With Shopify, you can easily launch not only retail sales but also B2B (wholesale) sales. Features essential to B2B business — such as trade-partner-only stores, wholesale pricing, and volume discounts — can be implemented by combining various apps. This article explains, in an easy-to-understand way, the characteristics of wholesale selling on Shopify, how to realize it, and apps that are useful for implementation.
What Is B2B Wholesale Selling?
B2B wholesale selling is a business model in which products are offered in bulk and at special prices to retailers or other businesses. Unlike consumer-facing (B2C) sales, B2B transactions have the following characteristics.
- Bulk orders and minimum order quantity settings
- Wholesale pricing and volume-based discounts
- Private stores limited to trade partners
- Special payment terms such as invoice payment
- Dedicated product catalogs and price lists
By implementing these B2B-oriented features in an online store built on Shopify, you can operate retail sales and wholesale sales simultaneously.
3 Ways to Do B2B Wholesale Selling on Shopify
Add Password Protection to Your Store
The simplest method is to use Shopify's standard functionality to set password protection on your entire store or on specific pages.
Benefits
- Can be implemented at no additional cost
- Easy to set up
- Access can be restricted to wholesale customers only
How to Implement
- From the Shopify admin, select "Online Store" > "Preferences"
- Enable "Password protection"
- Set any password
- Share the password only with wholesale customers
However, this method has the limitation that it's difficult to set different prices for each customer or configure complex discount structures.
The blog article below introduces how to add password protection to a Shopify store. Please use it for reference.
Use a Shopify App
The Shopify App Store offers a variety of apps for extending B2B selling and wholesale functionality. By combining these, you can achieve advanced wholesale capabilities.
Benefits
- Allows more advanced customization than standard features
- You can adopt only the features you need
- Can be implemented at a lower cost than Shopify Plus
How to Implement
- Select an app that has the features you need (see the recommended apps below)
- Install and configure the app
- Use the app to set restrictions or pricing for wholesale customers
Launch a Wholesale Store With Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is a premium plan for enterprises, offering advanced features such as wholesale channels.
Reference: B2B Commerce Platform｜Shopify
Benefits
- Manage multiple sales channels (retail and wholesale) simultaneously
- Pricing by customer group
- Custom checkout process
- Advanced automation features
How to Implement
- Upgrade to Shopify Plus
- Set up a dedicated wholesale channel
- Customize customer accounts and pricing
However, since the monthly fee is high, this is suited to cases where the scale of wholesale trading is large.
The blog article below explains Shopify Plus in detail. Please use it for reference.
Apps That Help With B2B Wholesale Selling
RuffRuff 予約販売 - For Selling at Wholesale Prices
RuffRuff 予約販売 is a Shopify app that enables not only pre-order selling of products, but also a variety of other sales methods such as member-only sales, discount sales, and deferred payment.
For example, you can tag wholesale customers with a specific customer tag and restrict purchases so that only members with that tag can buy, or sell to them at special prices. This makes it possible to present different prices to general customers and wholesale customers within the same store.
The blog article below introduces how to use RuffRuff 予約販売 to offer special discounted pricing only to wholesale members. Please use it for reference.
RuffRuff Order Limits - For Access Restrictions and Purchase Limits
RuffRuff Order Limits is a Shopify app that can implement all kinds of purchase restrictions, including quantity limits, amount limits, customer limits, bundling restrictions, payment method restrictions, and access restrictions.
In wholesale transactions, setting a minimum order quantity is important. With RuffRuff Order Limits, you can easily set purchase quantity restrictions. For example, you can set a minimum order quantity (e.g., 12 units or more) on wholesale products to prevent small-lot purchases. You can also set quantity increments to encourage ordering in packaging units.
In addition, by setting access restrictions on wholesale products, you can control things so that general consumers cannot access the product page at all.
The blog article below introduces how to use RuffRuff Order Limits to implement quantity limits on a Shopify store. If you are considering setting a minimum order quantity only for wholesale products, please use it for reference.
RuffRuff Order Bonus - For Volume Discounts
RuffRuff Order Bonus is a Shopify app that can implement various discount campaigns under all kinds of conditions. It can realize many different types of volume discounts.
Volume Discount by Number of Items in the Cart
- 1-2 items → No discount
- 3-4 items → 10% off
- 5-9 items → 15% off
- 10+ items → 20% off
Volume Discount by Cart Subtotal
- Under ¥3,000 → No discount
- ¥3,000 or more → 10% off
- ¥5,000 or more → 15% off
- ¥10,000 or more → 20% off
Volume Discount for Specific Customers Only
For wholesale members
- 1-2 items → No discount
- 3-4 items → 10% off
- 5-9 items → 15% off
- 10+ items → 20% off
For regular members
- 1-2 items → No discount
- 3-4 items → No discount
- 5-9 items → No discount
- 10+ items → No discount
Volume Discount on Shipping
- 1-2 items → No discount
- 3-9 items → Half-price shipping
- 10+ items → Free shipping
Many other types of discounts can also be realized. For details, please check the service page below.
In Conclusion
There are several ways to start B2B wholesale selling on Shopify, but by combining the right apps, you can build an effective wholesale system at a relatively low cost.
Depending on the scale of your business and the features you need, choose the best approach — password protection, adopting a dedicated app, or upgrading to Shopify Plus. In particular, by leveraging apps such as RuffRuff 予約販売, RuffRuff Order Limits, and RuffRuff Order Bonus introduced here, you can realize the features needed for wholesale selling, such as access restrictions, special pricing, minimum order quantities, and volume discounts.
Managing both retail and wholesale channels with a single Shopify store can lead to more efficient inventory management and business growth. We encourage you to build a Shopify wholesale selling structure that fits your own business model.
Finally, the blog article below introduces representative discount campaigns you can implement with Shopify. Find the campaign that's perfect for your store and get a jumpstart on boosting sales.
