Express B2B vs.
Shopify B2B
Shopify B2B is a B2B feature set layered onto a direct-to-consumer platform. Express B2B is purpose-built for distributor workflows — two-step ordering, negotiated per-account pricing, billing account hierarchy, and multi-site management are native, not add-ons. Distributors choosing between them are typically evaluating DTC infrastructure adapted for B2B versus a platform designed for B2B from the ground up.
Shopify built a great consumer commerce platform, then added B2B features. Express B2B built a B2B ordering platform, full stop. For distributors, the direction matters.
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Shopify Plus B2B includes company profiles, customer-specific pricing, payment terms, vaulted credit cards, draft orders, and sales rep assignment. Excellent ecosystem, fast setup, and strong infrastructure. Best fit when B2B is a secondary channel alongside DTC.
The checkout and ordering UX is consumer-oriented — not designed for procurement managers placing repeat orders. Approval workflows aren't native. Multi-location ordering (one buyer, multiple ship-to sites per session) requires workarounds. Shopify Plus starts at $2,000/month before B2B apps.
Brands running DTC on Shopify who want to add wholesale or B2B accounts without a separate platform. When B2B is a primary channel — not a secondary one — and the ordering experience needs to be built around how procurement actually works, Express B2B is the better fit.
DTC-first vs. B2B-first: it shows in the checkout
Shopify's checkout was designed for a consumer making a purchase decision: browse products, discover something, add it to a cart, enter a shipping address, pay. That flow works perfectly for DTC. For a procurement manager placing the same reorder they placed last month — who already knows the SKUs, the pricing, and the ship-to — it creates unnecessary steps.
Express B2B's two-step checkout removes the friction: select products against a known catalog at known pricing, confirm and submit. No browsing experience needed when you know what you're ordering. No consumer-oriented steps that don't map to procurement workflows.
Approval workflows: app ecosystem vs. native
Order approval routing — holding orders above a threshold until a manager approves — isn't part of Shopify B2B natively. Businesses solve this with third-party apps, which adds monthly cost per app, integration complexity, and a maintenance surface that breaks when Shopify updates.
Approval workflows in Express B2B are native and configurable per billing account. No apps, no integrations — just configure the threshold and approver for each account and it works.
Multi-location ordering: the core use case Shopify misses
For a regional manager ordering for multiple restaurant locations, or a procurement lead managing several warehouses, the natural workflow is: select a billing account, pick a site, build an order, submit — then repeat for the next site. Shopify doesn't support this natively. Each location order is a separate session, and there's no account hierarchy connecting them.
This pattern — one billing account, many ship-to sites, orders placed across all of them in one workflow — is the core of Express B2B's account model. It's built for this from the start, not adapted to it.
The cost picture
Shopify Plus starts at $2,000/month. B2B features are included in that tier, but the apps you'll need for approval workflows, advanced B2B reporting, and multi-location management add cost on top. Express B2B's pricing is designed specifically for distributors in the $500K–$50M GMV range — see our pricing page for details.
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The bottom line
Shopify B2B is the right choice if B2B is a secondary channel and you want to keep everything in one platform. The infrastructure is excellent, the onboarding is fast, and the feature set covers the basics well.
If B2B ordering is the primary business — if your buyers are repeat procurement buyers who care about speed, accuracy, and account structure rather than product discovery — Express B2B was built for that specifically. The two-step checkout, multi-site ordering, and native approval workflows are not features you have to build toward. They're the starting point.
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