Glossary: Basics
Blended store
A blended store is a single online store that sells both to consumers (D2C) and to business buyers (B2B). It is also called a hybrid store, and it shares one admin, one storefront and one inventory.
In detail
A blended store lets a brand serve shoppers and wholesale buyers from one site. The same products appear for both, and the store decides who sees which price, which catalog and which payment terms. Retail visitors see the standard price, and a logged-in business buyer sees their negotiated price and can pay on terms.
The main benefits are one inventory, one set of product pages and one admin, which cut the cost of maintaining a second site. The main challenges are keeping wholesale prices from leaking to retail shoppers, showing the right content to each type of visitor, and keeping rules about minimums, tax and shipping separate for each group.
The alternative is a dedicated B2B store, a separate site with its own inventory. That suits brands that want a different look, different products or an access-restricted site that only approved businesses can enter. Choose a blended store when you sell similar products to both groups and want to share stock.
Plan access early. Decide how a business buyer applies, how you approve it, how the account is tagged or linked to a company, and what a logged-out visitor sees. Test the store as a retail visitor and as a wholesale buyer before you launch, because mistakes show up as the wrong price on the wrong page.
Example
A skincare brand uses one store. Retail shoppers see a $37.40 lotion. A salon with an approved account logs in and sees $20.00 for the same lotion, on Net 30 terms.
On Shopify
Shopify defines a blended store as one that lets you manage both D2C and B2B businesses in one Shopify store and admin, with one online store for all customers and shared inventory. A dedicated store manages B2B in a separate Shopify store and admin, with separate inventory, and suits brands that want to restrict access to B2B customers only (a gated store). Some features, such as theme customization by customer type, need Shopify Plus.
Sources: Shopify Help Center: Blended and dedicated B2B stores (read October 4, 2026); Shopify Help Center: Online store customization in B2B (read October 4, 2026).
In BSS B2B apps
BSS B2B Solution can show wholesale prices to tagged, logged-in customers on the same storefront that retail shoppers use, so one store can serve both. See the use case for a full setup.
Related use cases
Learn more
Read the Customer onboarding hub for guides, use cases and setup docs, or the complete Shopify B2B guide.