Wholesale buyers do not shop like retail customers. They reorder, they negotiate, they expect their own prices and they often want an invoice, not a card payment. A retail store with a password bolted on does not serve them.
What a B2B store needs
Approved trade accounts
Buyers apply, you approve. Until then, visitors see retail. After approval they see trade pricing and terms. That keeps wholesale prices off public view and keeps you in control of who gets them.
Customer-group pricing
Different buyers get different prices: a distributor tier, a reseller tier, a volume tier. Price lists attach to customer groups, with volume breaks where it makes sense. Nobody needs to email you for "the price list" again.
Quote and RFQ requests
Large or custom orders start with a quote. Buyers build a cart, request a quote, and you respond with a priced order they can accept. This replaces the back-and-forth of email spreadsheets.
Net terms and tax handling
Show payment terms clearly, and handle tax-exempt buyers properly, so your team is not correcting orders by hand.
Why this is hard to bolt onto a retail platform
On some hosted platforms, B2B functionality depends on higher plans or additional paid apps, and the pieces need to work together. That is workable, but it adds recurring cost and moving parts. We hear this often from merchants considering leaving Shopify or BigCommerce.
Our Growth package builds all of the above as part of the store. There is a live demo with trade login, volume pricing and personal quotations, so you can see how it feels from the buyer's side before committing.
Retail and wholesale in one store
You do not always need two sites. Retail visitors see retail prices and a normal checkout; approved trade buyers see their pricing, terms and the quote workflow. One catalogue, one admin, two experiences.
Make reordering effortless
The most valuable B2B feature is boring: let a buyer reorder what they bought last time in two clicks. When you plan your build, think about the ten products that make up most of your repeat orders and design around them.
Practical advice before you build
- Write down your price tiers and who belongs in each.
- Decide who approves trade accounts and how fast.
- List the documents buyers ask for: spec sheets, safety data, certificates.
- Be clear about minimum order quantities and lead times.
Add an AI assistant for technical catalogues
Wholesale catalogues are often large and technical. An AI store agent can help a buyer find the right part from a plain-language description. See what agentic commerce does.
Ready to look closer? See the Growth package.