• Wholesale Lock Manager B2B vs Sami B2B Lock. Both apps help Shopify merchants with access management for their stores. Wholesale Lock Manager B2B costs $9.99 per month on its paid plan, regardless of your Shopify plan. Whereas, Sami starts at $9.99 per month on Shopify Basic, but costs $19.99 on Grow and $29.99 on Advanced.
• Both apps can hide prices, products, collections, pages, and Add to Cart buttons.
• Wholesale Lock Manager B2B lets merchants test locks on both published and unpublished themes.
• Sami currently has a much larger review history, while Wholesale Lock Manager B2B has been available on the Shopify App Store for longer.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B and Sami B2B Lock solve many of the same Shopify access-control problems.

Both apps can hide prices, restrict products and pages, remove the Add to Cart button for selected visitors, and give wholesale customers access through login, passwords or other rules. The bigger differences are in pricing, free access, theme testing, scheduled locks and integrations.

If you are choosing between Wholesale Lock Manager B2B vs Sami B2B Lock, this comparison looks at the current features, pricing and where each app may fit better.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B vs Sami B2B Lock: Quick Comparison

Pricing

Pricing is one of the biggest differences.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B Pricing

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B has a free option for development and trial stores.

Its regular plan costs: $9.99 per month or $107.89 per year

• The paid price does not increase based on whether the merchant uses Shopify Basic, Grow or Advanced.
• The plan includes features such as hiding products and collections, login-to-view-price rules, page and URL locks, passcodes, hiding Add to Cart and restricting content for different customer groups.
• A 7-day free trial is available.

Sami B2B Lock Pricing

Sami B2B Lock has a free plan that allows merchants to create one lock.

Paid pricing depends on the merchant’s Shopify plan:

• Shopify Basic: $9.99/month or $99/year
• Shopify Grow: $19.99/month or $199/year
• Shopify Advanced: $29.99/month or $299/year

The paid plans include unlimited locks and products, whole-store restrictions, price hiding, Add to Cart hiding, customer targeting, scheduled lock conditions and third-party app integrations. Sami offers a 15-day free trial.

For a store on Shopify Basic, the monthly price of both apps is the same. Sami is slightly cheaper when paying annually on Basic.

The difference becomes larger for Grow and Advanced stores because Wholesale Lock Manager B2B remains $9.99 per month.

Hiding Prices and Add to Cart

Both apps support one of the most common wholesale setups: visitors can see a product but cannot see its price or purchase it unless they meet the required conditions.

Both apps can also hide the Add to Cart button.

This can be useful when your retail and wholesale customers use the same Shopify store but you do not want wholesale pricing or purchasing options available to everyone.

If this is the main workflow you are trying to build, our guide on how to implement Login to View Price on Shopify covers the setup in more detail.

Locking Products, Collections and Pages

There is also considerable overlap here.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B can create locks for:

• Products
• Collections
• Pages
• Specific URLs
• The entire storefront

Sami B2B Lock can similarly restrict products, collections, pages, URLs and the whole website. Both also support password-based access.

That means you could create a private collection for distributors, give selected customers access to a wholesale page, or keep certain products away from regular visitors.

Both apps can also use customer information such as tags or email addresses when deciding who should see restricted content.

Passwords and Secret Links

Both Wholesale Lock Manager B2B and Sami support password or passcode-based access. They also support secret links that can be shared with selected customers.

This can work well for temporary collections, private product launches or specific groups of buyers where creating individual access rules would be unnecessary.

If you are building a larger wholesale section rather than locking only a few pages, see our guide on creating a private wholesale area on Shopify.

Where Wholesale Lock Manager B2B Has an Advantage

One useful feature of Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is the ability to test locks on both published and unpublished Shopify themes.

This matters when a merchant is redesigning a store or preparing a new theme. The access rules can be checked before that theme becomes the live storefront.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B also lists the ability to hide products from Shopify site search and Google, along with controls for protecting free products from unwanted bot checkouts.

Pricing is another practical advantage for Grow and Advanced merchants. The $9.99 monthly price stays the same instead of increasing with the Shopify plan.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B also works with other Wholesale Helper apps, including Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B and WSH Order Form & ReOrder. That may be useful for merchants already using those apps for their wholesale setup.

Where Sami B2B Lock Has an Advantage

Sami’s free plan is more useful for a live store that only needs one lock. This lets a merchant try a simple access-control setup without immediately moving to a paid plan.

Sami also lists date and time conditions for locks. A merchant could use this when restricted content should become available only during a certain period.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B vs Sami B2B Lock: Which Should You Choose?

There is no major difference in the basic job these apps perform.

Both are strong options if you need to hide prices, restrict products, lock pages or create private sections for specific Shopify customers.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B may make more sense if:

• You want predictable pricing as your Shopify plan changes.
• You need to test locks on unpublished themes.
• You want to hide products from Shopify search and Google.
• You already use other Wholesale Helper apps.
• You need multiple locks and are on Shopify Grow or Advanced.

Sami B2B Lock may make more sense if:

• You only need one lock and want to start on a free plan.
• You need date or time-based lock conditions.

For Shopify Basic stores using multiple locks, the pricing is very similar. In that case, the better choice will mostly depend on the exact locking rules and integrations you need.

For Grow and Advanced merchants, Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is currently the less expensive paid option.

Frequently Asked Questions

That’s why we’re introducing Ask WPD AI, a new AI assistant built directly into Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B.

Ask WPD AI lets you manage common wholesale pricing tasks simply by telling it what you want to do.

Note: Ask WPD AI is currently available in beta for selected stores on the Global plan.

What can Ask WPD AI do?

You can ask the assistant to help with tasks such as:

• Find and review your existing discount groups
• Create or update wholesale discount groups
• Manage volume discounts and pricing tiers
• Apply discounts to specific customers
• Check the price a particular customer should receive
• Troubleshoot cases where a discount is not showing
• Update selected storefront text and translations
• Install supported theme snippets

Instead of finding the right setting yourself, you can simply describe what you need.

For example:

“Update my Wholesale Test Group discount from 15% to 25%.”

Ask WPD AI to understand the request, show you exactly what it plans to change, and ask for confirmation.

Nothing is changed until you approve it.

It can help fix discounts that aren’t showing

One of the most common questions we receive is:

“Why isn’t my wholesale discount showing?”

Ask WPD AI can investigate this directly and, when appropriate, rebuild the pricing data required for the discount to work correctly.

That means some pricing issues that previously required checking settings or contacting support can now be resolved directly from the assistant.

You’re always in control

Ask WPD AI can make changes to your WPD setup, but it will always ask for confirmation before saving a change.

You’ll see what is about to happen first.

Only after you confirm will the assistant proceed.

This gives you the speed of an AI assistant without giving up control of your store’s pricing.

Built for faster wholesale management

Ask WPD AI is designed to make everyday wholesale management easier — whether you are updating a discount, checking customer pricing, changing a volume tier, or troubleshooting an issue.

Less time navigating settings.

More time running your wholesale business.

Currently in beta

Ask WPD AI is currently being rolled out as a beta feature for selected Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B stores on the Global plan.

If Ask WPD AI has been enabled for your store, you will see a dedicated Ask WPD AI screen inside the app.

During the beta, usage is limited to 20 questions per day per store while we continue improving the experience.

We’ll continue expanding access as we learn from merchant feedback.

Already have access? Open Ask WPD AI from your WPD dashboard and try asking it to manage your next pricing task.

• August 31, 2026 is the final day for Shopify Stocky.
• Keep copies of any Stocky records you may need later instead of assuming they will appear inside Shopify.
• Stores using Stocky mainly for purchasing, suppliers and basic inventory work should first check whether Shopify’s own inventory features cover what they need.
• More complicated forecasting and replenishment setups may still need a dedicated inventory platform or ERP.
• Start testing the new setup early so there is enough time to move open work before Stocky closes.

If your team still uses Shopify Stocky for purchase orders, suppliers, stocktakes or inventory planning, you need to move those workflows before the end of August.

Shopify stopped offering new Stocky installs through the Shopify App Store on February 2, 2026. Stores that already have the app can keep using it until the shutdown, but reinstalling it is no longer an option.

What is Shopify Stocky?

Shopify Stocky is an inventory management app built for merchants using Shopify and Shopify POS. It helps with purchasing, supplier management, stocktakes, inventory levels and reorder planning.

For many retailers, it has been the place where the team handles the day to day work behind keeping the right products in stock.

First, save the Stocky data you need

This is probably the most important part of the move.

Do not assume your previous Stocky activity will appear inside Shopify once the app closes. Download the records you may need later, including completed purchase orders, stocktakes and historical cost information.

There are also some things Stocky cannot neatly move across. For example, there is no direct Stocky export for supplier records. Previous purchase orders created in Stocky also cannot simply be brought into Shopify as Shopify purchase orders.

After the August 31 shutdown, Shopify plans to leave Stocky available for viewing and exporting data for a minimum of 90 days. That gives merchants some extra time, but saving important records beforehand is still the safer option.

Where do you move from Stocky?

For some merchants, the easiest option may be to stay inside Shopify.

Shopify now handles purchase orders, suppliers, inventory transfers and inventory adjustments from the admin. If Stocky was mostly being used for these jobs, look at Shopify’s current inventory tools before adding another paid app.

Stores managing a lot of SKUs, several locations or regular supplier orders may need something more advanced.

If forecasting and replenishment are a big part of how your team works, compare dedicated inventory apps based on those specific needs. For larger operations, moving to an ERP or a broader inventory management system may be the better long term choice.

Don’t leave the migration until August 31

Start by writing down what your team actually does in Stocky.

You may find that purchase orders are used every day while some other features are hardly touched. That gives you a much clearer idea of what the replacement really needs to handle.

Next, save your records, set up the new system and put it through a few normal inventory tasks before making the full switch.

Shopify suggests reducing or stopping new Stocky purchase orders roughly two weeks before the shutdown where possible. Try to finish existing purchase orders or move them into the new process as well.

Summary

There is no single replacement that every Stocky user needs.

Stores with fairly simple inventory processes may find that Shopify now covers enough of the work on its own. Merchants with heavier forecasting, purchasing or replenishment requirements will probably want a dedicated inventory tool. Larger businesses may decide an ERP makes more sense.

The deadline is August 31, 2026.

Use the remaining time to save your Stocky records, check which features your team really depends on and make sure the next setup works before Stocky closes.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B starts at $24.99 per month and allows unlimited customers and tag groups from its Basic plan.
• Massy can be started for free if the store only needs a very small wholesale setup.
• Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B includes payment terms starting at $44.99 per month. Massy adds Net 15, 30, and 60 terms to its $129 Plus plan.
• Shopify POS wholesale pricing is available on Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B Global at $64.99 and Massy Plus at $129.
• Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B has been on the Shopify App Store since 2018, while Massy was launched in 2025.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B vs Massy B2B Wholesale Pricing: Both are built for merchants who want wholesale pricing inside an existing Shopify store.

There is quite a bit of overlap between them, but where they differ more is pricing. Massy offers merchants a free entry point, but several features are reserved for its higher plans. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B starts with a paid plan but makes some advanced B2B features available at lower monthly prices.

Here is a closer comparison.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B vs Massy: Quick Comparison

Feature	Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B	Massy
Entry price	$24.99/month	Free
Customer pricing groups	Unlimited groups on Basic	1 rule on Free; unlimited on Essential
Volume pricing	3 rules on Basic	1 rule on Free; unlimited on Essential
Registration form	Yes	Yes
Net terms	From $44.99	From $129
Shopify POS	$64.99 Global plan	$129 Plus plan
Shopify Markets	Global plan	Growth plan
Built for Shopify	Yes	Yes
Rating	4.9	5.0
Reviews	689	213

Customer-Specific Wholesale Pricing

With Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B, merchants can use Shopify customer tags and customer accounts to decide who receives wholesale prices. The $24.99 Basic plan already allows unlimited customer and tag groups. Professional, at $44.99 per month, goes further with custom pricing at the variant level.

Massy B2B Wholesale Pricing also lets merchants set prices for selected customers and products. Its limits change by plan. The free version gives you one custom pricing setup, Essential gives unlimited custom pricing rules.

Volume Pricing

On the Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B Basic plan, merchants can create up to three volume discount rules. Enterprise, priced at $49.99 per month, removes this limit and also adds more control over quantity and order-value pricing.

Massy starts with one volume pricing setup on Free. Essential plan gives unlimited volume pricing rules.

Wholesale Registration

Both apps can collect applications from potential wholesale buyers. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B Basic includes a signup form. Professional allows more control over the fields and information collected.

Massy also includes registration on Free. Its $29 Essential plan includes unlimited registration forms, along with additional tagging and order management options.

For a deeper look at the setup, see our guide to creating a wholesale registration form on Shopify.

Minimum Orders and Order Rules

Order minimums are useful when very small wholesale orders are not worth processing. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B lets merchants set minimum requirements for wholesale customer groups from the Basic plan. Enterprise adds more ways to build pricing around quantity and cart value.

Massy also supports order limits. More detailed minimum and maximum controls appear on its higher plans.

Draft Orders and the B2B Portal

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B’s Professional plan allows merchants to create manual or draft wholesale orders while keeping the relevant B2B pricing.

Massy also lists draft orders as a supported feature, although its current Shopify App Store pricing table does not specify which plan includes them. B2B Portal, however, is available in its Growth plan.

Net Payment Terms

Net Payment terms are supported by both apps, but the price point is different.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B includes Net 15, Net 30 and Net 60 terms with Professional at $44.99 per month.

For Massy, these terms are included with Plus at $129 per month.

Shipping Rules

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B’s Basic plan includes a flat wholesale shipping option. More advanced shipping controls are available from Professional.

Massy adds advanced shipping functionality on Growth, with additional options on Plus.

International Selling and Shopify Markets

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B has a separate Global plan at $64.99 per month.

It is intended for merchants selling wholesale across markets and includes multi-currency pricing, Shopify Markets integration, tax display controls and Shopify POS pricing.

Massy’s $59 Growth plan includes support for Shopify Markets. Its current plan details do not specifically mention multi-currency wholesale pricing.

Shopify POS

Merchants selling wholesale in person should also compare POS support. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B provides wholesale pricing on Shopify POS with its $64.99 Global plan.

Massy includes POS wholesale pricing with Plus at $129 per month.

The feature is available in both. The difference is mostly the plan required to get it.

App History

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B was launched on Shopify in April 2018. Massy arrived in January 2025. Both currently have Built for Shopify status.

Massy is the newer app, while Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B has a much longer history on the Shopify App Store.

Which One Makes More Sense for your store?

Massy is worth considering if:

• You only need a small setup and want to begin on a free plan.
• You want unlimited custom pricing and volume rules from the $29 Essential plan.
• A built-in B2B portal is important to you.
• You want to create several wholesale registration forms.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B is worth considering if:

• You have several wholesale customer groups.
• You need customer- or variant-specific prices.
• You need net payment terms at a lower monthly plan price.
• You need Shopify POS wholesale pricing at a lower monthly plan price.
• Multi-currency wholesale pricing is important to your international setup.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B Professional provides net terms at $44.99, while Massy requires Plus at $129. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B Global provides POS at $64.99 versus Massy Plus at $129. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B Global also explicitly lists multi-currency wholesale pricing. 

Frequently Asked Questions on Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B vs Massy B2B Wholesale Pricing

• Both Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B and Clay B2B Wholesale Pricing let Shopify merchants run retail and wholesale from the same store.
• Clay offers a free plan for stores with up to 100 SKUs. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B starts at $24.99 per month.
• Both apps can maintain wholesale pricing through the cart and checkout. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B’s Global plan is required when the buyer must also complete checkout in their local currency.
• Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B has been available since 2018 and currently has a larger review history. Clay launched in 2024 and has fewer reviews. 

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B vs Clay B2B Wholesale Pricing – Both solve many of the same Shopify wholesale problems. Both let you create separate prices for B2B buyers, manage customer groups, offer volume pricing, collect wholesale applications and keep retail pricing unchanged for regular shoppers.

The main differences are in how features are divided between plans. This comparison looks at their current features, pricing, and ideal use cases.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B vs Clay B2B Wholesale Pricing: Quick Comparison

B2B and Wholesale Pricing Options

Both apps support volume and bulk discounts, custom wholesale prices and quantity-based pricing.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B lets merchants create pricing for customer tags, individual products, collections and variants. Depending on the plan, you can also create guest discounts, wholesale discount codes, per-customer price overrides, quantity breaks and discounts based on the total value or quantity of the cart.

This gives Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B an advantage when a store has multiple wholesale agreements.

Clay’s plans are also tied to SKU limits, so a growing catalogue may need a higher plan even when the merchant only needs the same core pricing setup.

Clay B2B Wholesale Pricing separates pricing into automated and manual rules. Automated prices can be calculated from the retail price, compare-at price or product cost. Manual pricing lets the merchant upload exact prices using a spreadsheet. Clay also supports cost-plus pricing, which can be useful for businesses that calculate wholesale prices using product cost and a fixed markup.

Wholesale Registration and Customer Approval

Clay includes its wholesale registration form on the free plan. Merchants can collect documents such as tax IDs or logos, approve applicants manually or automatically, add customer tags and validate European VAT numbers through VIES.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B includes a standard signup form on the Basic plan. The Professional plan adds form customisation. Merchants can use the form to collect buyer information and automatically assign approved customers to the appropriate wholesale group.

Clay has the stronger free option for a new or smaller wholesale store. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B becomes more suitable when registration needs to connect with more advanced pricing, shipping, discount codes, or customer-specific workflows. 

International Selling, Shipping and Payment Terms

Both apps support Shopify Markets, multi-currency pricing, tax display controls and Shopify POS on their highest plans.

The price difference is notable. Wholesale Pricing Discount’s B2B Global plan costs $64.99 per month, while Clay’s Luster plan costs $99 per month.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B also provides a flat wholesale shipping rate on Basic and advanced shipping rules on Professional. Clay introduces custom shipping rates on its $49 Gloss plan. Both offer net payment terms on their mid-level plans.

Pricing Comparison

Which App Should You Choose? Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B vs Clay B2B Wholesale Pricing Compared

Clay may suit your store if:

• You want to test wholesale pricing without paying for an app.
• Your catalogue has fewer than 100 wholesale SKUs.
• You want cost-based or cost-plus pricing.
• You prefer a quick order form inside the same app and are comfortable with the $99 plan.
• Document uploads and VAT validation are important during registration.

Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B may suit your store if:

• You need more pricing rules across customers, tags, products, variants and cart totals.
• You want wholesale discount codes or pricing for customers who are not logged in.
• Your store uses several page builders, marketing apps, review apps or shipping integrations.
• You need international wholesale checkout at a lower monthly price.
• You want to combine pricing with other dedicated Wholesale Helper apps as your B2B operation grows.
• You want a more reliable app which has been in the market for longer, and a faster support for your queries.

Final Verdict on Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B vs Clay B2B Wholesale Pricing

Clay is a strong option for stores that want a free starting plan, cost-based pricing and a straightforward route into Shopify wholesale. Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B is better suited to merchants with more varied pricing agreements, discount requirements, integrations and international selling needs. It also has a longer history in the Shopify App Store and more reviews.

The right choice depends on your catalogue size and workflow. Before deciding, test customer pricing on product pages, collections, the cart, cart drawer and checkout. That is more important than choosing an app based only on its feature list.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Native Shopify B2B covers many common wholesale requirements, but feature access still varies by Shopify plan.
• Stores below Shopify Plus have fewer options for managing several pricing and product groups.
• Some checkout, delivery and recurring-order features do not work with B2B orders.
• Stores needing detailed content restrictions or more flexible wholesale workflows may still need an app.

Shopify now gives wholesale merchants a useful set of built-in B2B tools. Stores can manage business customers through companies, offer different product catalogues, set wholesale prices, apply quantity rules, and provide payment terms. However, there are certain Shopify B2B limitations. Some workflows are unavailable, some depend on the Shopify plan, and others need an app or a custom setup.

Here are eight Shopify B2B limitations merchants should consider before relying completely on Shopify’s native B2B features.

1. Catalogue Flexibility Is Limited on Lower Shopify Plans

Shopify B2B catalogues decide which products a business buyer can purchase and what prices they receive.

On Basic, Grow and Advanced, merchants can use a maximum of three active catalogue assignments across their B2B markets. This allowance is shared across markets rather than provided separately for each one.

Three catalogues may be enough for a simple setup with groups such as domestic buyers, international buyers and distributors. It becomes harder when every customer group has different pricing agreements or product access.

A merchant in that situation may need to combine buyer groups, upgrade the Shopify plan or use a Shopify wholesale pricing app with a different method of customer segmentation.

2. Accelerated Payment Options Are Unavailable at B2B Checkout

Wholesale customers cannot use accelerated checkout methods while placing a B2B order. That includes familiar options such as Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Amazon Pay. Instead, the buyer must complete the standard checkout flow using a payment method available to their company.

Still, it creates a different experience for stores that serve both retail and business customers. A customer may be able to use a digital wallet for a personal order but not when purchasing for their company.

3. Subscriptions Do Not Work With Native B2B Orders

Shopify’s standard B2B workflow does not support subscriptions.

This affects wholesalers that sell products on a recurring schedule. Buyers can view an earlier order through their account and place it again. That can make repeat purchasing easier, but it does not create an automatic order on a fixed schedule.

4. Local Delivery and Pickup Have B2B Restrictions

Shopify’s local delivery option is not available to B2B customers during normal online checkout.

A merchant can add local delivery while preparing a B2B draft order in the Shopify admin. This works for orders handled by the merchant, but not for buyers placing their own orders through the storefront.

Pickup in store can be enabled for B2B, but merchants may need to contact Shopify Support. In blended stores, enabling it can also make pickup available to retail buyers. This may be inconvenient for wholesalers that operate local delivery routes, trade counters or warehouse collection points.

5. B2B Buyers Must Use Shopify’s New Customer Accounts

Legacy customer accounts cannot be used for Shopify B2B purchases.

Business buyers must sign in through Shopify’s newer customer account system. Instead of creating and remembering a password, the buyer enters an email address and receives a one-time verification code.

A blended store may already have thousands of retail customers using the older login system. Existing account pages, theme changes and account-related apps may also have been created around legacy accounts.

6. Detailed Storefront Locking Is Not Built Into Native B2B

Shopify can show B2B prices and assigned products after an approved company customer signs in. A dedicated wholesale store can also be limited to B2B buyers. However, the native setup becomes less flexible when a merchant wants to control individual parts of the storefront.

For example, a store may want to:

• Keep product pages public but hide prices
• Restrict only selected collections
• Hide the add-to-cart button from retail visitors
• Protect a private ordering page
• Show different content to different customer groups

These rules usually need an app or custom theme logic.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B can help merchants apply access rules to individual products, collections, prices, pages and purchasing elements. This may be useful for blended stores that do not want to place the entire wholesale experience behind one general login restriction.

7. Deposits and Partial Payments Depend on Shopify Plus

Shopify B2B supports common payment terms across its eligible plans. A business customer can be given a due date instead of being required to pay immediately.

The native payment workflow becomes more limited when a merchant needs to collect only part of the order value. Features such as deposits, partial payments and fulfillment-based payment requests are reserved for Shopify Plus.

8. Large Wholesale Orders Can Reach Shopify’s Item Limits

Shopify places a ceiling on how many separate line items can appear in one order.

A completed B2B order can include up to 500 line items, while a draft order has a lower allowance of 200. A line item represents a separate product or variant entry, not the total number of units purchased.

The limit becomes relevant when a retailer orders small quantities across a very large product range. Fashion, hardware, parts and distribution businesses may have orders covering hundreds of separate SKUs.

Final Thoughts on Shopify B2B Limitations

The main question is not whether Shopify has native B2B features. It does, and the available tools now cover many everyday wholesale requirements. The better question is whether those tools match the way your customers actually order.

Before choosing a setup, list the number of buyer groups you serve, how pricing differs, which payment methods you offer, what customers should see before login and how large a normal wholesale order becomes.

This will make it easier to decide whether native Shopify B2B is enough, or whether your store also needs Shopify Plus, a wholesale app or a custom workflow.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Shopify now lets you publish or unpublish individual variants across sales channels, regional markets, and B2B catalogs.
• The parent product and the individual variant must both be published for the variant to appear.
• You can use variant publishing to show bulk packs only to B2B buyers or restrict region-specific SKUs.
• Variant publishing controls product availability. It does not replace customer-specific locks for pages, prices, or other store content.
• Newly created variants are published by default unless you change their publishing settings before saving.

Shopify released variant-level publishing on 7 May 2026. It lets merchants hide product variants by market or B2B catalogue and control where each product variant appears across sales channels. You can hide a wholesale case pack from retail shoppers or limit a country-specific SKU to the correct market without duplicating the product. 

In this quick guide, we will learn how to hide product variants by market or by B2B catalogue on your Shopify store.

What Is Variant-Level Publishing on Shopify?

A product may contain several sizes, colours, pack quantities, or regional versions. Variant-level publishing controls which options a buyer can see.

For example, one coffee product could contain a 250-gram bag, a 1-kilogram bag, and a 12-pack case. The smaller packs can remain available to retail customers while the case pack appears only to B2B buyers.

An unpublished variant is hidden from the selected channel or catalogue. This is different from an out-of-stock variant, which may still appear on the product page. 

Where Can You Control Variant Availability?

Shopify can apply variant publishing across three main types of selling contexts.

These controls can work together. For example, a wholesale case pack may need to be published to the Online Store sales channel and a specific B2B catalogue. If the variant is unpublished from either required context, the buyer will not see it.

Steps to Hide Product Variants by Market or B2B Catalogue on Shopify

How to Hide Product Variants by Market on Shopify

Use regional catalogues to keep a variant out of a specific market. For example, a UK plug can appear in the United Kingdom while a US plug is shown in the United States.

1. Open Products in your Shopify admin.
2. Select the product you want to update.
3. In Variants, click All or the publishing icons beside the variant.
4. In Manage publishing, find the relevant Region catalogs.

5. Deselect the market catalogue where the variant should be hidden.

6. Click Done, then Save.

The parent product must remain published to the required channel and market. If every variant is unpublished from a catalogue, the complete product is hidden there. 

How to Hide Product Variants by B2B Catalogue on Shopify

A common setup is to sell single units to retail customers and cartons of 12 or 24 to wholesale buyers.

1. Publish the parent product to the Online Store and required B2B catalogue.
2. Open Manage publishing for the wholesale case-pack variant.
3. Unpublish it from the Region catalogs used by retail customers.
4. Publish it to the appropriate B2B catalog.
5. Log in with a B2B account and confirm that it appears.

The buyer must belong to a company location or B2B market that can access the selected catalogue.

Basic, Grow, and Advanced stores can assign up to three active catalogues across their B2B markets. Shopify Plus supports unlimited B2B market catalogues and direct assignment to company locations. 

Variant Publishing vs Locking Store Content

Variant publishing controls where a product option is available. It does not provide complete customer-based access control across your storefront.

You may still need another setup if you want to:

• Hide product prices until a customer logs in
• Lock a collection or page
• Restrict content using customer tags
• Hide the add-to-cart button
• Create an application and approval process
• Show different store content to different customer groups

For these requirements, Shopify’s publishing controls may need to be combined with a private wholesale area or an access-control app.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B can hide products, collections, prices, pages, or purchase buttons based on login status and customer tags. This is useful when the restriction goes beyond the availability of one product variant.

Summary

Shopify variant-level publishing gives wholesale stores better control over individual SKUs without requiring duplicate products or theme workarounds.

You can use it to hide wholesale case packs from retail buyers, limit regional variants, prepare new SKUs, or offer channel-specific product options. The main product and the variant must both be published to the correct context, so testing each buyer and market experience is important.

For stores that also need private pricing, locked pages, customer-tag access, or approval workflows, variant publishing can be combined with a broader wholesale access-control setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Wholesale orders usually have lower handling costs per unit, but they introduce freight, EDI, labeling, pallet preparation, and retailer compliance costs.
• Retailer chargebacks can quickly reduce your margin when shipments arrive late, use the wrong labels, or fail to follow routing guides.
• Parcel shipping may work for smaller wholesale orders, while larger shipments are often cheaper and safer to send through LTL freight.
• Wholesale pricing should be based on landed cost, fulfillment, shipping, chargebacks, and other channel costs instead of a standard discount from retail.
• Before choosing a 3PL, check whether it has experience with EDI, retailer routing guides, pallet shipments, and compliance requirements.

Landing your first big wholesale order feels like a milestone. And it should, because it’s a big deal. It means a retailer wants your product on their shelves, and their quantities are bigger than anything you’ve likely ever shipped direct-to-consumer. The revenue looks great on paper, too, which never hurts.

Then you read the purchase order. There’s a lot of fine print.

You need to make sure pallets are stacked in certain ways. Barcodes need to be on every carton. And you might need to send an advance ship notice in a format you’ve never heard of. In short, you have to keep fulfillment costs in check.

This is when DTC brands discover that wholesale fulfillment plays by different rules. The systems and the shipping and the cost structure that got you here won’t necessarily carry over. Wholesale, after all, isn’t just “DTC but bigger.” It’s an entirely different way to ship and to sell. If you price it like your DTC business, fulfillment costs can eat away at the margin you thought you were adding.

That’s the failure mode, though. Here’s what you can do to prevent that from happening.

Also read: Shopify Wholesale Guide (2026): Pricing, Discounts, and B2B Setup

Why wholesale breaks DTC fulfillment math

Direct-to-consumer fulfillment is a volume game at the level of individual purchases. You ship a constant stream of small, single-unit orders in branded packaging to hundreds or thousands of separate addresses. Wholesale is an entirely different profile: fewer orders, far larger quantities, packed in cartons or on pallets, headed to a handful of retailers or distributors.

For the most part, DTC orders cost more than wholesale orders, at least when you divide by the number of items involved. Every order carries its own pick and pack fees, branded box, and a return rate that seems to climb every day. Wholesale orders trade that for different costs: pallet building and wrapping, freight coordination, and retailer compliance requirements. So you can’t compare apples to apples.

This naturally impacts the margins, and it’s why DTC channels usually need higher gross margins to survive. Customer acquisition cost, returns, and per-order handling all compound at the unit level. Wholesale comes with lower operating costs per unit thanks to bulk handling and predictable order patterns. A lower gross margin can be just fine here if you are properly accounting for the new costs.

The stakes per order also go up in wholesale. In DTC, a bad shipment annoys one customer. You might see one bad review. In wholesale, fewer transactions hold more weight. Missing one ship window is not a huge problem in DTC, but in wholesale, it can keep you off the shelves for an entire season.

Hidden costs that can erode wholesale margin (if you don’t know about them)

DTC brand owners are savvy. You have to be to build a brand or manage one. So they already price in storage and labor. What’s harder to price in is retail compliance costs, in part because they’re not as legible to those operating outside of that world.

Most retailers have detailed routing guides that dictate how shipments must arrive. They will specify which carriers to use, how to schedule delivery appointments, how to configure pallets, and what load standards to meet. Each retailer sets its own requirements, and they can change at any time. Deviating from the rules can lead to penalties. You can’t just FedEx stock to Macy’s.

Most major retailers require full electronic data interchange (EDI) capability. The advance ship notice, the EDI 856 that tells the distribution center what’s arriving before the truck shows up, is one of the most common places brands trip up. If you’ve never set up EDI, budget time and money for it before your first PO ships. There’s a learning curve.

Retailers want specific label and bar code formats, GS1-128 barcodes carrying an SSCC on every carton and pallet, and exact placement. A label in the wrong spot or a barcode that won’t scan counts as a violation even if the product inside is otherwise perfect. This is retail-compliant kitting and assembly work that most DTC operations have simply never had to do. 

Chargebacks are also an issue, and they play out differently than DTC. When a shipment doesn’t meet retailer requirements, they deduct a penalty from the invoice. Industry estimates show that this happens to between 5–15% of manufacturer invoices. These deductions can add up to 2–10% of a manufacturer’s total revenue.

Individual penalties, much like tolls on roads, sound small until they stack up. A missed delivery window can cost around a 3% deduction. A mislabeled carton can run $7 to $10 per box. Walmart’s on-time, in-full penalty alone is 3% of the cost of goods on non-compliant cases. For a brand shipping $10 million per year into retail, even a chargeback rate of 2% is roughly $200,000 in avoidable losses. And that’s straight out of the margin.

Parcel vs. freight: how shipping economics change with scale

In DTC, shipping is simple: nearly everything goes parcel through UPS, FedEx, or USPS. Wholesale gives you an entirely new decision to make: freight or parcel.

The rough dividing line is weight and packaging. Parcel carriers handle shipments up to about 150 pounds and price them on dimensional weight. That means they account for the size of the box, not just its weight. Once you’re moving 150 pounds or more on pallets, you’re doing less-than-truckload (LTL) freight, which is priced on freight class and density. That’s an entirely different kind of shipping. That works in your favor, in fact, because LTL is typically 30–65% cheaper per pound than shipping the same goods as parcels.

Once you have around four or five cases going to a destination, it’s usually time to stop shipping loose boxes and put them on a pallet. This is where LTL starts to pay off. It’s at least worth getting a quote.

But there is a catch: accessorial fees. These can take the savings away if you’re not careful. A liftgate can add $50 to $150 per shipment. If you’re not careful about commercial versus residential delivery, that could lead to surcharges as well. When a shipment is near the line between parcel and freight, the right move is to quote it both ways and compare the total, accessorials included. This is where having a partner versed in freight and customs can help a great deal.

There’s also a compliance bonus to freight that is easy to miss if you’re not familiar with wholesale. Namely, shrink-wrapped pallets go through far fewer handling touches than a dozen loose boxes. That lowers the damage rate and the chargebacks that can come from the retailer as a result.

For most brands, you’ll probably end up splitting parcel for DTC orders and LTL or full truckload (FTL) for wholesale replenishment. Brands that split by order type instead of forcing everything onto one mode tend to save somewhere in the range of 12–22% on total transportation cost.

Baking fulfillment cost into wholesale pricing

It’s very easy to set your wholesale price as a flat discount off retail. But it’s far better to set your price based on your true cost to serve.

The first thing you need to know is your landed cost per unit. Add freight, duties, customs brokerage, insurance, port and handling fees, and domestic freight to the warehouse. That landed figure often runs 15–30% above the invoice price.

Tracking landed cost this way gets difficult in a spreadsheet once duties, brokerage, and inbound freight vary by purchase order. Connected purchasing and inventory systems handle that math per SKU instead of per shipment. If you are weighing options, this breakdown of supply chain management tools covers what to look for before you commit.”

Then keep going, because landed cost isn’t the cost to sell. You also need to consider your per-unit fulfillment cost (picking, packing, shipping) plus any channel-specific fees. If you’re not sure what that per-unit number is for wholesale orders, here’s an in-depth breakdown on how to estimate fulfillment cost. 

As you do this, you’ll find it helps to think about contribution margin by channel rather than a blanket discount for wholesale. For each channel, take your revenue and subtract landed cost, fulfillment and shipping, platform and payment fees, returns, and channel-specific costs like chargebacks and co-op. DTC and wholesale will end up in very different places, and that’s the point. You want to see the difference, as clear as you possibly can, before you make hard commitments.

To that, add a couple of wholesale-specific line items you’ll want to consider. Build in a chargeback buffer of around 5%. If you run a tight ship, your chargebacks might be more like 1–2%, but new brands can easily see 6–10%. And also budget for co-op or marketing development funds, which some retailers expect around 2–5% of revenue.

This is the same logic that says a company’s marketing budget should be set from its unit economics. Your wholesale price is downstream of all your real costs tallied up. If a SKU cannot clear your target margin with all the costs factored in, it’s better to know that early. It means you can raise the minimum order quantity, adjust the discount, or change freight terms. You can also keep it DTC-only if that’s the only way to make the economics work. Not every item needs to go to wholesale, after all.

In-house vs. 3PL fulfillment for wholesale

Once you have a sense of true cost, the last question is: who does the work? For wholesale, that decision comes down to three capabilities most DTC operations were never built for: EDI, retail compliance, and freight.

A single retail account at moderate volume is often manageable in-house. You can learn one routing guide, set up EDI, and stay on top of the retailer’s rules. But once you start adding second and third retailers, it gets harder. The workload compounds, and your attention is increasingly split.

If you outsource to a third-party logistics provider (3PL), bear this in mind: the 3PL will control the operations that decide if you’re compliant. If they mess up, it’s still your penalty to pay. That means any fulfillment partner you choose needs to have retail-compliance experience. Chargebacks can easily wipe out the savings from a lower rate. As you’re evaluating partners and looking for all the usual red flags before committing, make sure you also check for evidence of retail capabilities.

A gut-check before you say “yes” to wholesale

Before you accept a big purchase order, run your numbers and then run through this checklist:

• Do you know your landed cost per unit?
• Have you calculated contribution margin separately for wholesale and DTC?
• Do you have a chargeback buffer built into your wholesale price?
• Are you mode-splitting on shipping?
• Can you meet the EDI, advance-ship-notice, and labeling requirements for the retailers you’re targeting?
• Who owns routing-guide compliance?

If you have clean answers to these questions, wholesale can be an amazing channel for you. And you’ll be able to truly enjoy the steadier orders, bigger volumes, and lower per-unit handling costs.

Final Thoughts

Wholesale isn’t DTCx100. It’s a different kind of channel entirely with its own routing guides, freight, EDI, and chargebacks built into it from order number one.

If you price in fulfillment early, you’re a lot more likely to keep your margin. And it’s here that it helps to do the math before you sign so that shelf space stays profitable.

Thinking about the jump into wholesale and want the physical side handled by a US-based team? Fulfillrite has spent over a decade shipping for product brands so the operations don’t become the thing that eats your margin. Get a custom quote and we’ll help you figure out what wholesale-ready fulfillment looks like for your catalog. 

Frequently Asked Questions

• Locksmith vs Wholesale Lock Manager B2B by Wholesale Helper – Both access management apps on Shopify help merchants control their storefront visibility.
• Locksmith is best for stores that need broad, flexible access rules across different use cases and not only wholesale. Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is better suited for Shopify stores that need wholesale-specific access control.
• If your main goal is setup login to view price, hiding add-to-cart, locking wholesale collections, or running retail and wholesale from one store, Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is usually the cleaner choice. Locksmith may be better if you need advanced custom rules using Liquid, API-based logic, geolocation, purchase history, or date-based access.
• Native Shopify B2B can help with company accounts, catalogs, product availability, and B2B pricing, but many stores still use access control apps when they need more storefront-level visibility rules.

Access control becomes important on Shopify when different customers should not see the same things. For a wholesale store, that can mean keeping wholesale prices away from public visitors. It can also mean showing certain products only to approved buyers, hiding add-to-cart buttons until login, or keeping dealer resources private. Two apps that often come up for this are Locksmith and Wholesale Lock Manager B2B.

Locksmith vs Wholesale Lock Manager B2B: Quick Comparison

Let us quickly compare the two apps. Locksmith vs Wholesale Lock Manager B2B.

What Locksmith Does

Locksmith is a flexible Shopify lock app built for broad access control.

It can restrict products, collections, pages, prices, variant options, or even the full storefront. Access can be opened through rules such as customer tags, email addresses, passcodes, secret links, customer location, purchase history, date and time, Liquid logic, or API-based conditions. That makes Locksmith useful beyond wholesale.

A merchant may use it for a members-only collection. Another may use it for a private product launch. A store may want to open certain products only in selected regions. A developer may want more control over how access rules are written.

That flexibility is the main reason merchants choose Locksmith.

The tradeoff is that wholesale merchants may not always need that level of control. If the job is simply to hide wholesale prices, restrict B2B collections, or show pages/prices only after login, a wholesale-focused app can feel more direct.

What Wholesale Lock Manager B2B Does

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is built around the type of storefront restrictions B2B merchants usually need.

It helps Shopify stores lock products, collections, pages, URLs, prices, add-to-cart buttons, and the full storefront. Access can be controlled using customer tags, login status, email, passcodes, or hidden links. This fits many wholesale setups.

For example, a store may want retail shoppers to browse the public catalog while approved dealers see extra products after login. Another store may want to show product details publicly but keep prices hidden until a buyer signs in.

Some merchants also use it to protect distributor pages, reseller resources, wholesale-only collections, or private B2B URLs.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is not trying to cover every access control use case. It is more focused than that. Its strength is that it solves the visibility problems wholesale merchants usually run into.

Where Wholesale Lock Manager B2B Wins

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is the stronger fit when the store is actually a wholesale or mixed retail and B2B store. Price visibility is where the difference becomes easiest to understand.

Many wholesale merchants do not want everyone to see B2B pricing. They want buyers to apply, get approved, log in, and then view prices. This is one of the core workflows Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is designed to support.

It is also useful when certain collections should stay invisible until the right buyer logs in. For example, a merchant may have a public retail collection and a private dealer collection inside the same store. Retail shoppers see the normal catalogue. Approved wholesale buyers see the additional B2B products after logging in. That setup is common because many brands do not want to run two separate Shopify stores.

The app also works well when customer tags are already part of the wholesale workflow. Tags like “wholesale,” “dealer,” “distributor,” or “VIP” can decide which customers get access.

Where Locksmith Wins

Locksmith is better when the access rules are more custom. For example, a merchant may want a product page to open only for visitors in selected regions, or make a collection available only during a launch window.

Another store may want to give access through a secret link. Another may want to unlock content based on purchase history. A developer may want to build custom rules using Liquid or an API.

These are not always wholesale problems. They are broader access control problems. That is where Locksmith has an advantage. It gives merchants more ways to build unusual rules and edge-case workflows.

So Locksmith wins for flexibility. Wholesale Lock Manager B2B wins when the access problem is mostly about wholesale visibility.

Hiding prices: which app is a better fit?

For wholesale stores or wholesale+B2C stores, Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is usually the better fit.

Hiding prices is not just about removing a number from the product page. It changes the buying flow because customers cannot compare prices, add products, or place orders until they meet the access rule.

Some merchants want public visitors to request access before seeing prices. Some want only approved accounts to view B2B rates. Some want the add-to-cart button hidden until a buyer logs in. Wholesale Lock Manager B2B handles these needs directly.

Locksmith can also help with price hiding, but it is a broader tool. If price visibility is part of a wholesale setup, WLM feels closer to the actual workflow.

Locking Products and Collections

Both apps can lock products and collections. The right app depends less on the locked item and more on the reason behind the lock.

If the product is locked for a private campaign, early-access drop, or location-based launch, Locksmith may be the better option. If the product is locked because only approved wholesale buyers should see it, Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is the cleaner fit.

Passwords, Private Links, and Hidden Pages

Both apps can be useful when you want to password protect content or share private links. Locksmith is better when the private access flow has several conditions. For example, a secret link plus a time window plus customer location.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is better when the private content belongs to the wholesale buyer journey. That could be a dealer resource page, a private collection, a reseller page, or a B2B-only product list.

Since both apps can restrict content, the useful comparison is about which workflow feels easier to manage. If the content is tied to wholesale access, Wholesale Lock Manager B2B usually makes more sense.

Retail and Wholesale on One Shopify Store

A lot of Shopify brands do not want a separate wholesale store. A second store can mean more theme work, more reporting issues, more product updates, and more confusion for the team. A single store is easier to manage, but only if access is set up properly.

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B helps merchants separate what retail shoppers and wholesale buyers can see. Retail visitors can still browse the public storefront. Approved B2B buyers can log in and see private products, collections, prices, pages, or buttons meant for them.

Locksmith can also support a mixed-store setup, but Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is built closer to how wholesale teams usually think about access.

What About Shopify Native B2B?

Shopify’s native B2B features can help merchants manage company accounts, catalogUEs, product availability, pricing, payment terms, and checkout rules. That is important. If a merchant is building a serious B2B setup, native Shopify B2B should be part of the conversation.

But native B2B and access control apps are not exactly the same thing. Native B2B helps define what company buyers can access and how they buy. Access control apps help manage storefront visibility, especially around what visitors can see before or after login.

For example, you may still want to hide prices from logged-out visitors. Or lock a public URL. Or hide add-to-cart buttons. Or keep a wholesale resource page private. That is where an app like Wholesale Lock Manager B2B can still be useful. Some stores may use native Shopify B2B and Wholesale Lock Manager B2B together.

Pricing and Value

Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is usually easier to justify when the store mainly needs wholesale access control. It covers the core use cases many B2B merchants care about without forcing them into a more complex rule setup.

Locksmith costs more on its listed entry plan, but it also offers broader flexibility. That can be worth it if your store needs custom conditions, developer logic, or access rules outside wholesale.

Simple Decision Table – Locksmith vs Wholesale Lock Manager B2B

Which App Should You Choose?

Choose Locksmith if you need flexible access control for different types of restricted content. It is a good fit for stores that need rules based on location, purchase history, date, time, secret links, or custom developer logic.

Choose Wholesale Lock Manager B2B if you need access control for a wholesale store. It is a better fit if you want to hide prices, lock wholesale collections, hide add-to-cart buttons, restrict B2B pages, or show private products only to approved buyers.

For a typical Shopify wholesale store, WLM is the more focused choice.

Final Verdict on Locksmith vs Wholesale Lock Manager B2B

Locksmith is the stronger general access control app. Wholesale Lock Manager B2B is the stronger wholesale access control app. That distinction matters.

A store running memberships, private launches, restricted drops, or complex access rules may prefer Locksmith. A wholesale store that wants to control pricing visibility, product access, collection access, and B2B-only content will usually be better served by Wholesale Lock Manager B2B.

So the winner depends on the use case.For flexibility, Locksmith wins. For wholesale, Wholesale Lock Manager B2B wins.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Shopify is generally easier to launch and maintain because hosting, security, checkout, platform updates, and core B2B tools are managed in one system. WooCommerce offers more control over hosting, code, pricing logic, registration forms, user roles, and custom wholesale workflows.
• Shopify Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans support native company profiles, payment terms, volume pricing, vaulted cards, and up to three active B2B catalogues. WooCommerce does not include a complete wholesale system by default. Most stores need one or more wholesale extensions.
• WooCommerce can be cheaper for a simple setup, but hosting, premium plugins, development, security, and maintenance should be included in the total cost.
• Shopify is usually the better option for merchants who want a predictable and easier-to-manage setup. WooCommerce may suit businesses that already use WordPress and have technical resources available.

Shopify B2B and WooCommerce can both support wholesale selling, but they approach it very differently.

Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform with native B2B features, a managed checkout, and an app ecosystem for additional wholesale workflows. WooCommerce is an open-source WordPress plugin that gives merchants more control, but wholesale functionality usually needs to be added through extensions or custom development.

The right option depends on how much flexibility you need, how comfortable your team is with technical maintenance, and whether you want your wholesale tools built into the platform or assembled separately. So let’s start this comparison guide on Shopify B2B vs WooCommerce Wholesale.

Shopify B2B vs WooCommerce Wholesale: Quick Comparison

What Is Shopify B2B?

Shopify B2B is Shopify’s native system for selling to business buyers.

Merchants can create companies and company locations, assign B2B customers, control product availability, offer wholesale prices, set payment terms, collect purchase order numbers, and allow buyers to reorder through their customer accounts.

Shopify can support a dedicated wholesale store or a blended store that serves retail and wholesale customers from the same backend.

Basic, Grow, and Advanced stores can assign up to three active B2B catalogues across their B2B markets. Shopify Plus supports unlimited catalogues and lets merchants assign catalogues directly to individual companies and company locations.

Shopify Plus also retains certain advanced features, including customer-specific deposits and partial payments.

What Is WooCommerce Wholesale?

WooCommerce is an e-commerce plugin for WordPress. The core WooCommerce plugin supports products, orders, checkout, inventory, payments, taxes, and shipping, but it does not provide a complete wholesale system by default. Merchants normally add wholesale capabilities through extensions.

Depending on the extension, a WooCommerce wholesale store may support:

• Different prices for different user roles
• Tiered and quantity-based pricing
• Wholesale registration forms
• Manual customer approval
• Hidden prices and products
• Quote requests
• Minimum order requirements
• Private wholesale areas
• Role-specific shipping and payment methods
• Bulk order forms
• Tax exemption workflows

This gives merchants considerable flexibility. It also means the quality and reliability of the wholesale setup depend on the plugins, theme, hosting provider, and custom code being used.

There is no single standard version of “WooCommerce Wholesale.” Two WooCommerce stores can use completely different plugins and workflows while both being described as wholesale stores.

Which is better? Shopify B2B vs WooCommerce Wholesale

1. Setup and Ease of Management

Shopify is usually easier to set up, especially for merchants who do not have an internal developer.

Hosting, SSL, checkout, platform updates, payment integrations, security infrastructure, and the main e-commerce admin are included in the platform. Native B2B tools also sit inside the same Shopify admin used for products, customers, orders, discounts, and analytics.

WooCommerce requires more separate decisions.

You need a WordPress website, hosting, a compatible theme, WooCommerce, payment integrations, and one or more wholesale plugins. You may also need tools for backups, security, caching, email delivery, spam prevention, and performance monitoring.

This is not necessarily a disadvantage for experienced WordPress teams. It gives them control over every part of the store. For merchants without technical support, however, it can create more work and more opportunities for plugin conflicts.

Winner for ease of management: Shopify

2. Wholesale Pricing and Product Catalogues

Shopify B2B uses catalogues to control the products and prices available to business buyers. Merchants can set custom product prices, percentage-based adjustments, quantity rules, and volume price breaks.

For stores with a few broad customer groups, this can cover the main requirements without another wholesale pricing tool.

The limitation becomes more noticeable when a business has many buyer groups, negotiated customer prices, or separate pricing structures for different locations.

Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans share a limit of three active B2B catalogues across all B2B markets. Directly assigning a catalogue to a particular company or company location requires Shopify Plus.

WooCommerce pricing is normally controlled through user roles and plugin rules. Depending on the extension, merchants may be able to set:

• A fixed price for each wholesale role
• Percentage discounts by category
• Customer level prices
• Different prices for product variations
• Cart total discounts
• Quantity-based price breaks
• Minimum and maximum order quantities

WooCommerce may provide more pricing flexibility, but only when the selected plugin supports the required rules. Merchants should check compatibility before building their pricing structure around a particular extension.

Winner for structured native pricing: Shopify

Winner for highly customized pricing logic: WooCommerce

3. Wholesale Customer Management

Shopify has a clear B2B customer structure built around companies and company locations.

A company can have multiple locations, buyers, shipping addresses, payment terms, tax settings, catalogues, and contact permissions. This is useful when one business customer operates several branches or allows multiple employees to place orders.

WooCommerce normally manages wholesale customers through WordPress user roles. A plugin may create roles such as wholesaler, distributor, dealer, gold customer, or trade buyer.

This system is flexible and familiar to WordPress developers. However, it does not provide the same standardized company and location structure unless a plugin or custom build adds it.

For straightforward customer tiers, WooCommerce roles can work well. For businesses that need several buyers and locations under one company account, Shopify’s native model is generally easier to manage.

Winner for company account management: Shopify

4. Registration and Customer Approval

Shopify supports company account request forms that let potential buyers apply for B2B access. Merchants can collect business information before creating or approving a company account.

Shopify wholesale apps can add more control when a business needs longer forms, document uploads, custom approval rules, customer tagging, or different application flows.

WooCommerce wholesale extensions often include detailed registration forms and manual approval. Merchants can add business fields, assign approved customers to user roles, request tax information, or collect supporting documents.

WooCommerce can be more flexible here, especially when the business has an unusual application process. The trade-off is that the entire workflow depends on the selected plugin.

Winner for flexible registration forms: WooCommerce

Winner for a simpler native company setup: Shopify

5. Bulk Ordering and Reordering

Wholesale customers often know exactly what they want to buy. Opening individual product pages for every SKU can make a large order unnecessarily slow.

Shopify B2B customers can view their order history and duplicate previous orders through customer accounts. Shopify also supports quick order lists that let buyers add multiple variants of a product from its product page.

A full catalogue order form, where buyers can search and add several different products from one page, will normally require an app.

For example, the WSH Order Form & ReOrder app can add a single-page ordering experience for buyers who regularly purchase multiple products or repeat previous orders on your Shopify wholesale store.

WooCommerce can also support bulk order forms, requisition lists, saved lists, and repeat orders through wholesale plugins. The exact buyer experience will depend on the extension and theme.

Both platforms can provide a good wholesale ordering flow. Shopify offers a more standardized account and checkout experience, while WooCommerce gives developers more freedom to change how the order form works.

6. Payment Terms, Purchase Orders and Quotes

Shopify B2B supports payment terms at the company location level. Merchants can also collect purchase order numbers, create draft orders, send invoices, and require certain orders to be submitted as drafts for review.

Customer-specific deposits and partial B2B payments remain Shopify Plus features.

A formal request-a-quote system is not a standard part of the core Shopify B2B experience. Merchants that negotiate prices before confirming orders may need an app or custom workflow.

WooCommerce can offer invoice payments, delayed payment methods, quotes, payment restrictions, and role-specific gateways through extensions.

This can make WooCommerce attractive for businesses with unusual payment or quote processes. However, these features may come from different plugin developers and may not always work as one connected system.

Winner for built-in payment terms and purchase order workflows: Shopify

Winner for custom quote workflows: WooCommerce

7. Store Customization and Technical Control

WooCommerce gives merchants full access to their WordPress files, database, hosting environment, themes, templates, and plugin code.

A development team can build a highly specific wholesale experience without being limited by a hosted platform. WooCommerce can also connect with a wide range of payment providers, ERP systems, warehouse tools, and custom databases.

The downside is that every customization becomes something the business must maintain.

Shopify places more boundaries around the platform, particularly around checkout and backend infrastructure. However, it provides themes, apps, APIs, Shopify Functions, customer account extensions, and other tools for customizing B2B workflows.

For most merchants, Shopify offers enough flexibility without requiring them to maintain the core platform. Businesses with highly unusual requirements may still prefer the control WooCommerce provides.

Winner for complete technical control: WooCommerce

Winner for customization with less maintenance: Shopify

8. Security, Updates and Store Performance

Shopify manages the e-commerce hosting environment and provides PCI-compliant infrastructure for its stores. Platform updates are handled centrally, so merchants do not need to update Shopify itself or manage a server.

Apps and themes still need to be selected carefully, but the main infrastructure is managed by Shopify.

With WooCommerce, the merchant and hosting provider are responsible for keeping WordPress, WooCommerce, PHP, themes, and plugins updated. Regular backups and testing are important because an update to one extension can sometimes affect another part of the store.

WooCommerce can support large and complex businesses when it has strong hosting and experienced technical management. Poor hosting or an overloaded plugin stack can create performance and reliability problems.

Winner for lower technical maintenance: Shopify

9. Shopify B2B vs WooCommerce Wholesale Cost

Shopify has a clear monthly platform subscription. Additional costs may include themes, apps, payment processing, custom development, or a Shopify Plus subscription for more advanced requirements.

The cost is usually easier to predict because hosting and the main ecommerce infrastructure are included.

WooCommerce itself is free and open source, but a functioning wholesale store may still need:

• Web hosting
• A domain
• Premium wholesale plugins
• A paid theme
• Backup and security tools
• Performance optimization
• Developer support
• Ongoing maintenance

A simple WooCommerce store can cost less than Shopify. A heavily customized wholesale store may become more expensive once development and maintenance are included.

The better comparison is total cost of ownership, not just the platform fee.

Can Shopify Apps Close the Flexibility Gap?

Shopify’s native B2B features now cover many standard wholesale requirements. Apps remain useful when a merchant needs workflows that do not fit neatly inside the native company and catalogue structure. Shopify B2B apps like Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B, Sparklayer, BSS B2B Solution, and Wholesale Gorilla significantly help elevate your storefront experience and also close this flexibility gap for your wholesale customers.

Which Platform Should You Choose?

Choose Shopify B2B when:

• You want hosting, checkout, security, and platform updates managed for you.
• Your team does not want to maintain WordPress and multiple plugins.
• You need company profiles, company locations, payment terms, catalogues, purchase order numbers, and reordering in one system.
• You sell both retail and wholesale from the same store.
• You want predictable platform behaviour and a large app ecosystem.
• You are comfortable using apps when native features do not cover a workflow.

Choose WooCommerce Wholesale when:

• You already operate a successful WordPress or WooCommerce store.
• You have reliable WordPress developers or an agency.
• You need complete control over hosting, code, database access, and checkout logic.
• Your wholesale workflow requires detailed user roles, custom forms, unusual pricing rules, or quote processes.
• You are prepared to manage updates, compatibility, performance, backups, and security.
• Migrating away from your existing WooCommerce setup would create more work than improving it.

Final Summary

Shopify B2B is the better choice for most merchants who want to launch or grow wholesale without taking on additional technical maintenance.

Its native B2B features now cover company accounts, catalogues, volume pricing, quantity rules, payment terms, purchase order numbers, and reordering across Shopify’s paid plans. Apps can fill gaps such as advanced pricing, private product access, and full catalogue order forms.

WooCommerce Wholesale remains a strong option for businesses that already use WordPress or need complete technical control. It can support highly customized wholesale operations, but the business must take greater responsibility for hosting, plugins, updates, security, and development.

Do not migrate an established WooCommerce store only because Shopify appears easier. Likewise, do not choose WooCommerce only because its core plugin is free. Compare the complete wholesale workflow, the technical resources available to your team, and the long-term cost of maintaining the store.

Frequently Asked Questions