Is Shopify a good option for B2B businesses?

Shopify is a leading e-commerce platform, but when using it for B2B sales (selling to businesses and professionals) it is essential to collect the customer's tax identification number (VAT number, GST number, ABN, etc.).

B2B customers need invoices that include their full tax details to be legally valid. In addition, for cross-border sales between businesses, the VAT number is required to correctly apply the reverse charge mechanism.

VAT number field in Shopify's checkout

Shopify includes a native VAT number field in the checkout. When it detects a billing address in the EU or UK, it automatically shows this field to the customer. You can configure whether it is optional or mandatory under Settings > Checkout in your Shopify store.

Quaderno reads the number directly from the Shopify order, validates it against official registries (VIES for the EU, HMRC for the UK, and others), and applies the correct tax treatment: reverse charge on cross-border B2B transactions where applicable.

Common workarounds (not recommended)

You may come across tutorials suggesting "tricks" such as repurposing existing fields. We advise against these practices:

• ❌ Repurposing the "Company name" field: this field is meant for the trading name, not the tax number. Mixing data makes management harder and can invalidate the invoice.
• ❌ Repurposing the "Address line 2" field: this is confusing for customers and browser autocomplete systems often clear or fill it with incorrect data.

These workarounds produce low-quality data and a poor customer experience.

Alternatives when the native field does not cover your case

Shopify's native field appears for EU and UK addresses. If you sell in other markets or need to collect the tax number before checkout, there are two additional methods:

• 👍 Add a tax number field on the cart page. You do not force the customer to enter their number, but you risk many customers not seeing the field and skipping it when needed.
• 👍 Add a tax number field in the registration form. You ensure all registered customers enter their number, but you would need to disable guest checkout for this to be effective.