Customer Groups
The Customers Groups section is the heartbeat of your SparkLayer integration and allows you to manage the ordering rules for your customers.
It's common for B2B customers to have terms agreed when they place orders with you. For example, brand new customers may only be allowed to pay via credit/debit card, whereas long-term customers may have more favourable payment terms.
The Customer Groups section lets you define specific rules for specific customer groups, giving you flexibility in how your B2B customers order online. This includes:
- Setting which price lists they use
- Setting which payment methods they can use
- Setting order limit rules (e.g. minimum and maximum order totals)
- Setting additional settings (such as blocking the ability to edit an address)
By default, SparkLayer has a 'Base' customer group that is a catch-all for all your B2B customers. If you're looking to have just a single B2B customer group then the 'Base' group will be sufficient. Any changes you make will automatically apply to all your B2B customers unless you create new customer groups.
Understanding 'Inherit' and the 🔗 icon When you see the 🔗 icon in a customer group, it means it will inherit settings from another customer group, by default the "Base". For example, if your Base is set to a specific price list or has specific payment methods, any new customer groups you create will start off by using these same settings. You can easily modify this by simply clicking the Edit icon and changing them as you need.
Are you using BigCommerce? If you're using BigCommerce as your eCommerce platform, we've a tailored guide here on how to configure your B2B customer groups.
It's possible to configure the following rules
Rule type | Description |
|---|---|
Order Limits | You can set order limit rules for your customers, such as the minimum order total or minimum quantity of items they must reach before being able to place an order (and conversely, the maximum of these) |
Payment Methods | The payment methods that the customer will see when they checkout. For example, "Payment on Account" and "Payment by Invoice". See also Payment Methods |
Price Lists | The Price Lists that are assigned to that customer group. For example, you may have different price lists per customer group |
Address Management | If activated, your customers will be able to edit and add addresses via the My Account Interface and the My Cart Interface. |
Credit Settings | If you have credit limits set up, you can optionally choose to prevent customers from being able to checkout if they exceed their credit limit. |
Stock Display Settings | Configure if stock levels and units are displayes ans your max, low and last stock values. |
Stock locations | If you're store is set up with multiple stock locations ("inventory locations"), you can specific which location the B2B customer orders from. |
There are two types of order limits you can set for your B2B customers:
Order Limit Type | Details |
|---|---|
Order limits by order total | Set rules based on the customers order total, e.g. the customer must spend more than $100 |
Order limits by order quantity | Set rules based on the number of items in the customers order, e.g. the customer must have at least 50 items. |
Combination | Set rules based on both an order total AND the order quantity |
Order limits by order total
To configure order limits by order total, click the Edit icon next to a customer group and navigating to the Order Limits section. If the customer group doesn't already have an order limit set, click Overwrite order total limits and then the order limit values you want.
Limit type | Details | Example |
|---|---|---|
Minimum | This is the minimum order total the customer must have before being able to checkout | The customer must have an order total of at least $200.00 |
Maximum | This is the maximum order total the customer must have before being able to checkout | The customer must have an order total of no more than $400.00 |
Please note All order values are in net pricing (i.e. excluding tax calculations)
Once you've set this, when you access the Quick Order on the frontend, you'll then see corresponding messaging show on the My Cart Interface.
If you'd prefer to change the default language that is shown, you can use the below language strings.
Order limits by order quantity
To configure order limits by order quantity, click the Edit icon next to a customer group and navigating to the Order Limits section. If the customer group doesn't already have an order limit set, click Overwrite order quantity limits and then the order limit values you want.
Limit type | Details | Example |
|---|---|---|
Minimum | This is the minimum order quantity the customer must have before being able to checkout | The customer must have an order quantity of at least 12 items |
Maximum | This is the maximum order quantity the customer must have before being able to checkout | The customer must have an order quantity of no more than 40 items |
Once you've set this, when you access the Quick Order on the frontend, you'll then see corresponding messaging show on the My Cart Interface.
If you'd prefer to change the default language that is shown, you can use the below language strings.
You can specify what payment methods are shown for each customer group by clicking the Edit icon next to a customer group and navigating to the Payment Methods section. You'll then see the following options:
Payment methods in Shopify
By default, when you set up SparkLayer on your Shopify store, unless you're using 'Upfront Payment', all orders created by customers will be generated as Draft orders within Shopify (learn about Shopify Draft Orders). One of the big benefits of using Draft orders is the ability to make changes before you then take payment and fulfil.
Payment method | Description |
|---|---|
Payment by invoice | The order will be submitted as a "Draft" order which can subsequently be edited. Orders can automatically be converted into "Completed" orders if required. See Settings |
Payment on Account | The order will be submitted as a "Draft" order which can subsequently be edited. Orders can automatically be converted into "Completed" orders if required. See Settings |
Upfront Payment | Customers will be taken through the Shopify checkout. |
Request for quote | The order will be submitted as a "Draft" order which can subsequently be edited. |
When the customer activates the Quick Order Interface, they'll see whichever payment methods are allowed and can then select as appropriate. You can also edit how these are named in Quick Order Interface.
Depending on which price lists you have set up in the Price Lists section, you can assign specific price lists to customer groups. Click the Edit icon next to a customer group and navigating to the Price Lists section. If the customer group doesn't already have a price list set, click Overwrite price lists and then choose the available Price List from those shown.
You can also assign multiple price lists to a customer group if you want to set up more sophisticated pricing. From the "Update Price Lists" screen, simply click "Add new" to select a price list.
Please note In terms of pricing, if a product SKU exists in multiple price lists, SparkLayer will search through all available price lists and use the first one it finds. For example:
- Product ABC-123exists in 3 price lists
- In Price List 1, it is $10
- In Price List 2, it is $8
- In Price List 3, it is $12
SparkLayer will select the first price it finds. In this case, product ABC-123 will be shown to the customer at a price of $10, using Price List 1
If activated, your customers will be able to edit and add addresses via the My Account Interface and the My Cart Interface.
You can also optionally choose to prevent billing address editing by unticking "Allow customers to add and edit billing addresses".
Please note If you've set up SparkLayer to automatically synchronise addresses from another system (e.g. an ERP), these may override updates your customers make. Please contact us if you're unsure.
If you have credit limits set up, you can optionally choose to prevent customers from being able to checkout if they exceed their credit limit.
Please note This feature requires upgrading your store to the latest version of the the Sparklayer Core Script.
If you'd like to display stock levels to your B2B customers, you can activate the Stock Display Settings and customise how this works. When a customer visits a product page on your store, they'll then see their specific stock display settings as detailed in our guide here.
To get started, click the Overwrite stock display settings button on the customer group you'd like to apply this to.
Applying this to all customers If you want to apply this to all customer groups, simply apply the setting to the Base customer group and all others will 'inherit' the settings.
Once activated, you can then configure how the stock display works:
Configuration | Details |
|---|---|
Show stock availability to customers | When enabled, customers can see the stock status of the product (and individual SKU) |
Show number of units of stock | When enabled, customers can see the availability of the product (e.g. 50 in stock) |
Max | When Show number of units of stock is enabled, this will show to the customer in green. Anything above will show as 50+ |
Low | When Show number of units of stock is enabled, this will show to the customer in amber and denotes low levels of stock |
Last | When Show number of units of stock is enabled, this will show to the customer in red and denotes the last remaining stock |
Looking to enable pre-ordering? You can enable pre-orders and back orders in our guide here
Please note The stock locations feature is only available on the SparkLayer Growth, Pro, and Enterprise plan. You can change your plan here or learn more about our how pricing works.
Stock locations allow you to specify which stock (or "inventory") locations you want specific customer groups to see stock display settings from. If your B2B store is set up with multiple stock locations (e.g. by geography), it's a great way to ensure your B2B customers are viewing stock dispaly settings from the relevant location.
For example, your store may be set up with 4 stock locations across the world. Using this feature, you can easily assign B2B customers to a specific geographic location, so that they can only see stock display from their specific region.
To begin using stock locations, click the Edit button next to a customer group and you'll see the option from within the edit view.
Default stock location Please note, if stock locations are not specifically set, SparkLayer will assume that stock will be taken across all locations setup within your store.
Please note Currently, it's only possible to select one stock location per customer group.
Please note SparkLayer's Stock Location feature is for stock display purposes only and will not affect which stock location is used to fulfill orders in your eCommerce platform.
Using stock locations requires configuration within your specific eCommerce platform and we've detailed how it works below.
To get started, you'll nee to ensure that Locations are enabled within your Shopify store. You can learn more about how locations work in this Shopify guide. Any active locations will then be automatically synchronised to SparkLayer.
There are a number of configurations that need to be reviewed when setting up your locations in the context of your B2B customers.
Fulfilment details You'll need to ensure any locations that you want to use for your B2B customers have the "Fulfill online orders from this location" checkbox ticked.
Order routing You may also want to review how Shopify prioritises your stock locations using order routing, allowing you to customise the workflow rules for your stock control.
Store setup (hybrid B2B and DTC) If you're store is set up to "share" B2B and DTC on the same store, it's important to note the following if you're using Stock locations:
- Logged in B2B customers will be able to purchase products from the stock locations you've assigned to them. For example, if a customer has the "London Warehouse" assigned to their customer group and Product A has 100 available from this warehouse, they can order a maximum of 100.
- Setting up stock locations for your B2B customers will not prevent your regular (DTC) customers from purchasing the same stock. Depending on how your Shopify store is configured, regular customers can still access the same stock and place orders. SparkLayer does support the ability to reserve stock and set minimum stock levels and you can learn more here.
New customer groups allow you to create different rules for different customers. When you create a new customer group, you'll see the following screen where you can enter a Display Name and a Handle. The Handle is a unique identifier that you can then use in your eCommerce platform (e.g. Shopify) to match with (see below for more details).
Please note:
- You need to always tag a customer with b2b even if you are assigning them to an additional customer group
- Customers cannot have more than two b2b related tags assigned to their customer record in Shopify. For example: ✅ This is correct b2b b2b-vip ❌ This is incorrect b2b b2b-vip b2b-user
For your Shopify store to recognise the customer rules you set up in SparkLayer, it uses the customer tag feature within Shopify. Once a customer in Shopify is tagged, when they sign into your Shopify store they will see their unique B2B ordering rules such as pricing and payment methods.
For the most simple set up, if you're using just the Base customer group, you can synchronise your customer rules with Shopify by simply tagging customers with b2b as shown below.
If you've set up additional customer groups, the process works as follows:
First, within SparkLayer create your customer group and give it a unique Handle, e.g. vip
Under the Shopify Tag column, make a note of tags that are shown. You'll note there is an additional tag to b2b, so in our example, the tags we want to note are b2b and b2b-vip
Find the customer record in Shopify and assign it the tags shown. So for our example below, if you wanted to assign them to the VIP group, you would tag them in Shopify with b2b and b2b-vip. If the tag doesn't already exist in Shopify, you can simply create is as a new tag which can then be assigned to other customers.
Assigning customer groups Please note, a customer can only be assigned to one B2B customer group. If you're looking to assign multiple price lists to a customer, you can do so by configuring price lists.
🚀 See our full launch check list You can see our full launch checklist guide here which covers the key steps to testing and then launching SparkLayer to your B2B customers.
Please refer to Data Sync to diagnose customer data.