Selling to Businesses Too? What to Know About Wholesale on Shopify

What Does Shopify Provide for Wholesale?

Company accounts: Each wholesale customer gets their own account, with multiple users if needed.

Different prices: You can set up different price lists for different customer groups.

Payment terms: Net 30, net 60, or upfront payment, per customer.

Quick ordering: Wholesale customers can copy-paste SKU lists or reorder from previous orders.

When Are Built-in Tools Enough?

Pricing is simple: All wholesale customers get the same discount, or there are 2-3 price levels.

Wholesale is a small part of the business: If most revenue comes from regular customers, you probably don't need more.

No special rules: No minimum order by category, no approval processes, no integration with another system.

When Do You Need a Custom Solution?

Complex pricing: Price depends on the customer's annual volume, category, order quantity, and promotions. Every customer gets a different price.

ERP integration: Prices and inventory need to sync with another system in real-time.

Approval processes: Large orders need manager approval before they go out.

Industry-specific rules: In fashion, for example, sometimes you must order a complete size set. In jewelry there's minimum order by category.

A Real Example

Note: Client names and some details have been changed to protect confidentiality. The technical challenges and solutions are real.

One client sells mainly to regular customers, with a few steady wholesale accounts. Their wholesale is simple: one wholesale price list, standard payment terms.

We used Shopify's built-in tools. Within days everything worked, no custom development.

Another client, with more complex wholesale operations, needed something different: dynamic pricing that changes based on volume, real-time inventory sync with another system, and different allocation for customers at different tiers. We built them a Laravel system that connects to Shopify and their management system.

The Questions to Ask

1. How much of revenue is wholesale? If it's a small part, built-in is probably enough.

2. How complicated is pricing? If you have 2-3 fixed price lists, enough. If every customer is a different story, you need more.

3. Need to connect to another system? If yes, you probably need a custom solution.

4. Are there approval processes? If orders need approval, built-in tools are limited.

Not Sure What's Right for You?

We'd love to look at your wholesale operations and tell you what will work. Sometimes the answer is "what you have is enough."