocks app can hide, rename or reorder payment and shipping methods for B2B buyers and set minimum order amounts.
6. Customize the storefront. Add a quick order list, show quantity rules and price breaks, and adapt content for B2B where your plan allows it.
7. Set up sales staff and apps. Give reps a role with company staff permissions and assign them to their locations. Add the free Shopify Forms app so new buyers can request access, and connect your ERP or accounting system.
8. Test before you invite buyers. Log in as a test customer (or preview the store as a company location), place test orders for each catalog and payment term, then invite your buyers.

Automate B2B with Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow can use B2B objects on every plan, and Shopify includes B2B templates in the app. This is where most of the time savings come from once buyers order online. Workflows we typically set up for wholesale clients include:

• Notify the account rep when one of their companies places an order or submits a draft for review.
• Tag large B2B orders for a manual check before fulfillment.
• Send the finance team a weekly list of unpaid net-terms orders with a scheduled workflow, alongside Shopify's payment reminders.
• Tag new B2B customers and notify the right rep so access requests from Shopify Forms are approved quickly.

Our guide to Shopify Flow automation explains triggers, conditions and actions, and how to test workflows safely before they touch live orders. For quoting, document handling and reorder reminders that go beyond Flow, our AI automation team builds custom workflows and assistants.

When the 3-catalog limit means you need Plus

For many brands, 3 catalogs is enough: one wholesale price list, one for distributors and one for key accounts or a second country. You will likely outgrow a standard plan when:

• You have more than 3 price tiers or regional price lists that must be live at the same time.
• Large accounts have negotiated, customer-specific pricing. That needs direct company catalogs, which are Plus-only.
• You take deposits on custom or pre-season orders, accept partial payments, or bill per shipment.
• You want different storefront content or checkout behaviour for B2B and D2C customers in one store, or a separate B2B expansion store.

If none of these apply, start on your current plan. Moving up later does not require replatforming; your companies and catalogs carry over. Our Shopify vs Shopify Plus guide covers the rest of the upgrade decision, including pricing.

Common Shopify B2B mistakes

• Designing catalogs around customers instead of tiers. One catalog per customer burns through the 3-catalog limit immediately. Group buyers into tiers first.
• Skipping the migration tool. Recreating wholesale customers by hand loses their order history and reorder data.
• Forgetting the D2C side. In a blended store, check that B2B-only products and wholesale prices never show to logged-out shoppers or in your product feeds.
• Not testing every payment term. Place a test order for card, net terms and draft review before buyers do.
• Leaving the ERP for later. Decide early which system owns prices, inventory and invoices, or your team ends up reconciling two sources of truth.

How Startup Slang helps

We are an AI-first agency with offices in Toronto and Montreal, and we have built on Shopify since 2017. Our Shopify agency team sets up B2B on standard plans and Plus, from catalog and tier design to custom theme work, Flow workflows and ERP integrations. Moving wholesale off another platform? Our Shopify migration service moves companies, price lists and order history without losing rankings. Tell us about your wholesale business and we will recommend the simplest setup that works.

Frequently asked questions