Shopify expands native B2B to non-Plus plans and changes the game for small market

On April 2, Shopify announced a new development with the potential to very concretely change the way many companies view B2B in ecommerce. Merchants on the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans can now use native B2B features directly in the platform’s admin, at no additional cost. At first glance, this may seem like just another product update. In practice, however, it is a decision with strategic impact, especially in small markets, where the average size of companies, transaction volume and cost sensitivity make the technology choice even more decisive.

This change represents a very relevant convergence between the standard Shopify universe and capabilities that, until now, were seen as almost exclusive territory of Shopify Plus. Important differences between plans still remain, and it is essential not to confuse broader functionality with full equivalence. Even so, this is a significant enough step to open the door to many projects that were previously stuck between two less-than-ideal options: either moving forward with an adapted architecture, with limitations and external dependencies, or taking on the investment required for a Shopify Plus licence.

At BYDAS, this update deserves special attention. Around 30% of the stores produced by the agency are B2B projects, which means the impact of this decision is not merely theoretical: it will have a direct effect on operations, on the type of value proposition that can be brought to market, and on the ability to design solutions better suited to companies with digital ambition but without the scale needed to justify an enterprise structure.

What is now available on the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans

According to the information shared, merchants on these plans can now sell wholesale using native B2B features already available in the admin. These capabilities include up to 3 active B2B catalogs, assigned through Markets, company profiles, payment terms, volume pricing and securely vaulted credit cards.

In practice, this means a company can start structuring a more serious B2B operation within the Shopify ecosystem without immediately relying on an additional layer of applications to solve core needs. Shopify also reinforces the logic of operational unification: it is possible to run a single store for both B2B and D2C sales, or to choose a separate store dedicated exclusively to the wholesale channel. That flexibility remains one of the platform’s major advantages, especially for brands that need to test, validate and scale quickly.

In addition, the technical framework of Shopify B2B remains highly attractive because it does not operate in isolation. These features can be combined with already established ecosystem resources such as draft orders, themes, analytics, Shopify Flow and APIs. In other words, the value lies not only in the new native options, but also in the way they now interact with the rest of the store’s infrastructure.

What was already possible before and why this update is still so important

It is important to underline one point to avoid simplistic interpretations: it was already possible to create pseudo-B2B stores on regular Shopify plans. Many agencies and technical teams, including BYDAS, relied on combinations of architecture, custom development and external apps to approximate the experience of a wholesale operation. There could be restricted areas, specific price tables, authentication-gated ordering, commercial approval flows and other functional layers that made it possible to build something credible — as you can see in this recent project developed for our client Campobello Shoes.

However, that approach came with hidden costs. In many cases, it required more maintenance, greater dependence on third-party apps, a higher risk of incompatibilities and a less elegant architecture from an operational point of view. Instead of being based on a native platform logic, B2B ended up emerging as an adaptation. It worked, but it required working around limitations.

This is precisely where Shopify’s new development becomes relevant. By bringing native B2B features to more accessible plans, the platform reduces the need for technical improvisation in many entry-level or mid-growth scenarios. It does not eliminate the importance of functional design, commercial strategy or specialised development, but it significantly improves the starting point.

For many companies, this translates into three immediate gains:

• Less technical complexity to launch a wholesale operation;
• Less dependence on external applications to solve structural needs;
• Better cost predictability at a stage when the project is still validating both market and operations.

Shopify Plus remains the benchmark for robust B2B operations

Despite the legitimate enthusiasm surrounding this update, it is worth keeping the analysis balanced. To build a truly robust, complex and highly customised B2B store, Shopify Plus remains the most complete solution. Some of the more advanced capabilities remain exclusive to that tier, such as unlimited catalogs for customer-specific pricing, direct catalog assignment to companies and locations, partial payments and deposits.

This means that the newly announced opening does not eliminate the value proposition of Shopify Plus. On the contrary, it more clearly redefines the boundary between what is a B2B project in its entry, validation or growth phase and what already requires an enterprise operation. Large distributors, manufacturers with multiple commercial price tables, networks with decentralised purchasing structures or businesses with very specific financial and logistics rules will continue to benefit from a Plus implementation.

What changes is access. Many companies that previously did not have the volume, digital maturity or financial capacity to support a Plus licence can now enter Shopify’s native B2B environment more safely. That democratisation is probably the true core of this decision.

An especially relevant opportunity for small market ecosystem

For small market contexts, this development carries even greater weight because there are many industrial, commercial and distribution-profile companies that need to digitise sales channels without immediately moving into an enterprise investment model. In many of these cases, the issue was never the lack of commercial opportunity; it was the difficulty of finding a solution that balanced functional ambition, cost control and operational sustainability.

For a long time, Shopify was often seen as an excellent platform for D2C, but with clearer barriers in B2B outside the Plus universe. That perception is now likely to change. With this update, the Advanced plan in particular gains new relevance for small companies that want to professionalise their wholesale operation without immediately making the leap to a heavier investment model. And although this is a very recent announcement (April 2, 2026), we will already deliver our first B2B store on the Advanced plan with these characteristics to our client INTT Cosmetics in May. It is important to highlight, within this narrative, that selecting an Official agency such as BYDAS brings intrinsic advantages — we know about new functionalities in advance and can act proactively in structuring projects so that our clients can gain access to these capabilities as early as possible. We believe this is worth celebrating, and we would also like to thank Shopify for once again sharing exclusive information with us before making it public.

For the small business landscape, this could represent an important acceleration. Manufacturers, own-brand businesses, specialised distributors and companies with reseller networks now have a more competitive platform for centralising catalogues, pricing, commercial conditions and buying experiences tailored to business customers. And they can do so with a technological base that is more coherent and more scalable than many improvised solutions.

The impact on BYDAS’s operation

At BYDAS, this update fits directly into the agency’s reality. Since Shopify is a strategic area for the company, and since B2B is already a very relevant component of the work developed, the impact is likely to be significant. If 30% of the stores produced by BYDAS are B2B, then this change has the potential to transform the type of projects that come in, the speed of implementation and the client profile that can be served.

In practice, the agency gains greater room to recommend Shopify solutions to companies that previously sat in a grey area: they had a real need for B2B, but did not yet have the scale to justify Shopify Plus. That commercial unlock is important because it aligns the technological proposition more closely with the client’s maturity.

At the same time, this change strengthens BYDAS’s ability to generate value precisely where it is most focused. The agency already has accumulated experience in Shopify projects and knows the specifics of the wholesale channel well, from catalogue modelling to the integration of commercial and operational processes. With more native capabilities now available on standard plans, part of the technical effort can shift from compensating for limitations to creating effective business value.

This does not reduce the importance of specialised work. Quite the opposite: it makes it even more strategic. When the platform solves the fundamentals better, the agency can focus even more on functional architecture, buying experience, ERP integration, automation, commercial performance and growth.

A market move with direct impact on WooCommerce

This Shopify decision should also be read as a very smart competitive move. For quite some time, WooCommerce maintained an important advantage in many small and medium-scale B2B scenarios. With more controlled licensing costs and great flexibility for customisation, it could support wholesale stores that were more complex than a traditional Shopify Advanced store.

That made the comparison relatively clear in certain projects: anyone needing greater B2B depth without the budget for Plus often ended up looking at WooCommerce as the more natural route. Shopify recognised this weakness and responded in the most effective way possible: it did not try to replicate everything, but it moved close enough to make the choice much harder for the competition.

By making native B2B features available on non-Plus plans, Shopify further weakens WooCommerce’s competitive proposition in this mid-market segment. It reduces the functional gap where it previously lost ground while maintaining the advantages it already had in stability, usability, ecosystem, implementation speed and operational consistency.

For agencies and decision-makers, this changes the equation significantly. Total cost of ownership is no longer analysed only through monthly fees or initial development costs. The reduction in dependencies, lower technical friction and ease of scaling on a more standardised base now also carry significant weight.

The Advanced plan gains new centrality

Among the plans now covered, Advanced may be one of the biggest beneficiaries. Until now, many companies looked at this plan as an important growth step, but not enough to meet more serious B2B requirements without extensive use of apps and customisations. With this update, there is now a much stronger narrative for positioning Advanced as a robust foundation for small and medium-sized wholesale projects.

This is particularly interesting for companies in transition. Businesses that already sell through traditional channels, have a portfolio of business clients, well-defined commercial rules and digital ambition, but are still consolidating their online operation, now have a much stronger alternative within the Shopify ecosystem. And that alternative, when well designed, may be enough for quite a long time.

From BYDAS’s perspective, this strengthening of the Advanced segment is extremely relevant. The agency may now have a greater capacity to generate value in the market where it is most focused, combining a more capable technological base with specialised business and implementation knowledge.

What companies should assess before moving forward

Despite the enthusiasm surrounding this development, the decision to move forward with a B2B store should not be made simply because the technology now allows more. It is essential to rigorously assess the commercial model, pricing complexity, customer segmentation, ordering process, integration needs and logistics and financial operations.

There are questions that remain fundamental:

1. How many types of business customers are there and how do they differ from one another?
2. Are pricing rules simple or do they require a very granular logic?
3. Is there a need for broadly differentiated catalogues by company or location?
4. Does the commercial process require approvals, deposits or partial payments?
5. Is it viable to operate B2B and D2C in the same store, or does it make more sense to separate them?
6. Which integrations are critical to ensure operational efficiency?

Answering these questions well is what makes it possible to understand whether the new standard-plan offering already solves the essentials or whether Shopify Plus remains the right choice. Technology opens possibilities, but the right decision always comes from aligning real needs with the appropriate architecture.

An evolution that may accelerate the adoption of digital B2B

Perhaps the most interesting side of this update is its indirect effect. By lowering the barrier to entry into native B2B, Shopify may accelerate the digitalisation of companies that had been postponing decisions due to the lack of an intermediate solution. Many organisations did not need everything the enterprise universe offers; what they needed was a credible, scalable and economically sensible starting point.

That is why this development deserves a strategic reading. It is not just about adding functionalities to a product. It is about repositioning Shopify in an area of the market where it had previously allowed opportunities to slip away. And for agencies with real B2B experience, this is a very favourable context for helping companies structure more solid projects from day one.

For that reason as well, it makes sense to look at this change not as a technical detail, but as a new competitive framework. In many cases, B2B on Shopify ceases to be a choice constrained by compromise or workaround and becomes a much more natural option for companies with ambition, but also with financial rationality.

For the small companies market, this change may be especially positive. For BYDAS, it represents a clear opportunity to place even more specialised knowledge at the service of companies that need to sell better between businesses, with a technological base that is more mature and more aligned with business reality.

At BYDAS, we are following this evolution with particular interest because it brings together two areas where we have concrete experience: Shopify projects and B2B operations. For companies evaluating a Shopify solution for business-to-business sales, or that need an online store designed for a wholesale context, this development opens up new possibilities. And when complexity requires a more advanced layer, Shopify Plus remains the right benchmark.

Source: https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/key-b2b-features-now-available-on-non-plus-plans