Create a wholesale draft order in Shopify
A wholesale buyer orders by phone or email instead of checking out online. A draft order is how you take it: you build the order for their company in the admin, add their purchase order number, and send an invoice or collect payment. This tutorial builds one wholesale order for Northgate Outfitters, with purchase order number PO-2026-118.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 5 minutes read
The worked example
| Customer | Northgate Outfitters |
| Purchase order | PO-2026-118 |
| 12 × Trail Crew Tee, $18.00 | $216.00 |
| 6 × Summit Hoodie, $32.00 | $192.00 |
| Subtotal | $408.00 |
| Shipping | $25.00 |
| Total before tax | $433.00 |
Download the order lines: wholesale-order-lines.csv (96 bytes).
The lines for the Northgate order, with quantities and wholesale prices. The two line totals add to the $408.00 subtotal in the slip above.
1Open Drafts and create the order
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders, then Drafts, and click Create order. A new draft has no order information filled in, so you add every detail yourself. If this buyer orders often, you can also duplicate a past order instead, and change the quantities.
2Add the company customer and location
In the Customer section, select the Northgate Outfitters customer and the company location the order is for. When a draft has a company customer and a company location, the prices, payment terms, and checkout options follow the settings for that company. If the buyer is not yet set up as a company customer, create the customer first.
3Add the purchase order number
In the PO number section, click the edit icon, enter PO-2026-118, and click Done. The buyer matches your invoice to this number, so enter it exactly as they gave it. A missing or wrong number can hold up their payment for weeks.
4Add the twelve tees
Click Product, search for the Trail Crew Tee, select it, set the quantity to 12, and click Done. The tee is priced at $18.00 for this company, which is the catalog price for Northgate, not the retail price on your store. Twelve tees at $18.00 is $216.00.
5Add the six hoodies
Click Product again, search for the Summit Hoodie, select it, set the quantity to 6, and click Done. Six hoodies at $32.00 is $192.00. The subtotal is now $408.00. Check the quantities before you move on: a wrong quantity on a wholesale order is a wrong invoice.
6Lock the prices, add shipping, and finish
Lock the product pricing so a later price change does not change this quote. Then add the $25.00 shipping rate. The total before tax is $408.00 plus $25.00, or $433.00. Then either click Collect payment to take payment now, or click Send invoice so the buyer can pay through the checkout link. When payment is accepted, an order is created for it on the Orders page.
The arithmetic
| Line | Quantity | Unit price | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trail Crew Tee | 12 | $18.00 | $216.00 |
| Summit Hoodie | 6 | $32.00 | $192.00 |
| Subtotal | $408.00 | ||
| Shipping | $25.00 | ||
| Total before tax | $433.00 |
The total before tax is $433.00. Tax is added by Shopify once the customer and address are set, so the invoice total will be higher than $433.00 by the tax on this order.
Held at the counter
Catalog prices are not retail prices. A company customer sees the prices from their catalog, not the prices on your store. If you add the tee at its $28.00 retail price instead of its $18.00 catalog price, the invoice is $120.00 too high on twelve tees alone. Check the price on each line before you send the invoice.
A missing purchase order number stalls payment. The buyer matches invoices to purchase order numbers. If the number is missing, their accounts team has nothing to match it to, and payment waits. Enter the number on the draft, not in a separate email.
A saved draft is not an order. Saving the draft only stores it on the Drafts page. No payment is taken and nothing ships until the buyer pays through the invoice or you collect payment. No order number exists until then.
Sources
- Creating B2B orders using draft orders — Shopify's help pages: draft orders for company customers, purchase order numbers, payment terms, deposit requirements, price locks, and local pickup.
- Creating draft orders — Shopify's help pages: the full create-draft steps, custom items, inventory warnings, reserving items, and the invoice, payment, and payment-terms options.