Glossary: Ordering
Sales rep
A sales rep is a person on the seller's team who manages wholesale accounts and often takes orders for them by phone, email or in person. In Shopify B2B, sales reps are staff who can be limited to the company locations they are assigned to.
In detail
Many wholesale buyers still prefer to talk to a person. A sales rep, also called an account manager, looks after a set of accounts: answers questions, agrees prices, takes reorders and meets buyers at trade shows. Orders often arrive by phone or email and must be keyed in afterwards.
This creates two needs. First, the rep needs access to account data such as orders, customers and pricing, but not the whole store, and a rep for one territory should not see another rep's accounts. Second, the rep needs a quick way to build an order with the buyer's agreed prices and terms, instead of retyping them, which is where mistakes creep in.
A common setup is to assign each account to one rep, give reps limited admin permissions, and use a draft order to build the order and send the invoice. If you pay commission, record which rep owns the account and tag the order so the report is simple.
Decide who may give discounts. Without a rule, a rep can agree a one-off price below your margin, so set a limit and ask for approval above it. Self-service tools such as a reorder page or a quick order form also take routine reorders off the rep's desk, leaving time to sell.
Example
A rep at a foodservice distributor takes a phone order from a restaurant group. She opens a draft order for the buyer's company location, adds 40 cases and sends the invoice on Net 30 terms. She can see only the accounts assigned to her.
On Shopify
Shopify's B2B Help Center defines two sales staff roles. Sales managers control which sales representatives work with specific company locations, and sales representatives can access only the company locations and records they are assigned to. Staff place orders and view account information for their assigned customers through draft orders, and you can assign up to 10 sales staff to each company location. The roles need the permissions View companies, Assign staff to company locations and Restrict permissions to assigned company locations.
Sources: Shopify Help Center: B2B sales staff (read October 4, 2026); Shopify Help Center: Creating B2B orders using draft orders (read October 4, 2026).
In BSS B2B apps
BSS B2B Solution's Manual Orders lets staff build a draft order in the Shopify admin for a customer, with that buyer's Custom Pricing, Price List, Volume Pricing, shipping rates, tax status and payment terms applied. Rep assignment and permissions stay in Shopify's staff settings. Manual Orders is on paid plans, see the pricing page.
Learn more
Read the Quick order and RFQ hub for guides, use cases and setup docs, or the complete Shopify B2B guide.