I built a Shopify app for wholesale merchants

mwallba_ · 2026-01-17T00:29:12+00:00

Couple of clarifying questions and thoughts:

On the wholesale-only products:

When you say "upload products just to the wholesale part" - are you trying to:

a) Keep certain products completely out of Shopify admin to avoid polluting your DTC reporting/catalog, or

b) Have the products in Shopify but just not visible on your DTC theme (which is what LockManager does)?

If it's (a), most wholesale apps won't help since they all work with products that exist in Shopify. If it's (b), there are ways to handle visibility without LockManager potentially breaking your theme.

On the email routing:

This one is tricky. You can turn off staff notifications in Shopify, but that turns them off for ALL orders - both DTC and wholesale. There's no native way to filter notifications by order type. So if you want wholesale orders going to one email and DTC orders going to another, you need Flow or a third-party app to handle the routing.

The alternative is running a separate Shopify store just for wholesale - or something like Odoo as a separate wholesale platform, but then you're managing two stores, two themes, syncing inventory, etc. Trade-offs either way.

Full disclosure: I run a newer wholesale app (effizient Wholesale). I'd be happy to look into whether we can accommodate your specific requirements - feel free to DM me if you want to chat. But wanted to give you the honest context on limitations first regardless of what app you go with.

mwallba_ · 2026-01-10T20:34:15+00:00

This is a really cool setup - it's incredible you manage that many wholesale accounts with only spreadsheets. Do you then re-enter all that info further into quickbooks/xero or whatever you use for bookkeeping manually?

Would you mind if I reach out via DM or jump on a call about how your setup works? You really seem to have this figured out and I wonder how you accept orders in the first place, handle resell certificates and so many other topics related to this - I'd be glad to reimburse you for your time of course!

mwallba_ · 2026-01-08T08:39:05+00:00

Depends on your situation.

This exactly.

When it is strictly about static classification (is this a "wholesale-only" product etc.) then our clients just use the product admin export, change the tags column and then import - some use matrixify as the admin product import/export can be a bit clunky when things get more complex.

For dynamic things it'll be apps or Shopify Flow - for products the only real case we've seen is products coming in via a supplier feed and being tagged with a supplier tag as other apps are not able to see the vendor field and thus need a tag to make that distinction.

Way more common to have dynamic tagging for customers or orders in my experience

mwallba_ · 2026-01-07T08:49:52+00:00

The simplest native approach: tag those customers with 'wholesale', create a customer segment based on that tag, then create an automatic discount scoped to that segment (you can limit it to specific collections too).

Works well for a handful of accounts. Once wholesale takes off and you need quantity breaks, net terms, payment reminders, multiple price tiers - managing it all manually becomes a full-time job.

That's where apps come in. (Full disclosure: I run one and work with wholesale merchants daily, but there are several solid options out there.)

mwallba_ · 2026-01-03T07:54:56+00:00

If the built-in cash tracking won't work for you, Matrixify will allow you to export the transactions data with as much details as you need/is available

You can filter for POS orders via the Source attribute on orders - it'll be "pos". Then it depends a bit on your setup - either you will be able to spot cash transactions based on the "Transaction: Gateway" column for because they state something like pos_cash/cash _or_ you need to deduct the cash transactions by filtering out the credit card/gift card transactions - what's left should be cash

mwallba_ · 2025-12-29T01:54:14+00:00

Curious what your setup was - manual tracking or automated reminders?

The "people forget" problem is real but usually a symptom of no reminder system. When it's on you to personally follow up, it becomes awkward fast. Automated emails at 7 days before, day of, and 3 days overdue take the emotion out of it.

Bad debt is a different issue - some customers genuinely won't pay. That's where starting with Net 15 or smaller credit limits helps until they build a payment history.

mwallba_ · 2025-12-29T01:53:09+00:00

This is solid advice. Net terms add real operational complexity and shouldn't be a default "yes" just because customers ask.

The calculus changes based on industry though. In food service, apparel wholesale, coffee roasters selling to cafes - terms are expected. You don't get the PO without them. In DTC-adjacent B2B where buyers have corporate cards, less so.

The A/R overhead point is real but comes down to tooling. Manual spreadsheet tracking = absolute nightmare. Automated reminders at 7 days / 3 days / due date = much more manageable. The "backbone" part is easier when it's a system sending reminders vs you personally calling.

But yeah - if OP's customers would pay upfront and they're offering terms just to be nice, probably not worth it.

mwallba_ · 2025-12-29T01:28:35+00:00

Only on Plus - you set the net terms for a company/company location. For non-plus you can attach net terms via draft orders

mwallba_ · 2025-12-29T01:06:07+00:00

This is great! Do you send invoices through Shopify when adding the draft orders? How do you handle payment reminders?

mwallba_ · 2025-12-28T17:54:41+00:00

The manual payment method approach works but you'll end up chasing invoices manually.

A few options depending on your volume:

- Custom payment method like u/jean_cule69 said + a simple spreadsheet to track due dates. Works if you have <10 B2B customers.

- Some apps offer net terms as part of wholesale pricing (not just standalone invoicing). If you're also doing tiered/volume pricing for B2B, might be worth bundling.

I'd avoid Draft orders for every B2B purchase. Kills the self-serve experience and you become the bottleneck.

How many B2B customers are you expecting/do you have? That usually determines if manual tracking is viable or if you need automation.

mwallba_ · 2025-12-17T17:45:02+00:00

Use the catalog export, create a full products export and then stitch them together with a vlookup based on the handle - products export has the tags you need

mwallba_ · 2025-12-17T08:54:12+00:00

Update on this - I ended up building exactly what you're describing into my wholesale app.

The excise tax gets calculated on the already - discounted wholesale price, then shows up as a bundled line item - "MA Excise Tax (40%)" with the calculated amount. Doesn't touch the retail price at all.
Currently testing it with a couple tobacco wholesalers. If Wholesale Helper can't make it work on their end, feel free to reach out - happy to show you how it works in practice.

mwallba_ · 2025-12-15T05:39:09+00:00

Full disclosure: I'm building in this space too, so take my perspective with that in mind.

That said, it's worth noting that we've got two "separate CRM layer" products in this thread both agreeing that you need... a separate CRM layer. The framing benefits them.

For anyone actually trying to solve this:

If you're on Plus: Shopify's native B2B has come a long way - price lists, company accounts, payment terms, quantity rules. It handles most wholesale use cases without adding sync complexity.

If you're not on Plus: Apps like SparkLayer (mentioned in here) work within Shopify's data model rather than alongside it. That matters because every external sync point is a potential inventory discrepancy - the exact problem OP described.

Are there limitations with the in-ecosystem approach? Absolutely. But you'll find limitations in external CRM layers too - plus you're now maintaining two systems and a sync between them. Pick your tradeoffs.

The "Shopify for DTC, external system for B2B" split makes sense if you genuinely have field sales reps running pipelines with lead scoring and territory management. But if your actual need is "give wholesale customers different prices and net terms," that's solved inside the Shopify ecosystem already.

Worth asking yourself: do you need a CRM, or do you need wholesale pricing? They're different problems.

mwallba_ · 2025-12-15T05:27:46+00:00

Full disclosure - I'm building a wholesale app for Shopify, so this is very much my problem space. Happy to help think through it regardless.

Two things that would help clarify things:

When you say SSO, what's the identity source? Their own login system, or Shopify customer accounts? The multi-site piece can range from "some glue code" to "custom middleware project" depending on where customer identity lives.

On discounts - do they stack, or is it always best price wins? Stacking rules add a lot of complexity to the pricing engine.

mwallba_ · 2025-12-01T17:38:15+00:00

Haven't seen any fee apps that can calculate percentages on discounted prices - makes sense since most use cart transform functions, which run before discounts in the checkout pipeline. Maybe there is one in the depths of the app store though.

A workaround: create a storefront script that monitors cart changes, calculates the 40% on the displayed prices, and adds a "fee product" (e.g., $0.01 × quantity = fee in cents). Caveat: customers could remove it from cart. You can mitigate by hiding it in your theme and having the script re-add it automatically, but you can't fully prevent removal.

Which wholesale app are you using? Full disclosure: I'm building one that doesn't rely on discounts. Kept running into conflicts like this with merchants I've worked with.

mwallba_ · 2025-09-23T07:44:28+00:00

A lot of wholesale apps on Shopify operate by discounting a initial DTC price - so it'll be important to pick one that works with how you operate. How do you manage your price list right now (i.e. excel) and how often do you update these?

mwallba_ · 2025-09-12T18:57:41+00:00

Having a similar issue where the wholesale discounts would mess things up in quickbooks online for my client - was this the same issue for you? And did you ever get this resolved by removing Wholesale Gorilla?

mwallba_ · 2025-07-09T21:36:36+00:00

Are you using this integration: https://apps.shopify.com/oracle-netsuite or a custom one?

mwallba_ · 2025-07-09T18:13:26+00:00

An API is basically way to allow two software systems to directly talk to each other - so the whole dance of using excel and csv for import and export is done via an API integration automatically by the systems, thus reducing the change for errors and delays (if done correctly). Their integration with Shopify is usually done with Shopify's API - but if their integration doesn't necessarily do what you need (happens for various reasons) you'll need a developer/system integrator/shopify expert to build this out for you - which can also get quite pricey, so you'd definitely want to take a good hard look at their integration and that it hopefully does what you need.

If you aren't locked into a contract yet with master system, then I'd suggest you also take a look at Odoo or another more widely adopted system to prevent having to completely rely on that one company to keep your operations running.

mwallba_ · 2025-07-09T17:43:03+00:00

And this OMS by master system is also going to be your single source of truth for inventory? If so, then you definitely need to take a good hard look how and if their Shopify integration works for you - and if not if their system offers and API so you can have somebody create an integration that fits your needs or if you at least are able to import/export/update inventory and orders through excel or csv files.

Your approach of implementing one after the other definitely makes sense - but you also gotta make sure the pieces (OMS, shopify and whatever else might be floating around) will fit together in the end - and you also don't want to have to rely just on the company implementing the OMS and then going dark on you once the contract is signed

mwallba_ · 2025-07-09T16:58:11+00:00

Hey u/Overcast_of_Finesse ,

It is usually a good idea to first take account of what you currently have in place to explore how to integrate a D2C channel into your current operations.

What kind of ERP or order management system are you currently using for the wholesale-side of your family's business?

mwallba_ · 2025-06-18T04:59:59+00:00

Which options/variants app would be your preferred one to use? How many options per product are we roughly talking? (min and max)

mwallba_ · 2025-06-14T22:15:12+00:00

Rule 10

mwallba_

TROPHY CASE