Controlling which products your retailers can see

Use Shopify B2B catalogues and Roadmap Trade tags to control which products each retailer can view and buy.

Last verified against Shopify: April 22, 2026

This article explains how to control which products each retailer can see and buy.

It covers Shopify B2B catalogues, product exclusion, plan limits, and Roadmap Trade tag-based visibility.

Use this guide to jump to the part you need:

How B2B catalogues control visibility

A Shopify B2B catalogue controls two things at once.

It defines pricing, and it defines product visibility.

When a retailer logs in, they can only see products that exist in a catalogue assigned to them.

That assignment can happen through a company location or through a B2B market, depending on plan.

Shopify documents B2B catalogues here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs

Pricing and visibility come from the same catalogue structure.

If the wrong catalogue is assigned, the retailer can see the wrong prices and the wrong products.

Choose the right catalogue approach

Shopify gives you two ways to define the product set inside a catalogue.

Include specific products

Choose this when the catalogue is a small, curated range.

Only products you add are visible.

Everything else stays hidden.

This works well for:

core ranges for smaller stockists
tightly controlled assortments
launch catalogues with a short SKU list

Start with all products, then exclude

Choose this when retailers should see most of your range.

You start with all products, then remove exceptions.

If Automatically include new products is enabled, new products join the catalogue by default.

This works well for:

regional restrictions
retailer tiers with a few blocked lines
blended stores with D2C-only exclusions

Roadmap recommendation: use all products, then exclude as your default pattern.

It needs less maintenance over time.

Use specific products only when the catalogue is genuinely a curated subset.

Shopify documents both approaches here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/catalogs/creating-catalogs

Shopify also documents catalogue behaviour in Markets here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/markets-new/catalogs

Assign catalogues to retailers

The assignment method depends on your Shopify plan.

Basic, Grow, and Advanced

These plans assign catalogues through B2B markets.

All companies inside that market inherit the same catalogue.

You cannot assign a catalogue directly to one company location.

You are limited to 3 active catalogues across all B2B markets.

Plus

Shopify Plus supports direct catalogue assignment to company locations.

This gives you retailer-level control without forcing all companies into the same market setup.

Each company location can have up to 25 catalogues assigned.

Plus stores can also use unlimited catalogues overall.

Shopify documents market and catalogue assignment here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/markets/catalogs

If you are not on Plus, do not design around one catalogue per retailer.

The 3-catalogue limit makes that model hard to maintain.

Exclude products from a catalogue

Shopify supports two ways to exclude products.

Both methods achieve the same result.

Choose the one that matches the change you are making.

Method 1: edit the catalogue

Use this when you are adjusting one catalogue at a time.

In Shopify, go to Markets → Catalogs.
Open the catalogue you want to change.
Scroll to the Products section.
Open the All tab.
Find the product or products you want to exclude.
Select them with the checkbox.
Use the bulk action Exclude.

The product moves to the Excluded tab.

Retailers assigned to that catalogue can no longer see or buy it.

You can also review Automatically include new products at the top of the Products section.

Leave it on when the catalogue should keep inheriting new products by default.

Method 2: edit the product

Use this when one product needs to change across several catalogues.

In Shopify, go to Products.
Open the product you want to restrict.
In Publishing, click the adjust icon.
Under B2B catalogs, check or uncheck each catalogue.
Click Done.

This is usually faster when the question is, which catalogues should this SKU belong to?

Shopify documents these catalogue management flows here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/markets/catalogs

Use bulk tools for larger changes

For larger updates, use Shopify's bulk tools instead of editing products one by one.

Bulk editor from the Products page

Use this when many products need changes across one or more catalogues.

Select multiple products, open Shopify's bulk editor, add the B2B catalogue columns, then toggle publish or unpublish by catalogue.

Catalogue CSV export and import

Use this when the change is very large.

This is also useful when multiple people need to review the product list first.

Export the catalogue CSV, update the included or excluded products in a spreadsheet, then import it back.

Shopify documents bulk catalogue management here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/markets/catalogs

When to use Roadmap Trade tag-based visibility

Shopify catalogues should stay your main structure.

Roadmap Trade adds a second layer for finer control.

With tag-based visibility, you apply tags to products and to customers.

When a logged-in retailer browses the storefront, Roadmap checks those tags and hides restricted products.

Use tag-based visibility when:

the rule applies to one retailer, or a very small named set
the store is not on Plus, and direct catalogue assignment is unavailable
the restriction changes often
you already use shared pricing catalogues, but need SKU-level exceptions

Keep these limits in mind:

pricing still comes from the Shopify catalogue
tag-based visibility only changes what the retailer can see
the retailer must be logged in for the rule to apply

If you need full product gating, use Roadmap Tag Library's Secret Products feature.

Secret Products also blocks direct product URLs for ineligible logged-in retailers.

Roadmap recommendation: use tags as a supplementary tool.

Use catalogues for the structure, and tags for the exceptions.

For the full Tag Library setup, use How to create secrets products/collections.

Recommended setup for common scenarios

Geographic restrictions

Use market-level catalogue exclusion.

This is the cleanest option when the rule applies to all retailers in a region.

Retailer tier

Use catalogues built around pricing tiers or account groups.

Exclude premium or restricted lines at the catalogue level.

If one retailer inside the tier needs an exception, add a Roadmap tag rule.

Channel conflict avoidance

For D2C-only products, exclude them from wholesale catalogues.

For B2B-only products in a blended store, Shopify's documented pattern is to publish the products to the online store and B2B catalogues, then exclude them from all Region catalogues. https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/b2b/markets/catalogs

Discontinued or runout stock

Use catalogue exclusion when the product should disappear for a whole retailer group.

Use tag-based visibility when the rule is temporary, or retailer-specific.

Test or sample products

Keep these out of standard wholesale catalogues.

If only a few named retailers should see them, use tag-based visibility.

Minimum order value products

If the rule belongs to a stable retailer tier, handle it in the catalogue.

If it only affects one retailer, or changes regularly, use tags.

What to do if you hit the 3-catalogue limit

This limit affects Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans.

When you are close to the cap, simplify the catalogue model.

Roadmap recommends this pattern:

Group retailers by broad pricing tier, not by individual account.
Keep catalogue count for the structural differences that affect many retailers.
Use Roadmap tag-based visibility for the smaller exceptions.

In practice, many merchants can model their wholesale setup with 2 or 3 catalogue tiers, then use tags for retailer-specific exclusions.

If each retailer needs unique pricing and unique product access, Shopify Plus is the cleaner long-term option.

Roadmap's default recommendation

For most Roadmap Trade stores, this is the best setup:

Build catalogues around broad pricing groups.
Default to all products, then exclude.
Keep Automatically include new products turned on when the range should grow by default.
Use tag-based visibility for edge cases and temporary rules.
Test with a logged-in retailer account before you launch changes.

This keeps the catalogue structure simple.

It also avoids creating too many overlapping catalogues.

If you need both pricing segmentation and retailer-specific product blocking, start with the catalogue, then layer tags on top.

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Last updated 5 months ago