What Shopify B2B does well
Since B2B features moved into Shopify Plus, wholesale on Shopify no longer means running a separate store. Company accounts, multiple locations per buyer, customer-specific price lists, payment terms and quantity rules are all available natively. For most brands selling to retailers or trade customers, this covers 70–80% of requirements.
- Company profiles with multiple buyers and shipping locations
- Catalogues and price lists assigned per company
- Net payment terms and draft orders for sales reps
- Volume pricing and minimum order quantities
- A blended B2C and B2B storefront on one domain
Where you still need custom work
Gaps appear when wholesale processes are tied to back-office systems. Credit limits held in the ERP, approval chains within the buyer's organisation and complex tiered pricing usually need an app or a custom integration.
- Real-time credit limit checks against your ERP
- Multi-step purchase approvals for large buyers
- Contract pricing that changes by quarter or region
- Quick-order forms for buyers ordering hundreds of SKUs
When to consider headless
A headless storefront built with Hydrogen makes sense when your B2B experience is fundamentally different from your consumer store — for example, a configurator-led catalogue or a portal embedded in a dealer network. It adds development and maintenance cost, so it should be a deliberate choice rather than a default.
Getting started
- Map your current wholesale process from quote to payment
- Identify which rules live in your ERP and must be synced
- Pilot with a small group of trade customers
- Roll out company accounts and price lists in phases