Glossary: Onboarding
Wholesale application
A wholesale application is the form a business fills in to ask for a wholesale or trade account. It collects details such as business name, tax ID and proof of trade, so the seller can decide whether to approve the buyer and unlock wholesale prices.
In detail
A wholesale application is the front door of a trade account. Instead of showing wholesale prices to anyone who asks, the seller publishes a form, reviews each submission and approves the buyers that qualify. It keeps out shoppers who only want a discount and gives the seller a record of who each buyer is.
Typical fields are the legal business name, trading name, business type, address, phone, website, expected order size, a tax ID or VAT number, and a document such as a resale certificate or business licence. Keep the form as short as the checks you really make. Every extra field loses some buyers, so ask for a tax ID or a document only if you will look at it.
After the form, the seller approves, rejects or asks for more information, and the buyer gets an email. Approval normally does two things: it creates or activates a customer account, and it adds a tag or group that unlocks wholesale prices. Say on the form how long a review takes, for example two business days.
State your conditions on the same page: a minimum first order, the regions you ship to, and whether new accounts pay upfront before they can use net terms. Buyers then apply knowing the rules, and you receive fewer applications you must refuse.
Example
A garden supplier's form asks for the business name, website, tax ID and a photo of a trade licence. A shop applies on Monday, the seller approves it on Tuesday, and the shop signs in to see 40% trade pricing. Its first order is paid by card.
On Shopify
In Shopify's native B2B, the merchant adds customers to a company from the company page, a company location page or a customer profile, and can then notify them that they can start placing B2B orders. The Help Center page on adding customers does not describe a form where buyers apply, or an approval step.
Source: Shopify Help Center: Adding customers to B2B companies (read October 4, 2026).
In BSS B2B apps
BSS B2B Solution's registration form collects text, number, date, dropdown, checkbox and file upload fields (up to 10 MB per file) and tax ID fields such as EU VAT, UK VAT, US EIN, ABN and India GST, checked as the buyer types. Submissions can be approved manually or automatically. Some form features and fields need a paid plan, see the pricing page.
Learn more
Read the Customer onboarding hub for guides, use cases and setup docs, or the complete Shopify B2B guide.