On April 2, 2026, Shopify opened native B2B features to every paid plan. If you're on Basic, Grow, or Advanced, you now have access to company profiles, wholesale catalogs, volume pricing, and payment terms — features that used to require a $2,300/month Plus subscription.
But having access and knowing what to do with it are different things. Shopify B2B catalog setup isn't complicated, but the order you do things in matters. Set up catalogs before company profiles and you'll waste time restructuring. Skip the volume pricing step and your wholesale buyers see retail prices. This guide walks through the full setup in the right sequence, including the three limitations on non-Plus plans that will affect how you structure everything.
What B2B Catalog Features Does Shopify Include on Non-Plus Plans?
Before you start building, know the boundaries. Shopify's B2B expansion gives Basic, Grow, and Advanced merchants a solid set of wholesale tools, but with guardrails.
What's included on all paid plans:
- Company profiles for wholesale buyers
- Up to 3 active B2B catalogs with custom pricing
- Volume discounts and quantity rules
- Payment terms (net 15, net 30, net 60)
- Vaulted credit cards for repeat orders
- ACH payments (U.S. merchants only)
What stays Plus-exclusive:
- Unlimited catalogs (non-Plus caps at 3 total across all markets)
- Direct catalog assignment to individual companies and locations
- Partial payments and deposits
- Self-service customer registration
The 3-catalog limit is the constraint that shapes everything. It applies across all your B2B markets combined — not per market. So if you sell wholesale in the U.S. and Europe, those 3 catalogs need to cover both regions. Plan your pricing tiers before you create anything.
Step 1: Plan Your Catalog Structure First
With only 3 catalogs available, you need a strategy before touching the admin panel. Most merchants waste a catalog slot because they didn't think this through.
The most common structures that work within the 3-catalog limit:
- Tier-based pricing — Bronze (10% off retail), Silver (20% off), Gold (30% off). Each tier gets its own catalog. Simple, scales well.
- Region-based pricing — Domestic catalog, international catalog, VIP catalog. Works if your shipping and pricing vary significantly by geography.
- Product-based separation — Full product line catalog, seasonal collection catalog, closeout/clearance catalog. Works for stores with distinct product categories.
Pick one approach. Don't try to combine region-based and tier-based — you'll burn through your 3 catalogs immediately and have no room to adjust.
Step 2: Create Company Profiles
Company profiles are the foundation. Every wholesale buyer needs one before they can see B2B pricing or place wholesale orders.
Go to Customers → Companies in your Shopify admin. Click Add company and fill in:
- Company name — the legal business name of your wholesale buyer
- Contact person — link an existing customer account or create one. This person becomes the company's primary buyer.
- Company location — the shipping and billing address. You can add multiple locations per company if they ship to different warehouses.
- Payment terms — choose from pay now, net 15, net 30, or net 60. Start conservative. You can always extend terms after a buyer proves reliable.
One thing Shopify won't tell you upfront: there's no self-service registration form on non-Plus plans. Your wholesale buyers can't sign up themselves. You either create every company profile manually, or install Shopify Forms (free app) to collect applications — but you still approve and create profiles by hand. Budget 5-10 minutes per company for setup.
Step 3: Build Your First B2B Catalog
With company profiles in place, create your first catalog. Go to Products → Catalogs and click Create catalog.
- Name your catalog — use something descriptive like "Wholesale Tier 1 — 15% Off" rather than "Catalog 1." You'll thank yourself when managing multiple catalogs later.
- Add products — select which products appear in this catalog. You can include your entire product line or curate a specific selection for wholesale buyers.
- Set pricing — this is where B2B catalogs earn their keep. For each product, you can set a fixed wholesale price or a percentage discount off retail. You can also set prices per variant if different sizes or colors have different wholesale margins.
- Configure quantity rules — set minimum order quantities (e.g., minimum 12 units per SKU) and quantity increments (e.g., must order in multiples of 6). This prevents wholesale buyers from ordering retail quantities at wholesale prices.
A common mistake: setting wholesale prices as a flat percentage off retail across all products. Your margins aren't uniform. A product with 70% gross margin can handle a 30% wholesale discount. A product at 40% margin can't. Price each product individually based on its actual cost, not a blanket rule. If you're new to wholesale pricing math, our DTC-to-B2B pricing framework breaks down the margin calculations.
Step 4: Assign Catalogs Through Markets
On non-Plus plans, catalog assignment works through Shopify Markets — not directly to individual companies. This is the biggest operational difference from Plus.
Go to Settings → Markets. You'll see your existing markets (domestic, international, etc.). To assign a B2B catalog:
- Open a market and scroll to the B2B catalogs section
- Click Add catalog and select from your created catalogs
- All companies with locations in that market will see the assigned catalog pricing
This means every wholesale buyer in the same market sees the same catalog. You can't give Company A a 20% discount and Company B a 30% discount within the same market — that requires Plus. The workaround: use your 3 catalogs strategically by assigning different pricing tiers to different markets. If most of your best wholesale customers are domestic, assign your deepest discount catalog to your domestic market.
Step 5: Set Up Volume Discounts
Volume discounts layer on top of your catalog pricing. They reward buyers who order larger quantities, and they're available on every plan.
Inside your catalog, select a product and click Add volume pricing:
- Tier 1: 1-11 units at your base wholesale price
- Tier 2: 12-47 units at an additional 5% off
- Tier 3: 48+ units at an additional 10% off
Buyers see these tiers on the product page when they're logged into their company account. The pricing updates automatically as they change quantities in the cart.
Set your tiers based on your actual fulfillment breakpoints. If a case pack holds 24 units, make 24 a tier threshold. If your shipping costs drop meaningfully at 50 units because you fill a carton, put a break there. Arbitrary round numbers (10, 25, 50) that don't align with your operations leave margin on the table.
Step 6: Configure Payment Terms and Checkout
Payment terms are what separate a real wholesale operation from "just giving someone a discount code." Net terms let your buyers order now and pay later — standard practice in wholesale.
You set payment terms at the company level, not the catalog level. Go to Customers → Companies, open a company profile, and set:
- Net 15/30/60 — buyer has 15, 30, or 60 days to pay after the order ships
- Due on fulfillment — payment is collected when the order is marked as fulfilled
- Pay now — standard checkout, no delayed payment
Start every new wholesale customer on Pay now or Net 15. Extend to Net 30 or Net 60 after they've placed and paid for 3-5 orders reliably. Extending Net 60 terms to an unproven buyer is how small businesses end up chasing invoices for months.
Shopify sends automatic payment reminders when terms are due, and you can track outstanding balances in your Orders section filtered by B2B orders.
The 3 Limitations That Change How You Operate
Shopify's B2B tools on non-Plus plans are genuinely capable. But three constraints will shape your daily operations:
1. The 3-catalog ceiling. If you have 4 distinct customer tiers or need region-specific pricing beyond 3 markets, you'll hit the wall. The workaround is consolidating tiers — combine your bottom two pricing levels into one catalog and reserve the third for your highest-volume accounts.
2. No per-company catalog assignment. Every company in a market sees the same catalog. If two wholesale buyers in the same country deserve different pricing, your only option on non-Plus is to create separate markets for each buyer segment — which uses up your catalog slots faster.
3. No self-service registration. Every wholesale buyer profile is manually created. At 5 buyers/month, that's manageable. At 50/month, you're spending hours on data entry. If you're growing fast, this is the limitation that will push you toward Plus or a third-party B2B app first.
For most merchants just starting wholesale — handling 10-30 B2B customers — these limits won't matter for months. But know where they are so you're not surprised when you scale. For a deeper look at what's missing on non-Plus plans and how to work around it, see our guide to Shopify B2B without Plus.
Start With One Catalog and One Customer
Don't try to build out all 3 catalogs on day one. Create one catalog with your most common wholesale pricing, add your first (or best) wholesale customer as a company profile, and test the full flow: logging in, seeing B2B prices, placing an order, and payment terms processing correctly.
Shopify reported 96% GMV growth on its B2B surface last year, with 41% more merchants actively using these tools. The wholesale infrastructure is maturing fast. Getting your catalog live now — even with just a handful of products and one customer — puts you ahead of the merchants who'll still be reading about B2B six months from now.
If you're also selling DTC with quantity discounts or volume pricing on your storefront, EasySell lets you add tiered quantity offers directly on your product page order form — useful for merchants who want volume incentives on both their B2B and retail sides.
Your first catalog doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to exist.