At Ambaum, we work with a lot of B2B and automotive companies, and one theme comes up again and again: moving off spreadsheets, email threads, and (yes, even in 2025) the occasional fax machine. If your business is still running orders this way, the transition to B2B on Shopify Plus can feel like a big leap forward.
The good news? Enabling B2B features on Shopify Plus is straightforward. But like most platform migrations, the real work is in the details—especially when it comes to setting up your companies and customer records the right way from the start.
Why Company Setup Matters in B2B Shopify
Shopify’s B2B features revolve around the concept of “companies.” Each company has its own locations, contacts, and pricing catalogs. This setup is what allows you to offer tailored experiences for your wholesale buyers while keeping everything centralized in Shopify.
If you only do business with a few wholesale accounts, adding companies manually is easy enough. But what if you have hundreds—or thousands—of B2B customers? That’s where some upfront planning makes all the difference.
Importing Companies at Scale
For bulk setup, Shopify allows you to upload company information via CSV. A tool like Matrixify (a favorite among Shopify Plus merchants) can speed this up by letting you map and upload large sets of data in one go.
At a minimum, you’ll want to capture:
- Company Locations – Where orders are fulfilled or delivered.
- Company Addresses – Billing and shipping info.
- Primary Contacts – The main point of communication.
- Assigned Price Catalog – To make sure each company sees the right products at the right price.
Avoiding Duplicate Data
Here’s one of the biggest pitfalls: duplicate users. If you’ve already been running on Shopify for B2C sales or even light wholesale, chances are you’ve got existing customers in your system. Before bulk importing new company records, it’s worth the time to cross check and associate those existing users.
This isn’t glamorous work, but clean data up front saves you the headache of merging accounts later. It also helps with reporting, permissions, and order history visibility.
Updating the Customer Experience
Lastly, don’t overlook the front end. Many merchants running on legacy customer accounts will need to update their “My Account” templates or other theme files to support the new B2B experience. If you’re inviting new buyers into your store, you want to make sure their onboarding and account management is as smooth as possible.
