Learn The Easiest Ways to Set up B2B And Wholesale Stores on Shopify

“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” — Seth Godin

Whether you are a retailer or wholesaler, you can create an online store with Shopify in both cases. If you have a traditional wholesale business and want to go online, but don’t know how to set up a B2B store in Shopify, then this post is for you.

Shopify comes with all the features to grow your B2B businesses online. With the help of this blog post, you will find how to set up B2B and wholesale stores on Shopify. We will also discuss other important things like what online B2B commerce has to offer you and how wholesale stores are different from other online stores.

Table of Contents

• What B2B eCommerce Have To Offer That You Should Not Ignore?
• How Do B2B And Wholesale Stores Differ From Other Stores?
• Four Easy Ways To Set Up B2B and Wholesale Stores on Shopify
  1. Offer Discounts to Wholesale Customers
  2. Get Shopify Plus Membership
  3. Sign Up With Shopify Handshake Marketplace
  4. Hire an Expert To Provide You With The Solutions
• Final Take
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Without any further delay, Let’s start!

What B2B eCommerce Have To Offer That You Should Not Ignore?

The eCommerce industry gained pace during the Covid-19 pandemic. As per one B2B eCommerce market report of 2021, the online B2B commerce industry also witnessed massive growth along with retail eCommerce.

As we all know, the covid-19 pandemic situation forced customers to go online even for daily essential goods. As demand increased timely, the B2B market was also required to facilitate online sales. You would be amazed to know that B2B eCommerce sales surpassed $1.39 trillion in 2021, which was $1.26 trillion in 2019. The vast opportunity is rising in the B2B eCommerce market due to its advantages, like transparent pricing, high-quality products, discount systems, better delivery and payment options, etc.

How Do B2B And Wholesale Stores Differ From Other Stores?

Before we start with the guide to set up a b2b Store on Shopify, let’s understand how it is different from ordinary Shopify stores. The B2B wholesale and B2C Shopify stores differ from each other in many ways that include:

• Pricing Structure: The pricing structure of the B2B stores is based on the quantity of the products.
• Target Audience: Retailers or other business owners are the target audience of an online B2B store.
• Shipping Methods: You may require to implement a different shipping method for processing bulk orders in your B2B shop.
• Payment Terms: In an online wholesale store, you will be dealing with other businesses and therefore, you may require to set up different payment terms and offer payment methods that are suitable for businesses. 
• Marketing & Sales Channels: You are targeting other businesses, and therefore, may require different marketing & sales channel for your Shopify store.

Note: There are many popular Shopify B2B stores that you can inspire from. Some of the best examples are:

• Picky Bars
• Death Wish Coffee
• Beard & Blade
• eFashion Paris
• Microfiber Wholesale
• Primera

You can take inspiration from these B2B eCommerce businesses to build an online B2B store on Shopify.

Four Easy Ways To Set Up B2B and Wholesale Stores on Shopify

Now you know what wholesale eCommerce has to offer you and how they differ from other stores, you can go to create one. You can easily set up a wholesale store on Shopify in four easy ways. They are as follows:

1. Offer Discounts to Wholesale Customers
2. Get Shopify Plus Membership
3. Sign Up With Shopify Handshake Marketplace
4. Hire a Shopify Development Expert

1. Offer Discounts to Wholesale Customers

One thing that makes the wholesale online store different from the B2C stores is the pricing structure. Generally, the wholesale stores offer the products at lower rates for bulk orders. This can be achieved in your Shopify store by offering discounts based on the quantity of the products.

Shopify allows store owners to set discount rules based on the quantity of the products, which can be used for setting up a Shopify wholesale store. You can set the discounts based on the product quantity for the wholesale customer groups from the Shopify backend. Alternatively, you can create discount codes and distribute them to wholesale customers to offer custom discounts on your Shopify store.

Steps to create discount codes in Shopify:

• Log into your Shopify store, and click on the “Discounts” tab on the left panel
• On the next page, click on the “Create Discount” button
• Select the discount type, enter the required details, and click on the “Save” button at the top-right corner of the page

But, this is only helpful to small wholesale businesses. If you are planning to scale your online B2B business and reach new wholesale customers, then this method may not be suitable for you.

2. Get Shopify Plus Membership

You can power up your B2B business with the help of Shopify plus. It is a perfect solution for wholesale businesses and comes with built-in B2B features. Now, let’s discuss what you will get with a Shopify Plus subscription.

• Customer group-wise pricing structure and custom payment methods
• Location-wise customer creation
• Built-in method to verify the wholesale customers before showing the products.
• Automate back-office tasks using the Shopify Flow feature.

You will find it easy to administer and maintain even though you are targeting thousands of wholesale customers. The only downside of Shopify Plus is its subscription cost which starts from $2,000 per month, which is suitable for large-scale businesses only. On the other hand, you can find the other three Shopify options (Basic Shopify, Shopify, Advanced Shopify) more ideal if you have a small business and on a scale to grow rather than Shopify Plus. However, they will not provide you with the same facilities as Shopify Plus.

3. Sign Up With Shopify Handshake Marketplace

Shopify came up with the Handshake Marketplace in 2020 for B2B and wholesale businesses based in the United States. You can sign-up with Handshake Marketplace as a wholesale supplier or retailer per your business requirements with the minimum entry cost. If you sign-up as a wholesale supplier, you can showcase your Shopify store inventory to Handshake Marketplace, or if you sign-up as a retailer, you can find wholesale merchandise as per your needs. Handshake Marketplace is best suited for small and medium-sized businesses. The drawback is that it is only supported in the United States.

4. Hire a Shopify Development Expert

You can always hire a Shopify expert to customize your online Shopify store and make it B2B and wholesale-friendly. Hiring an expert to transform your regular Shopify store into a B2B and wholesale store can help you in many ways. A dedicated Shopify expert can customize your store as per your B2B requirements, such as:

• Different login screens for regular customers and customers
• Different pricing lists for all the products and product bundles for different customer groups
• Provide discount coupons and schemes for your customers to purchase bulk products

Moreover, they can customize the tax & other configurations based on the location if have a world-wide customer base. Shopify experts can improve your customers’ experience and maximize customer interactions by converting your regular Shopify store into a B2B-friendly store. In short, hiring an expert can provide you with all the solutions you need to turn your Shopify store into a B2B wholesale store.

Final Take

Shopify is one of the best eCommerce platforms to start your online B2B business and reach global customers. There are different ways for setting up Shopify B2B online store, and choosing the plus membership is the best one. There are also other options for small businesses that can not afford such hefty subscription fees. All you need to do is choose the right option for you to set up wholesale stores on Shopify. That being said, the cost of setting up a B2B store on Shopify will depend on the option you choose.

I hope you will find this guide on setting up a B2B and wholesale store on Shopify helpful. In case you still have any doubts or queries, feel free to comment. I’d be happy to help you. 😀

Happy selling! 🍀

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What Are The Excellent B2B Sites Examples?

There are plenty of online B2B business sites to inspire from. Listed below are some of the best B2B site examples:

• HubSpot
• DropBox for Business
• Asana
• Evernote Business
• Zendesk

Is Shopify Good For B2B And Wholesale?

Yes, Shopify is suitable for B2B and wholesale businesses. It provides you with some powerful tools to grow your Shopify store. Such as Shopify’s Handshake Marketplace, where you can quickly sign-up and start selling your wholesale products in the blink of an eye. Moreover, you can always hire a Shopify expert to customize your store as per your wholesale business requirements.

Related Reads:

• How to Promote Shopify Store?