Separate wholesale store or one Shopify store?

Blended or dedicated: what Shopify says

Shopify calls a single store for retail and B2B a blended store, and a separate store used only for B2B a dedicated store. Its store type guide warns that the choice is not easy to change later.

Below Plus, Shopify's help pages do not spell out what a second store costs beyond the apps you add again, so check your plan with Shopify. Shopify lists Basic at $39, Grow at $105 and Advanced at $399 a month billed monthly, and Plus from $2,300 a month (pricing). On either route, B2B buyers sign in with customer accounts to see their prices (setting options).

Splitting B2B and retail stock

In one blended store, sellers in the threads above hold wholesale stock back in three ways: put it in a second location (which works best when the stock is really in a different place), move units into a reserved or safety count so they are not available to retail, or keep a spreadsheet. With two stores, stock is separate until you connect them, and Shopify says stores do not sync, so most sellers add an app.

A sync app keeps counts aligned, but the second store still needs its own theme, apps, product edits and price setup, and one store has to be the source of truth for each product.

A third option: a wholesale portal on your Shopify catalog

Crate is a wholesale ordering portal that connects to Shopify. You get what sellers want from a separate store, a wholesale site of its own behind a login, while products and stock still come from the one Shopify store you already run.

• 01One catalog, kept current. Crate imports your Shopify products, variants, prices and images, and Shopify's product and stock updates flow in as they happen. No second store to copy edits into.
• 02You choose what is wholesale. New Shopify products start hidden from the portal; switch on the ones you sell wholesale. Limit some products to selected buyers, or add wholesale-only items in Crate that never appear in your Shopify store.
• 03Wholesale prices stay out of Shopify. Set price levels, volume breaks or one buyer's price in Crate. Crate never changes your Shopify prices. Percentage price levels are worked out from the Shopify price, so they follow it when you change retail.
• 04Stock checked at order time. Crate reads your Shopify count, totalled across your locations, and stops a buyer ordering more than you have on tracked items that do not sell past zero. You can allow backorders instead.
• 05Its own site and login. The portal runs on your own domain on every plan, buyers sign in to see prices, and portal pages are not indexed, so they do not compete with your retail pages.
• 06Any Shopify plan. No Shopify B2B, Plus or second store needed, from $50/month.

Where it may still fit: Crate does not keep a separate wholesale stock pool for Shopify products, and Crate orders do not lower your Shopify counts, so adjust them in Shopify when you ship. If your wholesale stock sits in its own warehouse with its own counts, a dedicated Shopify store or a second location may still fit you better.

For how wholesale prices work on Shopify, see Shopify wholesale pricing; to hide prices and approve buyers, see Shopify wholesale login; and for what Shopify B2B includes on each plan, read Shopify wholesale without Plus. How products and stock sync is on the Shopify integration page.

Which one fits

1. 01Connect Shopify from Integrations in Crate; your products come in hidden.
2. 02Switch on the products you sell wholesale and set price levels or buyer prices.
3. 03Point your own domain at the portal, then invite your wholesale buyers or let them apply.

Questions

Should wholesale be in the same Shopify store or a separate one?

Shopify's own guidance: one blended store suits you if you sell similar products to both and want to share inventory; a dedicated B2B store suits you if you want a separate B2B experience or need distinct inventory. Shopify also says the choice is not easy to change later, so decide before you build.

Does a second Shopify store share inventory with the first?

No. Shopify says store settings, products, collections and inventory are not synced between stores, and points to third-party apps or an ERP. Sync apps on the Shopify App Store start free for 25 to 50 products and run about $10 to $60 a month for larger catalogs.

Can a blended Shopify store hide everything from retail shoppers?

No. Shopify says a blended store cannot be gated to only B2B customers, and both groups use the same login page. Only a dedicated B2B store can be restricted so the whole store is for B2B customers.

Do I need Shopify Plus for a separate wholesale store?

No. A dedicated B2B store can be any plan that includes B2B (Basic, Grow, Advanced or Plus). Plus adds up to nine expansion stores in the contract; below Plus, a second store is set up as a new Shopify store, and Shopify says its apps must be set up and paid for again.

Will a separate wholesale site hurt my retail store's SEO?

Pages behind a wholesale login are not indexed, so they do not compete with your retail pages. Every Crate portal page also tells search engines not to index it.

Can Google or competitors see my wholesale prices in a Shopify store?

They can if the prices sit on your Shopify products. In May 2026 a Shopify Plus seller found gated B2B prices in the page source for logged-out visitors, inside Shopify's analytics script, where Google and competitor crawlers could read them. In December 2025 another seller asked how to keep prices out of the product data Google reads. Hiding the price in the theme only hides what shoppers see. Fixes suggested in those threads are wholesale prices in metafields shown only to B2B customers, a separate B2B-only store, or theme edits. With Crate, wholesale prices are kept in Crate and never written to Shopify, so your storefront only carries retail prices. Buyers see wholesale prices after they sign in to the portal, the optional public preview shows no prices, and every portal page tells search engines not to index it.

Does Crate split my Shopify stock between wholesale and retail?

No. Crate reads your total Shopify stock across all locations and can stop wholesale buyers ordering more than you have for tracked items. Crate orders do not lower your Shopify counts, so adjust counts in Shopify when you ship. If you need separate stock pools, Shopify locations or a dedicated store are the better fit.

How much does Crate cost?

Crate Wholesale starts at $50/month with your own domain and buyer logins. Growth is $80/month and Plus is $150/month. It works with any Shopify plan, with no Shopify B2B needed.