Case study · Flower farm · Lincolnshire
The problem
$149.95/month for a wholesale app that could be replaced with native Shopify tools — for nothing.
01The brief
Smith & Munson grow cut flowers on their farm in Lincolnshire — selling seasonally direct to the public and through trade channels. We’ve worked together for years across a number of projects, building up their store from the ground up.
The most recent project: replacing a third-party wholesale app costing $149.95 per month with a native Shopify solution. The app worked, but it was expensive for what it did and added unnecessary complexity to their setup.
The context
Shopify has the native tools to handle wholesale. Most brands just don’t know how to wire them together.
Most brands reach for a third-party app immediately because the native setup isn’t obvious. But for a store like Smith & Munson, the right architecture meant they could own the experience entirely — without paying ongoing app fees.
They’re on a standard Shopify plan, which means no B2B features — but customer tags, price rules, and some careful Liquid work can replicate almost everything a wholesale app does, for free.
02The work
Wholesale buyers are tagged in Shopify’s customer admin. Those tags gate access to a dedicated wholesale section and trigger wholesale pricing automatically — no login wall app required.
Business buyers need to see prices excluding VAT. A combination of Liquid conditionals and JavaScript ensures the right price is shown to the right customer type throughout the storefront — product pages, collection pages, cart.
A dedicated wholesale order page built in Liquid — quantity inputs per variant, inline stock indicators, add-to-cart for multiple products simultaneously. Built to feel like a proper trade portal, not a consumer storefront.
Wholesale orders need a proper invoice. I configured Order Printer Pro with a bespoke Smith & Munson template — their branding, correct VAT breakdown, order details formatted for trade buyers.
The wholesale portal is one project in a longer relationship. I’ve built their store and added custom functionality over the years — including a custom handwritten note printing template for personalised gift orders — and continue to work together when new challenges come up.
03The outcome
The new portal went live and immediately performed better than the third-party app — faster, cleaner, and built exactly around how Smith & Munson operate.
The $149.95/month app fee is gone. The functionality is native to their Shopify setup, which means it works regardless of theme updates, Shopify changes, or future development. Nothing to cancel, nothing to maintain.
I’ve worked with Smith & Munson since 2017 across the full store — from the original build through to custom functionality and ongoing development as the business grows.
04In their words
“When you find someone so easy to work with, who gets what your needs are and delivers — that’s worth a lot.”
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