Wholesale Application Form Fields: What to Ask Before Approving a Reseller (Free Template)

A good wholesale application form asks for four things: who the business is, how to reach it, proof that it is real, and what it will buy. Keep it to about ten fields, mark only what you will check as required, and copy the free field template below.

Last updated October 4, 2026. BSS B2B Solutions makes BSS B2B Solution, the app in the screenshots. This post covers which fields to ask; for building and publishing the form, follow our Shopify B2B registration form guide. It belongs to the customer onboarding hub of our complete guide to Shopify B2B.

What is a wholesale application form?

A wholesale application form is the page where a business asks to buy at trade terms. You read the answers, decide whether the applicant is a genuine reseller or retailer, and then approve or reject. The form is not the same as a sign-up form: a sign-up creates an account, an application creates a decision. That is why the fields matter. They are the evidence you decide on.

Shopify can collect applications with its free Forms app. Submissions create a company in Customers, Companies, where they wait under “Ordering not approved” until you approve them, and the form supports custom fields such as dropdowns, dates and a single file of up to 20 MB (Shopify Help Center, read October 4, 2026). Shopify’s page does not describe tax ID checks, tags or spam protection. An app form such as BSS B2B Solution adds those. Setup differs; the questions you ask do not.

What should you ask on a wholesale application form?

Start from the decision, not the form. Before approving, you want to know four things. Is this a real business? Can I reach the person? Do they sell what I sell, in a way I accept? Will they order enough to be worth the trade price? Each field below answers one of those questions. Here are the fields in four tiers.

Tier 1: must ask (every store)

Field	Type	Width	Required	Why you ask	How to check before approving
Company legal name	Company (system field)	100%	Yes	Matches invoices and the company record	Search the name with the website and tax ID
Contact first and last name	System fields	50% each	Yes	Who you approve and email	Check the email domain matches the company
Business email	Email (system field)	50%	Yes	Notifications and login	Prefer a company domain; free-mail addresses need a second check
Phone	Phone (system field)	50%	Yes	Call back for large or unusual orders	Call once if anything looks off
Billing and shipping address	Address fields	100%	Yes	Tax, freight and fraud screening	Compare with the company’s public address
Business type	Dropdown	50%	Yes	Retailer, online seller, distributor, other	Filters out consumers and fits your terms

Tier 2: should ask (most wholesale stores)

Field	Type	Width	Required	Why you ask	How to check before approving
Website or store URL	Text	50%	Yes for resellers	Fastest proof of a real business	Open it: real products, working contact page, no resale of your own listings
Tax ID (VAT, EIN, ABN or GST)	Tax ID field	50%	If you sell tax-exempt	Registered business identity	Run it through the official registry yourself; the form check is a screen
Years in business	Dropdown	30%	No	Rough maturity signal	Cross-check with the website and registry
Expected order volume	Dropdown	50%	No	Decides the price tier or tag	Compare with your minimums
How did you hear about us?	Dropdown	50%	No	Shows which channel brings real buyers	None needed
Accepts marketing	Accepts-marketing checkbox	100%	No	Records opt-in to emails	Leave unticked by default

For tax IDs, VAT numbers can be looked up in the EU’s VIES service, and BSS B2B Solution has fields for EU VAT, UK VAT, US EIN, Australian ABN and India GST numbers that check the number as the buyer types. Read the limit: the check runs in the browser, blocks the submission only when the field is marked required, and the server does not check the number again. Treat it as a screen, then verify before you approve. The US EIN field needs the Platinum plan.

Tier 3: ask only in specific cases

Field	Type	Width	Ask when	Note
Resale or business document	File upload	100%	You grant tax-exempt or trade pricing	10 MB per file, one file per field. Allowed: csv, txt, pdf, zip, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, gif, jpeg, png, wav, mp4
Reference or trade account	Text area	100%	You extend payment terms	A reference is a prompt for you to call, not a credit check
Store type: physical, online, both	Radio group	50%	Your brand rules differ by channel	Use conditional logic to show a store-address field only for physical shops
Product categories of interest	Checkbox group	100%	You have separate catalogs	Maps to the tag you assign
Marketplace seller ID	Text	50%	You restrict Amazon or marketplace resale	Ask only if you enforce it

Conditional logic (show or hide a field depending on an answer) runs on the Platinum plan, or on plans that include the registration module. You can build rules on other plans, but they will not run, so test the live form. For the term, see resale certificate in the glossary, and ask your accountant what you need to collect in your state or country, because the rules vary.

Tier 4: do not ask

• Bank or card details. A wholesale application is not a payment form. Terms and payment come later (see net terms).
• Government ID numbers or birth dates of individuals, unless your accountant tells you a specific reason.
• Anything you will not look at. If nobody reads the answer, delete the field.
• Passwords in a free-text field. Use the account sign-up step, not a custom field.

Free wholesale application form template (copy and paste)

Copy this list into a document, delete the lines you do not need and build the rest in your form editor. Required fields are marked (R), widths are suggestions.

WHOLESALE APPLICATION FORM TEMPLATE

Section 1: Your business
[ ] Company legal name (R)            text, 100%
[ ] Trading name, if different        text, 50%
[ ] Business type (R)                 dropdown, 50%: Retailer / Online seller / Distributor / Other
[ ] Website or store URL (R)          text, 50%
[ ] Years in business                 dropdown, 30%: Under 1 / 1 to 3 / 3 to 10 / Over 10

Section 2: Contact
[ ] First name (R)                    50%
[ ] Last name (R)                     50%
[ ] Business email (R)                50%
[ ] Phone (R)                         50%

Section 3: Address
[ ] Billing address (R)               100%
[ ] Shipping address, if different    100%

Section 4: Proof
[ ] Tax ID (VAT / EIN / ABN / GST)    tax ID field, 50%, required only if you sell tax-exempt
[ ] Business document (PDF, up to 10 MB)  file, 100%

Section 5: How you would buy
[ ] Expected order volume             dropdown, 50%
[ ] Product categories of interest    checkbox group, 100%
[ ] How did you hear about us?        dropdown, 50%

Section 6: Consent
[ ] I agree to the privacy policy (R) checkbox, 100%
[ ] Send me wholesale news            accepts-marketing, 100%, unticked by default

What the form builder can and cannot do

Item	What to expect
Field types	Text, text area, number, date, file, dropdown, checkbox group, radio group, heading and accepts-marketing, plus system fields (names, email, password, address, company, phone, country)
Field width	30%, 50% or 100% only
File upload	10 MB per file, one file per field; a failed upload blocks the submission
Tax ID fields	EU VAT, UK VAT, US EIN (Platinum), ABN, India GST; checked in the browser, not re-checked on the server
Conditional logic	Show or hide, any or all conditions; runs on Platinum or plans that include the registration module
Spam protection	Google reCAPTCHA v2 on paid plans, not on the Free plan
Forms on Free	One form; multi-step form needs a paid plan
Same email twice	Blocked, whatever the status of the first application

A long form is where applicants quit. If your list runs past ten fields, split it with the multi-step form, which runs inside Shopify’s new customer accounts. Read the multi-step wholesale registration form use case for a worked example.

What to check before approving a reseller

Run this list on each application. It takes a few minutes and avoids most bad approvals.

1. Website: real products, a contact page and a working checkout or storefront. A parked page is a no.
2. Email domain: matches the company. A free-mail address is not a rejection, but ask for a second proof.
3. Tax ID: look it up in the official registry for its country. The form’s live check is a screen, not a record.
4. Document: open the upload and check the name and dates match the company. Ask your accountant which documents you must keep.
5. Fit: does the business sell in a way your brand allows? Check the business type and the website against your channel rules.
6. Volume: does the expected order size clear your minimums?

We cannot tell you which documents the law requires you to collect. That depends on your product, country and state, so confirm it with your accountant. See tax exemption and the use case verify business tax ID at registration for how the app side works.

How approval works after the form

With BSS B2B Solution you choose manual approval, auto-approval, or a Shopify Flow route. With manual approval you can also auto-approve applicants whose email contains text you set, such as a partner’s domain; the match is case-sensitive, so test it. Approval emails and rejection emails are sent only if the form’s email option is switched on. When you approve, the app creates or updates the Shopify customer and adds the tag you set. It does not create a Shopify Company, so if you want native catalogs, create the company in Shopify yourself.

Add the tag at approval so your price and access rules can read it: wholesale price by customer tag and wholesale registration form with approval show the flow. The form has no email verification step, so a first-time applicant is not proven to own the address.

Data minimisation: ask only what you use

Short forms convert better and hold less personal data. For each field, write one line: what decision does this answer feed? If you cannot, drop it. Tell applicants why you collect the data and link your privacy policy next to the consent checkbox. This is a general practice, not legal advice; ask your accountant or lawyer what applies in the places you sell.

FAQ: wholesale application form

Next steps

Copy the template, cut it to your trade terms, then build and test the form with the registration form guide. The BSS user guide covers each field type in the editor.

Sources

Shopify page read on October 4, 2026. BSS facts: BSS user guides at docs.bss-b2b.solutions and our checks of the app.

• Shopify Help Center: Allowing new B2B customers to request access to your store
• Shopify Help Center: B2B features by plan
• BSS guide: Build a powerful wholesale registration form

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