Give B2B Buyers Access With Passcode

Who this is for

A passcode is the right tool when speed matters more than identity. These situations are typical:

• You meet buyers at a trade show or on a sales call and want to give them prices immediately.
• You run a private preview or an early-access launch for selected accounts.
• You have a sales cycle where buyers want to see a catalog and prices before they agree to open an account.
• Your team does not want to tag customers one by one before they can browse.
• You want a temporary gate, such as a short campaign, that you can close by removing a code.

Why this matters

Registration forms, approvals and tags are the right foundation for long-term buyer relationships, but they add steps before a buyer sees any value. A prospect who is not ready to commit may leave rather than fill in a form, and a short campaign may be over before accounts are reviewed.

A passcode removes that first barrier. The buyer enters a short code, sees the prices or pages you meant them to see and keeps shopping. Your team can still follow up with a full account later.

There is a sales benefit as well. When a buyer has asked for pricing during a call and gets it a minute later, the conversation continues while interest is high. A passcode shortens the path from interest to a priced catalog to a first order, and you can still ask the buyer to register afterwards, once they have seen why it is worth it.

Examples by business type

• Manufacturers share a code with prospective distributors so they can preview wholesale pricing during a negotiation.
• Fashion and accessories brands give selected boutiques a code for a pre-season collection.
• Food producers send a code to existing customers for a limited seasonal range.
• Agencies and sales reps share one code per territory so each region can see its price list.

What Shopify covers natively, and where an app helps

Shopify's native B2B tools are built around companies and catalogs, where each buyer has an account and is assigned to a location. Passcode-protected pages and prices are not listed in Shopify's B2B features by plan, and the Shopify B2B guide notes the same for hiding prices from guests. BSS B2B Lock adds passcode, tag, request-access and login conditions that you can combine. The access control hub compares them.

How to set up passcode access with BSS B2B Lock

The gallery above shows each step. The reference guides are Protect pages with a passcode and Manage passcodes.

1. Choose what to protect

Create a lock and choose the target: price and add to cart, products, collections or pages. For a passcode on prices, the guest sees a prompt such as Enter passcode to see price. For a page lock, the visitor sees a passcode field and a Submit button until the right code is entered.

2. Add the Passcode condition

In Step 2, add the Passcode condition. You can type your own passcode, leave the field empty and click Add to generate a random one, or import many from a CSV file. The field accepts several passcodes, so you can give each group its own.

3. Choose how often visitors enter it

You can ask for the passcode once to access all pages, once per page, or each time a page is opened. Pick the first for a catalog preview and the last for something sensitive. Passcodes are case-sensitive by default, and you can switch that off.

4. Test the right and wrong code

Open the store as a guest, enter a correct passcode and confirm the content appears. Then enter a wrong one: the page shows an error and stays locked. Check the same flow on a phone.

5. Share it and manage it over time

Send the code to chosen buyers. Passcodes have no expiry and no usage limit, so to stop one working you remove it from the list. Use a separate code per group if you want to revoke one group without affecting the rest.

Example: a trade-show preview

This is a made-up illustration, not a customer result. A homeware brand attends a trade show and wants buyers to see wholesale prices straight after meeting the team.

1. The brand creates a lock on price and add to cart for its Wholesale collection with the passcode SHOW2026, case-sensitive, entered once for all pages.
2. At the stand, each visitor gets a card with the store URL and the code.
3. Visitors enter the code on the store and see wholesale prices in the same session.
4. After the event, the brand removes the code from the list. New buyers are invited to register for a full account.

The brand collected leads without building a form or tagging anyone first. Because one code per event is easy to track, the team can compare which events produced buyers who later registered, using its own records of who received each code.

Works well with

• Hide wholesale prices from guest visitors for account-based access alongside a passcode.
• Secret link for a private collection when you prefer a URL over a code.
• Request access button for locked pages to approve buyers one by one.
• Lock the entire store for approved B2B buyers for a fully private wholesale site.

Related glossary terms: passcode, gated catalog and hide price. More patterns are in the access control hub.

Passcode, secret link, tag or request access: which one?

Passcodes are one of four ways to open a lock. The right choice depends on how much you need to know about the buyer.

Good passcode habits

• Use a different code for each audience or event, so you can retire one without affecting others.
• Avoid guessable values such as the store name or the year alone.
• Do not publish the code on a public page, in a public social post or in a catalog PDF that circulates freely.
• Replace the code after a campaign ends, and tell buyers who need continuing access how to register.
• Invite everyone who used a code to create an account, so the relationship does not depend on a shared secret.

Limits and common mistakes

• A passcode is shared, not personal. Anyone who has it can use it and pass it on, so share it only with buyers you trust and rotate it when needed.
• It is not an identity check. You will not know who used the code. If you need to know, combine it with a registration form or request access.
• Treat it as an access gate, not a security control. It restricts storefront access through theme code. Treat it as a convenience gate, not a legal control.
• Length and import limits. A passcode can be up to 255 characters and a CSV import up to 2 MB.
• No expiry. Remove the code from the list to end access; there is no automatic end date.
• Content location differs by lock type. Page, product and collection locks remove the protected content from the page HTML while locked. A price lock hides the price output in the theme.
• Secret links are different. A secret link lets in anyone who holds the URL and is not hidden from search by default.

Setup checklist

• Decide what the passcode unlocks: prices, a collection or a page.
• Choose one passcode per audience.
• Create the lock and add the Passcode condition.
• Set how often visitors must enter it and whether it is case-sensitive.
• Test the correct and the wrong code on desktop and mobile.
• Share the code through a channel you control.
• Note when to remove or replace it.
• Follow up with buyers who used it and invite them to register.

Plans and requirements

Locks on price, products, collections and pages need a paid BSS B2B Lock plan or a trial; the Free plan only supports locking the entire store. See the BSS B2B Lock page for current plans. Install BSS B2B Lock from the Shopify App Store to start.