What Manufacturers Need to Know Before Launching on Shopify Plus

Most Shopify Plus implementation problems are not technical problems. They are planning problems that show up as technical problems once the build is already underway. Missing data, unresolved business logic decisions, and an ERP integration that wasn't scoped correctly can each halt a project after significant work has already been done.

‍

This guide covers what manufacturers specifically need to have ready, decided, or documented before a Shopify Plus B2B build starts. It's organized around the areas that generate the most rework when they're underprepared.

‍

Your Pricing Structure Needs to Be Fully Mapped Before Development Starts

Shopify B2B uses catalogs to assign pricing to companies or company locations. Each catalog contains product-specific pricing rules (fixed price, percentage off, volume breaks). Before any developer configures catalogs in Shopify, you need a clear answer to:

‍

How many distinct pricing tiers do you have? Each distinct tier typically becomes its own catalog. If you have 12 customer price groups in your ERP, you likely need 12 catalogs in Shopify. If you haven't counted them and documented what makes each one different, that work needs to happen first.

‍

Is pricing managed in your ERP or in Shopify? This is a source-of-truth decision. If your ERP is the master of pricing (most manufacturers), your integration needs to sync pricing changes from ERP to Shopify catalogs. If pricing is managed in Shopify, your ERP needs to pull from Shopify. This decision shapes the entire integration architecture and should be made before integration scoping begins.

‍

Do any accounts have exception pricing? Contract pricing for specific accounts that doesn't follow a standard tier is common in manufacturing. In Shopify, this means a dedicated catalog for that account. Document every exception before the build so catalogs are configured correctly from the start.

‍

Do you have volume pricing (quantity breaks)? Volume pricing is supported natively in Shopify Plus catalogs, per variant per catalog. If your current pricing has quantity breaks, document the break points and prices per SKU. This data needs to be imported or configured and should come from a reliable source, not reconstructed from memory.

‍

Your Customer Data Needs to Be Cleaned and Restructured

Shopify B2B's company model is: one company, one or more locations (shipping addresses), one or more buyer contacts assigned to those locations. If your current customer list doesn't map to this structure, you need to restructure it before import.

‍

Common issues manufacturers find during this step:

• Flat customer lists with no company grouping (each contact is a separate customer record in the ERP, even if they're from the same account)
• Multiple billing addresses per customer with different pricing that wasn't formally documented
• Inactive accounts mixed in with active accounts (importing all of them creates noise)
• Contacts without email addresses (Shopify requires an email for every buyer login)
• Duplicate contacts for the same account from different salespeople managing the same relationship

‍

What to prepare:

• A clean list of active company accounts with their legal name and primary contact
• Locations per company (shipping addresses) matched to the correct contacts
• The catalog or pricing tier each company should be assigned to at launch
• Payment terms per company (which accounts get Net 30, which get Net 60, which pay at checkout)
• Tax exemption status per company, with documentation if you're in a jurisdiction that requires certificates

‍

This is a data project, not a Shopify project. It can take longer than expected and is worth starting early.

‍

Your ERP Integration Needs to Be Scoped, Not Just Acknowledged

"We'll integrate with our ERP" is not a scoped integration. Before development starts, you need documented answers to:

‍

What data flows in which direction and how often?

The four core flows for manufacturing are:

Each of these needs a decision: real-time webhook or scheduled batch? What is the acceptable lag? What happens when the sync fails?

‍

Is there a native connector for your ERP? NetSuite, Business Central, Acumatica, SAP, Epicor, Odoo, and several others have native or well-established Shopify connectors. If yours is on this list, use the connector and scope what it handles vs. what requires custom work. If your ERP isn't on this list, budget for custom integration work from the start.

‍

What is your ERP's item/product identifier? Shopify uses its own SKU and variant ID system. Your ERP uses its own item number or part number. The mapping between the two needs to be explicit. Products imported into Shopify need to carry the ERP item number in a metafield or SKU field so the integration can match records reliably.

‍

Who owns integration maintenance? ERP integrations require ongoing maintenance as both Shopify and your ERP release updates. This responsibility needs to be assigned before go-live, not after the first sync breaks.

‍

Your Catalog Architecture Needs to Be Decided Before Products Are Imported

The order matters: decide catalog structure first, then import products, then assign catalogs to companies. Reversing this order (import products, then figure out catalogs) creates rework because catalog assignments and pricing rules need to be applied to products already in the system.

‍

Questions to answer before product import:

• Will you have a public-facing catalog (DTC or public product pages) alongside your B2B catalogs, or is the store entirely gated for wholesale buyers?
• Are there products that should only be visible to specific accounts and hidden from others?
• Are there products that carry different SKUs for different customer segments (private label or account-specific packaging, for example)?
• Do products have more than three option types? Shopify supports up to three variant options natively. Products with more options need a configurator app or a metafield-based approach.

‍

If you are running a dual-channel store (wholesale and D2C from the same Shopify instance), the catalog gating strategy needs to be decided before the product and catalog structure is built. Changing it mid-build is disruptive.

‍

Your Checkout Requirements Need to Be Documented

Shopify Plus's checkout extensibility allows you to add custom fields, run custom logic, and modify the checkout experience in ways that standard Shopify does not. But you need to know what you want before the build starts.

‍

Common B2B checkout customizations for manufacturers:

• Custom fields: Internal PO number, project code, job site reference, delivery instructions
• Conditional logic: Show or hide shipping methods based on order value or product type
• Minimum order enforcement: Block checkout if the order is below the account minimum (this can be done natively with order rules, or with a checkout extension for more custom logic)
• Custom payment method display: Hide payment options not appropriate for B2B buyers (no consumer installment plans, for example)
• Delivery date selection or lead time display

‍

If you have requirements in any of these areas, document them specifically. "We need some custom fields at checkout" is not enough to scope development. List each field, where it appears, what it stores, and whether it needs to flow to your ERP on the order.

‍

Your Theme and Storefront Strategy Needs to Match Your Audience

Shopify's Horizon theme (the current default) includes native B2B features: company account login, quick order list, and catalog-aware pricing display. If you're building a new store, starting from Horizon saves significant development time compared to adapting an older theme.

‍

If you're migrating from an existing Shopify store with a custom theme, assess the theme's B2B compatibility before the build begins. Themes built before Shopify's current B2B feature set was released may not display company-specific pricing correctly or may require modifications to surface account-specific catalog data.

‍

For stores that are exclusively B2B (no public-facing DTC), the storefront design priorities are different from a consumer store: search by part number or SKU, faceted filtering by product attributes, quick order forms, and account-specific pricing prominently displayed. Document these requirements before the theme work begins.

‍

The Questions to Have Answered Before You Start

Bring answers to these into your kickoff with your development partner:

‍

Pricing:

• How many pricing tiers exist and what defines each one?
• Where is pricing mastered (ERP or Shopify)?
• Are there account-specific exceptions?
• Do you use volume pricing?

‍

Customers:

• How many active wholesale accounts?
• Is customer data ready for import in a clean format?
• What are the payment terms per account?
• Which accounts are tax-exempt?

‍

Products:

• How many SKUs?
• Are there products with more than three option types?
• Are there account-specific or private-label products?
• Do products have custom attributes that need metafields?

‍

Channels:

• Will the store serve both wholesale and DTC, or is it exclusively B2B?
• Will any products be gated to specific accounts only?

‍

ERP:

• Which ERP and is there a native connector?
• Which data flows need to be integrated and in which direction?
• Who owns integration maintenance post-launch?

‍

Checkout:

• Any custom fields required?
• Any custom payment logic?
• Any custom shipping rules?

‍