The Size-Run Problem: Shopify Agencies That Make Fashion Wholesale Orders Less Painful

A fashion wholesale order isn't one product. It's one style in four colours and eight sizes, often bought in cartons or fixed size ratios, by a buyer who wants to place it in five minutes and get the trade price without emailing anyone. Shopify can sell to wholesale buyers on every plan from Basic up, but its quantity rules work one variant at a time. So the agency you hire needs to know where the platform stops, and how to fill the gap without leaving you with code nobody can maintain.

This guide names four Shopify agencies that have published a real fashion or apparel wholesale project. For each, we say what the project shows, what it doesn't, and what kind of brand it suits. We also explain how we chose them, who we left out and why, how to compare proposals, and the one test order to hand any agency before you sign.

If you're still deciding how size runs should work on your store, start with our guide to Shopify apparel wholesale ordering on the MultiVariants blog. This post is about who to hire.

Key takeaways

• Shopify's native minimums, maximums and increments apply to each size and colour separately. A buyer can't combine 5 grey and 5 blue to meet a rule of 10 (Shopify Help Center).

• Bear Group, Anatta, blubolt and Fusion5 each have a public fashion or apparel wholesale case study on Shopify that we could read on 11 November 2026.

• Bear Group's BYLT project is the only one that shows minimums by colour and by size, checked before add to cart.

• None of the case studies show prepacks or carton ratios. Ask every agency how they would handle them.

• Judge agencies on a working demo of your own size run, not a logo wall. Many size-run needs can be covered by an app before you pay for a custom build.

Why fashion wholesale needs a specialist

Most Shopify agencies can build a beautiful consumer store. Fewer have shipped a wholesale store where a buyer orders 240 units across 32 variants in one go. The difference shows up in five places.

The order form

A consumer buys one size. A wholesale buyer buys a size run: XS to XXL in three colours, often more of the middle sizes. Shopify's standard product page asks them to pick one variant at a time. Shopify's B2B quick order list lists a product's variants with quantity boxes, which helps, but a brand with many styles and colours often wants a size-by-colour grid or a page that covers several styles at once.

The rules

Wholesale rules are usually about the style, not the size: "12 per style", "at least 6 per colour", "cartons of 6". Shopify's native quantity rules and price breaks are per variant, so "12 per style" becomes "12 per size" unless someone adds an app or custom logic.

The prices

Trade prices differ by buyer: boutiques, chains, distributors, international partners. Shopify's B2B catalogs handle this, with limits by plan. On Basic, Grow and Advanced you get three active catalog assignments; Plus has no limit and can assign catalogs to individual companies.

The back office

Fashion brands often run an ERP or retail system such as Lightspeed, NetSuite or a PLM. Wholesale orders have to land there with the right sizes and the right customer. If they don't, someone re-keys them.

The seasons

Fashion wholesale has opening orders for a new season and reorders mid-season. They often have different rules: prepacks and minimums for the opening order, open stock for top-ups. The store has to handle both.

An agency that has done this before will ask about all five in the first call. One that hasn't will ask mostly about the homepage.

How we chose these agencies

We started with the Shopify Partners Directory, agency case-study pages and Shopify's own customer stories. We kept only agencies that met all three rules:

1. A published project for a fashion, apparel, footwear or workwear brand that sells wholesale on Shopify.

2. The case study says what was built for wholesale buyers (a portal, an order form, pricing, rules or an integration), not just "a new site".

3. We could read it on the agency's site or on shopify.com on 11 November 2026.

We didn't rank the agencies, and none paid to be included. The order below follows how much the case study says about the size-run problem itself. Some well-known fashion agencies are missing only because we couldn't find a public wholesale project. If that's you, send us the case study, and we'll review it for the next update.

The four agencies

Bear Group: BYLT Basics

BYLT sells premium basics and "work leisure" apparel, with a growing retail footprint. According to Shopify's BYLT case study, Bear Group built its B2B wholesale portal. The build supports customer-specific pricing, payment terms, B2B catalog rules, and large-quantity ordering, with account-level rules set inside Shopify.

The detail that matters most for size runs: Bear built a custom multi-variant bulk-buy form on the product page, where buyers choose colours and sizes together, and "BYLT's minimum order logic is validated before add-to-cart, including minimums by color and by size." Bear also added discount messaging and an inquiry form for variants that are out of stock.

What it shows: minimums by colour and by size are exactly the rules native Shopify can't express on its own, and checking them before add to cart means buyers learn the rule while they build the order, not at checkout.

What it doesn't show: carton or prepack logic, and any figures for the wholesale portal itself. The case study's numbers (retail stores growing from one to seven, a 400% bigger women's catalogue) are about the wider business.

Suits: apparel brands with a direct-to-consumer store that want a branded wholesale portal with style-level rules enforced on the product page.

Anatta: BRUNT Workwear

BRUNT sells work boots and workwear. Shopify's BRUNT case study says Anatta has been its agency partner since early 2022. BRUNT launched its Shopify B2B portal on 15 February 2024 with about 110 retailers. The portal "replaced paper and spreadsheet orders with a digital workflow" and made operations "about 5x more efficient", according to BRUNT. The case study puts current reach at close to 100 retailers across roughly 2,000 stores. In Q4 2025 Anatta and BRUNT rebuilt the storefront on Shopify's Horizon theme architecture.

What it shows: footwear has the same problem as apparel, with whole and half sizes and widths, and BRUNT moved retailers from spreadsheets to self-service ordering. It also shows a long relationship: the same agency handling DTC, wholesale and a storefront rebuild.

What it doesn't show: the order form or the quantity rules. The case study also notes that the early portal was "still missing some functionality for the workwear category", which Shopify closed over the following 6 to 12 months. And it doesn't say Anatta built the portal alone, so we describe Anatta as BRUNT's agency partner rather than the portal's builder.

Suits: fast-growing brands that want one partner across DTC, wholesale and retail, and are comfortable leaning on Shopify's native B2B as it matures.

blubolt: Never Fully Dressed

Never Fully Dressed is a UK womenswear brand. blubolt's case study covers a Shopify 2.0 retheme on Shopify Plus, with B2B as a main focus. Using Shopify Plus's native B2B, blubolt added a dedicated B2B view so wholesale buyers can order in bulk without changing the consumer experience: quick order tables with variant-level quantity selectors, live stock visibility, automatic total cost calculation, and "a separate, styled B2B account area that retained the brand's design language".

What it shows: how far native B2B plus careful theme work can go before you need custom code. For many fashion brands, a quick order table with live stock is most of what buyers want.

What it doesn't show: style-level minimums, cartons or prepacks, and any figures specific to the wholesale side. blubolt's B2B page says it sets "specific quantity rules (minimums, maximums, and case pack increments)", but that's a service description rather than this project.

Suits: fashion brands on Shopify Plus that want to get the most from native B2B, keep one store, and keep maintenance low.

Fusion5 (Pocket Square): Flo & Frankie

Flo & Frankie is a New Zealand fashion and lifestyle retailer with 18 stores, selling in New Zealand and Australia. Fusion5's case study (the work was done by its Pocket Square team) describes a standalone Shopify Plus environment just for B2B, reusing the consumer store's product and inventory data. Wholesale buyers sign in through native B2B companies and can "place orders, reorder, download assets and more". Custom integrations send orders straight into the correct wholesale registers in Lightspeed, with automatic stock transfers and near-real-time stock updates.

What it shows: in fashion wholesale, the value often sits behind the storefront. Orders that land in the right register with stock moving automatically save more staff time than any order form.

What it doesn't show: quantity rules or the order form itself, and no figures beyond the client's quote about cutting admin time and seeing "a strong increase in sales".

Suits: brands with physical stores and a retail back office such as Lightspeed that need wholesale connected to it.

Side by side

A pattern worth knowing: Kulani Kinis

One more project is worth studying even though no agency is named. Shopify's Kulani Kinis case study describes a separate wholesale store on Shopify Plus B2B for the swimwear brand, with more than 800 products. Buyers add multiple sizes and large quantities straight from the collection page, and a slider shows available stock for every size. Shopify reports a 300% increase in B2B website transaction revenue and 3x growth in wholesale customers.

We list it as a pattern, not an agency, because the case study doesn't credit a partner. But it's a useful benchmark: ask any agency how close they could get to "add a whole size run from the collection page, with stock visible by size".

What these projects have in common

Three patterns repeat across the four agencies.

First, a separate wholesale view. BYLT has a portal, Never Fully Dressed a B2B account area, Flo & Frankie a second store. Retail shoppers never see trade prices or bulk forms, and wholesale buyers never wade through consumer promotions.

Second, one screen for many sizes. BYLT orders on the product page, Never Fully Dressed uses quick order tables, Kulani Kinis adds sizes from the collection page. Nobody makes buyers pick one size at a time.

Third, the back office matters as much as the storefront. Flo & Frankie's value came from the Lightspeed link. BRUNT's came from replacing paper and spreadsheets.

What none of the case studies show

The hardest fashion rule is missing from every public project we read: prepacks and carton ratios. Shopify's quantity rules have only a minimum, a maximum and an increment, each per variant. There's no native setting for "one S, two M, two L, one XL, always together". If you sell in prepacks or mixed-size cartons, this is the question that separates agencies.

Ask each agency:

• How would you sell a 1-2-2-1 prepack? As its own SKU, as a bundle, or with custom cart logic?

• If it's a separate SKU, how do loose units and pack units share stock?

• How do cartons of 6 work when the buyer mixes sizes?

• What happens at reorder, when the same buyer wants open stock instead?

• What does the warehouse or ERP receive for a prepack order?

There's no single right answer. What you want is an agency that has thought about it, can explain the trade-offs, and doesn't promise a perfect solution without seeing your stock data. Our post on where fashion wholesale orders go wrong covers the prepack and carton problem in detail.

How to compare agency proposals

Once you've sent the same brief to two or three agencies, proposals can look very different. Some quote a fixed build, some a monthly retainer, some a discovery phase first. Compare them on what you'll actually get:

• Native first. Does the proposal use Shopify's B2B companies, catalogs and quick order list where they fit, or rebuild things Shopify already does?

• Apps where they fit. Which rules will an app handle, and which app? Can your team change those rules without the agency?

• Custom code only where needed. What is custom, why, and who maintains it?

• Integration scope. Which systems are connected (ERP, PIM, 3PL, retail POS), in which direction, and how errors are handled.

• Testing. Is there a written test plan for wholesale orders, run as a real B2B buyer?

• Handoff. Will you get a rule sheet and documentation another developer could follow?

A good rule of thumb: the more custom code in a proposal, the more you should ask about year-two cost. Custom rules need updating whenever Shopify changes its cart, checkout or Functions APIs. Our playbook for agencies, The Wholesale Size-Run Playbook, lists the tests and handoff documents we'd expect.

What a fashion wholesale project usually looks like

Agencies name their phases differently, but most fashion wholesale projects follow the same shape. Knowing it helps you spot a proposal that skips a step.

Discovery

The agency learns how you sell: styles, size runs, carton and prepack rules, buyer groups, seasons, and the systems orders must reach. Good discovery ends with a written rule sheet you sign off. If a proposal goes straight to design, ask where the rules will be written down.

Design

Wholesale screens are designed alongside the consumer store: the order form or grid, the buyer account area, reorder, and the messages buyers see when they break a rule. Ask to see the error messages in the design, not just the happy path.

Build and integrate

Native B2B is set up (companies, catalogs, payment terms), apps are configured, any custom code is written, and the back-office link is built. This is where most of the budget goes when there's an ERP or retail system involved.

Test

The agency places real orders as a wholesale buyer: mixed sizes, cartons, sold-out sizes, price tiers, reorders, mobile. You should get the test results, dated.

Launch and support

Buyers are invited, usually in a small group first. The agency fixes what they find, then hands over documentation and agrees a support arrangement for the next season.

Questions about ownership before you sign

Fashion ranges change every season, and so do wholesale rules. Before you sign, ask:

• Can our team add a new style to the wholesale catalogue without the agency?

• Can we change a minimum, a carton size or a tier ourselves?

• Where is each rule set: Shopify, an app, custom code or the ERP?

• Who fixes custom code when Shopify changes its cart or checkout?

• Is everything documented so another agency could take over?

When you may not need an agency

If your wholesale catalogue fits Shopify's native B2B and your rules are simple, an app may cover the gap without an agency build.

MultiVariants (our app) adds a size and colour matrix on the product page on its Standard plan ($12.99 a month), and on its Professional plan ($29.99 a month) sets minimums and maximums on the combined total across sizes, a minimum per option such as "at least 12 in red", limits on the number of variants and step quantities. DiscountRay (also ours) adds quantity tiers on its free plan and B2B prices by customer group or tag on Growth ($14 a month), or by company on Pro ($29 a month).

Bring in an agency when you need an ERP or retail system link, a separate portal design, prepack logic no app supports, or a migration from another platform. Those are the jobs where agency experience pays for itself. For the native-versus-app decision in detail, see Native Shopify B2B or MultiVariants: which should handle wholesale size runs?

The one test order to send every agency

Portfolios show what an agency built for someone else. A test order shows how it thinks about your business. Send each agency on your shortlist the same brief and ask for a demo or a written plan:

1. One jacket style in three colours and eight sizes (24 variants).

2. A minimum of 12 per style across any sizes, and at least 6 per colour ordered.

3. Sold in cartons of 6 on the style total.

4. A 1-2-2-1 prepack for opening orders; open stock for reorders.

5. Boutiques get one trade price, distributors another, and both get 10% off from 48 units of the style.

6. Size XS is sold out in one colour. Show what the buyer sees.

7. Show the finished order as it arrives in our ERP or retail system.

8. Tell us what you'd build, what you'd use an app for, and the one-year cost of each.

Pay most attention to points 2, 4 and 7. An agency that answers those clearly has done fashion wholesale before.

Red flags in an agency pitch

A few warning signs come up again and again:

• The portfolio is all consumer stores, with "B2B" listed as a service but no wholesale case study.

• They propose rebuilding catalogs, pricing or company accounts that Shopify already provides.

• They can't say which rules will be checked at checkout, not just on the product page.

• They promise prepacks "out of the box" without asking how your warehouse stores them.

• There's no mention of testing as a real wholesale buyer.

• The quote has no line for maintenance after launch.

None of these mean the agency is bad. They mean it may not have done this particular job before, and you'll be paying for it to learn.

The fashion wholesale agencies we looked at and left out

We also read projects from well-known Shopify agencies that work with fashion brands but didn't meet our second rule, because the case studies we found describe consumer stores, migrations or marketing rather than a wholesale build. We haven't named them, because a missing case study isn't evidence that an agency can't do the work. Two leads from our own research list, Ethercycle and Uncap, are in that group: we didn't find a fashion wholesale project on their sites when we checked. If you're one of those agencies and have a wholesale project, send it over and we'll look at it for the next update.

How to use this list

1. Write down your size run: styles, colours, sizes, carton sizes and any prepack ratios.

2. Note your back office: ERP, retail POS, 3PL, PLM.

3. Pick two or three agencies whose case study is closest to your setup (portal, native B2B, back-office integration).

4. Send each the test order above and ask for a demo or a written plan.

5. Ask what they would do with an app and what they would custom-build, and what each costs to maintain.

6. Ask to speak to the brand in their case study.

Are you an agency with a fashion wholesale project on Shopify? Send us the case study for the next update, or see the eFoli partner program.

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