The Anatomy of a Buyer-Specific Catalog in Shopify Plus

Why Shopify Plus Works for B2B Custom Catalogs

Ever asked: Can Shopify Plus handle buyer-specific catalogs with tailored pricing, regional SKUs, and volume rules? The answer: Yes. Shopify Plus delivers a robust B2B catalog experience using built-in features like catalogs, company profiles, and price lists, no custom apps required. In this guide, we’ll walk through how to build Shopify Plus B2B catalogs, address edge cases like volume pricing and hybrid B2B + DTC setups, and explain why it’s a scalable, cost-effective solution for manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors.

What Makes It Possible: Key B2B Tools in Shopify Plus

1. B2B Companies and Company Locations

In B2B, your “customer” is often a company, not just an individual buyer. Within each company, there can be multiple users, each with different roles, locations, or purchase needs.

Let’s say John Doe works at Acme Inc., which has multiple office locations in the U.S., California, New York, and Washington. John Doe works in the California office and negotiates a special price for certain products with your sales rep. 

When you onboard Acme Inc into Shopify Plus:

• “Acme Inc.” becomes the Company
• “California Office” becomes a Company Location
• John Doe is added as a contact under that location

This structure enables Shopify customer-specific pricing i.e control pricing and product visibility per company location within the same company.

2. Catalogs in Shopify Plus

You can create up to 10,000 Shopify Plus wholesale catalogs

A catalog is simply a curated list of products with assigned pricing, quantity rules, and purchase limits that you can assign to a company location.

You can:

• Include or exclude specific products or collections
• Apply fixed or percentage-based pricing adjustments
• Set volume pricing (tiered discounts for bulk)
• Enforce minimum/maximum order quantities
• Set increment rules (e.g., purchase in multiples of 5)

For example, you have six products in your store:

• Product A, B, C, D, E, F

You create three catalogs:

• Catalog 1: A at $9, B at $8, C at $7
• Catalog 2: A at $9.5, B at $8.5, C at $7.5
• Catalog 3: D at $11, E at $12, F at $13
  

You then assign Catalog 1 to Acme Inc’s California location, where John Doe works.

Now, whenever John logs in, he only sees the products from Catalog 1 with pricing configured just for his location. Any of his colleagues added to the same location will see the same catalog and pricing.

Implementation Guide: Setting Up Shopify Plus B2B Catalogs

Let’s walk through how to actually do this in your Shopify Plus admin.

1: Create a Catalog

1. Navigate to Settings > B2B > Catalogs
   
2. Click “Create Catalog”
   
3. Name the catalog (e.g., “Acme CA Catalog”)
   
4. Add the products or collections relevant to the customer
   
5. Configure pricing:
   
   • Apply a fixed price per product
     
   • Or apply a percentage-based discount or markup
     
6. (Optional) Set quantity rules and volume pricing if needed
   
7. Save the catalog
   

2: Add the Company and Location

1. Go to Customers > Companies
   
2. Click “Create Company”
   
3. Fill in company name (e.g., Acme Inc)
   
4. Add a Company Location (e.g., California Office)
   
5. Add customer contacts under this location (e.g., John Doe)
   
6. Choose B2B access settings (e.g., whether approval is required)
   

3: Assign the Catalog to the Company Location

1. Go to the Company Location you just created
   
2. Scroll down to the Catalog section
   
3. Select the catalog you created in Step 1 (e.g., “Acme CA Catalog”)
   
4. And save

Now, when John Doe (or any user assigned to that company location) logs into your store:

• They will only see the products in their assigned catalog
• They will see only the pricing configured for them
• All quantity rules, volume discounts, and purchase limits will automatically apply

Let’s walk through how to actually do this in your Shopify Plus admin.

Now, when John Doe (or any user assigned to that company location) logs into your store:

• They will only see the products in their assigned catalog
• They will see only the pricing configured for them
• All quantity rules, volume discounts, and purchase limits will automatically apply

This eliminates the need for complex custom pricing logic or gated storefronts everything is natively handled by Shopify Plus’s B2B tools.

Edge Cases & Best Practices

To cover more advanced B2B scenarios and capture long-tail search queries, consider these:

• Volume pricing: Apply tiered discounts to reward bulk orders.
  
• Regional SKUs: Create different catalogs by geography (e.g., USD pricing for U.S. vs. CAD for Canada).
  
• Hybrid storefronts: Combine B2B and DTC in one store. Use catalogs to differentiate buyer experiences seamlessly.
  

These add depth to the strategy and reinforce Codup’s expertise.

Final Thoughts

Shopify Plus’s B2B features make it surprisingly easy to implement personalized product catalogs for different customers or company locations. This not only reduces operational overhead but also empowers your customers with a tailored, self-service buying experience, exactly what modern B2B buyers expect.

If you’re a wholesaler, manufacturer, or B2B supplier evaluating Shopify Plus, this capability alone is a game-changer. Codup has helped numerous clients build and scale custom catalogs on Shopify Plus.

Contributors

• 

  Calister Maloney

  writer

  Content Lead