Want to take wholesale orders online without Faire or JOOR? Launch your own wholesale online store, with buyer accounts you approve and a price list for each account. On Shopify, giving each account its own prices takes Shopify Plus, at $3,650 CAD a month (Shopify’s Canadian pricing, checked October 2026).
Syndicate builds wholesale fashion suppliers and distributors their own online stores, so we have a stake in what you choose. Shopify’s prices and features below come straight from Shopify’s own pages.
What does taking wholesale orders by email really cost?
On paper, nothing. Email is free, and so are PDFs. Maybe you’ve moved part of it into a tool like Brandboom or ApparelMagic instead. Either way, the cost shows up in your week.
- Every order gets retyped from an email, a marked-up PDF or a spreadsheet.
- Someone has to remember who pays what, and send the right price list to the right buyer.
- Orders come in off last month’s linesheet, for styles you’ve already dropped.
- A buyer who wants to reorder a bestseller waits until someone has time to answer.
Sound familiar? Then the question isn’t whether online ordering works. It’s whether it costs less than doing all this by hand.
What does a wholesale online store need?
More than a regular online shop. Your buyers need:
- An account you approve, so only real retailers see your wholesale prices.
- Their own prices, whether that’s one price list per group or one per account.
- Minimums the store enforces for you, so you’re not saying no by email. We’ve covered how to set wholesale order minimums separately.
- Payment terms, if you give established accounts time to pay.
- Orders that arrive complete, so nobody retypes anything.
Shopify or Syndicate: build your wholesale website yourself, or have it built?
Shopify is the name most brands think of first. The catch is the price. On Shopify, giving each wholesale account its own prices takes Shopify Plus: $3,650 CAD a month on a one-year term, or $43,800 CAD a year. Shopify’s cheaper plans ($37 to $389 CAD a month, billed yearly) include B2B too, but only up to three price lists, shared across groups of buyers.
Syndicate’s team provides expertise specifically for fashion and eCommerce. We build your wholesale store for you, with each account’s prices included, and the store is yours. Financing starts at 500 CAD a month over one year for most wholesalers, against $3,650 CAD a month for Plus. You also decide what’s public, from photos and prices to minimums and styles.
| What you get | Shopify Plus | Syndicate |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | $3,650 CAD a month on a 1-year term ($43,800 CAD a year) | Financing from 500 CAD a month over one year |
| Each account sees its own prices | Yes | Yes, included in the build |
| Who builds it | You, or a Shopify partner you hire | Syndicate’s team, with expertise in fashion and eCommerce |
| Who owns the store | You subscribe to Shopify’s platform | You own the domain, hosting, files and every login |
| After the first year | The subscription continues at $3,650 CAD a month | Paid off. Optional care plan for maintenance and support, from 500 CAD a month, no contract |
Shopify does have real advantages. You can start setting it up yourself today, Shopify handles hosting and security, and if you already sell retail on Shopify, wholesale can sit in the same admin. With Syndicate, there’s nothing to set up yourself: we build the store, in as little as 7 to 10 days once we have the information we need from you. And if all your accounts fit into three price groups, Shopify’s cheaper plans may be all you need. Our guide to Shopify B2B without Plus explains how to tell.
What if you’ve been burned by a portal or an agency before?
You might have a few doubts by now. Maybe you’ve never heard of us. Maybe you’ve seen a buyer portal nobody logged into. Or maybe you’re wary of an agency that vanishes, or locks you into its platform. Fair. You own the store, the domain and every login, and it runs alongside your PDF and email ordering, so no buyer has to switch. So the question is the same one as before: does running a store cost less than retyping every order by hand?
Can you sell on your own store and on Faire at the same time?
Yes, as long as your Faire prices are never higher than anywhere else. Faire’s pricing policy, checked October 9, 2026, says prices on Faire must be the same or lower than anywhere else you sell. It adds: “including your direct wholesale site if you have one.” Brands that charge more on Faire can lose visibility or have products suspended.
Your own store gives your regular accounts an easier way to order, and you pay no commission on those orders. We’ve broken down what Faire’s commission actually costs if you want to run the numbers.
How do you get existing buyers to order online?
You don’t have to get them all online. Buyers who like your PDF and your email address can keep using them, for as long as they want. Keep your linesheet too, because it’s still how new buyers discover your collection (more in our guide to linesheets).
Then invite a few accounts at a time, starting with the ones who reorder most. The store makes ordering easier for them as time goes on. It also gives new buyers somewhere to go, whether they come from the lead research included in every Syndicate build or from your own search traffic and social media.
That’s how we roll out every wholesale store we build. It runs alongside your email and PDF ordering, and nobody gets switched over on day one.
Do you still need a marketplace to find new buyers?
Not necessarily. Faire brings buyers to you and takes on their credit risk, and JOOR points to its network of retail buyers. You pay for that every time: on Faire, 15% of every marketplace order, reorders included.
Every Syndicate wholesale build includes research on up to 100 wholesale buyer leads instead. Every lead is vetted: we confirm it’s an active business, provide contact details, and set up their account on your store with you. New accounts come to a store you own, and you pay no commission on their orders. You can also do both: keep Faire for discovery, and send your regular accounts to your own store, within Faire’s pricing rules. We compared what JOOR, Faire, Shopify and Syndicate each cost on the same $100,000 of orders.
Is my brand too small to take wholesale orders online?
Probably not. It comes down to how your buyers like to buy, and most would rather do it themselves. Gartner’s March 2026 survey of 646 B2B buyers found 67% prefer buying without a sales rep. McKinsey’s B2B research finds buyers split into thirds: a third want to meet in person, a third want to deal with someone remotely, and a third want to serve themselves online. McKinsey says that split holds whatever the company’s size.
These surveys cover business buyers in every industry, not just fashion, so read the direction rather than the decimal. Most of your buyers will order online if you let them, and some will keep emailing you. That’s why the inbox stays open.
There are real exceptions, and in these cases you should keep your money:
- You sell to one or two big accounts and talk to their buyer anyway.
- An agent runs your wholesale, so their process is the one that matters.
We checked these prices and policies in September and October 2026. They change often, so double-check the linked pages before you decide.
Would it be a bad idea to see a wholesale store running next to your email ordering, with your own products? Book fifteen minutes or call 1-844-404-4796.
