How to set up wholesale on Shopify in 5 simple steps

Looking to expand into wholesale but not sure how to enable B2B sales in your Shopify store? You’re not alone. Keep reading to learn how to set up wholesale on Shopify.

The global wholesale market continues to grow rapidly, with ecommerce expected to propel that growth even further. Selling wholesale offers huge benefits for store owners: higher order volumes, predictable recurring revenue, expanded reach through resellers, and lower customer acquisition costs due to fewer (but larger) clients.

If you already run a direct-to-consumer Shopify store, you might worry about disrupting your retail business when adding wholesale. The good news is, you can launch a robust wholesale channel without switching to Shopify Plus or creating a second store. In this guide, we’ll walk you through exactly how to set up wholesale on Shopify using powerful apps like Wholesale Gorilla. You’ll learn pricing strategies, app setup, inventory best practices, and how to create a smooth experience for your B2B customers.

Apps integration vs. Shopify Plus wholesale channel

There are two main paths to set up wholesale on Shopify: either use wholesale apps or sign up for Shopify Plus and access its built-in wholesale features.

Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month and includes an advanced B2B suite designed for enterprise-grade wholesalers. Key features include:

• Dedicated B2B and DTC storefronts.
• Company profiles and multiple buyer roles.
• Custom pricing per company, catalog, or location.
• Flexible payment terms and draft orders.
• Enforceable order quantity rules.
• Multi-location support and restricted access.
• Native B2B checkout and automation workflows.

Wholesale Gorilla works with any Shopify plan and integrates directly into your existing storefront. It adds essential wholesale functionality without requiring Shopify Plus. Key features include:

• Custom registration forms with approval workflows and automatic customer tagging.
• Tag-based pricing groups (known as "wholesale price lists") for assigning different discounts to different customer segments.
• Quick Order Form to streamline bulk purchases directly from a product table interface.
• Product visibility controls that let you show or hide products based on customer tags.
• Optional minimum order messaging to inform customers of MOQs (note: enforcement requires a separate app).

While Shopify Plus offers a comprehensive and deeply integrated B2B toolkit, Wholesale Gorilla covers the core use cases for small-to-medium businesses launching wholesale without needing to replatform. It’s especially well-suited for merchants who want to keep wholesale and retail customers on a single storefront, with differentiated pricing, catalog access, and order flows.

Comparison overview:

Feature	Shopify Plus B2B	Wholesale Gorilla
Pricing	Starts at $2,300/month	Starts at $39/month
Storefront structure	Separate B2B & DTC storefronts	Unified storefront with role-based access
Customer-specific pricing	By company or catalog	By tag/price list
Checkout	Custom B2B checkout with net terms	Standard Shopify checkout only
Enforce order minimums	Yes (native)	No (requires separate app)
Quick Order Form	Not included	Advanced bulk ordering form

Which should you choose?

For most small and medium-sized merchants, Wholesale Gorilla offers all the core features needed to manage a wholesale program without the high cost of Shopify Plus. If you need enterprise-level functionality like payment terms, multiple buyer permissions, and native order rule enforcement, then Shopify Plus is worth the investment.

Tutorial: How to set up wholesale on Shopify (without Plus)

1. Select your products

Not all products are suited for wholesale. Focus on items that meet the following criteria:

• Healthy profit margins – You'll be offering discounts to wholesale buyers, so you need enough margin to remain profitable.
• Steady demand – Choose products that sell well year-round, rather than highly seasonal or trend-dependent items.
• Simple logistics – Smaller, lighter products are more cost-effective to ship in bulk. Avoid fragile or overly complex SKUs.
• Low customization – Made-to-order or highly personalized items can create bottlenecks in wholesale fulfillment.

• • Tiered (volume-based) pricing:
    • Offer lower unit prices for larger order quantities.
      • Note for writer: Link to "3/4 June - shopify tiered pricing" once live.
    • Encourages bulk buying and rewards high-volume customers.
    • Tip: Implement customized and detailed pricing tables for clear pricing communication
  • Competitive pricing:
    • Set prices based on competitor pricing for similar products.
    • Helps remain competitive and respond to market changes.
  • Value-based pricing:
    • Price according to perceived customer value rather than just costs.
    • Effective for unique or high-demand products with strong value propositions.
  • Explain the importance of setting appropriate minimum order quantities (MOQs) to ensure wholesale orders are profitable, suggesting either:
    • Minimum dollar amount (e.g., $500 minimum order).
    • Minimum unit quantity (e.g., 12 units per product).
  • Tip: Set up quantity price breaks (e.g., order in multiples of 6) for easy bulk ordering. Create wholesale product bundles and assortments as an effective discount pricing strategy. E.g., create a "wholesale starter pack" product bundle that combines bestsellers at an attractive price point to help new wholesale customers test your products with minimal risk. Use the Barn2 Bundles & Bulk Discounts plugin as the best bulk discount app for Shopify.
• These strategies help balance competitiveness with maintaining healthy margins.
• Choose the pricing strategy that best suits your business needs and goals.

2. Define your wholesale pricing strategy

Once you’ve selected your wholesale products, set your pricing strategy. Common methods include:

• Cost-plus pricing – Add a fixed markup to your product cost. Ensures you always make a profit. However, this may prevent you from being competitive as your prices may not fit with the current market.
• Tiered pricing – Offer tiered quantity pricing with bulk discounts (e.g. buy 10–49 units, get 10% off; 50+, get 20% off). See our guide to Shopify pricing tables to present this visually.
  
• Competitive pricing – Benchmark against similar wholesale sellers and adjust your prices accordingly.
• Value-based pricing – Price based on the perceived value of your product rather than cost alone. Ideal for unique or branded items.

For best results, I recommend combining the four pricing methods to find the sweet spot. For example, your Shopify wholesale prices should be competitive but still profitable, and appeal to the users' perceived value for the product. Remember, wholesalers need to add a fair markup and profit from the items they purchase from you.

Pro tip: Set minimum order quantities for guaranteed profitability from every wholesale order

You can also enforce minimum order quantities (MOQs) in Shopify (e.g. $500 per order) . You can either do this using Shopify's built-in variant or product settings, or by installing an app that allows more advanced quantity rules. For example, you could add clear messaging to product descriptions and set step quantities (e.g. in multiples of 6) using an app like Order Limits (MinMaxify). This Shopify app lets you define minimum and maximum quantities or cart values per product, variant, or collection. If you’re using Wholesale Gorilla, its Quick Order Form can help encourage customers to meet MOQ requirements, but enforcing them may still require a dedicated app.

Tip: Use quantity price breaks and create curated wholesale product bundles like starter packs. The Barn2 Bundles & Bulk Discounts app lets you implement all this seamlessly.

3. Set up your wholesale channel with Wholesale Gorilla

Wholesale Gorilla is a top-rated wholesale app that adds powerful B2B features to your existing Shopify store. Unlike many apps, it doesn’t require a separate storefront and keeps all your operations in one place. Key features include:

Why order forms matter

Most Shopify stores are designed for retail browsing – lots of visuals, storytelling, and detailed pages. But wholesale buyers don’t need that. They already know what they want. Wholesale Gorilla includes a clean, fast wholesale order form where buyers can:

• View all products and variants in one place.
• Select quantities directly from the catalog.
• Add multiple SKUs to the cart in bulk.

This reduces friction, shortens the buying process, and increases average order size. Most other wholesale apps lack this functionality – making this a standout feature and a true wholesale user experience differentiator.

Configure Wholesale Gorilla: step-by-step setup guide

Wholesale Gorilla is a powerful wholesale app for Shopify that lets you create a fully functional B2B experience on any plan — without needing Shopify Plus or a separate storefront. Here's how to set it up based on the app’s actual structure.

Step 1: Install the app

In your Shopify admin, go to Apps → Wholesale Gorilla. If it’s not installed yet, visit the Shopify App Store and click “Add app.” Follow the prompts to complete installation.

Step 2: Create a wholesale price list

In the app menu, go to Pricing & Discounts → Wholesale Price Lists. Click Manage Prices → Create Price List, then assign a tag (e.g. wholesale-gold) and set pricing rules. Set the wholesale pricing either storewide, per collection, or as product-specific discounts.

Step 3: Set up the wholesale registration form

Navigate to Online Store → Wholesale Registration Page. Enable the form and click “Edit Custom Form Fields” to launch the Shopify Theme Editor, where you can add fields like business name, tax ID, resale certificate upload, and terms acceptance. Add a link to this form in your main navigation via Online Store → Navigation.

Step 4: Assign customers to price lists

Under Customers & Access, enable auto-tagging so that approved customers are automatically assigned the correct wholesale tag. You can also add tags manually in Shopify's Customers section.

Step 5: Customize the Quick Order Form

Available on Wholesale Gorilla's Advanced and Premium plans, this is located at Online Store → Quick Order Form. Click “Customize Quick Order Form” to adjust layout, choose which collections appear, and enable SKUs, stock display, and messaging for backorders or out-of-stock items.

Step 6: Control product visibility

Go to Online Store → Product Exclusions to hide products or collections from non-wholesale customers or tailor visibility by tag.

4. Launch and manage your wholesale storefront

Once everything is in place, it’s time to launch and grow your Shopify wholesale channel. Here's how to make the most of your setup – from going live to ongoing operations and growth.

Test, test, and then test some more!

Create a test customer and tag it with your wholesale tag. Log in, verify wholesale pricing, product access, and order form functionality. Test the Shopify wholesale order form and checkout process for edge cases. Place a test order to confirm checkout and inventory sync work correctly. Confirm inventory updates correctly after test orders.

Basically, do everything you can to break the wholesale store! If you don't find the gaps, then your customers will 😅

Promote your wholesale program

Start by creating a dedicated landing page that clearly explains the benefits of becoming a wholesale partner, such as access to bulk pricing, streamlined ordering, and exclusive product bundles. Include a prominent call-to-action linking to your registration form.

Next, reach out to existing retail customers who may be good wholesale candidates and invite them to apply. You can also run targeted ads or email campaigns to attract new wholesale leads in relevant industries or regions.

Don't forget to link to the wholesale registration page from the header of your Shopify store. This will encourage general browsers to sign up as B2B sellers.

Onboard your Shopify wholesale customers

Once a customer is approved, make the experience seamless. Send a welcome email with clear next steps: how to log in, where to find the Quick Order Form, minimum order quantities, payment terms, and shipping policies. Consider including a quick-start guide or checklist to help them place their first order with confidence.

Manage and nurture your wholesale relationships

Use Wholesale Gorilla to keep operations smooth. This Shopify wholesale app simplifies order processing, invoicing, and customer tagging.

Set up restock alerts and keep your wholesale customers informed with regular product updates, new arrivals, and promotions. Analyze sales data to understand buying patterns and adjust your product selection or pricing tiers accordingly.

Building long-term relationships with wholesale buyers can lead to reliable, repeat revenue – so stay proactive and responsive.

Best practices for wholesale success on Shopify

Before we finish, here are some top tips on how to make your Shopify wholesale business a success:

• Keep retail and wholesale channels distinct – Use separate pricing, product visibility, and customer tagging to avoid confusion.
• Review pricing quarterly – Costs change, and competitor pricing evolves. Regular updates protect your margins and competitiveness.
• Leverage automation – Use your app’s automation features for account approvals, inventory sync, and order workflows to save time and reduce errors.
• Stay compliant – Ensure you understand wholesale tax rules (like sales tax exemptions or VAT) and any legal requirements around contracts and B2B terms.
• Design for wholesale UX – Streamline the buyer experience with fast order forms, intuitive navigation, and clear account info. This is where Wholesale Gorilla excels over competitors.

Set up wholesale on Shopify today

Launching a wholesale channel doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. With the right strategy and the help of tools like Wholesale Gorilla, you can start selling wholesale on Shopify in just a few days – without disrupting your retail business or upgrading to Shopify Plus.

By offering volume-based pricing, simplifying the order process, and delivering frictionless B2B ordering, you’ll be well positioned to grow your revenue. This, in turn, will help you to reach new audiences and build long-term relationships with wholesale buyers.

Ready to get started? Try Wholesale Gorilla and launch your wholesale Shopify B2B storefront today.