What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is optimized for merchants processing over $1 million in annual sales that require features like B2B wholesale channels, expansive product catalogs, global multi-location inventory, powerful order processing workflows, robust reporting, and seamless integration with ERP, WMS, 3PL, and other back-end systems.
With dedicated account management and around-the-clock support, Shopify Plus offers a fully managed, flexible SaaS platform. This means it can scale with your growing brand, allowing you to unify your technology and sell across multiple sales channels and business types, all from one central dashboard.
Some Key Benefits of Shopify Plus for B2B:
- Robust B2B sales channels like wholesale, distribution, and direct shipping to support complex business selling
- Powerful order management and fulfillment capabilities for large order volumes with custom workflows
- Advanced reporting and data insights for better decision-making across all sales channels
- Highly flexible customization and integration options to connect with essential back-end systems
- Dedicated Shopify Plus account management and 24/7 support for faster issue resolution
- Global capabilities, including multiple languages, currencies, taxes, and compliance features
- Frequent product updates and new feature rollouts to stay on the cutting edge of ecommerce
What is Shopify Plus B2B
Shopify Plus B2B refers to the business-to-business commerce capabilities offered by Shopify Plus for enterprise merchants. It provides advanced features beyond standard Shopify that are optimized for selling to other companies rather than consumers.
Key B2B functionality includes dedicated wholesale channels to sell to resellers, distributors, and retailers with capabilities like custom catalogs, tiered pricing, approval workflows, and order history tracking. Robust order management and fulfillment features handle large, complex B2B orders and integrate with ERP and 3PLs.
Plus, it also enables omnichannel B2B sales with unified inventory across online, retail, wholesale, and other channels. With enterprise support and customization flexibility, Shopify Plus gives high-volume brands a managed B2B ecommerce platform to sell, fulfill, and scale without the overhead of custom software.
Shopify Plus B2B Pricing
Shopify Plus provides comprehensive B2B commerce capabilities to power your wholesale and enterprise-level operations. The pricing structure is designed to deliver unbeatable value and flexibility as your B2B business scales.
Standard Shopify Plus Plan
The standard Shopify Plus cost per month starts at:
- $2,300 per month for a 3-year term
- $2,500 per month for a 1-year term
This base plan includes access to all the advanced Shopify Plus features, including the powerful B2B-specific tools:
- B2B selling on Shopify
- Customer-specific pricing and discounts
- Wholesale product catalogs
- B2B-optimized checkout
- Robust wholesale order management
The standard plan is ideal for most high-growth B2B businesses with straightforward pricing and integration needs.
Variable Platform Fee Model
For more complex B2B enterprises with unique requirements, Shopify Plus offers a variable platform fee structure. This model factors in your specific business size, revenue, and operational complexity.
The variable fee is calculated based on:
- Your company’s annual gross merchandise volume (GMV)
- The specific B2B features and customizations required
This flexible approach ensures you only pay for the features and capabilities your B2B business needs, without any unnecessary costs.
Additional Fees
In addition to the monthly platform fee, there are a few other costs to consider:
- Shopify Payments transaction fees: These vary based on your region and sales volume.
- Third-party app subscriptions: You may need to use additional third-party apps, which have their own pricing.
- Custom development: If you require extensive customizations beyond the standard Shopify Plus features, you’ll need to factor in development costs.
Shopify is committed to providing transparent, predictable pricing for B2B merchants. Our team will work closely with you to determine the optimal pricing plan to support your unique business model and growth goals.
Shopify Plus B2B Setup Requirements
Shopify Plus has some minimum technical and operational requirements to ensure successful onboarding and setup.
Here are the key Shopify Plus requirements:
- Shopify Plus plan: Shopify Plus is required to access B2B features like multi-location inventory, purchase orders, shared catalogs, etc.
- Multiple stores: B2B features work across multiple stores connected under one Shopify Plus account. You need at least two stores—one for your wholesale storefront and one for your retail storefront.
- Wholesale channel: A separate wholesale storefront is required to offer custom pricing and bulk discounts and manage business buyer accounts.
- Multi-location inventory: The inventory needs to be synced across multiple locations if you have a warehouse, retail store, etc. This allows inventory visibility.
- Shared catalogs: Create master catalogs of products that can be shared with business buyers. Custom variants and pricing can be shown.
- Purchase orders: The purchase order workflow lets you manage orders, fulfillment, and invoices for business buyers.
- Business accounts: Business buyers need a customer account to view custom catalogs, pricing, and place purchase orders.
- Billing setup: Billing details like credit terms, discounts, and payment methods need to be configured per business account.
- Shipping profiles: Shipping zones, rates, and methods need to be set up for business buyers.
With the right setup and features, Shopify Plus can provide a full-featured B2B ecommerce platform. This platform is designed to help you efficiently sell to and service business customers, and it’s scalable to accommodate your business growth.
Shopify Plus B2B Features
Shopify Plus features list hundreds of advanced capabilities to support complex B2B selling. Let’s explore some of the key features of B2B:
Robust B2B Sales Channels
- Shopify Plus wholesale channel: Create bulk order forms, minimum order quantities, custom catalogs, and pricing for wholesale buyers. Approve new accounts and view purchase history.
- Distribution channel: Pre-approve resellers to sell your products to their customers. Set custom pricing and access real-time inventory and fulfillment.
- Direct Ship: Let wholesalers place orders that you fulfill directly to their customers. Maintain branding while leveraging wholesale pricing.
Powerful Order Management
- Shopify Flow: Automate fulfillment workflows with custom rules and conditions for shipping, inventory, payments, and more.
- Advanced reporting: Get data insights for sales, products, customers, and more with an Analytics UI or direct SQL access.
- Automatic order processing: New B2B orders can trigger actions like inventory allotment, 3PL integration, sales rep notification, and invoicing.
- Custom fields—Capture additional B2B data, such as purchase orders, project codes, and more, for robust order management.
Global Multi-Location Inventory
- Single inventory across channels: One pool of inventory to fulfill orders from any sales channel, including wholesale and brick-and-mortar.
- Location management: Track inventory quantities by location, whether warehouses, distribution centers, or retail stores, for optimal fulfillment.
- Real-time sync: Inventory adjustments and orders in one location automatically sync across all locations.
Powerful Admin & User Management
- Advanced permissions: Granular staff roles and permissions for order processing, reporting, catalog management, and more.
- Wholesale buyer accounts: Create and manage wholesale buyer logins, catalogs, pricing tiers, and purchase history.
- Reseller accounts: Onboard distributors with access to approved customers, view reports, and manage their inventory.
- Service accounts: Provide 3PLs, agencies, and apps access to specific data, such as orders and inventory.
Most Exiting Shopify Plus New Features
Shopify frequently rolls out new features and capabilities to Shopify Plus users.
Here are some of the most exciting new Shopify Plus features:
- Shopify Audiences: Unified customer data and profiles across all sales channels.
- Shopify Balance: Built-in money management and cash flow optimization.
- Shopify Markets: Localized shopping experiences include currency, language, taxes, and payment methods.
- Shopify Capital: Access working capital loans to scale inventory, marketing, and operations.
- Shopify Fulfillment Network: outsourced fulfillment and 2-day shipping powered by Shopify.
- Conversation UI Kit: Tools to build chat and conversational commerce on the web and mobile.
- Shopify Scripts: Automate repetitive tasks with app-free scripts and custom workflows.
Shopify Plus merchants get early access to these new products and features before they reach broader Shopify plans.
Shopify Plus Benefits for B2B
Let’s explore some of the key benefits of Shopify Plus for B2B:
- Powerful native features: No need for multiple apps. Complex B2B features like wholesale channels are built right into the platform.
- Volume discounts: Percentage-based pricing with volume discounts for 7-figure merchants with high GMV.
- B2B focused support: Dedicated onboarding, account management, and 24/7 priority support for Shopify Plus accounts.
- Agency partnerships: Certified agency partners that specialize in Shopify Plus implementation and development.
- Customization flexibility: APIs, webhooks, and direct database access provide extreme customization potential.
- Global reach: Support for multiple languages, currencies, local payment methods, and requirements like taxes and duties.
- Enterprise integrations: Robust options for integrating ERP, WMS, 3PL, and other enterprise systems.
- Future proof: Frequent new feature rollouts ensure Shopify Plus continues to lead enterprise commerce technology.
- Trusted security: Level 1 PCI compliance, automatic security updates, SSL, and strong encryption protects merchant and customer data.
Pros and Cons of Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus provides excellent advanced capabilities for B2B, but there are some downsides to consider as well:
Pros of Shopify Plus B2B
- Advanced B2B features like wholesale and distribution
- Robust order management and fulfillment
- Powerful reporting and data analysis
- Flexible customization for complex workflows
- Multi-location inventory management
- New features and functionalities
- Dedicated support and onboarding
Cons of Shopify Plus B2B
- Expensive monthly fees starting at $2,000
- Additional costs for apps, services, and features
- Limited native marketplace capabilities
- Can require development resources for advanced customization
- We may still need 3rd party software integrations
- Less control compared to fully custom software
For large B2B brands willing to pay a premium for an enterprise SaaS platform, Shopify Plus provides excellent capabilities with less overhead than custom software. However, with all required add-ons, it can become costly.
Shopify Plus B2B Examples
Thousands of B2B companies trust Shopify Plus to power their ecommerce operations. Here are some Shopify Plus success stories:
- Nestle: The food and beverage giant sells directly to wholesale buyers via Shopify Plus and uses Fulfilment by Shopify.
- Bauer Hockey is a hockey equipment brand that offers custom catalogs and pricing to wholesalers and direct shipments to their customers.
- M.Gemi: Footwear brand using Shopify Plus POS in their 20+ retail stores fully integrated with online inventory and fulfilment.
- Gymshark: Fitness apparel brand leveraging Shopify Plus wholesale channels to supply their products to gyms and studios.
- Red Bull: Iconic Beverage Company manages B2B order processing, distribution, and fulfilment on Shopify Plus.
- Joseph Joseph: Kitchenware brand using Shopify Plus for B2B wholesale and D2C ecommerce across Europe.
These are just a few examples of brands selling B2B on Shopify Plus across diverse categories like food and beverage, apparel, accessories, equipment, and consumer packaged goods.
Why Use Shopify Plus for B2B
There are many good reasons to use Shopify Plus for B2B ecommerce:
- It’s purpose-built for B2B: Shopify Plus offers robust features like wholesale channels, reseller portals, and direct shipping specifically designed for B2B needs.
- Powerful order management: Complex B2B order workflows, approvals, and custom data requirements are easily handled.
- Enterprise integrations: Built-in support for ERP, inventory, shipping, accounting, CRM, and other systems essential for B2B operations.
- Unified data: All sales, inventory, customer, and order data flows into one unified dashboard for full visibility and reporting.
- Omnichannel ready: Support multiple sales channels like B2B ecommerce, wholesale, retail, marketplaces, social, mobile, and brick-and-mortar POS.
- Scalability: Shopify Plus easily scales from mid-market B2B brands to Fortune 500 enterprise companies with millions in sales.
- B2B expertise: Shopify Plus teams have years of experience successfully migrating and optimizing major B2B companies selling direct-to-business.
For B2B companies looking to unify their technology stack onto a single commerce platform, Shopify Plus provides a powerful all-in-one solution.
Shopify Plus Alternatives
While Shopify Plus is a top choice for enterprise B2B commerce, some alternatives worth considering include:
- Salesforce Commerce Cloud: Very robust B2B features and order management. It is more complex to customize. It costs more for comparable capabilities vs Shopify Plus.
- Magento Commerce: Open source enterprise platform. It can be fully customized but requires significant development resources. Hosted options are available but have more limited B2B functionality compared to Plus.
- BigCommerce: Hosted SaaS ecommerce platform. Budget-friendly but less advanced B2B features compared to Shopify Plus. Add-ons required.
- Oracle Commerce is a full-scale enterprise platform. It is very customizable, but heavy IT involvement is needed for implementation and management. It is also expensive.
- SAP Commerce Cloud: This is for companies already using SAP ERP. It requires tight ERP integration but is very complex, requiring significant IT investment.
- Custom platform: Building a fully custom platform provides ultimate flexibility and control. However, it is extremely expensive and risky for most companies, and there is ongoing management overhead.
With its balance of robust B2B features, reasonable costs, and low IT overhead, Shopify Plus stands out as a top platform, especially for brands scaling past $10M in annual sales.
The Bottom Line
Shopify Plus provides a robust, customizable B2B ecommerce platform optimized for enterprise merchants. From advanced user controls to integrated B2B sales capabilities, it offers the features high-volume companies need to scale while remaining easy to manage.
B2B success stories on Shopify Plus span many different industries and business models. While alternatives like BigCommerce and Magento are worth considering, Shopify Plus hits a sweet spot for most growing B2B brands.
If your B2B Company has outgrown basic ecommerce platforms or you are launching a new high-volume venture, Shopify Plus deserves a close look. The combination of flexibility, integrated functionality, and expert support provides immense value to complex B2B businesses.
FAQs About Shopify Plus for B2B
What is included in Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus plans include everything available in standard Shopify, plus additional B2B features: more staff accounts with granular permissions, unlimited API calls, higher sales volume and order caps, and dedicated account management.
Is Shopify good for B2B?
Yes, Shopify Plus offers a robust set of capabilities optimized for B2B, including quotes, purchase orders, multi-location inventory, negotiated pricing tiers, wholesale channels, and much more. The platform can handle simple to very complex B2B models.
What is the difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus?
As we compare Shopify vs Shopify Plus, then Shopify Plus is the enterprise-level version of Shopify designed for high-volume merchants. It offers more advanced features, customization options, add-ons, volume discounts, and dedicated support. Shopify is focused on SMBs.
How much is Shopify Plus per month?
Shopify Plus pricing starts at $2,000/month, but the average merchant pays between $5,000 and $15,000/month, including all required apps, services, and features. Custom large deployments can surpass $40,000+/month.
How to become a Shopify Plus partner?
To become a Shopify Plus agency partner, you must complete their rigorous training and certification exams and meet experience requirements related to managing high-volume stores. You can directly apply or contact Shopify.
What is the variant limit on Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus has no hard limit on product variants. You can add as many variants of a product as needed to represent all the custom options required. Inventory is tracked at the variant level.
