Contract pricing is a set of prices a buyer and supplier agree on in advance for specific products, held fixed over a defined contract period. The prices are usually tied to a particular customer account rather than shown to the whole market. In Shopify B2B, these agreed rates can be assigned to individual companies or to buyer groups, so each account sees its own negotiated pricing at checkout.
How it works
A supplier and buyer settle on prices for a list of products, often as part of an annual purchasing agreement or a volume commitment. Those prices are recorded against the buyer’s account and applied automatically whenever that buyer orders, for the length of the contract. In Shopify’s B2B setup, this is handled through catalogs and price lists attached to a company location, which control both which products a buyer can see and what they pay.
Why it matters
Contract pricing removes repeated back and forth on every order. The buyer knows their cost up front, the supplier protects margin and locks in volume, and both sides avoid renegotiating line by line. It also supports procurement teams that need stable, auditable pricing for budgeting and approvals.
Example
A distributor agrees to supply a retail chain 500 units of a SKU per quarter at 12 percent below list for one year. That rate is loaded against the chain’s company account, so their buyers always check out at the contract price without asking for a fresh quote each time.
Contract pricing and quoting often work together. A one-off quote can be the negotiation that becomes a standing contract price, and repeat orders then run on the agreed rate. See related terms in the B2B quoting glossary.