Development

Shopify for B2B: What's Different From a Regular Storefront

Plenox Studio

AUGUST 10, 20267 min read

Something significant changed in April 2026, and most guides on this topic still haven’t caught up.

As of April 2, 2026, Shopify B2B is available on every plan — Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus. Before that date it was Plus-only, and most guides online still assume the roughly $2,300/month minimum. They’re outdated.^[1]

That single change reframed the question. It went from “can we run wholesale on Shopify?” to “at what scale do we need Plus?”^[2]

Here’s what B2B actually changes about a storefront, what you get on each plan now, and where the real thresholds sit. For what a storefront should prioritize once the model is clear, see best ecommerce websites. For budget ranges, see ecommerce website cost.

The core difference: pricing isn’t public anymore

In a normal storefront, a product has a price and everyone sees it. In B2B, the price depends on who’s logged in.

That single inversion cascades into everything else. If pricing is customer-specific, then customers need accounts. If they have accounts, someone has to approve those accounts. If different customers see different prices, they may also need to see different products. And if you’re extending credit rather than taking payment upfront, checkout works differently too.

The example that makes it concrete: a retailer in your network gets 40% off MSRP, a distributor gets 50% off.^[3] Same catalog, same store, different reality depending on the login.

What B2B adds structurally

Company accounts, not customer accounts

This is the foundational change, and it’s more than a renaming.

Company profiles group individual buyers under a parent company, assign specific permissions, and manage purchasing hierarchies — replicating real-world B2B relationships where purchasing managers, finance teams, and operational staff need different access levels.^[4]

Company accounts support up to 50 locations per company^[5], which matters for chains, franchises, and distributors with regional operations.

In DTC, a customer is a person. In B2B, a customer is an organization containing several people who don’t all have the same permissions — and that structural difference is why bolting wholesale onto a normal store with a discount code tends to fall apart.

Catalogs and price lists

Price lists can be assigned at the company level, maintaining different wholesale rates for different customer segments — particularly valuable with regional distributors, loyalty programmes, or tiered partnership agreements.^[4]

Catalogs also control visibility, not just price. Custom catalogs are product lists with B2B-specific pricing assigned to individual companies or locations^[6] — so a buyer can be shown only the products relevant to them.

One implementation warning worth heeding: for sensitive restrictions, enforce the setup through catalogs, backend rules, checkout validation, or apps rather than theme hiding alone.^[7] Hiding products in the theme is cosmetic — the data is still reachable.

Quantity rules and minimums

Volume pricing and quantity rules cover tiered pricing, minimum order quantities, and order increments.^[6] Case packs, MOQs, “sold in units of 12” — the ordinary mechanics of wholesale that a DTC store has no concept of.

Payment terms instead of payment

The biggest operational difference. Net payment terms provide deferred options like Net 30, Net 60, and Net 90^[6], with the full range covering Net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, due-on-fulfillment, and fixed-date.^[1]

You’re extending credit rather than collecting payment. That changes checkout, invoicing, chasing, and reconciliation — and it’s the part most DTC brands underestimate when they add a wholesale channel.

A different checkout

B2B checkout includes purchase order numbers and vaulted payments^[8], plus draft orders with invoice-from-draft.^[5]

PO numbers matter more than they sound — plenty of business buyers literally cannot complete a purchase without entering one, because their own accounting requires it.

Reordering built for repeat buying

Self-serve buyer ordering, quick order lists, and reorder from order history^[5] are standard.

B2B buying is repetitive in a way DTC rarely is. The same customer orders similar things on a schedule, and the job of the interface is to make reordering take seconds rather than to help someone discover products.

What’s on which plan now

This is where the April 2026 change matters most.

Available on all paid plans (Basic, Grow, Advanced, Plus): company accounts with up to 50 locations, up to three active pricing catalogs, net payment terms, purchase order numbers at checkout, self-serve ordering, quick order lists, reorder from history, draft orders with invoice-from-draft, Shopify Flow automations for B2B workflows, and Shopify Forms for registration.^[5] Plus vaulted credit cards and the dedicated B2B Trade theme.^[1]

Plus-only: unlimited active pricing catalogs, a dedicated B2B storefront with its own domain and navigation, deposit and partial payment capabilities, and checkout extensibility^[5], plus direct catalog-to-company assignment, ACH payments, company store credit, and higher API limits.^[6]

The threshold that actually matters: roughly 500 wholesale customers is the real line. Below it, non-Plus B2B usually works. Above it, the three-catalog cap, lack of partial payments, and sales-rep gaps become operational blockers.^[2]

That’s a far more useful number than any feature table, and it means a large share of businesses adding a wholesale channel now genuinely don’t need Plus.

Running B2B and DTC together

The common scenario, and Shopify’s main structural argument.

B2B customers see their custom pricing when logged in; DTC customers see retail pricing — from the same store.^[8] It all runs from one admin alongside regular DTC sales.^[3]

The problem this solves is real: most ecommerce platforms force merchants to choose between running a DTC store or a B2B store, and the infrastructure cost and management overhead of maintaining two platforms pushes many brands to ignore B2B entirely.^[8]

For a brand already selling DTC on Shopify, adding wholesale as a channel rather than a second platform is the whole appeal.

What’s harder than the feature list suggests

Approval workflows. New B2B accounts usually need vetting — is this a real business, what terms do they get, what catalog do they see. Some of this needs apps or custom logic.

RFQ and quoting. Many B2B relationships involve negotiation before an order exists. Native quote-to-order is a common gap filled by apps.

ERP and inventory sync. Scaling depends on integrations with ERP and CRM systems^[9] — and wholesale customers care about accurate stock in a way retail buyers often don’t, because they’re planning their own inventory around yours. Heavy integration work often lands in ecommerce development or custom web applications.

Credit management. Net terms means deciding who gets credit, how much, and what happens when they don’t pay. That’s a finance process, not a store setting.

Checkout customization. Shopify Functions can add PO fields, volume discounts, and deferred payments to align checkout with B2B expectations^[9] — but that’s development work, and deeper customization is Plus-only.

What’s new in 2026 beyond plan access

Winter ‘26 added ten features that materially close the gap between Shopify and dedicated B2B platforms like Adobe Commerce or BigCommerce B2B Edition.^[10]

Notable additions: per-Market theme customization, EDI integration with SPS Commerce and Crstl, Sidekick AI for B2B company creation, and store credit for company locations.^[2]

The EDI integration is the quietly significant one — EDI is how large retail buyers exchange purchase orders, and its absence historically pushed serious wholesale operations toward dedicated platforms.

Is Shopify the right choice for your B2B?

Probably yes if: you already sell DTC on Shopify and want to add wholesale, your wholesale customer count is manageable, your pricing structure fits within three catalogs, and your requirements are recognizable wholesale rather than unusual.

Consider Plus if: you’re past roughly 500 wholesale customers, you need more than three catalogs, you need deposits or partial payments, or you have sales reps needing scoped permissions.^[2]

Look elsewhere if: your B2B involves heavy configure-to-order, deep contract-specific catalogs beyond what catalogs model, or integration requirements that genuinely exceed the API limits.

The most common mistake is treating B2B as a discount layer on a DTC store — a wholesale customer group with a percentage off. It works until you need order minimums, payment terms, buyer permissions, and restricted catalogs, at which point you’re rebuilding properly anyway.

The short version

Since April 2, 2026, native B2B is on all paid Shopify plans — most existing guides still say Plus-only and are wrong
The core change is that price depends on who’s logged in, which cascades into accounts, catalogs, checkout, and payment
Company accounts, not customer accounts: organizations with multiple buyers, locations, and permission levels
Net terms mean you’re extending credit, not collecting payment — the most underestimated operational change
All plans get company accounts, three catalogs, net terms, PO numbers, and self-serve reordering
Plus adds unlimited catalogs, a dedicated B2B storefront, partial payments, and checkout extensibility
Roughly 500 wholesale customers is the practical Plus threshold
Approval workflows, RFQ/quoting, and ERP sync are the gaps that usually need apps or development
Don’t run wholesale as a discount code on a DTC store — it breaks the moment real B2B requirements appear

Sources

Verified August 2026. Shopify ships B2B changes frequently and the plan availability shifted substantially in April 2026 — check current documentation before making a plan decision.

Adding wholesale to an existing Shopify store — or deciding whether Plus is actually required? That’s ecommerce development territory, or contact us with customer count and catalog complexity already sketched.