Unified Commerce: Running Wholesale (B2B) and D2C on a Single Shopify Plus Instance

Introduction

For the last decade, the standard playbook for hybrid brands (selling to both consumers and retailers) was the "Silo Strategy."

You built a beautiful, high-converting Shopify store for your D2C customers. And then, you kept a clunky, ugly, legacy Magento or NetSuite portal for your B2B buyers.

The logic was: "Wholesale buyers don't care about UX. They just want a spreadsheet interface."

That logic is now dead.

Today’s B2B buyer is a Millennial purchasing manager. They expect the same speed, mobile responsiveness, and ease of use they get on Amazon. If your B2B portal requires downloading a PDF order form or looks like Windows 95, you are losing market share to digitally native competitors.

Worse, you are paying the "Double-Stack Tax":

• Two dev teams: One for Liquid/React, one for PHP/Magento.
• Two ERP integrations: Double the maintenance, double the failure points.
• Two sets of inventory: Inventory data that never quite syncs, leading to "ghost stock" and overselling.

At Redlio Designs, we are seeing a massive shift toward Unified Commerce. We are helping enterprise brands kill their legacy portals and merge B2B and D2C into a single Shopify Plus instance.

1. The Old Way vs. The New Way: Why Consolidation Wins

Before 2023, doing B2B on Shopify was a "hack." You had to use apps to hide collections or spin up a completely separate "Expansion Store" (a clone of your site) just for wholesale.

The Old Way (The Expansion Store Model)

• URLs: shop.com (D2C) and wholesale.shop.com (B2B).
• The Problem: You have to update content twice. If you launch a new product, you have to upload images and write descriptions in two admin panels. Your analytics are fragmented, making it impossible to calculate a true "Global LTV."

The New Way (B2B on Online Store)

• URL: shop.com (Unified).
• The Logic: One codebase. One URL. When a user logs in, Shopify detects if they are a "B2B Customer."
• If No: They see retail prices ($100). They pay tax. They pay via Credit Card.
• If Yes: The interface transforms. They see wholesale prices ($60). They are tax-exempt. They pay via "Net 30" Invoice.

The ROI of Consolidation

We recently migrated a client from a Magento (B2B) + Shopify (D2C) setup to a Unified Shopify Plus instance. The financial impact was immediate:

• Dev Cost Savings: $120k/year (Eliminated the Magento agency retainer).
• License Savings: $40k/year (Killed the Magento Enterprise license).
• Operational Efficiency: Inventory is now 100% accurate because it lives in one database.

2. The Data Model: Companies, Locations, and Catalogs

The reason Shopify can now kill Magento is its new B2B Data Model. It no longer treats B2B buyers as just "Customers with a tag." It treats them as Corporate Entities.

The "Company" Object

In standard Shopify, a customer is a person. In B2B Shopify, we map a hierarchy:

1. Company: "Acme Corp" (The parent entity).
2. Location: "Acme Warehouse A" (Ship to) and "Acme HQ" (Bill to).
3. Contact: "Jane Doe" (Purchasing Manager) and "John Smith" (Finance).

This hierarchy allows "Jane" to buy specifically for "Warehouse A," while "John" receives the invoice for the whole company. Crucially, multiple buyers can share the same payment terms and credit limit.

The "Catalog" (The Price List Killer)

This is the feature that convinces CTOs to switch. In the past, tiered pricing required slow apps that used JavaScript to "fake" the price on the frontend. Now, Catalogs are native and server-side.

We can create unlimited Catalogs:

• Gold Tier: 40% off Retail (Percentage Rule).
• Silver Tier: 20% off Retail (Percentage Rule).
• VIP Distributor: Custom fixed prices for specific SKUs (Fixed Price Rule).

The Redlio Strategy: We integrate these Catalogs directly with your ERP using our Shopify Development Services. When you update a price in NetSuite, it flows into the Shopify Catalog via API. No manual updates.

3. The "Blended" Storefront: Coding for Two Audiences

How do you show a sleek, emotional D2C experience and a utilitarian, bulk-buying B2B experience on the same URL? We use Contextual Liquid Logic.

The "If/Else" Architecture

We code your theme to behave differently based on the user's context.

{% if customer.b2b? %}

  <!-- B2B Context: Show Bulk Order Table -->

  <div class="b2b-matrix">

    {% render 'b2b-quick-order-form', product: product %}

  </div>

{% else %}

  <!-- D2C Context: Show Lifestyle Product Page -->

  <div class="d2c-hero">

    {% render 'standard-product-card', product: product %}

  </div>

{% endif %}

UX Differences We Build:

• Navigation: D2C users see "New Arrivals." B2B users see "Quick Order Form" and "Past Orders."
• Product Page: B2B users see a Quantity Matrix (Size S: [10], Size M: [20]) instead of a standard "Add to Cart" button. They see "SKU" prominently and "Inventory Level" (e.g., "500 Available").
• Search: B2B search is weighted by SKU and MPN (Manufacturer Part Number), whereas D2C search is weighted by product title.

4. Checkout Logic: Net Terms and Vaulted Cards

The checkout is where B2B usually breaks on basic platforms. Wholesale buyers don't pay with credit cards; they pay with Purchase Orders (POs). Shopify Plus utilizes a dedicated Draft Order flow for B2B checkout.

The Logic:

1. Is "Acme Corp" approved for Net 30? Yes. -> Show "Pay by Invoice" option.
2. Is "Startup Inc" approved? No. -> Force Credit Card payment.
3. Does "Acme Corp" have a credit limit? Yes ($10k). -> Is this order $12k? -> Block checkout or require 20% deposit.

For repeat B2B buyers who prefer credit cards, we enable Vaulted Cards. They save their corporate Amex once. Future orders utilize the tokenized card for one-click re-ordering, bypassing the repetitive entry that frustrates procurement officers.

5. The Migration: Moving Complex B2B Data

Moving products is hard. Moving B2B relationships is harder. You cannot just export/import a CSV. You need to map the relationship between customers and price lists.

The Redlio Migration Protocol for B2B

1. Cleanse the ERP: We start in your ERP. We identify every active B2B customer and their unique pricing rules.
2. Company Creation Script: We write a script using the Admin GraphQL API to generate "Company" objects in Shopify for each distributor.
3. Catalog Assignment: The script assigns the correct Catalog (Price List) to the Company Location.
4. Activation Blast: On launch day, we send a specialized activation email via Klaviyo: "Welcome to your new portal. Your pricing is already loaded. Click here to set a password."

The Risk: If you migrate a B2B customer but forget to assign their Catalog, they will log in and see Retail Prices. They will panic. This step requires rigorous QA testing.

6. The "Tax Exemption" Workflow

One of the biggest headaches in B2B is sales tax. Retail customers pay it; Wholesale customers (resellers) do not.

The Solution: We integrate Shopify with tax engines like Avalara Avatax or Vertex.

1. We map the B2B Customer Profile to their "Reseller Certificate ID" in Avalara.
2. At checkout, Shopify pings Avalara.
3. Avalara confirms the certificate is valid and returns a $0.00 tax line item.

This ensures you remain compliant without manual tax overrides.

7. The Self-Service Portal: Reducing Support Costs

A major hidden cost of B2B is customer support. "Can you send me the invoice for Order #123?" "What is my tracking number?"

Shopify's new B2B accounts provide a Self-Service Portal. We customize this portal to allow buyers to:

• Download PDFs: Access invoices and receipts instantly.
• Easy Reorder: Click "Reorder" on a past shipment to duplicate the cart.
• Manage Locations: Add new "Ship To" addresses (which we validate against the ERP via webhook).

By empowering the buyer, we often see a 30% reduction in support tickets within the first 90 days.

8. The ERP Sync: The Heart of B2B

In D2C, if the inventory is off by 1 unit, you refund $50. In B2B, if the inventory is off, you might oversell 5,000 units to a key distributor. The stakes are higher.

B2B Integration nuances we handle:

• Price List Syncing: ERPs have complex "Matrix Pricing." We build middleware to flatten this logic into Shopify's Catalog structure.
• Credit Limits: Your ERP (e.g., SAP) knows the creditworthiness of a client. We sync this "Credit Limit" field to Shopify periodically so the checkout can enforce it.
• Draft Orders: B2B orders often need to be "Approved" by a sales rep. We map Shopify "Draft Orders" to the ERP's "Quote" stage, allowing for negotiation before the final invoice is cut.

Conclusion

The era of maintaining separate "B2B" and "D2C" tech stacks is over. It is expensive, inefficient, and creates data silos that slow down decision-making.

By unifying your commerce on Shopify Plus, you treat Wholesale not as a forgotten back-office function, but as a first-class digital experience. You lower your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and give your B2B buyers the modern experience they deserve.

Are you paying the "Double-Stack Tax"? Let’s look at your architecture and see how much you could save by consolidating. Book a B2B Consolidation Discovery Call

Frequently Asked Question

Is Shopify Plus B2B good enough to replace Magento?

As of 2026, Yes. Shopify's native B2B features (Catalogs, Companies, Net Terms) now cover 90% of the use cases that previously required Magento. The remaining 10% (extremely complex custom manufacturing workflows) can be solved with Shopify Functions or custom apps. The trade-off in lower maintenance costs makes it the superior choice for most brands.

Can I hide products from retail customers but show them to B2B?

Yes. Shopify’s B2B Catalogs allow for "Publication Status" control. You can have a "Wholesale Only" product collection (e.g., Bulk Raw Materials) that is invisible to the public (D2C) but instantly appears in the navigation when a B2B user logs in.

Does Shopify support tiered quantity pricing?

Yes, utilizing Quantity Rules and Volume Pricing. You can set rules like: "Buy 1-10 units = $50. Buy 11-50 units = $45." This is displayed natively on the product page grid, encouraging bulk purchases.

How do B2B shipping rates work on Shopify?

You can set distinct "Shipping Profiles" for B2B. For example, D2C orders might get "Free Shipping over $50," while B2B orders (which are heavy pallets) might charge "Freight at Cost" or require a specific carrier account number. We configure this logic using Delivery Profiles in the admin.