A Shopify B2B blueprint for company accounts, catalogues, pricing, ordering workflows and sales-team governance.
Map the B2B buying process
Document buyer roles, approval steps, negotiated pricing, payment terms, tax documents, minimum quantities, repeat orders and sales-representative involvement. B2B requirements vary more than consumer checkout.
Structure companies and contacts
Define the relationship between companies, locations and buyers. Decide who can order, view prices, manage addresses and access account information.
Design catalogues and pricing
Create rules for product access, price lists, volume tiers, currency and regional assortment. Establish one source of truth and an approval process for changes.
Configure ordering and payment
Decide whether buyers use immediate payment, terms, purchase orders, drafts or sales-assisted orders. Test credit limits, tax handling, cancellations and returns.
Support self-service and sales teams
Give buyers access to order history, repeat ordering and account information while preserving sales-representative visibility. Define which exceptions require manual approval.
Integrate operations
Inventory, ERP, accounting, fulfilment and CRM integrations need clear ownership, sync timing and error handling. Reconcile sample orders through every connected system.
Measure B2B performance
Track active companies, order frequency, average value, margin, payment ageing, service effort and digital adoption. Separate self-service growth from transferred offline orders.
Roll out by customer segment
Pilot with a small group of cooperative customers, collect workflow feedback and stabilise data before migrating the full customer base.
Action checklist
- Map buyer and approval roles
- Define company and catalogue data
- Test terms and purchase orders
- Validate integrations end to end
- Pilot with selected customers
Common questions
Is B2B just a hidden price list?
No. Mature B2B often involves company accounts, permissions, terms, catalogues, approvals and integrations.
Should all customers migrate at once?
A pilot reduces data and workflow risk.
What is the main success metric?
Use a combination of digital adoption, contribution, order frequency, service effort and payment performance.