The buyer that keeps a distributor in business is rarely one address. It is a plant maintenance company with three plants, a contractor with four yards, a facilities group buying for a dozen buildings. Those accounts carry the repeat orders and the negotiated pricing. They are also the accounts most likely to still phone in.

This post is for the owner, GM or ecommerce lead at a wholesale distributor on Shopify whose biggest accounts have more than one address. It walks through how Shopify models a multi-branch buyer, what you can set per branch, and the four things a multi-branch account needs that no location setting provides.

What are Shopify B2B company locations?#

In Shopify B2B, a company is the buying business and a company location is one of its branches, plants, offices or purchasing departments. Per Shopify's documentation, each location carries its own shipping and billing addresses, tax ID and exemptions, payment terms and checkout settings, and catalogs set what it can buy and at what price. A buyer who can order for more than one location picks which one they are buying for when they log in.

That is a better fit for industrial and MRO accounts than most operators realize. One account, three plants, three ship-to addresses, and a different tax status at each: Shopify can hold all of that natively.

Why does the multi-branch buyer matter more than the single-address one?#

A single-address buyer is simple. One contact, one ship-to, one set of terms. The multi-branch buyer is where the complexity and the revenue both sit.

Think about a plant maintenance company with three plants. Each plant has a maintenance planner who reorders bearings, belts and safety supplies. Corporate purchasing negotiated the contract. Accounts payable wants one invoice rhythm. One plant was acquired last year and still runs its own credit line. Today, most of that account's orders probably arrive as phone calls and emails, because a rep is the only thing that knows which plant gets which price and who is allowed to spend what.

This is no longer a Shopify Plus conversation, either. On April 2, 2026, Shopify brought company profiles, up to three custom catalogs, volume discounts and quantity rules, vaulted cards and payment terms to every plan. Plus keeps unlimited catalogs, direct catalog assignment to companies and locations, partial payments and deposits. That means distributors on Basic, Grow and Advanced are setting up multi-branch buyers for the first time this year.

What can a distributor set per location in Shopify?#

Shopify's B2B companies documentation lists the settings that live at the location level:

Setting	Where it lives	Notes
Shipping and billing addresses	Location	Each plant ships and bills on its own
Tax ID and exemptions	Location	A tax-exempt plant and a taxable one can sit under one company
Catalogs	Location	Direct assignment to a location is a Plus feature; below Plus, catalogs run through B2B markets
Payment terms	Location	Set per branch
One-time shipping addresses	Location checkout settings	Allow or block a buyer from shipping somewhere new
Order submission	Location checkout settings	"Submit all orders as drafts for review" or "Automatically submit orders"

Permissions. Shopify gives location contacts one of two roles. "Ordering only" can buy for the location and see the orders they placed. "Location admin" can buy, see every order placed for that location, and update its shipping and billing addresses.

Limits worth planning around. Per Shopify's documentation, a company can have up to 10,000 locations and 10,000 customers, and a location can have up to 25 catalogs and 50 customers. The one that bites smaller distributors is the plan limit: per Shopify's B2B features by plan, Basic, Grow and Advanced can run up to 3 active catalogs across all B2B markets, while Plus has no cap and can assign catalogs directly to companies and locations.

Where does the location model stop for a wholesale buyer?#

Locations answer "where does this ship, how is it taxed, and what terms apply." They do not answer the questions a purchasing department and a credit manager ask every day.

One price list, three plants. A negotiated contract usually covers the whole company. If pricing lives in catalogs and the catalogs have to be kept in step across branches by hand, sooner or later one plant pays last quarter's price. Below Plus, the three-catalog cap makes that harder, not easier.

Approval inside the buying company. Shopify's "Submit all orders as drafts for review" setting means the distributor reviews the order. That is useful, but it is not the same thing as a branch planner being stopped at a spend limit and a corporate buyer signing off. The first is your control. The second is your customer's control, and it is the one their purchasing policy actually requires. A location admin sees every order for the location; seeing is not approving.

Credit across branches. Shopify's payment terms set when an invoice is due. Nothing in the location settings sets a credit limit, tracks exposure shared across three plants, or stops an order that would push the account past what your credit manager approved.

Terms and pricing drift. Because terms and catalogs are set location by location, every new branch is a fresh setup. The plant added in March starts with whatever someone remembered to configure for it.

None of this is a knock on Shopify. It ships the primitives and ships them on every plan now. These four gaps are the wholesale work that sits on top.

How does a three-plant buyer actually order? (worked example)#

The numbers below are illustrative, not from any real account.

A plant maintenance company buys from a bearing and power transmission distributor on Shopify. The company has three locations. Corporate negotiated one contract price list. Plant A and Plant B share the company's credit line. Plant C, acquired last year, keeps its own.

Plant A. The maintenance planner logs in, picks Plant A, and orders 40 units of 6205-2RS at the contract price. The order is under the planner's spend limit and inside the shared credit line. It goes straight through.
Plant B. The planner types a competitor's part number for the same bearing, because that is what is stamped on the one they pulled. It has to resolve to the distributor's own 6205-2RS before it can be ordered. They add a case of safety glasses and nitrile gloves, and the total pushes the order past the planner's spend limit. It stops and routes to the corporate buyer, who approves it before it reaches checkout.
Plant C. The planner orders a smaller mix of bearings and V-belts. Plant C's own credit line already carries open invoices and an order that was approved but not yet invoiced. This order would take it over the limit, so it is held at submission.

Same company, one price list, three different outcomes. Here is who does what:

Shopify: the company and its three locations, their addresses and tax status, the catalogs, the payment terms, the draft order and the B2B checkout.
The wholesale layer on top: landing the one price list on all three plants, resolving the competitor part number, the spend limit and approval chain inside the buying company, and the credit exposure check that held Plant C.

What does Copiara add on top of Shopify locations?#

Copiara is a Shopify app built for that second list. You can set contract pricing for a buyer right on their Shopify company page, and it reaches every branch. Payment terms reach every branch too. Credit limits are set per company, shared or independent across branches, with live exposure that counts approved but uninvoiced orders and a warn-or-deny rule at submission. Buyer approvals add spend limits and approval chains inside the buying company, cleared before an order reaches checkout. Buyers sign in once, with the store's own login. And cross-reference resolves competitor part numbers to your own catalog.

The locations, catalogs, terms and checkout stay Shopify's. Copiara configures them and pushes into them rather than rebuilding them, which is the whole argument on our page about what Shopify ships and what Copiara completes. Generic B2B ecommerce suites retrofitted for distribution tend to rebuild companies and locations you already have, and still leave the credit and approval questions open.

Copiara is coming to the Shopify App Store. It is not listed yet, so nobody can install it today.

Frequently asked questions#

Can one buyer have different prices at different branches? On Plus, yes: you can assign a catalog directly to a company location. Below Plus, catalogs are assigned through B2B markets rather than directly to a location, and you are capped at 3 active catalogs across them, so per-branch pricing takes more planning.

Does a location admin approve orders? No. Per Shopify's documentation, a location admin can buy for the location, see every order placed for it, and update its addresses. Approval inside the buying company is a separate workflow.

How many catalogs can I run on a non-Plus plan? Up to 3 active catalogs across all B2B markets on Basic, Grow and Advanced. Plus has no cap. Separately, any single location can carry up to 25 catalogs.

Do payment terms carry across branches automatically? In Shopify, payment terms are set per location. A new branch gets whatever terms you set for it.

The short version#

Shopify company locations are the right foundation for a multi-branch buyer: one account, many addresses, per-branch tax, terms and checkout rules. What they do not do is keep one contract price on every plant, route an approval inside your customer's company, or stop an order that breaks a credit line. Those are the questions your reps answer by phone today.

If your biggest accounts have more than one address and still order by phone, get early access to Copiara.

Shopify B2B Company Locations for Multi-Branch Buyers