Distinctive Distribution: A Canadian Footwear Wholesale Program on Shopify

Distinctive Distribution is a Canadian footwear wholesale business that sells wide and extra-wide comfort shoes to consumers and, through a separate program, to approved independent retailers. One Shopify store serves both. Retail visitors shop at public prices, while retailers request wholesale access and receive their own pricing and terms through BSS B2B Solution.

About Distinctive Distribution

According to its public About page, Distinctive Distribution is a Canadian footwear distributor and online retailer specialising in comfortable, wide and extra-wide footwear. The business is based in Quebec, the site is available in English and French, and it states that it is an authorised Canadian distributor of the EasyB, Zeba and Forelli brands. The tagline across the top of every page reads “Premium comfort shoes for every fit, up to 8E wide”.

The catalog is organised by brand, by gender, by shoe type (boots, sandals, trainers, dress shoes, slippers) and by width. Width is the heart of the offer: product pages show fit options such as 2V (2E to 4E) and 6V (6E to 8E), and a width filter helps shoppers narrow the range. Prices are shown in Canadian dollars. The About page is also careful to say that the footwear is not presented as a medical treatment, and we keep to that framing here: this story is about how the store sells to retailers, not about footwear claims.

The B2B model: two channels on one store

The About page describes two distinct channels: an online retail store for consumers across Canada, and a wholesale program for approved independent retailers and professional accounts. Wholesale customers access separate commercial pricing and terms through a B2B platform. In other words, this is a hybrid model, the hardest one to get right on Shopify, because the same catalog has to show one price to the public and another to approved buyers.

The way Distinctive Distribution handles it is worth studying:

• Retail prices stay public. A product such as a women’s boot shows its Canadian dollar price to everyone, so retail shoppers are never blocked.
• Wholesale access is by application. A short form collects business details, and approved buyers are tagged so that pricing rules recognise them.
• Retailers are promoted back to consumers. A “Where to Buy” page with a store locator lists retail partners, which gives wholesale accounts a reason to join.
• Professionals get a dedicated message. A block near the bottom of every page reads “Retailer or footwear professional? Access our wholesale collections, ordering tools and dedicated support.”

A simple way to read the store is to ask who sees what. The table below summarises the four audiences, using only what is visible on the public pages and in the store’s configuration.

The point of the table is that the catalog is shared and the storefront is only one of the places where the program lives. Part of the program sits in the tag, part in the rules and part in the team’s habits, such as taking an order by phone.

How the storefront handles wholesale

1. A visible B2B entry point

The main menu contains “B2B Sign-Up”, the product page ends its buy box with a line that reads “Retailer or footwear professional? Request wholesale access”, and the professionals block repeats the invitation in the footer area. A retailer searching for a brand can land on any product and still find the way in. This is the simplest conversion pattern in wholesale: put the application link where the buyer already is.

2. The wholesale sign-up form

The “Wholesale signup form” is a BSS B2B Solution registration form with two groups of fields. Business details cover the company, address, city, country and zip code. Contact details cover first name, last name, email and a phone number with a Canadian country code selector. The last field is labelled “EU VAT Validation”, a tax ID field that checks a VAT number when one is entered. A single purple submit button closes the form.

In the store’s configuration the form is active, attaches a customer tag on registration and sends notification emails. That tag matters, because it is how the pricing rules below find the right customers. See the use case on a wholesale registration form with approval.

3. Mobile

Retailers often check a distributor’s site from a phone while they are on the shop floor, so the sign-up path has to survive a small screen. The mobile view of the form keeps the retail header and shows the fields in a single column.

Which BSS features power it

Everything below comes from the store’s feature configuration, reported as categories and shares only.

• Custom Pricing: three enabled rules, two of them aimed at customer tags (67% tag-based) and one that applies to all customers on selected collections with some collections excluded. All three use a percentage discount. Read wholesale prices by customer tag and selling B2B and B2C from one store.
• Net terms: one enabled rule aimed at tagged customers, so payment terms are given to approved retailers only. See net 30 payment terms without Shopify Plus.
• Auto tags: one enabled rule, which keeps tags in step with customer activity. See auto-tagging customers.
• Discount code rule: one enabled rule for working with discount codes next to B2B prices.
• Manual orders: the store uses the manual order feature, which lets the team create orders on behalf of retailers who prefer to call or email. See placing orders on behalf of customers.

No order counts or customer counts are used in this story. The configuration shows the shape of the program, not its size.

What other merchants can copy

• Keep the sign-up link in the menu. “B2B Sign-Up” in the header costs nothing and catches retailers on any page.
• Add a line to every product page. A one-sentence invitation under the buy box converts buyers who came for a specific item.
• Use tags for retail versus wholesale. Tag approved retailers once, then target rules to the tag. Retail visitors never see a wholesale price.
• Use collections for scope. A rule on selected collections, with exclusions, keeps a seasonal or clearance range out of the wholesale discount.
• Give wholesale a reason to join. A store locator that lists retail partners is a benefit retailers can see before they apply.
• Plan for phone orders. Some retailers will always call. Manual orders let your team apply the same pricing on their behalf.

What Distinctive Distribution says about it

Distinctive Distribution’s public App Store review for BSS B2B Solution is rated 5 out of 5 and is shown with an edit date of November 12, 2025 (the reviewer said they had used the app for four months). An excerpt:

Bss works especially well, Customer service have been very helpfull in helping personalize my B2B website, A very special thing that not all other company do is that they had doublecheck to make sure there is no issue. […]

Distinctive Distribution, 5 stars, edited November 12, 2025, BSS B2B Solution reviews on the Shopify App Store (excerpt, quoted verbatim, shortened with […])

The word the reviewer chose is “personalize”. A B2B storefront is rarely a switch you flip: the sign-up form, tags, price rules and messages usually need to match how the business actually sells, and that is where setup help matters.

Distinctive Distribution wholesale: frequently asked questions

This store spotlight is based on Distinctive Distribution’s public website and its public review on the Shopify App Store, as of October 5, 2026. Screenshots show the public storefront and example BSS B2B configuration screens, which are not Distinctive Distribution’s admin. Distinctive Distribution has not been interviewed and this is not a partnership announcement.

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