Shopify for B2B

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.