Shopify B2B

Shopify has never fully catered to the B2B or D2C space without the requirement for extensive apps and 3rd party integrations. This is all changing with Shopify’s new B2B offering. 80% of B2B eCommerce is expected to take place online by 2025, it’s clearly a space that Shopify wants to establish itself in.

Shopify B2B edition will make it easier for merchants to sell to more customers without expensive third-party solutions or complicated workarounds. Merchants will be able to unitlise the same user friendly Shopify admin experience to set up and manage B2B or D2C stores.

Shopify B2B features

Company Profiles

One of the biggest changes is the offering of company profiles. With this, merchants will be able to provide B2B stores with:

• Unique contact permissions
• Payment terms
• Price lists
• Tax Exemptions
• Multiple contacts and locations on single profiles with differing permissions

These centralised profiles mean there is no need to manage separate records for every buyer in every location. Simplifying the management of contacts and making it easier for your customers. 

Price Lists

Pricing is one of the biggest requirements for B2B customers as it allows merchants to sell to their customers at the prices agreed. Shopify B2B allows merchants to:

• Set fixed price and percentage off price-lists
• Sell in multiple currencies
• Specify price lists for companies and locations

These pricing options provide merchants with rich pricing controls unique to their customers making their eCommerce site accurately reflect their contract agreements.

Payment Terms

B2B works differently from B2C when it comes to payments. This is why you can set payment terms for companies and locations. Customers will be able to checkout with the payment terms made available to them without any upfront payment required. 

B2B Checkout

The checkout experience is now streamlined and personal for your wholesale buyers. They can view their assigned payment terms, payment methods and wholesale discounts at the time of purchase. B2B Checkout ensures your customers have the information they need to convert.

Customer Accounts

With customer accounts, your customers will only be able to see their unique customer pricing once they have logged in and been authenticated. Once they have gained access they will be able to:

• Manage their account
• Select their buying location
• Edit their information 
• View and filter order history

Analytics

Reporting is essential to the operation of any business. Shopify B2B provides merchants with the ability to filter their reports by:

• Sales
• Orders
• Profit Margin
• Customers
• Finance

This is to make it as easy as possible to understand your customer and their buying patterns and make informed decisions to improve your B2B offering.

Is this right for your business?

Shopify B2B is part of Shopify Plus and makes it easier for B2B or D2C merchants to take advantage of the Shopify platform and all the benefits it has to offer. 

If you are a retailer with a small B2B offering this may not be the answer as there are still plenty of great B2B options available for less established B2B. However, if you are a B2B merchant with a desire to really grow your business online then this is a fantastic foundation platform. 

Shopify is really raising its game to provide a clear service to potential B2B customers. 

Another alternative is BigCommerce, who have been offering B2B edition for a while and has many robust features you can read about in our BigCommerce B2B edition article. 

If you would like to discuss Shopify B2B or BigCommerce B2B please get in touch with us and we can help make the decision that is best for you and your customers.