Shopify Wholesale Pricing: 5 Ways to Set B2B Prices per Customer

In this article

• How Shopify wholesale pricing works
• Method 1: Customer-specific catalogs
• Method 2: Volume pricing
• Method 3: Segment discounts by customer tag
• Method 4: Gated pricing
• Method 5: App-powered pricing for more segments
• The five methods compared
• How to set up wholesale pricing on Shopify, step by step
• Do you need a Shopify wholesale pricing app?
• How to choose the right method
• Mistakes that break wholesale pricing
• FAQ

How does Shopify wholesale pricing work?

Shopify wholesale pricing runs on three connected pieces: Companies (the buyer account), Company locations (a specific address or division under that account), and Catalogs (the wholesale price list assigned to each account or location). Everything else in Shopify B2B pricing is a variation on those three.

When a wholesale buyer logs in, Shopify checks which catalogs are assigned to their company and shows them the prices from those catalogs, not the retail prices visible to regular shoppers. If multiple catalogs are assigned and a product appears in more than one, the lowest price wins.

Since Shopify's April 2026 "B2B for all" update, this full infrastructure, including company accounts, catalogs, volume pricing, and net terms, is available on every Shopify plan, not just Plus. The key limit to know: Basic, Grow, and Advanced stores can assign up to 3 active catalogs across all B2B markets. Shopify Plus removes that ceiling and adds direct catalog assignment to individual company locations.

That three-catalog number is the single most important constraint in this article, because it quietly caps how many wholesale price tiers a non-Plus store can run natively. Most of the decisions below come back to it.

Method 1: Customer-specific catalogs (wholesale price lists)

A catalog is a price list you create in Shopify and assign directly to a company account. Every product in the catalog gets either a fixed price (for example, $18.00 per unit regardless of retail) or a percentage discount off the standard price (for example, 20% off all items for Wholesale Tier A buyers).

This is the most precise Shopify wholesale pricing tool available natively, and it is what most merchants mean when they search for customer specific pricing. You can create a catalog for your top account and give them prices no one else sees, and another for mid-tier resellers at a different margin. The buyer sees their correct price automatically once logged in, with no discount codes or manual adjustments needed.

Where it gets tight: on non-Plus plans, you can only have 3 active catalogs at once. If you serve more than 3 distinct pricing groups, or have customers who need product-level exceptions within a group, you will hit this limit quickly. A fourth reseller tier is not a small configuration change on Basic, Grow, or Advanced. It is a plan decision or an app decision.

Method 2: Volume pricing (quantity-based price breaks)

Volume pricing lets you offer automatic price breaks when a buyer orders a larger quantity of a product in a single order. You define thresholds: buy 1 to 11 units and pay $20 each; buy 12 to 23 and pay $17 each; buy 24 or more and pay $14 each. The price updates in the cart as the buyer adds more.

Volume pricing is set at the catalog level in Shopify, so it applies to B2B buyers assigned that catalog. You can combine it with a fixed base price: a catalog might give a reseller $18 per unit as a starting price, then layer volume breaks on top of that starting at 12 units. Shopify's volume pricing documentation covers the threshold mechanics in detail.

Two things trip people up here. Volume pricing applies per product per order, so a buyer who orders 6 units of four different SKUs does not hit a 12-unit break on any of them. And volume pricing is a discount ladder, not an access control: it does nothing to stop a retail shopper from seeing your wholesale ladder if the catalog is not gated.

This is the approach most operators think of when they search for tiered pricing. For a complete walkthrough on setting it up, see How to Set Up Tiered Wholesale Pricing on Shopify, or the narrower guide to setting up volume discounts and quantity breaks.

What are segment discounts by customer tag?

For merchants who do not need per-account pricing but want to separate wholesale buyers from retail shoppers, customer tags offer a lighter-weight approach. You tag an account (for example, "wholesale" or "vip-reseller") and use a Shopify automatic discount or a third-party app to apply a percentage wholesale discount to all purchases from tagged accounts.

This is the quickest method to set up and works on any plan with no catalog limits. The tradeoff is precision: every buyer with the same tag gets the same discount, with no way to give one reseller 20% off and another 25% through tagging alone. For operators with a small number of pricing groups, it is perfectly adequate. For anyone managing five or more tiers, the catalog approach is cleaner.

The other tradeoff is that tag-based discounts are applied at the cart, not the price. Buyers see the retail price on the product page and only see their wholesale price once items are in the cart, which reads as a coupon rather than a negotiated price list. For brands selling to professional buyers, that difference matters more than it sounds.

How does gated wholesale pricing work on Shopify?

Gated pricing is a different lever from discounts. Instead of showing a lower price, it controls who can see prices at all. Non-logged-in visitors see a "login to see price" message. Only approved wholesale accounts, once authenticated, see the actual prices and can add to cart.

This is standard practice for brands that do not want to undercut their retailers publicly, or that want to vet buyers before exposing wholesale pricing. It also prevents price scraping by competitors and stops your wholesale price list leaking into shopping comparison feeds.

Gating and custom pricing work together: once a buyer logs in, they see both the fact that they are allowed to buy and the price from their assigned catalog. For a full setup guide, see How to Set Up a Gated B2B Portal on Shopify in 5 Steps, or the method-by-method breakdown of how to hide prices on Shopify until customers log in.

Method 5: App-powered wholesale pricing for more customer segments

Native Shopify wholesale pricing is powerful but has two meaningful constraints for growing brands: the 3-catalog limit on non-Plus plans, and no native support for minimum order quantities (MOQs), pack-size enforcement, or in-cart upsells aimed at wholesale buyers. Shopify's quantity rules can set a minimum, maximum, and increment per product in a catalog, but they are configured per catalog rather than per customer, so they do not cover the common case of a different MOQ for a distributor than for a boutique.

Once you need any of that, a wholesale pricing app fills the gap without requiring a costly Plus upgrade. PortalSphere, for example, lets you create unlimited price lists per customer segment, layer in MOQs and pack sizes, gate catalog access with a registration form, and add B2B-specific upsells, all from a single dashboard on any Shopify plan.

The trade you are making is real and worth naming: an app is another monthly cost and another surface to maintain. It earns its place when the alternative is either upgrading to Plus for pricing alone or squeezing eight customer tiers into three catalogs.

Which Shopify wholesale pricing method wins on which criteria?

For three or fewer pricing tiers with no MOQ requirement, native catalogs plus volume pricing win outright and cost nothing extra. Past three tiers, or the moment MOQs and pack sizes enter the picture, an app wins on every criterion except monthly cost.

Reading the rows that matter most: native catalogs are the only free way to give a specific wholesale account its own price list, and they handle gated pricing and percentage discounts by customer group cleanly, but they stop dead at three active catalogs on Basic, Grow, and Advanced. Volume pricing is the only method that changes the price as quantity rises within a single order, and it layers on top of a catalog rather than replacing it, so it is rarely an either-or choice. Tag-based discounts scale to unlimited groups and set up in about ten minutes, but they apply a flat percentage at the cart and cannot express a real per-account price list. A wholesale pricing app is the only option that covers all six capabilities at once, including per-customer MOQs and pack-size enforcement that Shopify's catalog-level quantity rules cannot express.

How do you set up wholesale pricing on Shopify, step by step?

Here is the shortest path from a retail-only store to working Shopify wholesale pricing. Budget about an hour for the first tier and far less for each one after.

1. Decide your tiers before you touch the admin. Write down each customer group and the margin you want from it. Three tiers is the practical ceiling on a non-Plus plan, so if your list has six, decide now whether you are consolidating or adding an app. If you are not sure what each tier should cost, work the margin backwards first using the wholesale price formula.
2. Turn on B2B and create your first company. In the Shopify admin, go to Customers, then Companies, and create a company record for a real wholesale buyer. Add at least one company location and one contact who will actually log in.
3. Build the catalog. Create a catalog, add the products you sell wholesale, and set either a fixed price per product or a percentage off retail. A percentage is faster to launch and far easier to maintain when retail prices move; fixed prices are better when your wholesale price is a negotiated number rather than a formula.
4. Add volume pricing inside the catalog. For any product where larger orders genuinely cost you less to fulfil, set two or three quantity thresholds. Keep the ladder short. Buyers compare three price points easily and five badly.
5. Set quantity rules if you need a floor. Shopify's quantity rules let you set a minimum, maximum, and increment per product in the catalog, which covers simple case-pack requirements. For per-customer MOQs, see how to set minimum order quantities on Shopify wholesale.
6. Assign the catalog and gate the storefront. Attach the catalog to the company, then decide whether non-approved visitors should see wholesale prices at all. If the answer is no, add gating before you invite a single buyer, not after.
7. Test as the buyer, not as the admin. Log in with the contact account in a private window and walk the whole path: product page price, cart price at one unit, cart price above your first volume threshold, and checkout total. Preview mode in the admin hides the exact mistakes this catches.

If you are starting from zero rather than adding pricing to an existing B2B setup, the broader walkthrough in How to Set Up Wholesale on Shopify covers the surrounding pieces: registration, approval, and net terms.

Do you need a Shopify wholesale pricing app?

Not every store does. If you have three or fewer wholesale tiers, no MOQ requirements, and no plans to add regional price lists, Shopify's native tools handle wholesale pricing on their own and an app is an unnecessary line item.

A Shopify wholesale pricing app earns its cost when at least one of these is true:

• You need a fourth pricing tier. This is the most common trigger by a wide margin. Three catalogs sounds like plenty until a distributor, a boutique group, a sampling program, and an international reseller all need different numbers.
• MOQs or pack sizes vary by customer. Catalog-level quantity rules cannot express "12-unit minimum for boutiques, 144-unit minimum for distributors."
• You want a real application and approval flow. Native B2B assumes you create company accounts manually. A registration form with approval turns wholesale signup into a self-serve funnel.
• You are weighing a Plus upgrade purely for catalogs. Compare the app's monthly cost against the plan difference before moving. For pricing alone, the app is usually the cheaper answer by an order of magnitude.

If you are still deciding between native B2B and an app, Shopify B2B vs a wholesale app works through the decision in full, and the 2026 roundup of Shopify wholesale apps compares the main options honestly, including the ones that beat PortalSphere on specific needs.

How do you choose the right wholesale pricing method for your store?

The decision comes down to three questions:

• How many distinct pricing groups do you have? Three or fewer: native catalogs work fine. Four or more: you need an app or Shopify Plus.
• Do you need quantity-based price breaks? Shopify's volume pricing handles this natively for B2B catalogs on all plans.
• Do you need to control who can see prices, not just what they pay? That is gated pricing, and it requires either Shopify's native B2B company accounts with access restrictions or an app that adds a registration and approval layer.

Most growing wholesale brands end up needing a combination: gated access so only approved buyers can see prices, customer-specific catalogs for major accounts, volume pricing for every catalog, and an app to handle the catalog limit and add MOQs. For reference on how the native pieces fit together, see the Shopify Help Center guide to B2B catalogs and pricing.

What mistakes break Shopify wholesale pricing?

Five failures account for most of the wholesale pricing problems merchants report, and all five are avoidable at setup.

• Stacking retail discount codes on wholesale prices. An automatic sitewide discount that does not exclude B2B customers will apply on top of catalog pricing and quietly hand your resellers a double discount. Exclude wholesale accounts from every retail promotion by default.
• Launching wholesale prices ungated. If your catalog is live before gating is configured, your entire wholesale price list is public, indexable, and visible to the retailers you sell through. Gate first, invite second.
• Assigning two catalogs to one company by accident. When a product appears in more than one assigned catalog, Shopify shows the lowest price. Merchants who add a promotional catalog on top of a tier catalog often find their top account paying the promo price permanently.
• Setting volume thresholds you cannot fulfil. A 24-unit break is a margin loss if your pick-and-pack cost does not actually fall at 24 units. Set thresholds against real fulfilment economics, not round numbers.
• Never testing as a logged-in buyer. Almost every broken wholesale pricing report traces back to a setup verified only from the admin. Two minutes in a private browser window catches it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Shopify Plus for wholesale pricing?

No. Since Shopify's April 2026 "B2B for all" update, company accounts, catalogs, volume pricing, and net terms are available on every Shopify plan, including Basic. The main limitation on non-Plus plans is a cap of 3 active catalogs across all B2B markets, plus the inability to assign catalogs directly to individual company locations. Shopify Plus removes both restrictions.

How do I set wholesale prices on Shopify?

Create a company record for the buyer, build a catalog containing the products you sell wholesale, set either a fixed price or a percentage off retail for each product, then assign that catalog to the company. Logged-in contacts at that company see the wholesale price automatically. Add volume pricing inside the same catalog if you want quantity-based price breaks on top.

Can I charge different customers different prices on Shopify?

Yes. Create a B2B catalog in Shopify, set your per-product prices or a percentage discount, and assign it to a company account. That company's buyers will see those prices automatically when logged in. For stores needing more than 3 pricing segments, PortalSphere and similar apps extend this with unlimited price lists on any Shopify plan.

How do Shopify B2B catalogs work?

A catalog is a price list you create in the Shopify admin. You add products, set fixed prices or percentage discounts, and assign the catalog to one or more company accounts or locations. Buyers assigned that catalog see those prices on the storefront after logging in. You can assign multiple catalogs to the same company and Shopify will show the lowest applicable price for each product.

What is the difference between volume pricing and tiered pricing on Shopify?

These terms are often used interchangeably. On Shopify, "volume pricing" refers to quantity-based price breaks on a single product in a single order (for example, buy 12 and get 10% off per unit). "Tiered pricing" can also refer to different price levels for different customer account types, which is handled through separate catalogs assigned to different company accounts, not a single product's quantity rules.

How do I hide prices from non-wholesale visitors on Shopify?

Use Shopify's native B2B company accounts to require login before showing prices, or use an app like PortalSphere that adds a registration and approval workflow. Once gating is set up, non-authenticated visitors see a "login to see price" or "apply for wholesale" prompt instead of the actual price and add-to-cart button.

Can Shopify B2B handle price lists for hundreds of accounts?

Shopify Plus supports unlimited catalogs, so you could in theory assign a unique price list to each account. On non-Plus plans, the 3-catalog limit means you need to group accounts into segments. Apps like PortalSphere remove this limit and let you manage per-account pricing on any plan, without upgrading to Plus.

Do I need a Shopify wholesale pricing app?

Only if you have outgrown the native tools. Three or fewer pricing tiers with no MOQ requirements are handled natively at no extra cost. A wholesale pricing app becomes worth it once you need a fourth tier, per-customer minimum order quantities or pack sizes, a self-serve wholesale application and approval flow, or you are otherwise considering a Shopify Plus upgrade purely to lift the catalog limit.