You have built a direct-to-consumer Shopify store that works. Now retailers, distributors, or hospitality buyers are asking for trade pricing, and you need a wholesale portal that does not break your existing store or confuse your DTC customers.

The challenge is that Shopify was built for DTC, and bolting wholesale onto it requires a clear decision about approach before you write a single line of code or install any apps. Get this wrong and you end up with a fragmented setup that is painful to manage and confusing for trade buyers.

What are the main options for B2B on Shopify?

There are three routes, each with different requirements and trade-offs:

Approach	Best for	Shopify plan required	Rough cost
Shopify Plus native B2B	High-volume, complex wholesale (multiple price lists, net terms, large accounts)	Shopify Plus ($2,300/month+)	Included in Plus
Third-party app on standard Shopify	Small to mid-size wholesale (consistent pricing, simple account management)	Any plan	£20 to £100/month
Separate Shopify store for B2B	Brands needing completely separate inventory, fulfilment, or branding for wholesale	Any plan	Cost of second store

Most merchants starting out with wholesale do not need Shopify Plus. The native B2B features are excellent, but the platform cost is only justified if you are already approaching Plus-level revenue (typically £1m+/year on Shopify) or your wholesale operation is complex enough to need multiple price lists, company-level accounts, and custom payment terms at scale.

What does Shopify Plus native B2B offer?

Shopify Plus launched a rebuilt B2B portal in 2022 and has expanded it significantly since. As of 2026, it includes:

Company profiles: a dedicated record for each wholesale customer, separate from their DTC customer record. Includes multiple contacts, multiple locations, and location-specific pricing.
Custom price lists: create multiple price lists and assign them to specific companies. A retailer might see 30% off RRP; a distributor might see a fixed wholesale price list.
Net payment terms: offer net 30, net 60, or custom terms directly at checkout. No third-party app required.
B2B-only checkout: a separate checkout flow that shows trade prices, payment terms, and purchase order fields.
Order approval workflows: require orders above a certain value to be approved by your team before processing.

The Shopify Plus B2B portal is the cleanest implementation available. Everything is native, data lives in one Shopify instance, and your DTC and wholesale operations share inventory in real time. The trade-off is the platform cost: Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month (and scales with revenue). If your wholesale revenue does not justify that, look at apps.

Which third-party apps work on standard Shopify?

Three apps dominate the Shopify App Store for B2B on non-Plus plans:

Wholesale Club (by Orbit, from $24/month): the most widely used wholesale app on standard Shopify. Uses customer tags to assign discount groups. Simple to set up, well-maintained, and handles most straightforward use cases: percentage discounts off RRP, tag-based access to wholesale pricing, minimum order requirements. Does not support complex multi-tier price lists or native net terms.

Wholesale Gorilla (from $39.90/month): more feature-rich than Wholesale Club. Supports custom price lists per customer, order minimums by product or collection, a trade account application form, and a simplified wholesale ordering interface. Handles net payment terms via a "pay by invoice" option. Good middle ground between simplicity and functionality.

B2B Ninja (from $20/month): specifically designed for quick-order functionality (a grid-style order form where trade customers can enter quantities across multiple SKUs at once). Less focused on account management, more focused on the ordering experience itself. Works well alongside Wholesale Gorilla if your trade buyers place large multi-SKU orders.

For most Shopify merchants starting wholesale, Wholesale Gorilla is the recommended starting point. It handles the core requirements without needing Shopify Plus, and scales reasonably well until Plus becomes justified.

How should trade account applications work?

Do not leave your wholesale section open to anyone who finds the URL. Requiring an application creates three things: a barrier to casual visitors, a qualification step for genuine trade buyers, and a record of approved accounts.

A trade account application should collect:

Business name and trading address
Companies House number (or equivalent for non-UK buyers)
Business type (retailer, distributor, hospitality, reseller)
Estimated annual order volume
Website or social proof of their business

Wholesale Gorilla includes a built-in application form. Once submitted, applications arrive in your Shopify admin for review. Approve or decline, and on approval the customer is automatically tagged with the appropriate wholesale tier.

Response time matters. Trade buyers are often sourcing from multiple suppliers simultaneously. Responding to applications within 24 hours (ideally the same business day) converts significantly more than leaving them waiting 3 to 5 days.

How do you set up net payment terms?

Net terms (net 30, net 60) are standard expectations for wholesale buyers, particularly in retail and hospitality. Not offering them can be a genuine barrier to closing accounts.

On Shopify Plus native B2B: net terms are built in. Assign them at company level and they appear automatically at checkout.

On standard Shopify with apps: Wholesale Gorilla supports a "pay by invoice" checkout option, but you will need to manage the actual invoicing and payment collection outside Shopify (via Xero, QuickBooks, or a manual process). For small numbers of wholesale accounts, this is manageable. At higher volumes, the manual overhead becomes a problem and Shopify Plus starts to make more sense.

Alternatively, use a separate payment flow: wholesale customers complete checkout with a "pay by bank transfer / invoice" option, your team creates a Xero invoice, and payment is reconciled manually. Not elegant, but functional for merchants with 10 to 20 active wholesale accounts.

How do you handle minimum order requirements?

Minimum order requirements protect your fulfilment economics. A trade customer ordering two units at wholesale pricing may cost more to fulfil than it generates in margin.

Set minimums at two levels:

Cart-level minimum: a minimum order value (for example, £150 net) before checkout is permitted. Wholesale Gorilla handles this at the cart level with a clear message if the minimum is not met.
Product-level or case-pack minimum: some products must be ordered in multiples (a case of 12, for example). This is better handled at the product level using Shopify's variant structure or B2B Ninja's order form, which displays case-pack quantities clearly.

Display your minimums clearly on your wholesale information page and in the account application. Trade buyers expect minimums. What frustrates them is discovering them mid-checkout.

Should you use a separate Shopify store for B2B?

A separate store makes sense in a narrow set of circumstances:

Your B2B products are entirely different from your DTC range
You need separate branding or a completely different storefront experience
You have separate inventory that should not show in your DTC store

The downside of a separate store is operational: you manage two Shopify admin instances, two inventory systems (unless connected via a third-party integration), and two separate theme and app configurations. For most merchants, this overhead is not worth it when apps can handle the same use case within a single store.

If you do run a separate store, use Shopify's built-in multi-store inventory sync or a tool like Trunk ($35/month+) to keep stock levels in sync across both stores.

Key actions to take now

Decide your approach: assess your Shopify plan, your expected wholesale volume, and your complexity requirements. Most merchants starting wholesale should begin with Wholesale Gorilla on their existing plan.
Install Wholesale Gorilla and set up your first wholesale customer tag and price list (typically 25 to 35% off RRP as a starting point).
Build a trade account application form and link to it from your footer navigation under a "Trade / Wholesale" link.
Set a cart-level minimum order value that protects your fulfilment margin.
Define your net terms policy before you receive your first wholesale order. Even if you start with payment on order, have the policy written down.
Set up a dedicated email address (trade@yourdomain.com) for wholesale enquiries and application notifications.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I hide trade pricing from DTC customers who have not been approved? Yes. With customer tag-based pricing (Wholesale Gorilla, Wholesale Club), wholesale prices are only visible to logged-in customers with the appropriate tag. DTC customers see standard RRP. Non-logged-in visitors see no wholesale pricing at all, provided you do not make your wholesale collections publicly accessible.

Should I use a password-protected wholesale section or a separate login? A separate login via Shopify's customer accounts is more professional and more manageable than a password-protected page. Passwords get shared; customer accounts are individual. Use Shopify's account system with customer tags for access control.

How do I handle a wholesale customer who also buys DTC from my store? Shopify allows one customer account per email address. If a trade buyer wants both trade pricing and DTC access, the simplest solution is to use a separate email address for their trade account. Alternatively, some merchants set up a customer account migration flow, but this adds complexity. Discuss it with your developer before deciding.

At what wholesale volume does Shopify Plus become worth it? As a rough guide: if your wholesale revenue is approaching £500,000 to £1m per year and you are managing more than 20 active trade accounts, the operational efficiency gains from Shopify Plus native B2B (no app fees, native net terms, company-level accounts) start to offset the platform cost. Run the numbers on your specific setup before committing.

Building a Shopify B2B Wholesale Portal: Strategy, Tools, and What to Avoid