Fastrak Creative Trade: Shopify B2B Trade Platform for Any Shopify Plan

Fastrak Trade is our own product, developed for brands that sell both direct to consumers and wholesale to stockists, retailers and trade buyers on Shopify.

We built it in response to a big change: Shopify now gives B2B access on its standard plans, a feature that previously came only with Shopify Plus. That opened the door to wholesale ecommerce for brands that couldn't justify Plus pricing, but it still left them with a single storefront.

Our objectives were to build a trade platform that:

• Works on any Shopify plan, with a headless or standard template retail site
• Runs a separate trade website on its own sub-domain
• Shares products and back end directly with the existing store
• Gives trade buyers the ordering and account tools they expect
• Launches unbranded as standard, or fully bespoke on request

We've already delivered Fastrak Trade for clients, including a bespoke build for underwear brand Kecks.

Until recently, native B2B on Shopify meant upgrading to Shopify Plus, at around £24,000 a year. For many growing brands, that cost was hard to justify just to sell wholesale. The alternatives were wholesale apps, separate stores, spreadsheets and emailed price lists.

Shopify has now made B2B available on its standard plans. That's a major step, but brands still face real limitations:

• One storefront. A standard Shopify store has one website. Trade customers log in to the same consumer site, just with different prices.
• No authentic trade experience. Stockists expect a professional wholesale store, not a retail site.
• Slow bulk ordering. Retail-style browsing doesn't suit buyers ordering many SKUs in large quantities.
• Admin overhead. Re-orders, invoice requests and account queries land with your team.
• Plan restrictions. Non-Plus plans have B2B limits, including a maximum of three catalogues.

We set out to build a Shopify wholesale solution that solves all of this, without Plus pricing and without rebuilding a brand's existing store.

Fastrak Trade is a headless, Shopify-powered B2B front end that bolts on to any existing Shopify store.

Two websites, one Shopify store

The key technical decision was to keep Shopify as the single back end and build a separate trade front end on top. That lets one Shopify store run two websites that look completely different, something standard Shopify doesn't allow. 

Every product on your retail store is shared directly with the trade store. Nothing changes in the back end: products, stock, customers and orders are all managed in Shopify as they are today.

Native Shopify B2B on any plan

Fastrak Trade uses Shopify's own B2B features, not a third-party wholesale app. Trade pricing, volume pricing and B2B product catalogues all work with the trade theme, within Shopify's limits for each plan. Your retail site can be headless or a standard Shopify template.

Unbranded as standard, bespoke on request

The trade theme comes unbranded and ready to launch. For brands that want their trade site to fully reflect their identity, we design and personalise it, as we did for Kecks.

SKU quick order for fast bulk buying

Trade buyers enter SKUs and quantities straight into an order form, building large wholesale orders in seconds instead of browsing page by page.

One-click re-ordering and favourites

Buyers can re-order from any previous shipment in one click, and save favourites for the lines they buy most. Restocking becomes quick and repeat requests to your team drop.

Saved baskets

Buyers can build an order, save the basket and come back to it later, ideal for stockists who plan orders over several days.

Order history and downloadable VAT invoices

Every past order sits in the trade account, with invoicing built in and VAT invoices available to download directly. Buyers get their paperwork without contacting you.

Product collections with trade pricing

Buyers browse your range by collection and see their own trade and volume pricing, powered by Shopify B2B catalogues.

Built-in help and support

A trade FAQ section answers common questions on ordering, delivery and accounts, so buyers can help themselves.

1. Discovery and planning. We mapped how brands sell wholesale on Shopify and what Shopify's non-Plus B2B features allow, including catalogue limits, and designed Fastrak Trade to work within them.
2. UX/UI design. We designed a trade-first experience built around bulk ordering and self-serve accounts, as a clean unbranded theme that can be personalised per client.
3. Development and integrations. We built the headless trade front end to connect directly to an existing Shopify store, sharing products and orders, and to run on its own B2B sub-domain.
4. Testing and launch. We tested ordering, pricing, re-ordering and invoice downloads with live trade accounts, then rolled it out to clients, including a bespoke build for Kecks. 

Fastrak Trade gives Shopify brands a complete B2B trade store without the cost of Shopify Plus.

• No Plus upgrade needed. Native Shopify B2B on standard plans, saving the £24,000-a-year Plus fee.
• Two distinct websites from one Shopify store, without duplicating products or running a second store.
• Faster trade ordering through SKU quick order, saved baskets and one-click re-ordering.
• Less admin thanks to self-serve order history and downloadable VAT invoices.
• Quick to launch with the unbranded theme, or fully bespoke when a brand wants it.

Delivered for Kecks

Underwear brand Kecks now runs a bespoke, fully branded Fastrak Trade store on its own trade sub-domain, alongside its consumer site and from the same Shopify back end.

Kecks feedback: Transformed the Kecks Website