Shopify B2B Without Plus: What Basic, Grow and Advanced Can Do

Many manufacturers and wholesalers still assume that selling to trade buyers on Shopify means paying for Shopify Plus. That stopped being true. Shopify's help centre now says B2B "is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Shopify Plus plans", and most of the features a dealer ordering site needs come with every one of them.

What every B2B plan includes

According to Shopify's plan comparison, these work on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus:

• Companies and company locations, so one dealer can have several branches
• Net payment terms and payment reminders
• Quantity rules (minimum, maximum and increments) and quantity price breaks
• Saved cards, purchase order numbers and quick reordering
• Draft orders that turn into invoices, and checkouts that turn into drafts for your team to review
• A quick order list for buyers who know their SKUs
• Shopify Flow automations using B2B data

Sales staff permissions start on Grow. B2B isn't available on the Starter or Retail plans.

What only Plus adds

The catalog limit is the one most manufacturers hit. Three price lists cover a simple trade setup, for example distributors, dealers and retailers. If every large account has its own negotiated prices, you need Plus or a different approach.

When Plus pays for itself

Shopify's India pricing page lists Plus from ₹1,75,000 a month, on a one or three year term. Advanced costs ₹22,680 a month on yearly billing, so Plus costs ₹1,52,320 a month more.

On the fee side, Plus charges 0.2% on sales through a third-party payment provider, against 0.6% on Advanced. That 0.4% saving only covers the extra ₹1,52,320 at about ₹3.8 crore a month in online sales through a third-party gateway. Few Indian manufacturers sell that much through checkout, because trade orders are often paid by bank transfer against an invoice.

So for most B2B businesses in India, Plus is worth it for a feature you need, such as per-company price lists or deposits, rather than for fees. The Shopify pricing guide works through the lower plan break-evens.

When Shopify B2B is the wrong tool

Shopify B2B handles ordering well. It isn't built for the rest of a manufacturer's sales operation:

• dealer schemes and targets that change every season
• credit limits and outstanding balances that live in your accounts software
• orders that field staff take on a phone in a village market
• incentives for your own sales team, worked out from what they sold
• loyalty points for farmers, retailers or installers

When most of the pain sits there, adding a webstore doesn't fix it. Balaji Agro Chemicals is an example: their website brings in leads, and their staff run sales tracking, incentives, HR and a loyalty programme on a custom operating layer we built behind it.

Many businesses end up with both: Shopify for trade ordering and a small custom system for the parts Shopify doesn't cover, connected so that orders and dealer records match.

Before you choose

1. Count your price lists. Three or fewer, and any B2B plan will do.
2. List how trade buyers pay. If it's mostly bank transfer on terms, the fee argument for Plus disappears.
3. Write down what your sales team does outside the ordering step. That list decides whether you need custom software.
4. Check that your invoices carry the buyer's GSTIN, whichever system raises them.

If you'd like a second opinion on the setup, our Shopify development team builds B2B stores, and our internal platforms practice builds the dealer and sales systems around them.