The idea of changing wholesale transactions from in-person meetings to self-serve transactions is still something relatively new. B2B e-commerce may be a new concept, but it is one that has gained popularity over the last few years. Offering the convenience of online shopping for wholesale purchases can bring the buying process into the modern era and increase sales. Shopify Plus provides an excellent solution for B2C and B2B e-commerce.
There is often a label of difficulty given to the idea of offering separate pricing strategies, but with Shopify Plus Wholesale Ecommerce Channel, this can be an easy process. The Shopify Wholesale storefront is easy to use for both customers and vendors. You can easily create price lists and customer accounts and tailor customer experiences.
The Wholesale Ecommerce Channel is a feature that is only available to those with a Shopify Plus account.
One of the best things about offering wholesale purchases online is that you cut down on missed sales from interested clients that as shopping outside of your office hours. Small business owners often keep extended working hours outside of the traditional 9-5. When you give your customers the option to complete their purchases online, you are more likely to get those midnight oil and weekend orders.
With Shopify Wholesale e-commerce channel, you can offer more features and benefits to your customers. Customers are able to log in to their accounts and place orders at any time without first having to speak to a representative. Once they are logged into their accounts, they can easily view their order history and track their open orders.
CSV Pricing
Shopify Wholesale is continuously making efforts to improve to better help sellers. Previously sellers had to create price lists manually, but this was quite a time consuming, so they changed their process to allow for CSV uploads
The ability to upload wholesale pricing means more than just saved time; it also allows merchants to do other things:
- Merchants can have external platforms or ERP integrations create price-lists
- Allows for unlimited price breaks based on quantity
- Faster pricing set up for those with large catalogs
Self Checkout
On the wholesale storefront, customers can check out on their own automatically, but vendors can have some say and create any necessary limitations. The option for self-checkout can be enabled and disabled on a per-customer basis or as a bulk action. If a customer does not have wholesale self-checkout enabled, their order will be submitted as a draft order. When an order comes in as a draft, you will then have the option to send the customer an invoice to be paid, make necessary changes to the invoice, mark your invoice as partially paid, or paid as you receive payments.
Wholesale Shipping Rates
Your B2B orders will be very different from your B2C orders, so your shipping rates need to be different also. With Shopify Wholesale, you are able to offer free shipping, a flat rate, or the same as online shipping.
Other benefits:
- Manage B2C and B2B from one place
- Order and inventory sync with existing Shopify store
- Optional minimum purchase amounts
- Integrate with 3PL, OMS, ERP, and CRM
- Custom pricing
- Customer account management
Right On Tech
Wholesale e-commerce doesn’t need to be complicated. With Shopify’s Wholesale Ecommerce Channel, the process is now easier to manage. Wholesale business can be very beneficial to companies since those customers usually make larger purchases and often become return customers. Whenever you’re ready to get started with Shopify Plus Wholesale or if you have questions, contact us for a free consultation.
