--- title: Shopify vs Wholesale Handler for wholesale bakery orders Metadescription: Shopify is brilliant for retail ecommerce, but wholesale bakeries need something different. Feature and pricing comparison for 2026. Display description: Shopify is built for retail. Wholesale Handler is built for wholesale ordering. See the feature and pricing comparison for bakeries. author: Dan Edwards author_role: Founder author_url: https://danedwardsdeveloper.com author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-edwards-developer published: 2026-02-21 updated: 2026-06-05 --- Token estimate: ~2,900 # Shopify vs Wholesale Handler for wholesale bakery orders By **[Dan Edwards](https://wholesalehandler.com/about)**, Founder. ## Shopify vs Wholesale Handler Shopify is one of the most successful ecommerce platforms ever built. It powers millions of online stores, handles everything from product pages to payment processing, and has an app ecosystem with thousands of integrations. For selling directly to consumers, it is hard to beat. Wholesale Handler does one thing: lets your wholesale customers place orders themselves. If you're a wholesale bakery looking at Shopify, you're probably trying to solve a specific problem - getting your café and restaurant customers to order online instead of phoning, texting, or emailing you. Shopify can technically do this, but it's not what it was designed for. ## The transaction-fee problem Shopify makes most of its margin on payments. In the UK | the US | the EU | Canada | Australia | New Zealand, Shopify Payments charges the UK: 2% | the US: 2.9% | the EU: 2% | Canada: 2.8% | Australia: 1.75% | New Zealand: 2.7% + the UK: 25p | the US: 30c | the EU: 25c | Canada: 30c | Australia: 30c | New Zealand: 30c per online transaction. For consumer-grade orders, that's reasonable - the fee disappears into the margin. For bakery wholesale, the maths is unforgiving. A typical café orders maybe the UK: £100 | the US: US$100 | the EU: €100 | Canada: CA$100 | Australia: A$100 | New Zealand: NZ$100 of bread and pastries a week. At Shopify Payments rates, that's **the UK: £2.25 | the US: US$3.20 | the EU: €2.25 | Canada: CA$3.10 | Australia: A$2.05 | New Zealand: NZ$3.00 in fees on a the UK: £100 | the US: US$100 | the EU: €100 | Canada: CA$100 | Australia: A$100 | New Zealand: NZ$100 order**. The effective rate is the UK: 2.25% | the US: 3.2% | the EU: 2.25% | Canada: 3.1% | Australia: 2.05% | New Zealand: 3%, not the UK: 2% | the US: 2.9% | the EU: 2% | Canada: 2.8% | Australia: 1.75% | New Zealand: 2.7%, because the flat the UK: 25p | the US: 30c | the EU: 25c | Canada: 30c | Australia: 30c | New Zealand: 30c hits lower-value orders harder. Across 30 weekly customers and four weeks, that's roughly: - 120 orders / month - ~the UK: £270 | the US: US$384 | the EU: €270 | Canada: CA$372 | Australia: A$246 | New Zealand: NZ$360 in transaction fees alone That's before Shopify's subscription. That's before a wholesale app. And it's a payment-processor cost wholesale orders don't actually need - because wholesale orders should be invoiced on terms, not paid at checkout. ## The wholesale problem Shopify doesn't include wholesale ordering features on its standard plans. To accept wholesale orders, you need a Shopify subscription plus a third-party wholesale app from the Shopify App Store: | | Shopify | Wholesale Handler | | --- | --- | --- | | Shopify Basic plan | the UK: £19 \| the US: US$29 \| the EU: €24 \| Canada: CA$37 \| Australia: A$42 \| New Zealand: US$29 (billed in USD)/month | \- | | Wholesale app (mid-tier) | US$45 (source) - £34 \| €39 \| CA$63 \| A$64 \| NZ$78/month | \- | | Transaction fees | the UK: 2% \| the US: 2.9% \| the EU: 2% \| Canada: 2.8% \| Australia: 1.75% \| New Zealand: 2.7% + the UK: 25p \| the US: 30c \| the EU: 25c \| Canada: 30c \| Australia: 30c \| New Zealand: 30c per order | None | | **Monthly total (before fees)** | **the UK: £53 \| the US: US$74 \| the EU: €63 \| Canada: CA$100 \| Australia: A$106 \| New Zealand: US$74 (billed in USD)/month** | **£79 \| US$109 \| €89 \| CA$149 \| A$149 \| NZ$179/month** | Wholesale apps on Shopify range from free (very limited) to paid tiers with full features like net terms and custom pricing. The mid-tier pricing shown above is typical for a bakery that needs customer-specific pricing and payment terms. Shopify does offer native B2B features - custom price lists, net terms, company accounts - but only on Shopify Plus, which starts at US$2,500 (source) - £1,875 | €2,175 | CA$3,475 | A$3,550 | NZ$4,325/month. That's enterprise pricing for enterprise retailers, not a wholesale bakery with 30 regular customers. Shopify prices last verified on 2026-05-07. ## What Shopify does that Wholesale Handler doesn't Shopify's feature list is enormous: - Full ecommerce storefront with customisable themes - Point of sale for in-person retail - Consumer checkout with Shopify Payments - Marketing tools - email campaigns, SEO, social selling - Abandoned cart recovery - Shipping label generation and tracking - Multi-channel selling (Amazon, eBay, Instagram, TikTok) - App ecosystem with thousands of integrations - Gift cards, discount codes, and loyalty programmes If you sell baked goods directly to consumers, Shopify is excellent at that. This is not a criticism of Shopify - it is a brilliant platform for retail commerce. ## What's missing for wholesale ordering When you bolt wholesale onto Shopify using a third-party app, you get basic B2B pricing and order forms. But the features that matter for a wholesale bakery's daily workflow are usually missing: ### Delivery day scheduling Your customers can only order for days you actually deliver to them. If you deliver to The Corner Café on Tuesdays and Fridays, that's all they see. Shopify has no concept of per-customer delivery schedules. ### Cut-off times Orders for Tuesday's delivery close at 6pm Monday. Your customers see the deadline. Late orders roll to the next available delivery day. In Shopify, this would require custom development or yet another app. ### Built for repeat ordering Your customers reorder the same products every week. Wholesale Handler makes this the default workflow. Shopify is built around a retail shopping cart where customers browse, discover, and check out - a completely different buying pattern. ### Standing orders For a café that takes the same five loaves and three boxes of pastries every Tuesday, the right tool isn't a shopping cart - it's a standing order that generates itself. Shopify has subscription apps built for consumer "box every month" use cases, not wholesale standing orders backed by your delivery-day rules and cutoff times. Wholesale Handler treats standing orders as a first-class feature. A customer (or you on their behalf) picks a weekly, fortnightly, three-weekly or four-weekly schedule, and each occurrence is generated automatically at your cutoff time. Pause to a specific resume date or pause indefinitely, skip a single occurrence, or edit any line at any time. Up to 10 active per customer, with an optional minimum-spend override per schedule. Three days before each order, the customer gets a preview email with the line items at today's prices, a one-click "Skip this order" link that doesn't need a login, and a link to edit the schedule. If they do nothing, the order fires automatically at the cutoff - no "remember to approve" friction, no surprise price changes. ## Feature comparison | Feature | Shopify | Wholesale Handler | | --- | --- | --- | | Customer ordering portal | yes ((via app)) | yes | | Order management | yes | yes | | Delivery day scheduling | no | yes | | Cut-off times | no | yes | | Customisable cutoff message | no | yes | | Holiday scheduling | no | yes | | Repeat ordering workflow | no | yes | | Wholesale standing orders (weekly / fortnightly / 3-weekly / 4-weekly) | no | yes | | Invoice generation | yes ((via app)) | yes | | Customer price lists | yes ((Plus only)) | yes | | Production planning | no | yes | | Retail ecommerce | yes | no | | Point of sale | yes | no | | Consumer checkout | yes | no | | Marketing tools | yes | no | | Multi-channel selling | yes | no | | No transaction fees | no | yes | | Self-service signup | yes | yes | | Live demo (no account needed) | no | yes | | Installable app icon on phone (no App Store) | no | yes | Shopify wins overwhelmingly on retail features. Wholesale Handler wins on the specific workflow that saves a wholesale bakery time every day. ## Who should use Shopify - You sell baked goods directly to consumers online - You need a retail storefront with consumer checkout - You run a retail shop and need a point of sale system - You want to sell on Amazon, Instagram, or other marketplaces - You have the budget and development resources to customise a wholesale workflow on top of retail ## Who should use Wholesale Handler - Your main problem is taking wholesale orders by phone and email - You have 10-50 regular customers with recurring weekly orders - You need delivery day rules, cutoff times, and holiday scheduling out of the box - You don't need consumer checkout or payment processing at order time - You'd rather pay one flat £79 | US$109 | €89 | CA$149 | A$149 | NZ$179/month than a Shopify subscription, a wholesale app, and a cut of every order ## The scope argument Shopify is a retail ecommerce platform. Wholesale Handler is a wholesale ordering portal. They solve fundamentally different problems. If you sell directly to consumers and happen to have a few wholesale accounts on the side, Shopify with a wholesale app might make sense. But if wholesale ordering is the actual problem - if evenings go to copying orders from texts into spreadsheets - a retail ecommerce platform isn't the right tool. A purpose-built wholesale ordering system is. A wholesale ordering portal solves it for a flat £79 | US$109 | €89 | CA$149 | A$149 | NZ$179/month. A retail platform solves it by taking a cut of every order you run through it. Comparing dedicated bakery software rather than retail tools, Wholesale Handler is also the cheaper alternative to [CyBake](/articles/cheaper-alternative-to-cybake), [BakeSmart](/articles/cheaper-alternative-to-bakesmart), and [FlexiBake](/articles/cheaper-alternative-to-flexibake). ## Q&A **Q: Is Shopify good for wholesale bakery ordering?** A: Shopify is an excellent retail ecommerce platform, but it lacks native wholesale ordering features on standard plans. Wholesale bakeries need delivery day scheduling, cutoff times, and repeat ordering workflows that Shopify does not provide. Third-party apps can add basic wholesale pricing but miss the bakery-specific workflow features. **Q: What is a cheaper alternative to Shopify for wholesale bakeries?** A: Wholesale Handler is a purpose-built alternative to Shopify for wholesale bakeries. It includes delivery day scheduling, cutoff times, holiday scheduling, and production planning in a single subscription with no transaction fees. **Q: What does Shopify do that Wholesale Handler does not?** A: Shopify offers a full retail ecommerce platform with consumer checkout, point of sale, marketing tools, multi-channel selling, shipping labels, and thousands of app integrations. It is designed for selling directly to consumers at any scale. **Q: Who should use Wholesale Handler instead of Shopify?** A: Wholesale Handler is best for bakeries whose main problem is taking wholesale orders by phone, text, and email. If you have regular customers with recurring weekly orders and need delivery scheduling and cutoff times built in, Wholesale Handler is a simpler and cheaper purpose-built option.