Shopify’s B2B Gross Merchandise Volume Surges 140% as Wholesale Goes Digital

Shopify’s wholesale ambitions are no longer a side bet. The company disclosed in its Q2 2026 investor letter, released July 15, that its B2B commerce segment — powered by Shopify Plus’s native wholesale features, company accounts, and volume pricing tools — generated $9.4 billion in gross merchandise volume in the first six months of the year, a 140% increase year-over-year. For context, that number was $3.9 billion in the same period of 2025. The acceleration is rattling wholesale-native platforms, alarming distributors still running on EDI, and forcing Shopify agency partners to build entirely new practice areas overnight.

The jump is partly structural. Shopify rolled out its overhauled B2B storefront framework in Q4 2025, giving merchants the ability to run fully separate buyer-facing portals with custom catalogs, net payment terms, draft order automation, and purchase order matching — all inside a single Shopify backend. But it’s also a demand story. DTC brands that built their consumer channels on Shopify are now using the same stack to go after retail accounts, foodservice buyers, and independent boutiques rather than standing up a second system.

Which merchant segments are driving Shopify’s B2B surge?

The clearest winners inside Shopify’s B2B growth are mid-market brands in home goods, apparel, and consumer packaged goods — categories where retail wholesale still drives 30% to 60% of revenue for many operators. Brands like Parachute, which processes a meaningful share of its hotel and hospitality wholesale volume through Shopify Plus, and functional beverage operators pushing into natural grocery chains, are emblematic of the shift.

Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s president, told investors on the Q2 call that the average B2B order value on the platform is now $1,840 — roughly 14 times higher than the average DTC order. “The same merchant who built their consumer brand on Shopify now has a single operating system for their wholesale accounts, their retail channel, and their direct business,” Finkelstein said. “That’s a fundamental change in how we think about our addressable market.”

“The same merchant who built their consumer brand on Shopify now has a single operating system for their wholesale accounts, their retail channel, and their direct business. That’s a fundamental change in how we think about our addressable market.” — Harley Finkelstein, President, Shopify

💡 Article Summary

Key Insights

1

Which merchant segments are driving Shopify’s B2B surge?

2

How is Shopify’s B2B push affecting wholesale-native platforms like OroCommerce and NuOrder?

3

What does Shopify’s B2B growth mean for payments and net terms infrastructure?

4

Are Amazon and Walmart building competing B2B infrastructure that could blunt Shopify’s lead?

5

How should Shopify agencies retool their service offerings to capture B2B project work?

Source: Ecommerce Times

Agency partners are confirming the demand signal. Elkfox, a Shopify Plus partner based in Toronto that has historically focused on DTC builds, said B2B project requests now account for roughly 35% of its inbound pipeline, up from less than 10% eighteen months ago. “We’re scoping wholesale portals for brands that two years ago would have sent that work to an OroCommerce or Magento integrator,” said Elkfox founder Charlotte Davies. “Shopify has genuinely closed the functionality gap for the 80% of wholesale use cases most merchants actually need.”

How is Shopify’s B2B push affecting wholesale-native platforms like OroCommerce and NuOrder?

The platforms most exposed to Shopify’s B2B momentum are the purpose-built wholesale layers that captured mid-market merchants when Shopify’s native features were too thin. OroCommerce, which targets manufacturers and distributors with complex ERP integration needs, is defending its position by doubling down on SAP and Oracle NetSuite connectivity — capabilities Shopify still cannot match for enterprise-grade inventory and financial workflows.

“Shopify is a real competitor for buyers who want simplicity,” said OroCommerce CEO Yoav Kutner, in an interview with Ecommerce Times. “But when a $50 million distributor needs real-time ATP from their warehouse management system, custom contract pricing for 400 accounts, and EDI compliance with Walmart and Target, they’re not building that on Shopify Plus. We’re not fighting over the same customer.”

“When a $50 million distributor needs real-time ATP from their warehouse management system and EDI compliance with Walmart and Target, they’re not building that on Shopify Plus. We’re not fighting over the same customer.” — Yoav Kutner, CEO, OroCommerce

NuOrder, the wholesale marketplace and B2B platform owned by Lightspeed Commerce, faces a more direct threat. Its core value proposition — giving brands a digital showroom for retail buyers — overlaps substantially with what Shopify’s new buyer portal does natively. NuOrder has responded by pushing harder into its marketplace network, where it connects brands to thousands of pre-vetted retail buyers who are not already in a brand’s CRM. That network effect is something Shopify cannot replicate with infrastructure alone.

Faire, the wholesale marketplace with over 700,000 retail buyers on its platform, is watching the Shopify B2B push carefully but appears less threatened for now. Faire’s value is in buyer discovery and net-60 payment terms backed by Faire’s own capital — not just a transaction layer. “Shopify’s B2B tools are great for managing accounts you already have,” said one senior Faire partner manager who asked not to be named. “They don’t help you find your next 200 stockists.”

What does Shopify’s B2B growth mean for payments and net terms infrastructure?

One of the most consequential elements of Shopify’s B2B buildout is its expanding partnership with Resolve Pay and its own native net terms product. Shopify launched net payment terms — 30, 60, and 90 days — for eligible B2B merchants in early 2026, underwritten through a credit facility managed by a banking partner. Early merchants report approval rates in the 60% to 70% range for buyers with established business credit profiles.

The ability to offer net terms inside Shopify’s native checkout removes one of the most persistent objections to running wholesale on a consumer-first platform. Brands that previously routed wholesale invoices through QuickBooks or routed buyers to a separate payment link are now processing those transactions inside Shopify, which keeps revenue attribution clean and reduces accounts receivable overhead.

• Shopify B2B GMV: $9.4B in H1 2026, up 140% year-over-year
• Average B2B order value on platform: $1,840 vs. ~$130 for DTC orders
• Net terms availability: 30/60/90-day options for approved buyers, live since Q1 2026
• B2B storefront framework: custom catalogs, volume pricing, draft order automation, PO matching
• Agency demand signal: Shopify Plus partners reporting B2B projects at 30-40% of inbound pipeline

Are Amazon and Walmart building competing B2B infrastructure that could blunt Shopify’s lead?

Amazon Business, Amazon’s B2B marketplace, processed an estimated $46 billion in GMV globally in 2025 according to internal estimates cited by analysts at Bernstein, but it operates on a fundamentally different model — a marketplace where buyers discover and purchase from multiple sellers, rather than a brand-owned wholesale channel. The distinction matters. A CPG brand using Shopify B2B controls the buyer relationship, the pricing, and the data. A brand selling on Amazon Business shares all of that with Amazon.

Walmart’s B2B infrastructure remains nascent. Walmart Commerce Technologies has made noise about enabling branded wholesale portals for its supplier base, but as of mid-2026, the tooling is not competitive with Shopify’s feature set for independent brand operators. Several Walmart suppliers contacted by Ecommerce Times said they continue to manage retail wholesale orders through EDI and Walmart Retail Link with no meaningful digital portal layer for other retail accounts.

How should Shopify agencies retool their service offerings to capture B2B project work?

For Shopify agency partners, the B2B surge is a significant revenue opportunity — but only for those willing to invest in the new skill set. B2B implementations are materially different from DTC builds: buyer account hierarchies, custom pricing logic, ERP integration, and sales rep portal configuration require different discovery processes and longer scoping timelines.

“A DTC build for us is typically a six to twelve week engagement,” said Davies of Elkfox. “A B2B wholesale portal for a brand with 300 retail accounts, tiered pricing, and a NetSuite sync? That’s a twenty-week project minimum, and the retainer for ongoing support is two to three times higher. It’s a different business.”

Several Shopify Plus partners told Ecommerce Times they are actively hiring developers with ERP integration backgrounds — specifically NetSuite, Brightpearl, and Cin7 — to service the wholesale pipeline. Demand for Shopify Flow customization for B2B order routing is also spiking, with some agencies reporting that Flow-based automation now accounts for 20% of their B2B project scope.

The broader implication is that Shopify is quietly becoming a two-sided infrastructure play: the consumer brand platform it has always been, and an increasingly serious B2B commerce operating system for the same merchants who want to grow their wholesale revenue without running two separate tech stacks. At $9.4 billion in H1 GMV — and accelerating — that second business line is no longer a rumor. It’s a market.