Shopify Plus B2B for UK Wholesalers: Trade Accounts, Price Lists, Net Terms and VAT Set Up Properly

Shopify B2B is the set of trade-selling tools built into Shopify itself. You set each trade customer up as a company, add its sites as locations, give its staff logins, and attach catalogues that hold that customer’s products and prices. Payment terms, purchase order numbers and quick reorders sit on top. Retail and trade can run from the same admin, product data and stock.

Both. Shopify started as a B2C platform, meaning it sells to consumers, and B2B is now built into the same admin. Shopify’s help centre lists B2B on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. One store can show retail prices to the public and trade prices and terms to logged-in company buyers, from one set of products and one stock pool.

In Shopify’s own order: create each trade customer as a company, add its sites as locations, and add the buyers who may order. Then build catalogues with that customer’s products and prices, and set payment terms and VAT numbers on each location. For a handful of accounts you can do this by hand. For hundreds, we load them in bulk and check every price against your current list.

Yes. Shopify’s help centre says B2B is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Shopify Plus plans. Starter and Retail are not on that list. What changes between plans is depth: how many catalogues you can run, whether a catalogue can be tied to one company, and whether you can take deposits and part payments. For a UK wholesaler with dozens of negotiated price lists, those limits decide the plan.

Not always. On Basic, Grow and Advanced you get companies, locations, net terms, quantity rules and price breaks, but only three active B2B catalogues and no catalogue assigned directly to one company. Plus removes the catalogue cap and adds direct company catalogues, deposits, partial payments and payment requests per fulfilment. If each trade account has its own negotiated prices, you will usually need Plus.

It is worth it when your trade orders still arrive by email, phone or spreadsheet and someone retypes them. Moving those buyers to a self-serve B2B portal with their own prices and terms saves admin and errors on every order. It is less useful if you have five trade accounts and nothing changes week to week. We tell you which side of that line you sit on during scoping.

Yes. A blended store shows retail prices to the public and trade prices, terms and catalogues to logged-in company buyers, with one stock pool and one set of product data. Some brands prefer a separate trade store, for a different look, a different catalogue or stricter access. Shopify Plus supports nine expansion stores, and one of them can host a separate trade site.

Three things trip UK wholesalers up. Catalogue limits below Plus bite as soon as each account has its own prices. Credit limits and account balances usually live in your accounts system, so Shopify needs a link to show them. And some trade rules, such as quoting freight on a pallet, need custom work. None of these stops a project, but each needs planning before the build starts.

Yes. Shopify’s payment terms page lists net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60 and 90, counted from the day the order is placed, plus due on fulfilment. Fixed-date terms are available only on individual draft orders, so a standing month-end account needs a rep-built draft order or custom work. Approved trade accounts can check out without paying at that moment, and Shopify can send payment reminders. Deposit requirements are Plus only. Which accounts get which terms is a credit decision we set up to match your own rules.

Shopify offers net 90, but UK law adds a check. GOV.UK says agreed payment dates must usually be within 60 days for business transactions, and longer terms are allowed only if they are fair to both sides. Where no date is agreed, payment is late 30 days after the invoice or delivery, whichever is later. Ask your solicitor before standardising anything past 60 days.

Under UK law you can usually claim statutory interest on late business payments. GOV.UK puts it at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business-to-business transactions, unless your contract sets a different rate, in which case statutory interest does not apply. Shopify reminds buyers that payment is due; chasing and interest normally run from your accounts system, which is why we connect the two.

Each company location can hold a tax registration number. Shopify’s help centre says that for stores using Shopify Tax, the field becomes VAT number for locations with UK or EU shipping addresses, and Shopify Tax validates the number once it is entered. Tax collection and exemptions are then managed per location. We map which of your accounts need which treatment and confirm it with your accountant.

Usually, yes. Take a VAT-registered salon that orders £600 of stock including VAT. That is over HMRC’s £250 limit for a simplified invoice, so it needs a full VAT invoice with your VAT number, unit prices and the VAT total. A £180 top-up order could take a simplified one. Many wholesalers simply issue a full invoice on every trade order from their accounts system, and we set Shopify up to pass each order there.

HMRC checks your VAT returns and records, not Shopify as such. GOV.UK says all VAT-registered businesses should now be signed up for Making Tax Digital for VAT. In plain terms, your VAT records should be digital. For a trade store, that means every Shopify order, refund and credit note should reach Xero, Sage or your ERP without being retyped. That link is usually part of our build.

Yes. Shopify can give EU trade accounts their own catalogue and prices in euros. The VAT question is evidence: to zero-rate the sale under HMRC Notice 703, you need proof the goods left the UK, such as the courier’s export record. So we make sure each EU order keeps its tracking and export paperwork linked to the order. Northern Ireland follows separate rules, and your accountant confirms the treatment.

Yes, where the system has an API, which is the door other software uses to read and write its data. Our own ERP integration work includes Odoo, NetSuite, SAP Business One and ERPNext. For Xero, Sage or Business Central, we check during scoping which connection your version offers. The first step is deciding which system owns each record: trade prices, stock, credit limits and invoices. The link then moves each record one way, from its owner.

Whichever one your sales and finance teams already trust. For most UK wholesalers that is the ERP or accounts system, because invoices and margin reports come from there. Shopify then receives the price lists and shows them in each company’s catalogue. If prices are kept in spreadsheets today, we clean them up once, during the project, and load them into the system that will own them.

Yes. Shopify’s plan table lists sales staff permissions, draft order to invoice and checkout to draft on every B2B plan. A rep can build an order for an account, apply the right price list, and send the buyer an invoice or a checkout link. On Plus, a draft order can also ask for a deposit. We set permissions so each rep only sees the accounts they manage.

Yes. Shopify B2B has quantity rules for a minimum, a maximum and an increment on each product in a catalogue, and quantity price breaks, on all B2B plans. That covers selling in cases of 12 or requiring at least two cases. Rules across a whole basket, such as a minimum order value per account, usually need a Shopify Function, which is custom checkout logic we write and you own.

Yes, when they share stock with the trade store. Many UK brands sell on Amazon.co.uk, eBay UK, OnBuy or ManoMano alongside trade, and ship with Royal Mail, DPD or Evri. If those channels draw on the same stock, they need to read one stock figure, usually from your ERP or a tool like Linnworks. We plan that during scoping so a trade order cannot sell stock a marketplace already sold.

Two parts. Shopify’s UK pricing page lists Plus from £1,800 a month, and Shopify says larger businesses may pay a variable platform fee that differs for B2B and D2C. The page does not say whether that figure includes VAT, so check your invoice. The build depends on accounts, price lists, systems and custom rules. FactoryJet quotes a fixed price in writing after a short scoping call.

Six things help us quote accurately. How many trade accounts you have and how many sites each has. How many distinct price lists you keep. The payment terms you offer. The systems that hold prices, stock and invoices. The channels and couriers you use. Any rules that are hard today, such as pallet freight or approvals. A sample price list and a recent trade order export help most.

Yes. Many UK stores run trade through customer tags and a pricing app. We export the accounts, rebuild them as companies with locations and buyers, turn tag-based prices into catalogues, and test every account’s prices against your current figures before switching. We plan the switch for a quiet trading day with a written rollback step.

Yes, a live demo on your own data. Before you commit, we build a working draft on Shopify with your own products, one real trade account and one of your price lists. Your sales team can log in as that buyer, see the prices and terms, and place a test order. It is the quickest way to find out whether native B2B fits the way your customers buy, before anyone signs a contract.

Defects found after launch are fixed inside the build price for a cover period we agree before work starts. You own the code, the repository and the Shopify accounts. After that, support is optional: each change is quoted and approved before we do it, and there is no monthly minimum. You can come back for a quoted change when you add a channel, a system or a price structure.