Scaling Wholesale Operations with Shopify Plus B2B

A skincare brand with 200+ wholesale stockists across the UK and Ireland had been managing B2B orders entirely offline — price lists sent by email, orders taken via a Google Form, invoices raised manually in Xero. It worked when they had 30 accounts. At 200+, it was a full-time job for two people and a constant source of errors.

The Problem with Manual Wholesale

When we audited their wholesale operation, we found order error rates running at around 12% — wrong quantities, discontinued SKUs, incorrect pricing tiers. Each error required back-and-forth by email and, on average, delayed fulfilment by two days. For their stockists — many of them independent boutiques with limited storage — this was a source of genuine frustration.

• No self-service ordering: stockists emailed or called to place orders
• Five different price lists maintained manually in spreadsheets
• No visibility for stockists on order status or tracking
• Minimum order value enforced manually at invoice stage

Building the B2B Portal

We used Shopify Plus's native B2B features — introduced to the platform in 2023 — to build a fully self-service wholesale portal. The key advantage over third-party B2B apps was native integration with the existing product catalogue, inventory, and fulfilment workflows.

Company Accounts and Price Lists

We migrated all 200+ wholesale accounts into Shopify's Company model, mapping each to the correct price list based on their tier (standard stockist, premium partner, or anchor account). Price list rules were set as percentage discounts off RRP, meaning price updates cascade automatically when RRP changes.

Payment Terms

Premium partners and anchor accounts had been on 30-day payment terms. We configured Net 30 payment terms natively within Shopify B2B, allowing orders to be placed without immediate payment and generating a draft order for Xero to pick up automatically via integration.

Minimum Order Rules

Minimum order values were enforced at checkout with clear messaging, eliminating the awkward post-invoice negotiation that had been a recurring friction point. The portal also surfaced a 'frequently reordered items' section based on each company's order history.

Business Impact

• Order processing time reduced by 70%
• Order error rate fell from 12% to under 1%
• Wholesale revenue grew £400k in the first year
• Two operations staff redeployed to new account development

“Our stockists love it. They can order at 11pm if they want, check their order status, and see exactly what's in stock. It's transformed those relationships.”