News April 2, 2026: Shopify has made several native B2B features available to Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans at no additional cost. To understand what's changing and choose the right plan, read our complete analysis of Shopify B2B on Basic, Grow, and Advanced.
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Most entrepreneurs and DNVB founders will tell you: “succeeding in e-commerce has become harder than ever!”. The observation is simple but harsh: in the vast majority of cases, the 100% Direct-to-Consumer model is simply no longer viable in the long term. If you are considering developing your B2B channel on Shopify, our Shopify agency can support you in this transformation.
Stellar, our expert Shopify agency, has deployed multiple B2B / wholesale sales channels for clients in various sectors. Both via Shopify Plus and specialized applications. Read our detailed Shopify guide.
We also implement email strategies via Klaviyo on B2B projects. Learn more about our Shopify B2B support.
The challenges of pure B2C are explained by an accumulation of events and trends:
- An unexpected return to pre-pandemic purchasing behaviors, i.e., a rebalancing of sales towards physical distribution. Online sales are returning to the pre-pandemic growth curve.
- An explosion in e-commerce acquisition costs, notably due to Apple's release of iOS 14, which impacted user tracking. This led to a decrease in advertising performance on Facebook / Instagram, particularly due to less precise targeting.
- An increase in shipping costs (Colissimo, Chronopost, etc.) linked to the constant rise in fuel prices.
- An increase in raw material costs and shortages, due to an explosion in post-pandemic growth and rising energy prices. Costs that are difficult to pass on to a customer base already heavily solicited and not very loyal in an inflationary context and declining purchasing power.
- A sharp rise in the inflation rate in France (+5.6% in September 2022).
- Fierce competition in many sectors (cosmetics, fashion, pet food, etc.), partly explained by low barriers to entry.
For these reasons, it becomes vital for brands to diversify their revenue streams and reduce acquisition costs, to rethink strategy by initiating a new digital transformation.
It's a fact: omnichannel strategy has become essential. Physical retailers, led by concept stores, want to offer seamless customer experiences where the boundary between physical and digital blurs (online purchases, local delivery, in-store pickup, in-store returns, multichannel loyalty programs, etc.).
While accessing physical distribution through B2B2B platforms like Ankorstore and Faire is a first step to test retailers' appetite for your brand, it's wholesale selling that will truly help you achieve your next growth milestones.
Below, we provide avenues for transitioning to B2B, an underutilized channel that Shopify touts as “the next big thing”.
How to do B2B e-commerce?
At first glance, the B2B sales channel, or wholesale, seems obvious. Who would refuse to achieve larger business volumes with fewer prospects and customers for a lower acquisition cost?
However, most brands do not offer B2B purchases on their website.
Technical complexity, apprehension about a potential second sales channel and new technical tools to master, many management rules to consider (VAT, price lists, currencies, payment methods)... There are many obstacles to not getting started.
Yet, powerful technical solutions exist. Here is an overview of the wholesale offering.
Which platforms for B2B e-commerce?
1. Salesforce:
A safe bet for many B2C e-merchants, Salesforce also offers a business-to-business sales channel:
- Advantage: Robust and complete technical solution, integrated into an environment familiar to many companies
- Disadvantage: Salesforce Cloud B2B is a distinct product from the classic e-commerce solution (resulting from the acquisition of Demandware): the integration is not complete, and managing two separate sites leads to operational complexity and additional costs
2. BigCommerce:
Shopify's challenger also offers a B2B solution:
- Advantage: simplicity of the tool
- Disadvantages: not a very robust solution, and above all, an underdeveloped ecosystem of developers (especially in France). For a functionally complete B2B solution, BigCommerce requires significant customization.
3. SAP:
The undisputed leader in the segment, SAP allows for extensive complexity management.
- Advantages: Native integration with the ERP, suitable for highly customized and complex projects
- Disadvantages: Heavy and sometimes overly complex solution, therefore expensive, reserved for large brands and Groups with significant technical resources. A user experience far from fluid due to the product's complexity.
4. Adobe Commerce:
Adobe also offers a very sophisticated B2B solution.
- Advantage: Robustness
- Disadvantages: The use of the Adobe solution requires frequent updates and a lot of maintenance.
The choice of B2B e-commerce platform will depend on the following criteria:
- level of catalog complexity (number of references, market-specific products, etc.)
- maturity in wholesale e-commerce (previous experience and specific functional needs, etc.)
- number of markets (languages, currencies, logistics, invoicing, etc.)
- number and complexity of clients
- resources: technical for development and maintenance, administrative for client management
Furthermore, intrinsic criteria for each platform must be considered:
- The “cost of ownership”, i.e., the overall cost of the solution (development, setup, and maintenance).
- The “time to market”, meaning the speed at which the channel can be deployed to start generating sales.
To evaluate properly, it is advisable to be accompanied upstream of the project by experts who master the ins and outs of each platform and who can support you throughout the entire project (from the call for tenders to operational deployment).
Shopify Plus and its B2B sales channel
Unveiled with great fanfare at its Agency Education Day, with Shopify B2B, the Canadian firm aims to become the leading solution for B2B and B2C sales.
After numerous iterations (and a still very full roadmap), Shopify is finally accelerating with its solution for B2B buyers, a suite of Business to Business products, natively and exclusively integrated into its Shopify Plus offering (for now).
Shopify advocates “All-in-one commerce”, i.e., a single technical solution allowing a B2B offering to be managed with the same fluidity as a B2C store: a simple, evolving, scalable platform for international development, with all the power of its ecosystem (developers, apps, themes, APIs, etc.).
Included in Shopify B2B:
- All the flexibility and customization features of a Shopify online store, now available in a Wholesale version for professional clients (front-end customization via theme or “headless”, checkout via scripts, apps, etc.
- The ability to define specific price lists for each customer;
- Tailored payment terms per customer;
- Multi-currency for easier internationalization;
- The ability to group various buyers within the same company (client).
- The ability to manage its B2B via a dedicated instance with a specific product catalog OR on the original B2C e-shop.
- And much more…
A true strategic development axis for Shopify, the B2B solution will see rapid functional enrichment, as is the case for the B2C product.
Shopify thus becomes a player to be considered more than seriously when opening a B2B channel. As with the B2C solution, Shopify B2B scores high on "cost of ownership" and "time to market" criteria, as it is delivered natively within Shopify Plus and benefits from the platform's legendary simplicity.
It will then be essential for the merchant to detail the expected functionalities in their specifications and prioritize them to compare the different solutions.
In any case, we expect an explosion of Shopify B2B in France over the next 2 years.
The technical choices related to B2B e-commerce are committing and structuring because they often involve an entire distribution network. It is therefore essential to ask the right questions and anticipate the needs and uses of your retailers as best as possible.
- What account creation process are we looking for?
- How can my retailers place an order or restock?
- What payment conditions should be offered to them?
Stellar is at your disposal to answer all these questions, and we can even offer you a demonstration with the Shopify team. Need help implementing Shopify B2B? Contact our specialized Shopify agency for tailor-made support.