Shopify B2B in 2026: The Complete Guide to Wholesale on Shopify

Updated May 2026.

Shopify B2B is no longer Shopify Plus only. As of late 2025, native B2B features are available across Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans. That single change opens wholesale commerce on Shopify to merchants who would have had to evaluate a third-party app or replatform onto Plus just to start selling B2B. For brands already on Plus, Winter '26 added ten features that materially close the gap between Shopify and dedicated B2B platforms like Adobe Commerce or BigCommerce B2B Edition.

This is the updated guide. What Shopify B2B actually is, what's on each plan, what the new features mean in practice, and when it's the right call.

What is Shopify B2B?

Shopify B2B is a suite of native wholesale features inside Shopify that lets merchants sell to other businesses. It includes company profiles, custom catalogs and pricing, net payment terms, and a dedicated B2B checkout, all running on the same backend as DTC commerce. As of 2026, Shopify B2B is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans.

There is no separate B2B installation. Wholesale customers see B2B pricing and payment options after authentication; retail customers see the standard storefront. One catalog, one inventory, one set of orders. Fashion brands branching into trade, beauty brands serving salons, and lifestyle merchants supplying stocking partners all run on the same product.

The feature set replaces what Shopify previously called the wholesale channel, which created a second storefront with its own login. The wholesale channel is no longer the recommended path. Shopify B2B is.

What changed in 2026: B2B for all plans

Until late 2025, Shopify B2B was exclusive to Shopify Plus. As of 2026, foundational B2B features are available on every paid plan at no extra cost. This is the single most important update to the B2B story on Shopify in years.

Here is what each plan now includes.

For most mid-market wholesale operations, the Basic, Grow, or Advanced feature set is genuinely enough. A merchant doing 20 to 40 wholesale customers, fixed-percentage pricing tiers, and net 30 terms can run their entire B2B operation on Advanced. Plus becomes necessary when the catalog model is highly customer-specific or when the buying experience needs to be regionalized at the checkout level.

This expansion is consequential commercially. The conversation with a brand evaluating B2B used to begin with "you need to be on Plus." It now begins with "what level of catalog complexity are you operating at?"

Core features

Companies, locations, and buyers

Every B2B customer is modeled as a company. A company has one or more locations, each with its own shipping address, tax profile, and assigned buyers. Buyers authenticate into a customer account that surfaces the right catalog, the right pricing, and the right payment options for their location. Permissions can be set per buyer, so a company's procurement lead can place orders while a junior buyer can only browse.

This is the structural difference between B2B on Shopify and the old wholesale channel. The customer is not a single user with a discount. It is a company with multiple people, multiple addresses, and rules about who can do what.

Catalogs and customer-specific pricing

A catalog is a defined set of products, prices, and publishing rules. You can assign different catalogs to different companies. One company sees a wholesale list with a 30% blanket discount, another sees fixed wholesale pricing per SKU, a third only sees a subset of your full catalog.

Volume pricing applies quantity-based price breaks ("buy 10, save 10%; buy 50, save 20%"). Quantity rules control minimums, maximums, case packs, and increment-only ordering ("buy in cases of 12"). Both work across catalogs.

On Basic, Grow, and Advanced, you get up to three active catalogs assigned through Markets. On Plus, the number of catalogs is unlimited and they can be assigned directly to companies and locations without going through Markets.

B2B checkout

The checkout adapts based on who is logged in. A wholesale buyer can pay on net terms instead of upfront, use a vaulted credit card, pay by ACH (in the US), request a deposit, and submit a draft order for internal approval before payment. The checkout still uses Shopify's underlying conversion-optimized flow, just with B2B controls layered in.

Customer accounts and buyer portal

B2B customers get a portal where they can re-order from history, manage saved payment methods, see their company's order activity, view invoices, and place new orders without the friction of going through product pages every time. Shopify's customizable buyer portal, added in 2025, lets merchants tailor the portal layout and branding without custom development.

Payment terms

Net 15, Net 30, Net 60, Net 90, and custom terms can be assigned per company. The system tracks invoicing, payment status, and overdue accounts. Vaulted credit cards stay on file for fast reorders. ACH bank transfers are supported for US merchants. Partial payments and deposits, where a customer pays a percentage upfront and the balance on fulfillment, are Plus-only.

Sales rep permissions and Shopify Forms

Sales reps can be given scoped admin access so they can place orders on behalf of accounts they manage, without seeing the rest of the business. Company account requests can be captured through Shopify Forms, with the submitted information flowing straight into draft companies for approval.

ERP integration

Shopify maintains prebuilt connectors for NetSuite, Brightpearl, Sage, and Acumatica. These let the ERP remain the source of truth for products, pricing, and orders while Shopify operates as the commerce front. EDI workflows from SPS Commerce and Crstl now sync purchase orders directly into Shopify as draft orders, so EDI buyers, self-serve buyers, and sales-assisted orders all land in the same admin queue.

B2B and Shopify POS

B2B operations with a retail or warehouse pickup component connect natively to Shopify POS. The same company profile that authenticates a wholesale buyer online can place an in-person order at a warehouse counter or retail showroom, with the buyer's catalog, pricing, and payment terms applied at the POS. Stock, customer history, and order management stay in one place. For brands with showroom-driven wholesale (fashion accounts visiting a buying room, beauty trade days, lifestyle pop-up trade events), the POS integration is what makes "unified commerce" actually unified.

What's new in Winter '26

The Winter '26 Edition delivered ten B2B features. None are gimmicks. Most close a real operational gap that B2B merchants have either built workarounds for or moved off-platform to solve.

1. Pay by ACH (US). Bank transfers with automatic matching and reconciliation. Most US B2B buyers prefer ACH over credit cards because the fees are lower for the merchant and the transaction size limits are practically unlimited. Until now, ACH on Shopify required a third-party app or manual reconciliation. It is now native.

2. Payment Requests Per Fulfillment. Multi-part orders generate separate payment requests as each shipment leaves. Buyers pay for what shipped, not for the whole order on day one. This matters for merchants who ship complex orders over days or weeks. Available via early access; contact Shopify support to enable.

3. Expanded ERP connectors. Beyond the existing NetSuite, Brightpearl, Sage, and Acumatica integrations, prebuilt options now cover more middleware. ERP-led merchants no longer need a custom integration layer to keep stock and pricing in sync.

4. EDI workflow connection. Direct integration with SPS Commerce and Crstl pulls EDI purchase orders into Shopify as draft orders. The retailer-to-supplier EDI flow has historically been the reason B2B-heavy brands kept legacy commerce systems running in parallel. This consolidates that flow into Shopify.

5. Dynamic payment terms and deposits. Using Payment Customization Functions, payment terms can vary by order size, customer history, or product category. A new buyer might get prepay only; a top buyer gets net 60. The logic runs automatically at checkout.

6. Order review rules. Orders matching defined criteria get flagged for admin review before processing. High-value orders, first-time buyers, or specific product combinations can be paused while routine orders process automatically. Manual review used to require a custom app. Now it is a configurable rule.

7. Sidekick creates companies. Shopify's AI assistant can now create B2B company profiles from natural-language prompts. A salesperson can type the customer details into Sidekick and get a properly structured company profile with contact information, addresses, and payment terms applied. Onboarding time for new accounts drops significantly.

8. Store credit for B2B. Credits can be issued to a company location and used like cash on future orders. The use cases are returns, loyalty programs, and negotiated discounts that the merchant wants to track separately from a price list. Margins stay clean; the credit shows up as a payable line item.

9. Pickup in store for B2B. B2B customers can collect orders from a warehouse or retail location. Lowers shipping costs on local accounts and makes warehouse pickup a viable fulfillment option for regional wholesale.

10. B2B-compatible apps. Eleven third-party apps now formally support B2B contexts, including loyalty, quote management, bulk pricing tools, and user permission systems. The app ecosystem catching up matters because most operational gaps in early Shopify B2B were solved by apps that didn't yet support the B2B catalog model. That is changing.

The 80/20 of Shopify B2B

The feature set above covers around 80% of what a wholesale operation needs. Companies, catalogs, pricing, payment terms, checkout. The remaining 20% is the part that's specific to how your business actually runs, and Shopify cannot ship it for you. This is where partners come in.

Shopify gives you extensibility primitives. We build the business logic on top of them.

Shopify Functions run custom logic at checkout, in discounts, in delivery, and in payment. Common B2B uses: enforcing minimum order values per company location, applying tiered shipping rules based on order weight and region, or holding orders that match specific criteria for review. Winter '26's dynamic payment terms and order review rules are themselves built on Functions. We extend the same pattern with company-specific logic.

App and theme extensions let us add custom storefront sections (a custom quote-request flow, an account-specific reorder pad, a B2B-only campaign banner) without forking the theme. Your team can configure these in the theme editor like any other native block.

Admin UI extensions drop our workflows directly into the Shopify admin. A bespoke approval flow for sales rep orders, a custom company-onboarding wizard, a credit-limit warning surfaced on the company detail page. Native interface, custom logic.

Customer Account and Checkout UI extensions add B2B-specific UI to the buyer experience: a delivery date selector, a PO number field, a credit balance widget, a multi-location address picker. These render natively, so the buyer doesn't notice the extension at all. They just experience a buying flow tailored to your operation.

Shopify Flow and custom webhooks wire your business processes into the platform. An order from a top-tier customer triggers a Slack alert. A draft order matching a specific catalog gets routed to a specific sales rep. An overdue net term gets a chase email and a flag in your ERP.

API integrations plug Shopify into the systems your business actually runs on: ERP, PIM, OMS, accounting, your custom CRM. Shopify is rarely the only system of truth. Done right, it's the commerce layer that synchronizes with everything else.

The pattern across all of these: Shopify provides the framework, the native B2B objects, and the rendering surfaces. We build the workflows, the rules, and the integrations that make Shopify behave like a system designed for your specific business. The 20% that nobody else can build for you, because nobody else knows how your operation works.

B2B and DTC on the same store

A single Shopify store can serve both retail and wholesale customers. The system shows different catalogs, pricing, and payment options based on the logged-in customer. For most brands branching into wholesale, this is the right answer.

Choose a blended store when:

• The brand identity is the same for both audiences. A fashion brand selling to consumers and to retailers wants both to feel like the same brand.
• You want shared inventory as a single source of truth. Stock decrements once, regardless of whether the order is DTC or B2B.
• Your team is unified. One marketing team, one merchandising team, one operations team running both channels.
• You want DTC visitors to discover the wholesale option naturally. A "Become a partner" page on the main storefront drives signups into the same B2B catalog.
• Total cost of ownership matters. One Shopify subscription, one theme, one set of apps, one admin to maintain.

Choose a separate store when:

• The brand positioning is meaningfully different. A consumer-facing premium brand might want a more functional, lower-key trade brand for its wholesale arm.
• The catalogs barely overlap. If your wholesale SKUs are different products (bulk packaging, trade-only sizes, white-label versions) the unified catalog model adds friction rather than removing it.
• You have separate legal entities. A B2B subsidiary operating with its own VAT registration, its own bank account, and its own balance sheet often benefits from full operational separation.
• Acquisition history dictates it. A B2B business acquired and run as a separate unit may need to stay separate for cultural or contractual reasons.
• Sales teams operate independently. If the wholesale channel is owned by a separate commercial unit with its own KPIs, P&L, and reporting cadence, separating the stores simplifies attribution.

For most DTC brands adding a wholesale arm, blended is the right answer. The unified buyer experience and shared inventory simplify operations, and the 2026 B2B features are designed for exactly this scenario. Separation makes sense when the operational, brand, or legal case for it is concrete.

Brands with complex catalogs or custom pricing across multiple markets often benefit from a headless Shopify Plus architecture to handle both B2B and DTC from a single backend. Multi-brand operators with separate entities can take this further by consolidating onto a single Shopify backend. See our blueprint for multi-brand consolidation on Shopify. Tony's Chocolonely is the canonical example of a brand that runs both B2B and DTC operations in unified commerce on Shopify, with wholesale customers and consumer buyers operating from the same backend.

Migrating from the legacy wholesale channel

Shopify Plus brands that adopted the wholesale channel before B2B on Shopify launched should plan a migration. The legacy channel uses a separate password-protected storefront, isolated from the main store, with its own theme and a limited feature set. It does not benefit from any of the 2024 to 2026 B2B updates.

The migration involves recreating customers as B2B companies, mapping product price lists to catalogs, and redirecting URLs from the old wholesale subdomain. Done well, it takes 4 to 8 weeks and unlocks the entire modern feature set including ACH, vaulted cards, Shopify Flow automations, and customer-specific catalogs.

Implementation cost and timeline

What does a Shopify B2B setup actually cost?

Native B2B activation on an existing Shopify store. A merchant turning on B2B alongside their current DTC operation, with up to 3 catalogs and standard payment terms, typically takes 2 to 4 weeks of configuration and runs 10-25k EUR in agency work. This assumes the merchant already operates on a supported Shopify plan.

B2B-led new build or full wholesale rebuild. A merchant moving from a legacy wholesale system (or no system at all) to a properly configured Shopify B2B operation typically takes 8 to 16 weeks and runs 40-120k EUR. Scope: full company and catalog setup, ERP integration, sales rep workflows, custom payment logic via Shopify Functions, and migration of historical customers and orders.

Enterprise B2B with custom extensibility. A multi-brand or multi-region B2B operation with bespoke admin workflows, custom checkout logic, full ERP and EDI integration, and a customizable buyer portal lands in the 120-300k EUR range over 4 to 7 months. This is the territory where the 20% of agency-built extensibility carries the project, not just the configuration.

Ongoing costs:

• Shopify subscription per the plan (Basic, Advanced, or Plus)
• ERP and integration middleware (varies by stack, often 500-3000 EUR per month)
• Retainer or maintenance: 2000-6000 EUR per month for active development, integration updates, and operational support

The biggest underestimate we see: ERP integration. Brands plan it as a single sprint and discover it's a 4-month engagement once the real complexity (custom fields, sync conflicts, multi-warehouse reconciliation) surfaces. Plan for it accordingly.

Common Shopify B2B patterns by industry

We see consistent patterns across the verticals we work in.

Fashion brands use Shopify B2B to manage seasonal collection drops with retailer accounts. Pre-order catalogs that open before a season, fixed margin discounts per partner tier, and showroom buying days running through Shopify POS in the same backend that handles DTC.

Beauty brands use B2B for trade and salon channels alongside DTC: pro-only catalogs with deeper trade pricing, license verification through Shopify Forms before catalog access is granted, and recurring net 30 ordering for high-frequency professional buyers.

Lifestyle brands lean into mixed-channel: a single Shopify store serving direct consumers and stocking partners, with the partner side often using quantity rules (case packs, minimum orders) and B2B-specific payment terms.

Across all three, the pattern that wins: native B2B handles the structural commerce, while the agency-built 20% handles the industry-specific buying flow.

Best practices from our projects

A few patterns hold consistently across the B2B implementations we have shipped.

Start with catalog architecture. Before configuring companies, work out how many catalogs you actually need. Three pricing tiers with 200 wholesale customers usually means three catalogs, not 200. The wrong instinct is to build customer-specific catalogs for every account. The right one is to identify the smallest set of catalogs that captures real pricing differentiation.

Use Shopify Forms for company applications. Manual onboarding is the part of B2B that bleeds time. A Shopify Form connected to your draft companies queue replaces email back-and-forth with a structured intake.

Wire Shopify Flow into the order lifecycle early. Notifications to account managers when a top customer orders, automated tagging for first orders, Slack alerts on payments overdue past net terms. These are the workflows that compound. Set them up in the first month, not the third.

Treat ERP integration as a first-class concern. If your B2B operation has any meaningful complexity, the ERP is the source of truth. Plan the integration first, configure Shopify B2B around it second. Brands that do this in reverse always end up with reconciliation problems three months in.

Headless is rarely the answer for B2B alone. B2B buyers don't care about hero animations. They care about fast catalog navigation, working search, accurate pricing, and a frictionless checkout. Native Shopify themes do this well. Headless makes sense for B2B only when there's a strong DTC reason driving the architecture.

Should you use Shopify B2B?

Run through these in order. The first "no" is your answer.

1. Do you sell to other businesses with negotiated pricing or net payment terms? If your wholesale channel is really just bulk discount codes for friends and influencers, you don't need B2B features. If you have actual companies as customers with their own buyers and addresses, continue.
2. Do your wholesale customers expect a self-serve account experience? If they email orders to a sales rep and you process manually, B2B on Shopify isn't necessary. If they want to log in, browse a custom catalog, and place orders themselves, continue.
3. Are your pricing rules consistent enough to express as 1 to 3 catalogs (or unlimited on Plus)? If yes, continue. If every customer has a fully bespoke price list and the patterns don't generalize, you might need a heavier B2B platform or a deeper integration.
4. Are you already on Shopify or planning to migrate? B2B on Shopify is not a standalone product. It works on top of your existing Shopify store.

Three yeses and you should be running on Shopify B2B. The biggest commercial barrier (the Plus requirement) is gone. The feature set in 2026 covers the operational needs of most mid-market and enterprise wholesale operations.

Frequently asked questions

What is Shopify B2B?

Shopify B2B is a suite of native features in the Shopify admin and storefront that lets merchants sell to other businesses. It includes company profiles, custom catalogs and pricing, net payment terms, ACH payments, vaulted credit cards, a B2B checkout, and a customer portal. As of 2026, B2B is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans.

Do I need Shopify Plus for B2B?

No. As of late 2025, foundational B2B features are included on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus at no extra cost. Plus is required for unlimited catalogs, direct catalog assignment to companies and locations, partial payments and deposits, and contextual checkout customization through Markets. For most mid-market wholesale operations, Advanced is sufficient. For complex enterprise B2B with highly customer-specific pricing, Plus remains the right plan.

What is the difference between Shopify's wholesale channel and B2B on Shopify?

The legacy wholesale channel created a separate password-protected storefront with its own login. B2B on Shopify is integrated: a single storefront serves both DTC and wholesale customers, with different catalogs, pricing, and payment options shown after authentication. B2B on Shopify is the actively developed product. The wholesale channel is in maintenance mode and should be migrated away from on any active project.

What are examples of Shopify B2B stores?

Shopify publishes Life Fitness, YETI, Nike, Tony's Chocolonely, and Brooklinen as B2B customers on the platform. Our own case study of Tony's Chocolonely's unified commerce on Shopify walks through how a single backend handles both B2B and DTC at scale.

Can I run B2B and DTC on the same Shopify store?

Yes, and it is the recommended approach for most brands branching into wholesale. The system shows different catalogs, pricing, and payment options based on the logged-in customer. Retail and wholesale share the same inventory, the same order admin, and the same Shopify Flow automations.

What B2B payment options does Shopify support?

Net payment terms (Net 15, 30, 60, 90, custom), vaulted credit cards stored on file, ACH bank transfers (US merchants), draft orders for manual review, and partial payments and deposits (Plus only). Dynamic payment terms can be configured per company or by order characteristics via Payment Customization Functions, added in Winter '26.

How much does Shopify B2B cost?

B2B features are included on Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus plans at no additional fee. There is no separate B2B subscription. Your cost is the underlying plan cost. See our Shopify Plus pricing guide for full cost details on the enterprise tier.

Can I set customer-specific pricing on Shopify B2B?

Yes. Catalogs are the mechanism. Each catalog defines a set of products, prices, and publishing rules, and is assigned to one or more companies or locations. On Basic, Grow, and Advanced, you can have up to three active catalogs assigned via Markets. On Plus, you have unlimited catalogs that can be assigned directly to companies and locations.

Shopify B2B vs wholesale apps: what's the difference?

Wholesale apps emerged before Shopify launched native B2B. They sit on top of Shopify's customer and product objects and apply price logic at the cart level. Native B2B has the catalog and company model built into Shopify's core, which means it integrates cleanly with Shopify Checkout, Shopify Flow, Shopify Functions, and the broader ecosystem. For new B2B implementations, native B2B is the default. Wholesale apps remain relevant for very specific edge cases.

Does Shopify B2B work with multi-currency and international selling?

Yes. B2B integrates with Shopify Markets, so catalogs can be regionalized and pricing can be set in local currencies. Contextual checkout and storefront customization through Markets are available on Advanced and Plus.

Can I use AI for B2B onboarding on Shopify?

Yes, as of Winter '26. Sidekick, Shopify's AI assistant, can create B2B company profiles from natural-language prompts, automatically filling in contact information, addresses, and payment terms. It is the first material AI workflow shipped specifically for B2B operations on Shopify.

Working with Shopify B2B

We run B2B migrations and net-new B2B implementations for fashion, lifestyle, and beauty brands on Shopify Plus and Advanced. The 2026 plan expansion changed which brands we recommend Shopify B2B to. If you're evaluating wholesale architecture or need to migrate from the legacy wholesale channel, get in touch. Working with an experienced Shopify Plus partner ensures your B2B setup is configured correctly the first time.