I’m currently building a dedicated B2B only shop in my Shopify Plus account.
I need some help with some settings that I can’t find apps for or solve in Shopifys general settings.
I don’t want anyone to be able to create an account by them selves. We want to manually approve all account applications. This is a problem when Shopify B2B requires the new customer login system using 6-digit emails. Today if a customer uses that a account is automatically created and they can see prices and place orders.
I don’t want any customers to be able to see any pricing or place an order without being logged in on their (approved) B2B account. On this specific shop we don’t do any direct to customer sales so it’s important that none approved customers/account can make a purchases. We have a separate shop for all direct sales.
But doesn’t this block all access to the store front? I want potential B2B customers to be able to find us online and and see what we offer. But if the want to be able to see prices and place orders the need to apply for an account.
That’s correct. If you find a solution let me know
Ideally, Shopify should allow specific pages to be accessible even if B2B login is required, then we could embed a sign up form or have a landing page.
Another question comes to mind… If you have “Restrict access to B2B customers only,” can users still get a listing of products and their prices via the AJAX API?
If so, then this is only a half measure. I might try this out myself to see what the answer is.
@Peools I don’t know if you can prevent automatic customer accounts, but you can certainly prevent them from accessing anything.
As @pRoy mentioned, you can restrict access to B2B customers only. The main problem I’ve discovered with this is that there’s no way to collect inquiries or applications once this setting is enabled.
Our solution is Onboard B2B:
Using Onboard, you can create a B2B application/inquiry form and manually approve accounts. Our Storefront/Checkout lock features ensure that unauthorized visitors are unable to view products, pricing… or checkout (obviously).
We’ve also built self-service options for your B2B location admins to add/manage their own locations and contacts, which saves a lot of back-and-forth emailing and gets people approved and ready to place orders sooner.
Yeah, I use Forms for our wholesale application, which allows me to manually approve or deny each one. Approving generates a new company account. However, the B2B lock issue remains. It’s wild to me that Shopify still hasn’t fixed this very obvious chicken/egg situation they’ve created (hint: just allow customers to designate a page that isn’t locked).
You can use apps to put a partial lock on your store, while whitelisting specific pages, like your home page, policies, and application. I used to use a free one, but now it’s $9.99 a month. You’d think for something so simple they could just develop that for the sites we pay $2k/month for, but I guess it’s not a priority.
Wait, actually I just found another low-tech solution (which might not be the solution you need, but it may work for some).
If you’re using a dedicated b2b site and assigning catalogs to all of your customers, you can remove the “online store” sales channel from all of your products. This means that people who aren’t logged in to a company account will see whatever images you’ve chosen as part of your site design, but not your actual products. Then you can just use the free Forms app so that wholesale applications require your approval.
Note that if you’re using something like the “featured products” block, it’s going to show placeholder images to people who aren’t logged in, so you might want to avoid putting something like that on your home page (or presumably you could add it to the home page for your B2B view, but not the default view).
Thanks for sharing the details. I understand your requirements for a strict B2B setup on Shopify Plus. Here’s how you can approach this:
Manual Account Approval
By default, Shopify allows customers to create accounts automatically, which doesn’t fit your workflow.
One way to handle this is to disable public registration and use an app like “Wholesale Club” by Pixel Union or “Wholesale Gorilla”, which lets you manually approve accounts before granting access.
Restricting Prices and Orders to Approved Customers
Use Shopify’s customer tags or a wholesale app to hide all pricing and products for unapproved users.
Only logged-in customers with the approved tag can see prices and add products to the cart.
6-Digit Email Login Issue
If using Shopify B2B or Plus features that require 6-digit verification emails, you can implement a custom login flow or use an app that forces admin approval before account activation, preventing unapproved users from seeing prices or placing orders.
Additional Options
Shopify Plus allows custom scripts and Liquid code to hide pricing/cart/buttons for non-logged-in users.
Consider combining manual approval with hidden storefront logic to ensure no unapproved visitor can purchase.
