Shopify for B2B
- Engagement
- Project or retainer
- Typical cadence
- 1–2 meetings a week
- Starts with
- Data & Systems Audit
Architecture
Shopify is the storefront.
It is rarely the system of record.
Orders, inventory, pricing, and customers usually live somewhere else. We map every field before we write a line of code, then build the connections so nothing gets re-keyed.
Just two short years ago, Shopify for B2B sales would require some fancy inventory magic or a separate store for B2B (business-to-business) and DTC (direct-to-consumer), now with Shopify Plus and the newly minted Shopify B2B features, the possibilities are limitless (or at least more so than a few years ago!).
A Tale of Two Stores
Previously, Shopify required you to spin up two separate stores--one for B2B and one for DTC. Adding a large amount of management requirements to maintain two stores, like silos--all standalone and run separately.
Even with a well planned system in place, it was a near-constant battle for inventory management and new product launches to make everything work seamlessly. With Shopify’s B2B release on Plus, you can run both stores in one “silo.”
Features of Shopify B2B
- Company Profiles - ability to specify contacts and payment terms for each client company
- Customer Product Visibility - only allow specific products on a certain company location
- Quantity Rules - minimum and maximum quantities, plus case packs are all available now
- Price Lists - charge a specific rate for each customer type at super specific rates
- Net Payment Terms - want to offer NET terms to your customers, you can with the new Company Profiles
- Vaulted Credit Cards - ability for your customers to “vault” a credit card for future transactions
Text Connects B2B Features
Shopify’s B2B system is quite nice, but does have limitations and we have found workarounds and enhanced procedures to make everything work just right
- Compare at Pricing - Shopify prevents you from showing a “retail” price for your B2B clients and requests to their AJAX API do not provide it when logged in as a B2B customer. We have successfully added this to the store.
- Additional Details for Wholesale Clients - ability to inject custom datasets onto the page with complex data, all to help your B2B client make an informed purchase
- Saved Carts - ability to save your shopping cart and reactivate later
Shopify may not be great at naming new feature sets (”Shopify Plus for B2B” is not the catchiest moniker we’ve heard), but they have listened to their B2B customers looking to break down silos between DTC and B2B and are now leaders in this needed integration.
Adjacent capabilities
What usually comes with it.
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02
ERP connections & mapping
Orders in, inventory out, customers both ways. Every field mapped before it moves.
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03
Custom apps
Two-way syncs, internal tools, and the workflow no app store covers.
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06
Fulfillment & warehousing
3PL, in-house, distributed — and the LTL, liftgate, and container math that comes with it.
How an engagement runs
Clarity first.
Then code.
How we work
The commercial stuff,
out in the open.
01 Do you require deposits?
Yes — for projects over 10 hours, unless you're on a retainer. Theme and app projects are billed on 2–4 milestones.
02 Do you do monthly maintenance retainers?
No. We sell pre-paid development retainers in 10-, 20-, 30-, and 50-hour blocks. The hours never expire.
03 What happens if something breaks after launch?
Our own code carries a 30-day bug warranty. Bugs in third-party themes and apps are billed hourly, and we'll tell you which is which before we touch it.
04 What are your hours?
Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm Eastern. After-hours work is a 3-hour minimum at 300% of the standard rate — so we plan launches inside business hours.
05 Will we get documentation?
Every store change is documented in an online knowledge base you can read and search. After 180 days of inactivity it's converted to a PDF and handed over.
06 Can we pay in equity?
No.
Clarity before code.
Systems× People× Possibilities