Shopify B2B Requirements: What to Check Before Launch

What do you need before turning on Shopify B2B?#

You need a plan that includes B2B (Basic, Grow, Advanced or Plus), your wholesale buyers set up as companies with locations, and new customer accounts switched on, because legacy customer accounts cannot place B2B orders. Before you promise anything to buyers, also check the list of checkout features that B2B cannot use, starting with Shop Pay and the other accelerated checkouts.

That is the short version. The longer version matters because the question has changed. Until this spring, most wholesale brands on Shopify started with "do we need Plus?" Since April 2, 2026, when Shopify extended its core B2B features to Basic, Grow and Advanced, the better question is "what has to be true before we switch this on, and what stops working when we do?"

Shopify answers that on its help page, Requirements and considerations for using B2B (fetched 2026-10-31). The page is a list of rules. This post turns it into a pre-flight checklist an operations lead can walk through in an afternoon, with every rule quoted from Shopify and dated.

Which Shopify plans support B2B, and what changes on Plus?#

Per Shopify's help page (fetched 2026-10-31), "B2B features are included at no extra cost on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Shopify Plus plans." The same page notes that some features are exclusive to the Advanced or Shopify Plus plans, and that B2B and D2C orders can carry different variable platform fee rates. Shopify does not print those rates on that page and tells merchants to contact Shopify Support for details, so get the number from Support before you build a margin model on it.

Shopify's changelog post of April 2, 2026, Key B2B features now available on non-Plus plans (fetched 2026-10-31), spells out the split:

• Basic, Grow and Advanced get up to three active B2B catalogs assigned through Markets, company profiles, payment terms, volume pricing, ACH payments (U.S. only) and vaulted credit cards.
• Plus only: unlimited catalogs for customer-specific pricing, direct catalog assignment to companies and locations, partial payments and deposits.

The practical line for a distributor: if each key account has its own negotiated price list, the three-catalog cap below Plus is the first wall you will hit. We break that down plan by plan in Shopify B2B catalog limits by plan, so this post will not repeat it.

How do companies, locations and customer accounts need to be set up?#

Three setup rules come before anything else.

Buyers are companies, not customers. Shopify's page says: "You must set up B2B customers as companies in your Shopify admin." A company can have multiple locations, and customers (the people who place orders) are assigned to it. For an MRO distributor, that usually maps cleanly: the company is the plant operator, the locations are its plants or job sites, and the customers are the maintenance planner and the purchasing agent at each one.

Every order needs a company location. Per the same page, a B2B customer must be associated with a company location at the time the order is placed. If an order or draft order has no B2B customer or company location assigned, D2C rates apply. That is how a wholesale buyer ends up paying retail without anyone noticing, so check it on your first test orders.

New customer accounts only. Shopify requires you to activate customer accounts and says plainly that legacy customer accounts cannot be used for B2B orders and customers. If your store still runs legacy accounts, plan the switch before your B2B launch date, not on it.

One more line for stores that want B2B inside Markets: Shopify's page says that to use B2B with Markets, you must activate it in feature test drive.

If you are still deciding how buyers will apply and get approved, our walkthrough of setting up a Shopify wholesale portal covers the buyer-facing side.

What stops working when you turn on B2B?#

This is the section to read twice. Shopify's help page (fetched 2026-10-31) lists these features as not compatible with B2B:

Two nuances from the same page. First, local delivery and pickup in store are available as shipping options on B2B draft orders created in your Shopify admin, so a counter-sale or will-call account can still be handled by staff, just not through the buyer's own checkout. Second, the app line is the one that bites quietly. Go through every app that touches your checkout, pricing or orders and ask its developer whether it supports B2B, in writing.

What is turned off by default?#

Shopify lists four features as turned off by default for B2B: pickup in store, line item scripts, abandoned checkouts and gift cards at checkout. Only the store or organization owner can activate them, by contacting Shopify Support. And if you run B2B and D2C on the same store, Shopify's page notes that these features apply to both B2B and D2C customers, so switching one back on for wholesale changes retail too. We cover the wider trade-offs of running B2B and DTC on one Shopify store separately.

What order limits should a wholesale team plan around?#

500 line items. Per Shopify's page, orders have a maximum of 500 line items, and so do draft orders. Most buyers will never get close. A distributor's biggest accounts might. Picture a maintenance planner restocking a plant crib: 6205-2RS bearings in three brands, a dozen V-belt sizes, fasteners by the box in every thread pitch, safety glasses, gloves, filters. A full quarterly restock list for a large site can run long, and because the cap applies to every order and draft order, a longer list will not go through as one order. If your top accounts order that way, decide now whether those restocks go in as two orders by area or category.

Manual capture. Shopify's page says orders and draft orders with B2B customers, or from the B2B checkout, must be manually captured when they do not have a valid authorization and are on due-on-fulfillment payment terms. Someone on your team owns that step. Name them before the first order lands.

B2B-only discounts. To limit a discount to specific B2B customers, Shopify says to create a B2B market and assign it in the discount's eligibility settings. Without that step, a discount you meant for wholesale can reach retail shoppers on a blended store.

The checklist in one place#

• Plan confirmed, and the catalog cap understood if you are below Plus
• Platform fee rate for B2B orders confirmed with Shopify Support
• Every wholesale buyer set up as a company, with locations and customers
• New customer accounts active, legacy accounts retired
• B2B with Markets activated in feature test drive, if you use it
• Accelerated checkouts, local delivery, pickup points and subscriptions reviewed against how buyers order today
• Every checkout, pricing and order app confirmed with its developer
• A decision on the four default-off features, knowing they also apply to D2C on a blended store
• A plan for accounts that could pass 500 line items
• An owner for manual capture on due-on-fulfillment orders
• B2B discounts scoped through a B2B market

What is left to build after native B2B is running?#

Once those boxes are checked, native Shopify B2B covers a lot: companies and locations, catalogs, payment terms, volume pricing and quantity rules. That is what native Shopify B2B covers, and it is the foundation, not something to replace.

What many wholesale teams still run through email and spreadsheets sits on top of it. A buyer asks for a price on 200 bearings and the negotiation happens over three email threads. Shopify draft orders can carry a negotiated custom line price, but there is no RFQ object or versioned quote record that keeps the request, each round and a margin check together. A purchasing agent places an order that their own company's spending rules say a manager should have approved. Credit exposure across open orders lives in someone's head.

That is the gap Copiara is being built for. Copiara is our Shopify app, currently in early access: it is not listed on the Shopify App Store, and nobody can install or subscribe to it yet. It adds a quoting desk, buyer approvals, credit and an AI concierge on top of native B2B. It reads the quantity rules and payment terms you already set in Shopify rather than replacing them, so a quote refuses a quantity Shopify would refuse, and payment terms are shown, never rewritten. Buyers sign in once, with the store's own login. You can see Copiara's modules and what the Copiara concierge does, including its limits: it stays inside the buyer's company context and never invents a price or stock answer.

Shopify B2B requirements FAQ#

Do I need Shopify Plus for B2B? No. Since April 2, 2026, B2B is included on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Per Shopify's changelog, unlimited catalogs, direct catalog assignment to companies and locations, partial payments and deposits remain exclusive to Plus.

Can B2B buyers use Shop Pay? No. Shopify lists accelerated checkouts, including Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Amazon Pay, as not compatible with B2B.

Can I keep legacy customer accounts? Not for B2B. Shopify says legacy customer accounts cannot be used for B2B orders and customers.

Is there a limit on order size? Yes. Orders and draft orders have a maximum of 500 line items, per Shopify's help page.

Is Copiara available? Not yet. Copiara is in early access and coming to the Shopify App Store; it is not listed, installable or purchasable today.

If you are switching on Shopify B2B and want to see how a quoting desk, buyer approvals and credit would sit on top of it, request early access.