Shopify B2B is Finally for Everyone

As a freelancer shopify developer, working primarily with small to medium-sized businesses across the UK, I rarely work with teams that can justify the chunky Shopify Plus price tag (which currently sits at close to £2K a month). For years, this meant the "Gold Standard" of wholesale eCommerce was effectively locked away from my clients. As a result, I’ve spent a massive amount of time leaning on third-party apps, custom code, and some complex workarounds just to get a simple B2B store functioning properly.

‍That has finally changed, and I am absolutely buzzing about it!

In a recent update, Shopify officially released the B2B native engine to Basic, Shopify, and Advanced plans. Shopify's expanded B2B suite now includes tiered pricing, incremental order quantities, and minimum/maximum order limits directly into the platform, alongside a redesigned customer model called Companies. If you sell to other businesses, this is the most meaningful shake-up to native B2B functionality Shopify has shipped to date.

Shopify B2B Explained: Companies, Catalogs, and Net Payment Terms

This release is built around three features that stop your store looking like a simple shop and start making it look like a professional B2B store.

1. Company Profiles (No More "Customer" Bodges)

Previously, B2B buyers were just "customers" with a tag slapped on them. Now, you can create actual Company entities.

• Multi-User Access: Link several individual buyers to one company account.
• Location Management: Set different delivery addresses for the same company, each with its own tax exemptions.
• Order History: Give your wholesale clients a proper portal where they can see their specific orders and track deliveries without constantly badgering your inbox.

2. Custom Catalogs & Pricing

Forget sending "discount codes" to your wholesalers and hoping they use them. With Catalogs, you can:

• Assign specific products and prices to specific companies automatically.
• Set Quantity Rules (e.g., "Minimum order of 12 units" or "Must buy in multiples of 6").
• Create tiered pricing (Gold, Silver, Bronze) that kicks in the second a buyer logs in.

3. Net Payment Terms (Trade Credit Made Easy)

This is the one everyone’s been screaming for. You can now offer Net 15, 30, 60, or 90 terms natively at checkout.

• The Use Case: Your trusted long-term partners can place an order today and pay you 30 days later.
• Automation: Shopify tracks the due dates and lets you send automated nudges, so you aren't stuck playing "debt collector" every Friday afternoon.

The Good and the Not-So-Good: Uses vs. Limitations

While this release is huge, there are still a few reasons why the "big dogs" stay on Shopify Plus. Here’s how it breaks down for the rest of us:

The Best Uses

• Direct-to-Wholesale (DTW): Launch a wholesale arm of your existing brand in about ten minutes.
• Self-Service Portals: Save your sanity by letting buyers handle their own reorders.
• Global Expansion: Use Shopify Markets to set different B2B prices for different countries without needing multiple stores.

The Limitations

• Catalog Caps: On the standard plans (Basic, Shopify, Advanced), you’re limited to 3 active B2B catalogs. If you have 50 different clients all needing their own "special" pricing, you’ll still need the unlimited catalogs found on Plus.
• Checkout Tweaks: While Net Terms are in, advanced bits like partial payments, deposits, and fully custom checkout pages are still locked behind the Plus subscription.

See the New B2B Dashboard in Action

Sometimes it's easier to just watch someone else click the buttons first. To help you get your head around how these features actually look inside your store, I’ve rounded up a few videos that cover the essentials:

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Ready to Unlock Your Wholesale Potential?

The barrier to entry for B2B eCommerce has never been lower, but getting the technical side right is still a bit of a balancing act. Whether you’re looking to launch a brand-new B2B-only store, migrate a complex setup from WooCommerce to escape the constant plugin updates, or you simply want to overhaul your current Shopify store to strip away the app bloat and "hacky" workarounds we used to need.. I am here to help!!

I specialise in building high-performance B2B setups that actually make sense for small and medium businesses. Let’s stop the manual invoicing and the "app-stack" headaches, and build you a store that does the heavy lifting for you.

Contact PADSGN (Paddy) today for a B2B Shopify design consultation