Mix of D2C and B2B, how to justify/workaround the steep jump in Shopify Plan costs for B2B levels?

Ask Me Anything Q&A Stokedoatsama

Topic summary

A packaged food manufacturer is experiencing growing pains with their Shopify setup. They started with direct-to-consumer sales online and at events, which their current basic plan handles well.

Now facing challenges as wholesale/B2B grows:

  • Current plan limitations are creating friction with increasing retail store customers
  • Upgrading to Shopify’s B2B-capable plans represents a steep cost jump that current wholesale volume doesn’t yet justify
  • Specific pain point: POS Pro (supporting up to 1,000 locations) costs hundreds more monthly than POS Lite (1 location only), with no middle-tier option available

One commenter suggests considering traditional food distribution channels instead:

  • Use distributors who typically mark up 25-30% but handle store relationships and logistics
  • Notes that managing independent stores individually is operationally difficult
  • Emphasizes need for sufficient store count and sales velocity to make retail profitable

The discussion remains open regarding whether to absorb higher Shopify costs or pivot to conventional distribution models.

Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

We are selling a packaged food product that we manufacture. Early growth was via online and in-person events selling direct to consumers, and that continues. Now we are growing with wholesale product on retail store shelves, which is ramping nicely. The Shopify plan we are on is optimized for D2C functions, and it does that just fine.

As we grow with more retail locations and B2B customers the limitations of the basic plan(s) are becoming a problem. For us the jump in monthly cost to the Shopify B2B plans is significant.

How to navigate the interim where our sales to independent stores do not yet justify the full-on business commerce Shopify Plan tiers yet the lower tiers are creating friction?

Related example, the POS Pro plan which allows up to 1,000 of our own selling locations (compared to a single location with the ‘POS Lite’), is hundreds per month jump in costs for us. I have asked Shopify about ala cart scaling of POS Pro, and was told it is 1,000 or 1 stores.

2

Have you looked at using a distributor to help sell your product and moving away from Shopify for B2B? Distributors typically upcharge your product by 25-30% to retailer but handle getting it to stores. Indy’s are tough to manage on a one-off basis through retail and this is where companies typically run into trouble, as you need store count, sales velocity, and sales volume to make money in the retail landscape.