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What Is Net 30 — and Should Your Shopify Store Offer It?

By Bhavin Gopani · Last updated 7 August 2026 · every fact checked against Shopify's current docs on that date

Net 30 means the buyer takes the goods now and pays the full amount within 30 days. "Net" is accounting shorthand for "the whole invoice, no deduction" — and the 30 counts calendar days, weekends included. On Shopify, this isn't an app feature or a Plus perk anymore: since 2 April 2026, native B2B payment terms are on every paid plan, and for a B2B order the term starts the day the order is placed (checked 7 August 2026).

That last detail matters more than it looks. Most definitions you'll find say "30 days from the invoice date," and in traditional B2B that's true — which is exactly how a buyer's bookkeeper and your Shopify admin can end up two weeks apart on when a bill is "late." If you sell on Shopify, say it plainly in your terms: the clock starts at the order, and the due date sits on the order itself.

Why do wholesale buyers expect Net 30?

Because their cash arrives after yours would. A shop that stocks your product pays rent and staff now, sells your goods over the next month, and pays your invoice out of those sales. Terms are what make the maths of stocking an unproven product survivable for them.

Bigger buyers add a second reason: process. Companies with an accounts-payable person (AP — the one who actually schedules payments) don't pay invoices one at a time as they arrive; they pay in batches, matched against purchase orders. "Do you offer terms?" is often the first sign you're dealing with a real wholesale account. As a supply-side veteran put it in the Shopify Community: being asked for terms is a good problem to have.

What does offering Net 30 actually cost you?

You become the one waiting for money. Say you have ten stockists averaging $800 a month each (sample numbers): once everyone's on Net 30, roughly $8,000 of your cash is permanently out the door — not lost, but not in your account either, ever, as long as you keep selling. And 30 is the polite fiction: larger accounts routinely pay on their own cycle, so plan your float at about 45 days. At that pace it's closer to $12,000 standing outside.

The second cost is a write-off's asymmetry. At a typical 25% wholesale margin, one $800 invoice that never gets paid takes four more $800 orders just to claw back — a bad terms decision can quietly eat a month of a product's profit.

The third cost is your time. Shopify marks each order paid or pending, but gives you no single screen of who owes what: one brand with 12 stockists described sitting down to work out what they were owed and losing an hour to clicking through orders. (That gap has a 15-minute spreadsheet fix — here's the build — and it's also the reason TermsPilot's free aging dashboard exists.)

Should your store offer Net 30?

Offer it when all four of these are true:

• The buyer is a business that resells — a shop, a distributor, a café. Terms are for trade, not for a retail customer with a big cart.
• Repeat orders are likely. The float only pays off if the relationship compounds. A one-off buyer can pay upfront.
• You can float ~45 days of their orders without missing your own suppliers or rent. Run the maths above with your real numbers first.
• Terms are normal in your category — if every competitor's wholesale sheet says Net 30, "payment upfront forever" will cost you accounts.

And the trap to avoid: granting terms on vibes. The merchant in that same thread put their vetting system honestly — "they seem nice." Nice is not a credit policy. The boring alternative works better and costs one sentence: every new account pays upfront for the first two or three orders, then gets Net 30 with a modest limit. Said as policy, up front, it offends nobody — and by order three you're deciding with their payment history instead of their manners.

How do you set Net 30 up on Shopify?

Two native ways, both included on every paid plan (deposits are the one piece still Plus-only, as of 7 August 2026):

• Company profiles — for buyers who order through your store: Customers → Companies, create the company, and set payment terms on it (or per location): net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60, or 90 days, due on fulfillment, or a fixed date. Their checkout then skips the card and creates an order with a due date.
• Draft orders — for the account you invoice by hand: create the draft, choose Payment due later, set the terms, send the invoice. Fine forever for one or two trusted buyers.

The click-by-click version, including what your buyer sees, is in the setup guide.

How do you protect yourself before saying yes?

• Make them fill in a one-page credit application — trade references you actually phone, the AP contact's direct email, their PO process. Free template here.
• Start the credit limit smaller than you think you need. Raising it after two clean cycles is easy; cutting it once you're exposed is a hard conversation.
• Get the PO number and AP email before the first terms order. An invoice that doesn't match a purchase order goes into a manual-review queue at the buyer's end, and that queue is where Net 30 becomes Net 75.
• Put the terms in writing — due-date basis, late-payment interest (even if you never charge it), and when new orders pause. The checklist covers all 13 points.

When is all this more machinery than you need?

One or two long-standing buyers you'd trust with your keys? A draft order with payment due later plus a calendar reminder on the due date is a complete system — no credit application, no dashboards, no app (including ours). The working rules above are for the day "a couple of buyers" turns into a dozen and the mental list stops fitting in your head.

Common follow-up questions