Shopify has invested heavily in wholesale or B2B e-shop functionality over the past few years. The Plus version of the platform already includes several solutions necessary to create a functioning wholesale ordering environment.
We have created several Shopify Plus package-based wholesale environment for both Estonian and foreign customers. We will try to give a brief overview of what Shopify currently offers in the B2B segment and what is being asked for.
Shopify Plus includes the following specific requirements for a B2B e-commerce store:
Customer and customer group-based product pricing
Shopify allows you to create product bundles and assign them to either automatically lower the base price by a percentage or manually change the price of each product. This bundle can be associated with a specific or multiple companies, such as registered customers or company locations.
Rules based on multiple locations, stores, or warehouses for a customer
A customer can have multiple stores where they order goods. Each location can have its own manager, or orderer. If necessary, the base prices of products can differ based on location.
Order line minimum quantities
The e-store manager can set minimum purchase amounts for a customer or customer group based on the product. This solution is especially necessary if the e-store is pricing based on a single product, but only a whole box can be purchased at a time, for example.
Creating and approving a new business account
The administrator of the order center can approve new business customers, or allow them to start ordering. Of course, a new business customer must first create an account, or the e-store administrator can do this for them.
Paying for your order
The customer can place an order without paying immediately, i.e. pay later based on an invoice. At the same time, the e-store admin can set the immediate payment requirement for certain customers, i.e. they cannot complete the purchase without paying with a bank link.
Client user rights
In a business customer, a user can be assigned only location-based ordering or admin rights and the right to manage and order to all locations.
Business customer-based products
The e-shop admin can create product display rules based on the customer or customer location. For example, this can solve a situation where only specific companies can buy certain products. This rule can also be created based on the location of a business customer, meaning that the same customer can order a product from one of their stores, but not from another.
Creating a product tree
Shopify allows you to create a product tree with up to 3 levels, and deeper levels can be created based on filters or other logic
Filtering products in the online store
An e-store manager can create filters based on product availability, price, and special fields, or metafields. A business customer can filter products based on their base price if the company is subject to product group-based product pricing.
Entering the online store
You can specify whether the online store is public to everyone or only logged-in customers can see the content of the online store. Often, the order center is only available to approved business customers, who can see the products with their respective pricing.
What else do B2B e-shop owners ask for?
Interface with business software
Shopify is API-based software that can be interfaced with all possible business software. Over the years, we have connected with various ERPs as needed. The prerequisite for creating a successful interface is thorough preliminary work and needs mapping.
Interfaces with product enrichment software or service
Shopify does include product enrichment functionality, but for large product volumes it is more convenient to enrich data via a third-party API service. This interface is also necessary if the merchant already uses some product enrichment software in addition to their accounting software.
The user experience and appearance of the e-store according to designs or a simple ready-made template.
Shopify offers several ready-made templates that can be customized to suit a B2B store. However, it is also possible to create an exact e-store UI and UX based on the designs. For us, both approaches are common, and the merchant can choose the specific method themselves.
