A Deep Dive into Shopify Plus B2B Features & Strategies

In this post, we’ll deeply dive into the powerful, B2B-specific features embedded within Shopify Plus. We’ll cover everything from workflow automation and custom pricing to self-serve purchasing portals and effective customer management. Additionally, we’ll explore integrating both DTC and B2B business models, highlighting the advantages of catering to both customer types through specialised tools like SparkLayer. Building custom integrations is crucial for seamlessly connecting with various existing software tools like ERP, OMS, and CMS systems. We’ll discuss choosing the right store setup for your needs and how 360&5, your expert Shopify Plus agency, can guide you through seamless implementation and ongoing optimisation.

Introduction to B2B on Shopify

Business-to-business (B2B) commerce on Shopify involves selling products or services to other companies, rather than individual consumers on your website. This type of commerce requires a different approach than traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, as B2B customers often have more complex needs and require customised pricing, payment terms, and product offerings. Shopify provides various tools and features to support B2B commerce, including wholesale pricing, custom pricing, and creating draft orders for company approval. By leveraging these features, merchants can build a successful B2B business on Shopify and cater to the unique needs of their wholesale customers.

Deep dive into Shopify B2B features

Key Shopify features to drive wholesale success

Shopify Plus B2B is packed with an impressive array of features specifically designed to streamline your wholesale operations, enhance customer experience, and ultimately boost your bottom line:

• Workflow automation (Shopify Flow): Automate repetitive tasks such as sending invoices, managing order fulfilment, and handling low inventory notifications.
• Extensive app ecosystem: Shopify’s massive app ecosystem provides unparalleled flexibility and customisation options for B2B businesses. Get access to over 8,000 apps in the Shopify App Store to extend functionality, including integrations with ERP systems (NetSuite, SAP), CRM tools, and advanced analytics platforms.
• Cost-effective solutions: Shopify offers cost-effective solutions for growing B2B channels, making managing expenses associated with different Shopify plans and development services easier.
• Seamless integrations: Connect with popular accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero), CRM platforms (Salesforce, HubSpot), and ERP systems (Acumatica, Microsoft Dynamics 365). Developers can create custom solutions to enhance these integrations, ensuring they meet specific B2B store requirements.
• Bulk ordering capabilities: The bulk ordering process has been enhanced for greater convenience, allowing buyers to quickly reorder past purchases or add multiple products to their cart online. Simplify large orders with quick order forms, SKU uploads, and CSV import options. For example, merchants can create custom pricing tiers and catalogs tailored to customers' needs.
• Multi-currency and Multi-language support: Expand your reach globally with localised storefronts and support for multiple currencies and languages.
• Customer portals: Provide your B2B clients with secure, self-service access to their order history, negotiated pricing, specific payment terms, account details, and shipment tracking. This empowers customers and reduces your team's administrative overhead.
• B2B analytics: Provide your B2B clients with secure, self-service access to their order history, negotiated pricing, specific payment terms, account details, and shipment tracking. This empowers customers and reduces administrative overhead for your team.
• Draft orders: Streamline the quoting and payment process. Sales reps can create draft orders with custom pricing and products and then send them to customers for review and payment. Customers can use stored credit card information for easy checkout on draft orders, enhancing efficiency in handling complex transactions and invoicing.
• New features & updates: Shopify is committed to B2B innovation. Benefit from a platform that continuously adds new B2B-centric features, such as enhanced workflow automation capabilities, streamlined company account request forms, granular sales representative permissions, a B2B-optimised theme (like “Trade”), and ever-expanding payment options to facilitate diverse customer payment preferences.

Setting up a B2B Store

Setting up a B2B store on Shopify requires careful planning and configuration. Merchants must first determine their target market and the types of products they want to sell. They must also configure their store setup to support B2B commerce, including setting up wholesale pricing, payment terms, and custom pricing for their wholesale customers. Additionally, merchants may need to integrate third-party apps to support features such as invoice payments, tax exemptions, and custom integrations with their existing tech stack. By streamlining processes and providing a seamless checkout experience, merchants can create a successful B2B store that meets the needs of their customers.

Custom Pricing and Order Management

A cornerstone of successful B2B websites is the ability to implement highly customised pricing and manage complex order configurations. Shopify Plus excels here, enabling companies to manage orders and customers efficiently:

• Tiered & Customer-Specific Pricing: Establish multiple price lists, offer volume-based discounts, and assign specific pricing to individual companies or customer groups. Automatically apply the correct discounts and pricing based on customer login, order quantity, specific products, or other defined criteria.
• Net Payment Terms & Credit Limits: Offer flexible B2B payment terms like Net 30/60/90. Set credit limits for companies and manage these within the platform.
• Order Limits & Minimums: For your wholesale customers, enforce minimum order quantities (MOQs) or values per product or per order.
• Custom Product Catalogs: Tailor product availability with precision. Use catalogs to control which products are visible and purchasable by specific companies and their various locations, ensuring they only see relevant items at their negotiated prices.
• Sales Rep Ordering: Enable sales teams to place orders on behalf of clients, streamlining the ordering process and reducing the hassle of traditional phone and email orders.

By leveraging these features, you can streamline operations, reduce manual pricing errors, and significantly enhance wholesale customer satisfaction by providing a truly personalised and efficient purchasing experience. Additionally, Shopify’s user-friendly interface makes it a great option for any retail business looking to establish an online presence, simplifying the technical aspects of e-commerce.

Streamlining B2B Order Management

Efficient order management is the backbone of any thriving wholesale company. Shopify Plus provides a robust order management system that saves time by automating tasks, minimising errors, and improving customer satisfaction. Enabling customers to start placing orders seamlessly is crucial for enhancing the user experience and ensuring smooth transactions:

• Centralised Order Dashboard: Manage all B2B orders (and DTC, if in a blended store) from one intuitive interface.
• Automated Fulfilment Workflows: Integrate with your warehouse management system (WMS) or third-party logistics (3PL) provider for streamlined picking, packing, and shipping.
• Purchase Order Management: Easily accept and process purchase orders from your B2B clients.
• Split Shipments & Partial Fulfilment: Manage complex orders that may require shipping from multiple locations or at different times.

With a streamlined order management system, your company can focus on strategic growth and improving your overall commerce platform, confident in a smooth and efficient operational foundation.

Self-Serve Purchasing for B2B Customers

Self-serve purchasing revolutionises how B2B customers interact with wholesale businesses, offering convenience and efficiency. By creating a secure self-serve portal on your Shopify Plus store, you empower your wholesale customers with:

• Personalised Shopping Experience: Access their custom pricing, specific product catalogues, and pre-negotiated terms upon login.
• Account Management: Ability to view and manage their company profile, add multiple buyers with different roles and permissions, and update contact information.
• Order Tracking & History: Easy access to current order statuses, shipment tracking, and a complete history of past purchases for quick reordering.
• Invoice Access & Payment: You can view and download invoices and, in some configurations, make payments on outstanding balances.
• Customisation with Shopify Functions: Use Shopify Functions to tailor the self-serve purchasing experience, allowing for custom logic and headless storefront APIs to efficiently meet specific business needs.

This approach saves your sales representatives valuable time. It empowers your customers, leading to improved satisfaction, reduced support queries, and potentially increased order frequency and value.

Managing B2B Customers

Effectively managing B2B customer relationships requires a tailored, data-driven approach. Shopify Plus’s customer account features enable you to:

• Create Detailed Company Profiles: Store comprehensive information about each wholesale customer, including multiple contacts, locations, specific pricing tiers, assigned payment terms, and order limits. Orders are created seamlessly within the system, ensuring smooth order processing and customer management.
• Segment Customers: Group B2B customers based on criteria like purchase history, order volume, industry, or geographical location for targeted marketing, promotions, and product recommendations.
• Integrate with CRM Systems: Connect Shopify Plus with your CRM (e.g., Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, HubSpot) to maintain a unified view of all customer interactions, track sales pipelines, and analyse sales data for deeper insights.

A robust customer management system is key to building strong, long-lasting relationships with your B2B customers, driving repeat sales, and growing your wholesale business sustainably.

Optimising Product Pages for B2B

Optimising product pages for B2B commerce is crucial to attracting and retaining wholesale customers. Product pages should include detailed product information, high-quality images, and specific pricing information for each product. Merchants should also consider creating custom product pages for their B2B customers, with features such as bulk ordering and quantity discounts. By providing complete control over product pages and pricing, merchants can tailor their offerings to meet the unique needs of their B2B customers. Additionally, merchants can use Shopify’s built-in features, such as product variants and pricing rules, to manage their products and prices more efficiently.

Blended vs. Dedicated stores

Choosing the right Shopify B2B Store setup: Blended or Dedicated?

Shopify Plus offers two main approaches for setting up your B2B store, leveraging the robust features of Shopify stores:

Blended Store:

• Concept: A single Shopify Plus instance serves both your B2B (wholesale) and DTC (direct-to-consumer) customers. B2B customers log in to access their specific pricing, products, and terms.
• Pros: Streamlined management of inventory, products, and orders from one admin; potential for marketing synergy and unified brand presence; often faster to set up initially. Additionally, explore the top Shopify B2B apps available in the Shopify app store to further enhance your store management and business growth.
• Cons: To clearly differentiate the B2B and DTC experiences, more complex theme customisations and app configurations may be required, as well as careful permission settings.
• Best For: Companies that sell largely similar products to both B2B and DTC audiences, have a unified inventory pool, and prefer a single platform to manage.

Dedicated B2B Store:

• Concept: A completely separate Shopify Plus instance exclusively for your B2B customers. This store can have its own distinct branding, product catalog, and user experience.
• Pros: Allows for a highly tailored and optimised B2B experience; easier to implement vastly different branding or product assortments; clear separation of operations and analytics.
• Cons: Requires managing two separate Shopify stores (potentially more administrative overhead); inventory syncing between stores needs a robust solution if stock is shared.
• Best For: Businesses with significantly different B2B and DTC product lines, pricing structures, or branding strategies, or those requiring a strictly restricted-access wholesale environment.

In B2B ecommerce, it is crucial to cater to specific customers by providing tailored features and customisation options to meet their unique needs.

• Discount strategies: Implementing various types of discounts, such as volume discounts, order-level discounts, and customer-specific discounts, can enhance customer loyalty and increase sales. Offering special discounts to loyal customers can be an effective B2B pricing strategy.

All-in-One Solution for B2B Ecommerce

Shopify Plus truly provides a comprehensive, all-in-one platform for B2B e-commerce by transforming your Shopify store into a robust B2B ordering platform. It empowers companies to manage their online store, wholesale customer relationships, and multiple sales channels from a single, intuitive interface. This unified approach, encompassing custom pricing, flexible payment terms, advanced order and customer management, and powerful analytics, allows companies to save invaluable time, reduce operational costs, and focus strategically on growing their B2B commerce operations. Integration with critical business systems like ERP and CRM software further enhances this holistic experience, solidifying Shopify Plus as the ideal modern platform for B2B e-commerce.

The All-in-One Solution for Modern B2B E-commerce

Shopify Plus truly provides a comprehensive, all-in-one platform for B2B e-commerce. It empowers companies to manage their online store, wholesale customer relationships, and multiple sales channels from a single, intuitive interface. This unified approach, encompassing custom pricing, flexible payment terms, advanced order and customer management, and powerful analytics, allows companies to save time, reduce operational costs, and focus strategically on growing their B2B commerce operations. Integration with other critical business systems like ERP and CRM software further enhances this holistic experience, solidifying Shopify Plus as the ideal modern platform for B2B e-commerce.

Customer Success Stories

Numerous brands across diverse industries have successfully harnessed the power of Shopify’s B2B e-commerce solutions, resulting in significant sales increases, dramatically improved customer satisfaction, and notably streamlined operations. Wholesale features are essential components of B2B platforms designed to enhance the wholesale experience. For instance, a wholesale distributor selling specialised equipment to retailers can establish a dedicated wholesale portal on Shopify Plus, complete with custom pricing tiers, bulk order forms, and self-service account management. This setup enables them to efficiently manage their diverse wholesale clientele and complex orders while providing a seamless, professional experience. By leveraging the rich B2B feature set within Shopify Plus, companies are creating powerful, flexible, and scalable e-commerce solutions that expertly cater to both their wholesale and, if applicable, retail customers, driving substantial growth and operational excellence.

Partner with us for Shopify Plus B2B excellence

Shopify Plus is the leading commerce platform for B2B ecommerce, offering extensive capabilities and addressing the limitations of various platforms for B2B transactions. As a certified Shopify Plus agency, we have the expertise to help you succeed. We offer:

• Strategic guidance: Choosing the right store model (blended or dedicated).
• Implementation & configuration: Setting up all essential B2B features on Shopify.
• Custom development: Creating bespoke themes and functionalities.
• System integrations: Connecting Shopify Plus with your other business systems.
• Ongoing support & optimization: Ensuring your B2B store continues to perform at its best.