Shopify B2B: the complete guide
Shopify's native B2B suite turns a standard Shopify store into a wholesale channel: company accounts, per-customer price lists, and net payment terms, with retail continuing untouched on the same store. Since April 2026 it is included on every plan. This guide covers what it does, how to set it up, how it compares to the alternatives, and the one layer it deliberately leaves to you.
What is Shopify B2B?
Native B2B is a set of first-class objects inside Shopify, documented inShopify's B2B manual:
- Companies represent your wholesale customers as businesses rather than individual shoppers. Each company has one or morelocations, and each location carries its own buyers, addresses, tax settings, and payment terms.
- Catalogs are wholesale price lists: percentage discounts or fixed prices per product, assigned to specific companies. A logged-in buyer sees their prices everywhere, storefront to checkout to email.
- Payment terms let approved buyers order now and pay on Net 15, 30, 60, or 90. Shopify tracks the due date per order. (Setting terms up well is its own topic; see ourNet 30 on Shopify guide.)
- Quantity rules and volume pricing: minimums, case packs, and price breaks per catalog.
- Company-aware tax: VAT registration and exemption stored on the company location and applied automatically at checkout, which is the foundation ofcorrect wholesale VAT handling for UK and EU sellers.
Which plans include B2B?
All of them. B2B shipped in 2022 as a Shopify Plus exclusive; in April 2026 the core suite came to Basic, Grow, and Advanced. If you have been putting off wholesale because of the Plus price tag, that reason is gone; the detail is in Shopify B2B without Plus.
How do I set up Shopify B2B?
- Enable B2B in Shopify admin and create your first company with a location and a buyer contact.
- Build a catalog. Start with one wholesale tier, such as 40% off retail, and assign it to the company. Resist creating a spreadsheet of bespoke prices per customer on day one.
- Set payment terms on the company location if the buyer has earned credit; leave new buyers on payment-up-front until they have.
- Decide the trust process. How do new stockists apply? Who checks their VAT number? What limit do they get, and what stops an order past it? Shopify has no opinion here, and this is where most wholesale operations actually fail.
If you are starting wholesale from zero, our docs include arecommended first-time setup with starter terms and limits.
Native B2B vs a separate wholesale store vs theme apps
Before native B2B went cross-plan, merchants improvised. It is worth being blunt about the alternatives now:
- Separate wholesale store. Two stores means two themes, two app stacks, split inventory, and buyers with a second login. Justified only when wholesale is effectively a different business.
- Theme price-injection apps. The pre-2026 workaround: scripts rewrite displayed prices for tagged customers. Prices are wrong in checkout, emails, and search; theme updates break them; tax is faked at the display layer. With native catalogs available on every plan, this architecture is obsolete, and it is the one thingwe refuse to build on.
- Native B2B. One store, real prices, real tax settings, no theme code. The default choice in 2026.
Payment terms and trade credit: the part Shopify leaves out
Payment terms are the reason wholesale buyers choose you over a marketplace: trade credit is roughly 40% of UK B2B transactions. But native terms are bookkeeping, not control. Shopify records that an order is due in 30 days. It does not know the buyer already owes you £8,050 against a £10,000 limit, and it will happily accept the £2,120 order that takes them over.
Transactful adds that control: buyersapply for an account, you approve with a credit limit, and a checkout validation running on Shopify's own infrastructureblocks any order that would exceed available credit, on every plan, without touching your theme.
VAT for wholesale
UK-to-UK wholesale carries VAT normally; zero-rating enters with exports and intra-EU reverse charge, and every zero-rated sale leans on the buyer's VAT number being valid at the time. Native B2B stores the setting; validating the number against HMRC or VIES and keeping the evidence is your job or your app's. The full treatment, including which rule applies to which sale, is in the VAT exemption guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify B2B free?
Native B2B is included in every Shopify plan since April 2026; there is no separate B2B fee. You pay your normal Shopify subscription. Apps that extend it, such as credit management, are priced separately.
Do I need a separate store for wholesale?
No. Native B2B runs blended on your existing store: wholesale buyers log in to a company account and see their prices and terms, retail customers are untouched. A separate wholesale store is only worth the operational cost in rare cases, such as radically different product lines.
How do wholesale customers log in?
Through Shopify customer accounts. A buyer belongs to a company; once logged in they order at their catalog prices with their company’s payment terms. Multiple buyers can share one company with per-location permissions.
Can Shopify B2B handle net payment terms?
Yes. Net 15, 30, 60, and 90 terms are native: the order is placed now, payment is due later, and Shopify tracks the due date on the order. What Shopify does not track is the buyer’s total exposure across orders, or stop them ordering past a limit. That requires a credit layer such as Transactful.
What does Shopify B2B not do?
It has no wholesale application flow, no VAT number validation, no credit decisioning, and no enforcement of credit limits at checkout. Shopify provides the commerce rails; the trust layer that decides who buys on terms and how much is left to you or an app.