Shopify B2B Pricing
Wholesale & custom pricing.

1. The B2B pricing challenge

Selling to businesses is fundamentally different from selling to consumers, and pricing is where the difference shows up most. A B2B store needs to show different prices to different customers: wholesale buyers get trade pricing, larger accounts get volume discounts, and key accounts may have individually negotiated rates. Meanwhile retail visitors should see standard prices.

Shopify was built first for D2C retail, where everyone sees the same price. Layering B2B pricing on top means solving several problems: identifying which customer is a B2B buyer, applying the right price list to them, handling minimum order quantities and volume breaks, and often supporting payment terms (net 30/60/90) instead of upfront payment.

There are three ways to solve this on Shopify, and which fits depends on your plan and how specific your pricing rules are. This guide walks through each.

2. Native B2B vs apps vs custom builds

Shopify native B2B (Plus)

Shopify Plus includes native B2B features: company profiles with multiple buyers, customer-specific catalogs, and price lists that set fixed prices or percentage adjustments per customer group. This is the most integrated experience but requires being on Plus, Shopify's enterprise tier.

Wholesale / B2B apps

On any plan, third-party wholesale apps add B2B pricing: customer-group or tag-based pricing, volume discounts, wholesale portals, and quantity rules. This is how most non-Plus merchants run B2B. The tradeoff is the ongoing subscription cost and working within the app's feature set.

Custom B2B app

You build (or generate) an app tailored to your exact pricing rules. This makes sense when your B2B logic is specific enough that off-the-shelf apps require awkward workarounds, or when you want to own the solution rather than rent it. With AI generation, a custom B2B app is now far more accessible than it used to be.

3. B2B pricing models

Whichever route you choose, you'll implement one or more of these pricing models:

Percentage off retail

The simplest model: a customer group gets a fixed percentage off standard prices (wholesale customers get 30% off everything). Easy to manage since it's relative to your retail prices — change a retail price and the wholesale price adjusts automatically.

Fixed wholesale price lists

Specific B2B prices per product, independent of retail. More control (different margins on different products) but more to maintain, since each product needs its B2B price set and updated separately.

Volume / quantity breaks

Lower per-unit price at higher quantities — buy 10 at one price, 100 at a lower price, 1,000 at lower still. Essential for true wholesale, where larger orders justify better pricing. Can be combined with either of the above.

Customer-specific negotiated pricing

Individual prices for specific accounts, reflecting negotiated deals. The most flexible and the most work — each key account has its own price list. Common for merchants with a handful of large, important B2B customers.

Most B2B merchants layer these: a base wholesale tier (percentage off or a price list), plus volume breaks, plus special pricing for the biggest accounts. The complexity of combining them is often what pushes merchants toward a custom app.

4. How to set it up

The setup differs by route, but the logical steps are consistent:

• 1. Define your customer groups. Decide your B2B tiers — wholesale, distributor, VIP account, etc. In practice these are represented as customer groups, tags, or company profiles.
• 2. Set up the pricing for each group. Create the price lists, percentage discounts, or volume rules for each tier, using native B2B, your app, or your custom logic.
• 3. Gate access. B2B pricing should appear only for logged-in, approved B2B customers — usually with a registration/approval flow so you control who gets wholesale pricing. Public visitors see retail.
• 4. Build the ordering experience. B2B buyers often want a faster ordering flow — a bulk order form where they enter SKUs and quantities, rather than browsing product pages one at a time.
• 5. Handle terms and minimums. Set minimum order quantities or values if needed, and configure payment terms (next section).

5. Payment terms and net billing

A defining feature of B2B is that businesses often pay on terms — net 30, net 60, net 90 — rather than upfront at checkout like retail customers. Supporting this is a core part of a real B2B setup.

On Shopify, net terms are commonly handled through draft orders: instead of paying immediately, the B2B customer's order is created as a draft/invoice that's sent to them, payable within the agreed term. Shopify Plus's native B2B has more built-in support for payment terms; apps and custom builds typically use the draft order approach to implement net billing.

Getting payment terms right matters because it's often a dealbreaker for B2B buyers — businesses expect to order now and pay later. A B2B setup that forces upfront payment loses customers who are used to terms. If your B2B customers need net terms and your current solution doesn't support them cleanly, that's a strong signal to consider a more capable app or a custom build.

6. Building a custom B2B pricing app

When off-the-shelf wholesale apps don't fit your pricing logic — or you want to own the solution and stop paying monthly per-merchant fees — a custom B2B app is the answer. It's also one of the strongest categories to build, because B2B needs are specific and well-paid, and the App Store competition is relatively low.

A custom B2B pricing app typically includes: a wholesale registration and approval flow, customer-group price lists (percentage, fixed, or volume-based), a bulk ordering portal, minimum order rules, payment terms via draft orders, and an admin dashboard showing B2B customers and order volume. It applies the right pricing when a B2B customer is logged in, using the Admin API.

Building this by hand is a substantial project. With a Shopify-specific AI builder like Shopivibe, you describe your B2B rules — "approved wholesale customers see negotiated price lists, can place bulk orders with a $500 minimum, and pay net 30" — and the app is generated: the customer-group logic, the ordering portal, the draft-order payment terms, and the admin interface. You own the code and can tune the pricing rules to your exact needs.

7. FAQ