Find and manage customers
How it works
SparkLayer doesn't hold its own customer accounts. It syncs your B2B customers from your eCommerce platform (on Shopify, customers tagged b2b) and shows them here. Use it to check what each one sees when they sign in.
Your platform
Customer sync
Customers
To change most details, edit the customer in your platform, and the change syncs to SparkLayer. The exception is the customer's role, which you set here.
Find a customer
Customers
Walk through a working copy of Customers, step by step. Nothing you do here changes your store.
- Go to Customers (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab).
- Search by name, email or company.
- Click the customer's name, or View, to open them.
The Customers screen
The Customers screen lists every B2B customer who can order on your store. Go to Customers (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab).
| Part | What it shows / does |
|---|---|
| Open in Shopify | Opens Customers in your Shopify admin. |
| Sync banner | Shown when the last customer sync had problems. See Fix customer sync errors. |
| Search | Type a name, email or company (Search by name, email or company). |
| Name | The customer's name, with their company underneath. Click it to open the customer. |
| The email address they sign in with. | |
| Access | Standard or Limited (see below). |
| Group | Their customer group. Sales agents show Base. |
| View | Opens the customer. |
If nothing matches your search, the list says No customers found ("Try a different name or email.").
Access
| Access | What it means |
|---|---|
| Standard | They can sign in and place orders. |
| Limited | They can build orders, but their orders need approving before they're placed, as a limited company user. |
A customer's page
A customer's page shows everything SparkLayer holds for them. To open it, click the customer's name or View. To open the same customer in your Shopify admin, click View in Shopify. An empty value shows None set.
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Basic information | Email, Company, Customer group, Price list override (a price list for this customer only, see Prices for one customer) and Sales agents who can see them. |
| Financial details | Discount percentage and Accounting ID (see advanced account settings). Under Payment on account: Balance, Credit limit, Net terms and Currency. See Credit limits and net terms. |
| Role | Whether the person is a customer, a sales agent or a sales administrator. See Make a customer a sales agent. |
| Company users | "Everyone at this customer's company, and their roles." With none, it suggests adding company users, with Learn more. See Company users. |
| Addresses | Default shipping address, Default billing address and Other addresses. |
| Identifiers | Platform ID (the customer's ID in your platform), Legacy ID and Internal ID (SparkLayer's own ID). |
Sales agents who can see them lists the agents allowed to see this customer's customer group, plus any agents who can see every customer. See Sales agents.
Change a customer's details
Customer information comes from your connected platform. To change fields such as the email address, name or company, edit the customer in your platform (on Shopify, click View in Shopify) and the change syncs to SparkLayer.
Shopify only
Fields such as the accounting ID and default addresses can also be set with metafields on Shopify: see advanced account settings.
Make a customer a sales agent
A sales agent is a customer with a sales agent role. To give someone sales agent access:
- Open the customer and go to Role ("Assign a role to manage permissions for this person.").
- Choose a role.
- Click Save in the bar at the top. You'll see "Role saved".
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Customer | "Can log in and place orders." |
| Sales agent | "Can place orders and manage addresses, shopping lists, and company access on behalf of customers." |
| Sales administrator | "All sales agent permissions, plus the ability to edit order prices and create new customers." |
| Your own roles | Any custom role you've created, shown as "Custom sales rep role." |
To remove sales agent access, choose Customer and save.
Sales agents need the Starter plan or above. Below Starter, choosing an agent role shows what sales agents do and how to upgrade.
If you've used all the sales agents on your plan, you'll see "You've used all" and your plan's number of agents. Change another agent's role to Customer, or upgrade. See Sales agent ordering and Your plan.
Remove a customer from B2B
Once a customer has synced to SparkLayer, removing the b2b tag (or label) in your platform doesn't remove them from SparkLayer. It doesn't take them out of their customer group either. They stay at Customers (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab) with the same group.
To remove customers you no longer want in SparkLayer, contact our support team with their email addresses. We can remove them one at a time or in bulk.
To move a customer to another group instead, change their group tag: see Assign customers to a customer group.
Fix customer sync errors
SparkLayer syncs your customers in full now and then, and syncs changes in between (a partial sync). When a sync finds records it can't use, a warning banner appears at the top of Customers. For example:
Customers sync completed with 3 errors We synced your customers to SparkLayer, but some records need fixing.
The banner also gives the times of the last full and partial syncs. Home shows the same problem in your briefing ("customers didn't sync from Shopify"), with Show errors.
To fix them:
- Click Show errors. Customer sync errors lists each customer's name, email and the problem.
- Click Open customers in Shopify and fix each record there.
The fixed customers sync on the next partial sync. You don't need to do anything else.
| Example problem | How to fix it |
|---|---|
| Missing a default shipping address | Add an address to the customer and make it the default. |
Tagged b2b-trade but no first or last name | Add the customer's first and last name. |
| Tax exemption ID is not valid for DE | Correct the tax exemption ID for the customer's country. |
The banner is a warning, not an error: the sync worked for everyone else. Close it with × and it stays hidden until the next sync.
FAQs
Only B2B customers are synced. Check the customer is marked as B2B in your platform (on Shopify, tagged b2b) and has an email address and a default address. If the sync banner is showing, click Show errors to see whether they're listed.
No. Change them in your eCommerce platform and they sync across to SparkLayer.
Change their tags (or labels) in your platform. See Assign customers to a customer group.
That's expected. Removing the tag doesn't remove a customer who has already synced, or change their customer group. Ask our team to remove them: see Remove a customer from B2B.
Customer sync now lives on this screen: the banner shows the last full and partial sync and any errors, and Show errors lists the records to fix. To check one customer, search for them here and open their page.
Last updated