How to Let Wholesale Customers Use Your Product Images on Shopify
Protecting your photos shouldn't stop your stockists and resellers using them. Here's how to protect your store from copiers while wholesale buyers, VIPs and your team copy freely.
Short answer
With Ongoing Defender, protection only reaches the people it should. Exclude wholesale customers by their Shopify customer tag and they can save your photos and copy your descriptions whenever they're logged in, while everyone else sees a protected store.
Who should be able to copy?
| Who | Why they need your content | How to exclude them |
|---|---|---|
| Wholesale customers and resellers | Photos and descriptions for their own listings | Customer tag, like wholesale |
| VIP customers and partners | Press, collaborations and affiliate content | Customer email |
| Your team | Editing and checking the store | Your IP in one click, or theirs |
| Your photographer or agency | Working on your product pages | IP address or range |
| Everyone, on certain pages | A press kit, size guide or spec sheet | The ignore list |
How to do it with Ongoing Defender
- 1Install Ongoing Defender and switch on its app embed.
- 2In Shopify, tag your wholesale customers, for example wholesale. Many wholesale apps already tag them for you.
- 3In Defender's Exclusions, add that tag. Tagged customers browse unprotected whenever they're logged in.
- 4Add VIPs by searching for them or entering their email.
- 5Add your own IP in one click, plus your team's or agency's addresses.
- 6Log in as a test wholesale customer and save an image to see it working.
They get past your other blocks too
Excluded customers and IPs also skip country and VPN blocking, so an overseas stockist can always reach your store. At checkout, add the same tag to the always-allow list, and wholesale orders are never caught by a checkout rule.
Your lists stay private
Excluded emails and tags are checked by Shopify on the server and never appear in your store's code, so nobody can see who your wholesale customers are.
Why Ongoing Defender instead of a basic blocker
| What you need | Theme code or a basic blocker | With Ongoing Defender |
|---|---|---|
| Let wholesale buyers copy while logged in | Everyone is blocked the same | Exclude by customer tag |
| Let your team work freely | Everyone is blocked the same | Exclude IPs and whole ranges |
| Keep a press page copyable | All or nothing | Add it to the ignore list |
| Keep wholesale orders safe from checkout rules | Not covered | Always-allow tags |
Tips for best results
- Exclude by tag rather than by email, so new wholesale customers are covered the moment they're tagged.
- Use Shopify Flow to tag wholesale customers automatically when they're approved.
- Add the same tag to always-allow at checkout.
- Exclude your photographer's IP while a shoot is being uploaded, and remove it afterwards.