Shopify B2B for Manufacturers and Distributors

Short answer: Shopify B2B is a set of wholesale features built into Shopify, and as of October 20, 2026 it is no longer limited to Shopify Plus. Shopify's Help Center says B2B is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Shopify Plus plans. Every one of those plans gets company accounts, net payment terms, quantity rules and volume pricing. The lower plans cap you at three active B2B catalogs. Deposits, partial payments and catalogs assigned to a single company stay on Plus. For a manufacturer or distributor with a few price tiers and dealers who reorder the same parts, that is often enough to move reorders off email and onto a store you own.

This guide is for owners, general managers and sales managers at small and mid-sized US manufacturers and distributors. In these companies, wholesale orders still arrive as PDFs, emails and phone calls, and someone on the inside sales team retypes them into the ERP. Every Shopify fact below comes from Shopify's own Help Center or pricing page, accessed October 20, 2026. Shopify changes plan features often, so check the linked page before you budget. Where Shopify's documentation is unclear, we say so instead of guessing.

What Shopify B2B is, in plain terms

Shopify B2B lets one Shopify store sell to business customers at their own prices, terms and order rules. You set each buyer up as a company with one or more locations. Each location gets a catalog that controls which products it sees and what it pays. Buyers log in to see wholesale pricing and can pay by card or on terms.

Shopify's feature overview groups B2B into six areas. Here is what each means for a manufacturer:

• Companies and locations. A company is the parent account and a company location is the site you actually sell to. Shopify says you must set up your B2B customers as companies to use Shopify B2B. Each location carries its own tax settings, addresses, payment terms, catalogs and contacts. For a distributor with five branches, that means one company and five locations.
• Catalogs. A catalog decides which products a buyer can see and what they pay. You can apply an overall percentage adjustment, set fixed prices for specific variants, or do both. Shopify states that fixed prices override any overall adjustments. A catalog can also carry its own currency.
• Quantity rules and volume pricing. You can set a minimum, a maximum and an increment for each variant, so cartons of 50 sell only in 50s. You can also add up to 10 price breaks per product.
• Checkout, terms and draft orders. B2B checkout shows the buyer their assigned terms. A draft order lets you review or negotiate an order before you confirm it. Price locks and inventory reservations hold the quote while the buyer gets approval.
• Self-serve customer accounts. Buyers log in, reorder from past orders, add a purchase order number and request returns.
• Online store tools. These include a Trade theme that can hide prices from logged-out visitors, quick order lists for adding many SKUs at once, and APIs for ERP integrations.

A common myth: "Shopify is for consumer brands; real B2B needs a dedicated wholesale portal." For years that was close to true, because native B2B was a Plus feature priced well beyond a small manufacturer's budget. That has changed. The more useful question now is whether your price structure fits in three catalogs and whether your team will maintain the store every week. The rest of this article helps you answer both.

Feature-to-need mapping for manufacturers and distributors

The quickest way to judge Shopify B2B is to list how you sell wholesale today and match each habit to a documented feature. If every row has a match on the plan you can afford, Shopify is a realistic fit. If several rows land on "Plus only" or "needs an app", budget for that before you commit.

The plan column below comes from Shopify's B2B plan-features table. The term options come from the payment terms article. Both were accessed October 20, 2026.

Two rows deserve a closer look. First, the catalog limit. Shopify's catalog article says each company location can have a maximum of 25 catalogs assigned and a store can hold up to 10,000 catalogs. The same article says Plus allows an unlimited number. We could not reconcile those two statements from the documentation, so if you expect more than a few hundred catalogs, ask Shopify directly. Second, the quantity rules. Because rules apply to each variant separately, a buyer cannot mix red and blue units to reach a 100-unit minimum. If your dealers expect mixed-carton minimums, test this before launch.

Which Shopify plan you need, and what it costs

Most small manufacturers can start B2B on Basic or Grow if they have three or fewer price tiers and do not need deposits. Advanced adds a storefront and checkout that change for B2B buyers. Plus is for companies with customer-specific contract pricing, deposits or partial payments, or many price lists.

These are the prices on Shopify's pricing page, accessed October 20, 2026. They are in US dollars and exclude payment processing:

Shopify does not publish card rates as a flat number on that page, only that fees vary by plan. Compare your expected wholesale volume against each plan's card rates in your own admin before you decide. If your B2B buyers pay by ACH or on terms rather than by card, that changes the math.

The plan-features table also lists what lower plans leave out: direct company catalogs, deposit requirements, partial payments and payment requests per fulfillment are Plus only. Contextual checkout and storefront are Advanced and Plus. To use B2B catalogs on Basic, Grow or Advanced, your store must be on the new Shopify Markets.

A cost reframe owners often miss: the plan fee is rarely the big number. The real cost is the setup and the weekly upkeep. That means cleaning product data, building catalogs, inviting buyers and answering their first login questions, then keeping prices and stock accurate every week. A $65 plan with nobody maintaining it costs more than a $399 plan someone runs well, because dealers stop trusting a portal after a few wrong prices.

Owned store or marketplace: where Shopify B2B fits

A Shopify B2B store is an owned channel: you control pricing, buyer data and the reorder experience, and you bring the buyers. Marketplaces such as Amazon Business and Alibaba.com bring buyers to you, but they set the fees and rules and hold the customer relationship. Most manufacturers use them for different jobs, not as substitutes.

Buyers now move between channels freely. McKinsey's 2024 B2B Pulse research, which surveyed nearly 4,000 B2B decision makers in 13 countries, found buyers use about ten channels in a typical buying journey. It also found that, among suppliers that offer e-commerce, e-commerce is now the top revenue channel, ahead of in-person selling, at more than a third of revenue. A self-serve reorder portal is one of those channels. It does not replace your reps or your trade shows.

The marketplace numbers come from Amazon's selling plans page and Alibaba.com's US seller page. Alibaba.com lists Starter at $2,799 a year, Growth at $3,799 and Advertising Pro at $8,299, and describes its commission as "well below 15%" with a six-month commission-free period for new sellers. Both accessed October 20, 2026.

The second-order effect: an owned B2B store protects your distributor relationships better than a marketplace does. On a marketplace, your list price is public next to competitors, and a dealer can see you undercutting them. On Shopify B2B, wholesale prices sit behind a login and each dealer sees only their own catalog. For a manufacturer that sells through distribution, that difference often matters more than any fee. For a broader comparison, see our guide to running an Alibaba store alongside your own website.

B2B store setup checklist: the task sequence

A Shopify B2B launch is a data project before it is a website project. The work runs in six phases: decide the store model, clean product data, build price tiers, set up companies, configure checkout and terms, then pilot with a few dealers. Skipping the data steps is the most common reason a portal launches with the wrong prices.

Work through these phases in order. Each one depends on the one before it.

Phase 1: Decide the store model.

1. Choose a blended store, with consumers and businesses in one store, or a dedicated B2B store. Shopify warns that this decision is not easy to change later.
2. Write down every price tier you actually use, then compare that count with the three-catalog limit on Basic, Grow and Advanced.
3. Decide whether logged-out visitors see prices. The Trade theme can hide them.

Phase 2: Clean product data.

1. Export SKUs from your ERP or spreadsheet. Fix duplicates, missing weights and inconsistent units.
2. Write product pages that answer spec questions: materials, tolerances, certifications, compatible parts. Our guide to product catalog structure for manufacturers covers category design.
3. Keep public product pages indexable even when prices are hidden. Google documents Product structured data for product pages.

Phase 3: Build catalogs and order rules.

1. Create one catalog per price tier. Set the percentage adjustment first, then fixed prices for exceptions.
2. Add quantity rules for case packs and minimums, and volume pricing where you offer breaks.
3. Use catalog CSV import for large lists. Shopify's import requires the Fixed Price field.

Phase 4: Set up companies and buyers.

1. Create companies and locations for your top accounts first. For bulk imports, Shopify's documentation points to a third-party app, Matrixify.
2. Assign catalogs, payment terms and shipping addresses to each location.
3. Decide whether new dealers can apply online. Company account requests need the Shopify Forms app, and new applicants cannot order until you approve them.

Phase 5: Configure checkout and payments.

1. Set payment terms per location. Remember that payments aren't automatically captured when terms expire, so someone has to chase and charge.
2. Decide which orders must go through as draft orders for review.
3. Connect your ERP or accounting system, or agree on a daily export if you are not integrating yet.

Phase 6: Pilot and launch.

1. Invite three to five friendly dealers. Watch them place a real reorder and note every question they ask.
2. Fix pricing errors before inviting the next group.
3. Add a clear way to request a quote for custom work. Our guide to B2B inquiry form design shows what to ask.

On change management: your inside sales team may see the portal as a threat to their accounts. Bring them in early. Let reps invite their own customers, keep reps assigned through sales staff permissions, and count portal orders toward their numbers. A portal that reps resent will not get used.

Weekly operating checklist for a Shopify B2B store

A B2B store needs a short, fixed weekly routine: confirm prices and stock, process pending approvals and draft orders, follow up on overdue terms, answer buyer questions, and review what dealers bought. Most of it takes a few hours a week, but it has to happen every week, or buyers drift back to email.

Use this list as a starting point:

1. Prices and catalogs. Apply any supplier price changes. Spot-check five SKUs in each catalog against the ERP.
2. Inventory. Confirm stock levels synced. Clear inventory reservations on draft orders that have expired.
3. Approvals. Review new company account requests. Approve them or decline with a reason.
4. Draft orders and quotes. Convert approved drafts and follow up on quotes with no reply.
5. Receivables. Check orders on terms that are now overdue. Shopify's payment reminders can automate the notice, but someone must decide when to escalate.
6. Buyer support. Answer login problems and reorder questions within the response time you promised.
7. Product content. Add or improve two or three product pages a week, with specs, drawings and FAQs.
8. Reporting. Track portal orders, share of reorders placed online, average order value and top SKUs against the baseline you recorded before launch.

A measurement caveat: record a baseline before launch, such as how many reorders arrive by email each month and how many hours inside sales spends keying them in. Without that, you cannot tell whether the portal saved time or just moved work around.

When Shopify B2B isn't the right tool

Shopify B2B is a poor fit when most orders are engineered-to-order, when pricing is quoted job by job, when you need deep ERP logic such as customer-specific bills of materials, or when you have dozens of contract price lists but cannot justify Plus. In those cases, a quote-request website or a dedicated B2B commerce platform usually serves better.

Be honest with yourself about these situations:

• Engineered-to-order or custom fabrication. If nearly every order needs drawings, a quote and engineering review, a catalog with fixed prices adds little. A strong website with an RFQ path does more.
• Many contract prices on a small budget. If each key account has its own negotiated price list, you need direct company catalogs, which are Plus only. Using lower plans to work around this gets messy fast.
• Deposits and progress billing. Deposits and partial payments are Plus-only features. If most of your revenue needs a deposit, factor that in.
• Heavy ERP dependence. If price, availability and credit limits must come live from the ERP, plan an integration project with its own budget. Shopify provides APIs, but the integration does not build itself.
• Nobody to run it. A portal that is not maintained loses dealer trust quickly. If no one has a few hours a week for it, fix staffing before you launch.

Who runs the store: staffing options

Someone has to own the Shopify B2B store every week. That can be an inside sales coordinator given protected time, a new e-commerce hire, a Shopify agency for the build plus internal upkeep, or an outsourced team member who handles the weekly work in your accounts.

Whichever you choose, write down who owns each item on the weekly checklist above. A store with a clear owner gets maintained; a store everyone shares usually does not.

How HappyCXO Studio runs Shopify B2B stores

HappyCXO Studio assigns a named lead, supported by specialists, to run the weekly store work in your accounts: catalogs, product pages, buyer support and reporting. KPIs and a baseline are agreed before work starts, you get a weekly report, and a person reviews every change.

The service pages describe the scope: Shopify store operations or wider e-commerce operations. The store and every account stay in your company's name, we review results with you regularly against the baseline, and AI tools help only with data cleanup and first drafts.

To be clear about what we are: our team is based in Taiwan and works remotely with manufacturers and traders. We do not have a US office. We communicate by email and scheduled video calls, and we schedule those calls during your business hours. Pricing and terms decisions stay with you. If your gap is senior strategy rather than weekly execution, our comparison of fractional CMOs, agencies and remote team members may help you decide.

You can estimate what in-house staffing would cost with the savings calculator, browse more platform operations articles, or book a 20-minute demo. We will tell you plainly if Shopify B2B, or our team, is not the right fit.