B2B on Shopify Australia: Complete Guide to Selling Wholesale in 2026

Shopify's B2B GMV grew 140% in 2024 and surged a further 96% year-on-year in 2025 (Shopify Annual Report, 2025). If you're an Australian wholesaler, distributor, or manufacturer still managing trade accounts manually — by spreadsheet, phone, or separate price lists — you're operating against a tide that's moving fast.

The problem isn't that B2B ecommerce is new. It's that most Australian businesses built for wholesale still run two systems: a consumer-facing online store and an offline trade process held together by email and relationships. That gap costs you margin, time, and buyer loyalty. B2B on Shopify Australia solves it by putting both channels on a single platform — with custom pricing, buyer-specific catalogs, payment terms, and company accounts built in.

What Is Shopify B2B and Who Is It For?

Shopify B2B is a suite of features built into the Shopify platform that lets Australian businesses sell directly to wholesale buyers, trade accounts, or other businesses — from the same admin and often the same storefront as their retail business. It's designed for manufacturers, distributors, importers, and specialty retailers that sell both to end consumers and to resellers or trade clients.

Shopify B2B is the right choice for Australian wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers who want to digitise their trade accounts without building a second platform.

If your business currently manages wholesale pricing through emailed price lists, phone orders, or a separate spreadsheet — Shopify B2B replaces that with an always-on, self-serve portal. Your trade buyers get their own login, see only their prices, and can reorder without picking up the phone.

In our experience setting up B2B storefronts for Australian brands, the biggest win isn't the technology — it's the operational time reclaimed. Sales reps stop fielding reorder calls and start focusing on new accounts.

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Shopify B2B Australia: Standard Plan vs Shopify Plus

Not all Shopify B2B features are available on every plan. Here's what's available at each tier:

Feature	Shopify (Standard)	Shopify Plus
B2B customer accounts	✓	✓
Custom pricing per customer	✓ (via price lists)	✓ (advanced)
Company profiles & locations	Limited	✓ Full
Dedicated B2B storefront	✗	✓ (blended or dedicated)
Payment terms (Net 30/60/90)	✗	✓
Quantity price breaks	✗	✓
Buyer-specific catalogs	✗	✓
Draft orders & custom quotes	✓	✓
B2B checkout customisation	Limited	✓ Full
Vaulted credit cards for buyers	✗	✓

For most growing Australian wholesalers, Shopify Plus is required to unlock the full B2B feature set — including custom buyer catalogs, payment terms, and dedicated trade storefronts.

Shopify Plus starts at approximately AUD $2,300/month (billed annually). For businesses turning over $2M+ in wholesale revenue, the ROI typically justifies it within the first quarter — particularly when it replaces manual order processing labour costs.

See how Devkind implements Shopify Plus B2B →

Core B2B Features Australian Businesses Actually Use

Custom Pricing and Buyer Catalogs

Shopify B2B on Plus lets you create unlimited price lists and assign them to specific company accounts. A hardware distributor in Melbourne, for example, might have one price list for independent retailers, a second for national chains, and a third for project-based contractors — all managed from one admin.

Buyer catalogs go further: you can hide certain products from specific buyers entirely, so your trade clients only see what's relevant to them. Confidential product lines, discontinued stock, or consumer-only SKUs never appear in a wholesale buyer's session.

Custom pricing and buyer catalogs on Shopify Plus give Australian wholesalers the ability to replicate complex trade pricing structures in a self-serve digital storefront, eliminating the manual overhead of emailed price lists.

Payment Terms and Net Terms

Australian B2B transactions often run on net 30 or net 60 payment terms — a standard that consumer checkout systems simply don't support. Shopify Plus B2B allows you to set payment terms per company account: Net 7, Net 14, Net 30, or Net 60. Buyers see their terms at checkout and can place orders without paying upfront.

In our experience, this feature alone converts undecided wholesale buyers — because it mirrors the credit account experience they've had with traditional trade suppliers. Over 60% of B2B buyers now prefer to order online without rep involvement (Shopify B2B Trends Report, 2025), and flexible payment terms are a prerequisite for that shift.

Dedicated vs Blended B2B Storefronts

Shopify Plus gives you a choice: run your B2B buyers through the same storefront as your retail customers (blended), or build a separate, password-protected trade portal (dedicated). Each approach has tradeoffs.

A blended storefront reduces development cost and keeps SEO power consolidated on one domain. A dedicated storefront gives trade buyers a cleaner, distraction-free experience — and is better suited for businesses where B2B accounts represent significantly different product ranges or buying behaviours.

At Devkind, our Shopify B2B & Content Strategist Hira Ishaque specialises in exactly this assessment — mapping a client's trade account structure to the right storefront model before any build begins. Getting this decision right at the start saves significant rework later.

A dedicated B2B storefront on Shopify Plus is the better choice when your wholesale range differs substantially from your consumer offer; a blended approach works when the two audiences shop the same catalog at different price points.

Explore Shopify Plus for B2B →

How B2B on Shopify Compares to the Australian Market Opportunity

The global B2B ecommerce market is valued at $32 trillion and growing at a 14.5% CAGR (Shopify Enterprise, 2025). In Australia specifically, B2B digital adoption is accelerating — with construction, health distribution, specialty manufacturing, and food wholesale leading the shift.

80% of B2B sales globally are expected to be generated through digital channels by the end of 2025, up from just 13% in 2019 (Shopify Enterprise, 2025). Australian B2B buyers are following the same pattern — and increasingly expect the same self-serve, real-time experience they get as consumers.

Australian businesses that adopt Shopify B2B now are digitising their wholesale operations at the same inflection point that saw retail ecommerce go mainstream — early movers are building structural advantages that will be harder to replicate in three years.

We've worked with Australian brands in retail wholesale and specialty distribution who resisted the move to digital B2B for years — and then found that their largest trade accounts were already researching alternatives. The shift is buyer-driven, not agency-driven.

Setting Up B2B on Shopify: What the Process Looks Like

Setting up Shopify B2B isn't a single switch — it's a configuration process that covers account setup, pricing, and buyer experience. Here's what the implementation typically involves:

1. Activate B2B features — through your Shopify Plus admin
2. Create company accounts — set up each wholesale client as a "Company" with locations, contacts, and permissions
3. Build price lists — configure pricing per company or segment (fixed, percentage off, volume breaks)
4. Set catalog visibility — assign which products each company can see
5. Configure payment terms — set Net terms per company account
6. Customise the storefront — configure your existing theme for B2B access or build a dedicated trade portal
7. Import existing accounts — migrate historical trade accounts and pricing from spreadsheets or your ERP

The timeline for a straightforward Shopify B2B setup ranges from 4–8 weeks, depending on the complexity of your pricing structure and catalog. Businesses with hundreds of SKUs, multi-location buyers, or ERP integration requirements typically sit at the longer end.

A Shopify B2B implementation in Australia typically takes 4–8 weeks end-to-end, covering account migration, pricing configuration, and storefront setup — faster than building a bespoke wholesale portal and significantly more maintainable long-term.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Shopify B2B and how does it work for Australian businesses?

Shopify B2B is a set of features that allows Australian businesses to sell to wholesale or trade buyers directly through their Shopify store. It works by creating company accounts for each trade client, assigning them custom price lists and product catalogs, and optionally setting payment terms like Net 30. Buyers log in with their own credentials and see a personalised buying experience without manual intervention from your team.

Do I need Shopify Plus to use B2B features in Australia?

Most of the core B2B features — including custom buyer catalogs, payment terms, quantity price breaks, and dedicated storefronts — require Shopify Plus. Standard Shopify plans offer basic B2B capabilities like draft orders and some pricing control, but they fall short for businesses managing multiple wholesale accounts with different pricing structures.

How much does Shopify Plus cost in Australia for B2B?

Shopify Plus starts at approximately AUD $2,300 per month (billed annually) for most Australian businesses. The actual cost depends on your GMV; high-revenue merchants may move to a revenue-based pricing model. For businesses generating $2M or more in wholesale revenue annually, the platform cost is typically offset by reduced manual processing overhead within the first few months.

Can I run B2B and retail from the same Shopify store?

Yes — this is called a blended storefront model. B2B buyers log in and see their custom pricing and catalog; retail visitors see standard consumer pricing. Shopify Plus supports this natively. The alternative is a dedicated B2B storefront — a separate password-protected trade portal — that is better suited when your wholesale and retail product ranges diverge significantly.

What B2B payment options does Shopify support for Australian businesses?

Shopify B2B on Plus supports net payment terms (Net 7, 14, 30, 60, and 90 days), vaulted credit cards, bank deposits, and standard payment gateway options. Shopify Payments is available in Australia and supports AUD transactions with built-in GST handling. For trade accounts requiring invoice-based billing, net terms are the most commonly used option.

How does Shopify handle GST for B2B sales in Australia?

Shopify's tax settings support Australian GST natively. You can configure B2B prices to display GST-exclusive (common for trade accounts) or GST-inclusive, and Shopify will calculate and report accordingly. For businesses selling to GST-registered buyers, displaying ex-GST pricing is typically preferred — and Shopify Plus supports this configuration per-customer.

Is Shopify B2B suitable for Australian food and beverage distributors?

Yes — food and beverage distribution is one of the strongest use cases for Shopify B2B in Australia. Features like custom pricing by buyer, minimum order quantities, and net payment terms directly address the operational needs of distributors managing accounts across hospitality, retail, and foodservice. Australian wholesale food brands have used Shopify Plus to replace manual order systems with self-serve portals that handle reorders 24/7.

Ready to Launch B2B on Shopify for Your Australian Business?

If you're managing wholesale accounts manually or running a separate system for trade buyers, the cost isn't just operational — it's competitive. As more Australian B2B buyers expect self-serve digital experiences, businesses that haven't digitised their wholesale channel are leaving orders on the table.

At Devkind, our Shopify B2B & Content Strategist Hira Ishaque has worked through the exact decisions you're facing: dedicated vs blended storefront, Standard vs Plus, pricing structure, and buyer account migration. We build B2B on Shopify for Australian brands that want a wholesale channel that works as hard as their retail store.

Talk to us about Shopify Plus B2B →