Shopify wholesale portal: what you get natively and what a tag-based portal adds

Short answer: Shopify B2B gives buyers a login tied to a company location, with catalog pricing. BTB gives a portal-like experience on your retail storefront. You tag a customer wholesale, and that customer sees wholesale prices and ordering tools. No Company records are needed. The two work together.

What a wholesale portal needs

Four things, whichever route you take:

1. Login. Trade buyers sign in so the store knows who they are.
2. Wholesale prices visible only to those buyers.
3. Ordering tools that suit repeat, multi-product orders.
4. Access control over what guests can see.

The native route: Shopify B2B

Per Shopify’s help center, B2B is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, not on Starter or Retail. Buyers must be set up as companies. Pricing, currency, products, payment and shipping methods can be tailored per company. B2B and D2C can run in one store or in a separate B2B-only store.

How login works, per Shopify’s login docs:

• Customer accounts must be activated. Legacy customer accounts can’t be used for B2B.
• Buyers sign in with the email tied to their company location and a one-time code. There is no password.
• A customer who is not signed in, or not linked to a company location, is treated as D2C.
• Signed-in buyers see order history, location details, saved payment methods, tracking, reorders and returns.

By default the store is public, and only logged-in B2B customers see B2B pricing. On a dedicated B2B store you can restrict access to logged-in B2B customers, but restricted access does not redirect visitors to a sign-in page. See Shopify B2B plans and features.

If you want order history, company locations or net payment terms, use Shopify B2B. BTB doesn’t offer those.

The tag-based route with BTB

BTB works on your existing retail storefront. A customer tag is the only thing that makes someone a wholesale buyer.

• Store Lock: hide prices, or prices and Add to Cart, from guests. Unlock by login or passcode, scoped per page type.
• Wholesale Pricing: prices that apply to customers with the wholesale tag.
• Quick Order Form: multi-product ordering. Shopify’s own Quick order list covers one product’s variants at a time.
• Request a Quote: a storefront form for buyers who need a custom price. Submissions land in your admin inbox.

Store Lock masks prices visually. It is not a hard security paywall. For the trade-offs, see how to lock a Shopify store.

Which to choose

You can use both. Shopify B2B handles Company records and payment terms. BTB adds tag targeting and the storefront workflows Shopify doesn’t ship.

Set it up with BTB

1. Tag your buyers. Add wholesale to approved customers in Shopify admin.
2. Set prices and lock the store. Create a Wholesale Pricing rule targeting the tag. Turn on Store Lock for the pages where prices appear.
3. Add ordering tools. Enable the Quick Order Form, and a Request a Quote button for guests.

See BTB pricing.