With global wholesale bringing in over $20 trillion a year (nearly $10 trillion in the U.S.), this market provides excellent opportunities for e-commerce. Aside from a few big names like Costco, the wholesale industry is surprisingly open, which is good news for small businesses.
If you’re like a growing number of Shopify store owners, you may be looking to dip your toes into the wholesale game. But is it possible to use Shopify for wholesale? Do you need a Shopify Plus subscription for it?
Why Do Business Owners Need Shopify Wholesale Without Plus?
Unlike many industries that are dominated by a few dozen major players, the wholesale market mainly consists of small and medium-sized companies. The U.S. has about 650,000 niche wholesalers. With the smaller size of these businesses, carefully controlling costs is vital. This explains why so many owners are looking for a way to use Shopify for wholesale without a Shopify Plus subscription.
On the one hand, Shopify is a small business-friendly platform that makes launching a high-quality, fully functional website incredibly easy. There’s no need to pay a developer $20,000 to build your site from scratch, and you don’t have to risk business info with shady third-party templates. Shopify’s payment processing integrations mean you can sell online without hassle.
Unfortunately for small wholesalers, a Shopify Plus subscription with B2B features carries a hefty price tag: $2,500 a month (or $2,300/month with a three-year plan). When your monthly wholesale revenue is only in the $20,000 to $50,000 range, paying $2,500 a month is a major obstacle to profitability.
What Are the Challenges of Wholesale Without Shopify Plus (and Solutions)?
Using Shopify Plus for wholesale is like leasing a brand-new Honda CR-V. With all the bells and whistles, all you need to worry about is driving the vehicle off the lot. The dealership takes care of maintenance, support — you name it.
Shopify Plus includes important B2B features from the get-go:
- The ability to manage multiple stores and brands from the same dashboard
- Options for selling to B2B and DTC from the same site
- Dedicated customer accounts and secure logins
- Self-serve portal for customer purchase orders
- Customizable employee/sales rep accounts and access permissions
Approaching Shopify wholesale without Plus is closer to buying a pre-owned SUV. You save tons of money and still get something close to what you need, but you also have to find some workarounds. Depending on your approach, this can either mean DIY wholesale or using a Shopify wholesale app.
How To Use Shopify for Wholesale Without Plus
There are effective ways to make wholesale work on Shopify without Plus. Real Shopify wholesale examples show that even e-commerce stores can benefit from bulk sales. The right avenue depends on your target audience, operations, distribution network, and products.
1. The Wholesale Shopify Store
This is the most straightforward solution for Shopify wholesale without Plus. Depending on how many employees you have, a Shopify Grow ($49/month with five staff accounts) or Advanced ($299/month with 15 staff accounts) plan is plenty to create a wholesale store.
From there, you only need to add B2B features that the base Shopify site is missing, such as net billing terms, delayed payments, and tier-based discounts. Shopify has payment processing and shipping partners, but you can also add third-party processors and freight-based fulfillment integrations.
2. Separate Shopify DTC and B2B Stores
What if you already have a successful Shopify store for consumers, but you want to branch out to business clients? The easiest option is to launch a separate site for B2B, but this also comes with a few drawbacks.
First, you will need a separate Shopify plan. Also, you lose out on valuable search ranking signals from existing traffic. Still, if you don’t mind paying an extra $49 to $299 a month, keeping your stores separate can be a streamlined way to handle things.
3. Shopify Wholesale and E-Commerce Together
This third option is the most popular with business owners, but it also requires the most setup (and has the biggest returns afterward). There are several ways to run a Shopify store with separate pricing for consumers and wholesale clients:
- Splitting the site into two main portals for shoppers and business owners
- Adding a wholesale page on Shopify
- Keeping your catalog the same and just customizing prices and the checkout experience for B2B customers
- Locking certain products, volumes, and bundles behind account logins
All of these methods are valid, but they have different impacts on the customer experience, so it’s important to plan carefully. Volume-based pricing is good for business clients, but you have to verify that you’re not accidentally offering bulk prices to regular consumers.
4. Discount Codes
This is technically an option, so we included it for accuracy, but we don’t recommend it. Forcing business customers to use discount codes is a headache for them, and there are too many opportunities for third-party employees to abuse the codes.
How Do Shopify Apps Help With Wholesale?
One of Shopify’s best features is its large library of plug-and-play app integrations. Each one is a mini solution for specific B2B needs. By pairing a few apps, you can easily eliminate the normal obstacles of Shopify wholesale without Plus.
What features do you need? Here are a few essentials for most wholesalers:
- Customer accounts and sign-ins with Google, Facebook, or Shop (included with Shopify)
- Deferred payments and net 15/30/60 terms
- Supplier integrations or dropshipping support
- Order tracking, order fulfillment, freight, or third-party logistics support
- B2B discounts (bulk, tiered, or VIP pricing)
- International shipping and cross-border fulfillment solutions for overseas markets
Some apps are a perfect fit for wholesale dropshipping models, connecting you with dependable suppliers and logistics partners for B2B. Other apps add business-specific billing, provide complete flexibility for tier-based discounts, and let you create exclusive products for wholesale customers.
Launch a Wholesale Website on Shopify Without Plus
If you’re looking for an easy-to-customize wholesale website with affordable pricing and simple controls, Shopify is an excellent choice. At Website On Demand, we have extensive experience with dedicated wholesale and hybrid B2B/DTC sales. Get started with Shopify wholesale today, no Plus subscription necessary.
