Short answer: decide first where your wholesale buyers will check out. If they should see their own prices and order on your Shopify store, you need a gated area, and wholesale prices usually mean Shopify’s B2B features. If they can order on Faire, a Faire Direct link on an ordinary wholesale page is simpler, because Faire works from the products already in your store. Before building either, look for “Create template” in your theme editor’s page menu. If it’s missing, the obstacle is your theme, not your setup.
What owners usually ask
“How do I make a password-protected wholesale page?” It usually starts when a brand wants shop owners to order from its own site, apart from retail customers. Faire Direct comes into it when the brand already sells on Faire.
That’s a fair place to start, but the password is rarely the real question. The real question is where the wholesale order gets placed, which decides most of the rest:
- Where buyers check out: your Shopify checkout, or Faire’s.
- Who sees which prices: this only matters if wholesale prices live on your store.
- What your theme can hold: a plain link works on any theme. Faire’s widget doesn’t.
What’s usually happening
- “Password-protected” works differently on Shopify. Shopify’s store password hides the whole online store, not one page. For a single wholesale area, Shopify’s help points to its B2B features, custom theme code, or an app such as Locksmith.
- Wholesale prices on your own store mean B2B. With Shopify’s B2B features, business customers set up as companies get their own catalog prices, net payment terms and B2B-only products, and only signed-in B2B customers see them. B2B is on every plan from Basic up, with up to three catalogs below Plus.
- Faire Direct moves checkout to Faire. Buyers who come through your Faire Direct link order on Faire. With Faire’s Shopify sales channel, you choose which products to publish to Faire, inventory can sync from Shopify, and new Faire orders can sync into Shopify for you to ship. Your wholesale page only has to explain your terms and send buyers to Faire.
- The theme blocks the nicer version. Faire’s widget is what makes the page more than a bare link. It goes onto a page through a page template and an app block. Older Shopify themes, which Shopify calls “vintage”, can’t create templates in the editor and don’t support app blocks, so the steps simply aren’t there.
- “Shopify 2.0” means the theme. When instructions say a feature needs “Shopify 2.0”, they mean your theme’s architecture (Online Store 2.0), not your Shopify account.
How to check, in about ten minutes
- Decide where wholesale orders should be placed. On your store means a gated area. On Faire means a link or the widget. If you’re unsure, linking out is usually simpler.
- Test your theme. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store, click Edit theme, then open Products and Default product. Shopify’s own test: if no “Add section” button appears below the sections, you may have a vintage theme.
- Look for “Create template”. In the same editor, open the drop-down at the top, which starts on “Home page”, and choose Pages. If there’s no “Create template” option, this theme can’t make the page template Faire’s widget needs.
- Check the Faire connection. Open the Faire sales channel in your Shopify admin. See which products are published to Faire, and whether new Faire orders sync to Shopify.
- Try a current theme as a draft. Add one of Shopify’s free current themes, such as Horizon, without publishing it. In its editor, look for “Create template” under Pages, then click Add section and switch to Apps to see whether Faire’s block is listed. Customers keep seeing your current theme until you publish the new one.
What we found on one store
An owner asked us for a password-protected wholesale section that worked with Faire Direct: should the page link out to Faire, or hold its own wholesale products behind the password?
We answered by email within half an hour, with two routes decided by where the buyer checks out:
- A gated area on Shopify, if wholesale buyers should see certain products or prices, and maybe check out on the store. Different prices might need Shopify’s B2B features.
- A Faire Direct link on a landing page, with checkout on Faire. Faire would use the products already in Shopify and send orders back to Shopify for shipping.
The owner chose the link, but wanted it to look like more than a link. That meant Faire’s widget, which was where the setup had stalled.
On a screen-share call of under half an hour, we walked through the widget’s steps: create a page, create a page template, then assign the template to the page. The page existed. The template couldn’t be made: the theme editor’s Pages menu had no “Create template” option. We tried the manual way, copying one of the theme’s page templates into a new file in the code editor. The new template appeared, with a Liquid error: “not a valid section type”.
The owner had wondered whether the store’s Faire connection was the problem. It wasn’t. The theme was an older one, without the template and app-block features Faire’s steps rely on.
What we did
- Two routes in writing, before any setup.
- The widget’s steps on the live theme, followed until they stopped, which showed the theme was the cause.
- A free current theme, added as an unpublished draft. The owner added Shopify’s Horizon theme without publishing it, and its editor offered both pieces the widget needs.
- An explanation of what a theme change involves. The products and other store data stay. Only the layout is set up again, starting with the header and footer, then the homepage.
- A plan the owner could carry out: set up the new theme as a draft, add Faire’s widget to the wholesale page there, publish when it looks right, then bring us back to review the site for marketing and SEO.
What the evidence shows
- The theme was the blocker. On the old theme there was no “Create template” option, and the manual copy raised a Liquid error. On the draft theme, the Pages menu offered “Create template”, and the Apps toggle under Add section listed Faire’s block, with no code.
- The Faire connection was fine. The same store and connection showed Faire’s block once a current theme was open.
We didn’t build the page or change the theme; the owner took that on. This shows what blocked the setup and what cleared it, not a finished page or any wholesale orders.
When to bring someone in
Call someone if:
- your theme can’t create templates and you’re weighing a theme change;
- you need wholesale prices, payment terms or company accounts on your own store;
- you aren’t sure whether your buyers should order on your store or on Faire;
- you’ve followed the instructions and what you see doesn’t match them.