Shopify B2B: native features, plan differences and what needs a custom app

Shopify B2B lets you sell to other businesses from Shopify: company accounts with multiple buyers and locations, catalogs with their own prices, volume pricing, payment terms and a B2B checkout. Since April 2, 2026, core B2B features are available on the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans, not only on Shopify Plus. Plus still adds unlimited catalogs, direct catalog assignment to companies and locations, and partial payments and deposits. What native B2B doesn't do (ERP sync, quick ordering for big catalogs, approvals, quotes, complex pricing) is where a custom Shopify B2B app comes in.

What native B2B includes

According to Shopify's changelog announcement of April 2, 2026:

B2B uses Shopify's current customer accounts for buyer sign-in. Other B2B capabilities, such as quantity rules, draft orders for buyers to review and approve, and B2B-specific checkout settings, are part of the B2B toolset. Check which apply to your plan in your admin, because plan details change.

The B2B data model

• Company: the business you sell to.
• Company location: a branch, store or ship-to address of that company, with its own addresses, payment terms, tax settings and catalogs.
• Company contact: a buyer who can sign in and order for one or more locations, with a role.
• Catalog: which products a buyer can see and at what price. It holds a price list (fixed prices or a percentage adjustment) plus volume pricing and quantity rules.

The key decision is how many distinct price lists you need. If every wholesale customer gets the same trade price, or you have a few tiers, 3 catalogs may be enough. If each customer has negotiated prices, you need catalogs per company or location, which means Plus.

Blended store or separate wholesale store?

• Blended: D2C and B2B in one store. B2B buyers sign in and see their catalogs and payment terms. One catalog, one set of apps, one admin.
• Separate B2B store: often an expansion store on Plus. Useful when the wholesale catalog, branding or apps are very different.

For most merchants moving from a wholesale app or a separate platform, a blended store is simpler to run.

Purchase orders and payment terms

• B2B checkout can take a PO number, stored on the order.
• Cart and checkout validation Functions can validate the PO number field, for example to enforce a customer's PO format or require one for certain locations.
• Payment terms such as net 30 let buyers check out without paying immediately. The order is paid later against an invoice.
• Vaulted cards let buyers pay with a stored card.

A full purchase-order process, with requisition, approval by a manager and release to the supplier, isn't native. It's a common custom-app project.

What needs a custom Shopify B2B app

How the ERP side usually works

The ERP owns companies, credit and contract prices. The integration:

1. creates and updates companies, locations and contacts in Shopify from ERP customer records;
2. writes each company's prices into a catalog and price list, or assigns them to the right shared catalog;
3. keeps credit-available and account status in company location metafields, for Functions and extensions to read;
4. sends B2B orders to the ERP with PO number, location and payment terms, and returns invoices and payment status.

See the ERP integration guide and NetSuite.

Migrating from a wholesale app or another platform

If you run wholesale today through a tag-based wholesale app, a separate wholesale store or another platform:

1. List your customer price groups and how many distinct price lists they add up to.
2. Decide blended vs separate store, and whether you need Plus for catalog count and assignment.
3. Create companies and locations, with contacts using the buyers' emails.
4. Build catalogs and volume pricing, then test prices for several real customers.
5. Replace the app's features you still need: quick order, minimums, net terms.
6. Tell buyers how to sign in: email and a one-time code.

Decision checklist

• How many distinct B2B price lists do you really have?
• Do you need per-company pricing (Plus) or a few tiers?
• Do you need deposits or partial payments (Plus)?
• Which system owns companies, credit and prices?
• Do buyers need quick ordering, reorders, quotes or approvals?
• Blended store or separate wholesale store?