Launch checklist
- Phase 1TestCheck everything works the way your customers will see it.Go to phase
- Phase 2InviteInvite a first group of customers and gather their feedback.Go to phase
- Phase 3LaunchGo live and bring the rest of your B2B customers on board.Go to phase
Phase 1: Test
Test SparkLayer the way your customers will use it, so you know everything works before anyone else sees it.
Before you start
- A price list at Pricing,Price lists (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab) (a test one is fine), assigned to a customer group at Customers,Groups (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab) (the Base customer group is fine).
- SparkLayer on your theme, added by you or our team. On Shopify, check Theme setup. On other platforms, see your platform guide.
The quickest way is Try it out. Its Test as a B2B customer step uses or creates a customer with the b2b tag. Open store as test customer then opens your store signed in as them.
You can also set up a test customer by hand. SparkLayer only loads for customers tagged b2b in Shopify.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Settings,Customer accounts (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab) and choose Customer accounts or Legacy accounts, so customers can sign in. Both work with SparkLayer.
- Go to Customers (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab) and open an existing customer, or click Add customer.
- Fill in all the fields, including the address. SparkLayer can't find a customer record that has no address.
- In the customer's Tags box, type
b2band choose the existing tag or create it. To put the customer in a group other than Base, add that group's tag as well, for exampleb2b-account. - Give the customer access:
- With Customer accounts, there's nothing to send. The customer goes to your sign-in page (for example
www.yourstore.com/account), enters their email and receives a 6-digit code. - With Legacy accounts and a new customer record, open the customer and click More actions > Send account invite. The customer receives an email with an Activate your account button, and sets a password. You can edit the account activation email (opens in a new tab). See Shopify's guide to inviting customers to create accounts (opens in a new tab).
- With Customer accounts, there's nothing to send. The customer goes to your sign-in page (for example
- Go to your store's sign-in page (for example
www.yourstore.com/account) and sign in as the customer. With Customer accounts, enter the 6-digit code sent to the customer's email.
SparkLayer loads, and you can browse your store as a B2B customer. If you can't reach the sign-in page, check customer accounts are turned on (step 1).
SparkLayer only syncs Wix contacts that have the b2b label and are site members.
- In your Wix dashboard, go to Customers & Leads > Contacts. Create a new contact or edit an existing one.
- Fill in a valid address, with every address field completed. Note the email address, as you'll need it to sign in.
- In the contact's Labels section, click Add Label and add
b2b. - Check the contact is a site member: under Member info, the Member status shows Site Member. Only site members can sign in to your store.
- If you've created other customer groups at Customers,Groups (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab), add their labels exactly as they appear in SparkLayer, for example
b2bandb2b-additional-group. Don't edit a label in Wix after you've added it. - Sign in to your store as the customer.
Every account has a Base customer group you can use for your B2B customers. Once at least one customer has a group's label, you can manage that group's rules at Customers,Groups (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab). For different rules, click Create customer group, then add the new group's label to customers in Wix (for example b2b and b2b-account).
How you create a B2B customer depends on your platform. See your platform's guide in Platforms.
To check the customer has synced to SparkLayer, go to Customers (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab) and search for their name or email. If they're listed with their customer group, they've synced.
If they're missing, check the sync banner at the top of the page. Click Show errors to see which customers didn't sync and why, such as a missing address. Fix them in your store's admin, and they sync on the next partial sync. See Monitoring data sync.
SparkLayer matches prices and its storefront widgets to products by SKU. Without SKUs, it can't show B2B pricing or its widgets. Every product you want B2B customers to see prices for must have a SKU, and each SKU must be unique (for example MUG-CAT and MUG-DOG).
- Go to Products (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab) and open a product.
- Check the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) field in the Inventory section, and on each variant.
- To add SKUs, edit products one by one, or add them in bulk with Shopify's Import feature or an app such as Matrixify (opens in a new tab).
If two products share a SKU, change one so every SKU is unique.
- Go to Catalog > Store Products > Products and edit a product.
- For a product without variants, add the SKU in the SKU field of the Inventory and shipping section.
- For a product with variants (such as colour or size), turn on Manage pricing and inventory for each product variant, then add a SKU for each variant in the Product variants section.
Check each product's SKU in your platform's product admin.
Shopify only
SparkLayer only shows B2B prices for products in both the Online Store and SparkLayer Wholesale sales channels. Products must also have the status Active. SparkLayer doesn't import draft products.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Products (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab) and open a product.
- Check its Status is Active.
- In the product's sales channel settings, check Online Store and SparkLayer Wholesale are both selected.
To make a product unavailable to B2B customers, leave it out of the SparkLayer Wholesale channel.
To check what SparkLayer has for a product, search for it at Integrations,Product sync (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab).
Sign in as your test customer and check the prices on your product pages.
No B2B prices? SparkLayer doesn't show any until you've added a price list and assigned it to the customer's group. These are steps 1 and 2 of the Setup checklist: see Work through the steps.
If the prices are there but not the ones you expect, see Prices are different from what you expect.
By default, SparkLayer uses the shipping rules in your eCommerce platform, such as Shopify. To show B2B-only shipping rules to your B2B customers, set them up at Settings,Shipping (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab). See Shipping rules for both options.
Skip this step if your platform's shipping rules suit your B2B customers.
As your test customer, go to any product page and add items. They appear in the My Cart. Check out once with each payment method you offer, then check how each order arrives in your admin.
Shopify only
The Place a test order step of Try it out opens your store as the test customer. Its test orders don't count towards your plan.
Payment methods
At the payment step, customers choose from the payment methods their customer group allows (set under Payment methods on the customer group):
| At checkout | In the customer group | For the customer | How the order arrives in Shopify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay on Account | Payment on account | Checks out without entering payment details. You can set credit limits and net terms such as Net 30: see Credit limits and net terms. | As a draft order, which stays a draft until it's paid. |
| Pay by Invoice | Pay by invoice | Checks out without entering payment details. You take payment offline, for example by bank transfer. | As a draft order, which stays a draft until it's paid. |
| Pay Online by Card | Card at checkout | Goes to your Shopify checkout and pays straight away, by card or another payment provider. Sometimes called upfront or pro-forma payment. | As a completed order, marked Paid and ready to fulfil. The customer gets Shopify's order notification. |
Quote requests from the Quoting Engine don't create a Shopify order straight away. It waits for your reply, and becomes an order once it's accepted. See Work on a quote.
To create completed orders instead of draft orders, turn on Auto-complete draft orders at Integrations,Platform,Shopify order actions (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab).
If a customer chooses Pay Online by Card but doesn't finish paying, the order still appears in your Shopify draft orders for review.
Payment methods at the Shopify checkout
Customers who choose Pay Online by Card go to the Shopify checkout. There, they see all the payment methods you've set up in Shopify, such as card or PayPal. To limit which ones B2B customers see, try an app such as Payfy Conditional Payments (opens in a new tab).
Find your B2B orders in Shopify
Every order placed through SparkLayer is tagged b2b. To see only B2B orders, open B2B-tagged orders in Shopify (opens in a new tab), or add orders?tag=b2b to your Shopify admin URL.
Extra details SparkLayer adds to orders (for automations and developers)
| Attribute | What it contains |
|---|---|
tag | b2b is added to every order placed through SparkLayer. Use it to filter and segment orders, or in automations. |
note | sparkCartId, added as an order note. Mainly for internal use and debugging. |
note | sparkPaymentType, added as an order note: the payment option used (upfrontPayment, paymentOnAccount, paymentByInvoice or quote). |
Payment methods
Orders appear in Sales > Orders in your Wix dashboard:
| At checkout | In the customer group | For the customer | How the order arrives in Wix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay on Account | Payment on account | Checks out without entering payment details. | Payment status UNPAID. Mark it as paid once you've received payment. |
| Pay by Invoice | Pay by invoice | Checks out without entering payment details. | Payment status UNPAID. Mark it as paid once you've received payment. |
| Pay Online by Card | Card at checkout | Goes to your Wix checkout and pays straight away, by card or another payment provider. | Payment status PAID, ready to fulfil. |
Customers who choose Pay Online by Card see all the payment methods you've set up in Wix, such as card or PayPal.
See Payment methods for how each method works, and your platform guide for how orders arrive in your admin.
Sign in as your test customer and check SparkLayer's widgets match your store's look, such as its fonts, colours and buttons. If our team installed SparkLayer for you, this styling is already done. If not, we recommend adding some basic styling with CSS. That's usually a job for your developer or our team. See Customising the design.
If you invite your B2B customers yourself, you might not need a registration form. See Inviting.
Shopify only
On Shopify, there are two recommended ways to let customers sign in and apply for a trade account:
- SparkLayer Forms (recommended). Build B2B registration forms at Forms (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab) with the no-code form builder. You don't need any third-party apps. Start from the ready-made Customer Registration Form template, which includes approval workflows, automatic customer tagging and email notifications. Forms are in the SparkLayer Dashboard at app.sparklayer.io, not in the Shopify app. See Forms.
- Our B2B login and register page. A ready-made page template that includes a registration form. You can see it on our demo store. See Shopify B2B registration and login.
On other platforms, see your platform guide.
You can add features such as live stock levels, pack sizes, B2B-only products and retail prices (RRP). Try them on our demo stores, or see Storefront features.
Ready for the next phase: A test order has arrived in your admin the way you expect, and your store looks right to a B2B customer. If something doesn't work as expected, see Troubleshooting.
Phase 2: Invite
Once you're happy everything works, invite a first group of customers. Test the whole journey end to end before you do. Starting with a small group lets you gather feedback before you invite everyone.
To invite customers you've already set up in Shopify (see Add B2B customers on Shopify for adding them one at a time, in bulk or from scratch):
- Check customer accounts are turned on in Settings,Customer accounts (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab) (Customer accounts or Legacy accounts).
- For each customer, follow steps 2 to 5 of Create a test B2B customer and sign in: complete their record including the address, tag them
b2b, and send an account invite if you use Legacy accounts. - Tell the customer to go to your sign-in page (for example
www.yourstore.com/account). With Customer accounts, they enter their email and then a 6-digit code. With Legacy accounts, they sign in with their email address and password.
Once signed in, they see SparkLayer load and can browse your store as a B2B customer. If they can't reach the sign-in page, check customer accounts are turned on.
- Set up each customer as in Create a test B2B customer and sign in. Any contact with the
b2blabel syncs to SparkLayer automatically. To sign in, they must also be a site member. - Let your customers know they can sign in and start ordering:
- To message one customer, go to Customers & Leads > Contacts, open the contact and use the Inbox tab to send a direct message.
- To email several customers, go to Customers & Leads > Contacts, search or filter, select the customers and click Send Email Campaign.
You can start from our example welcome email.
See your platform guide for how to set up and invite customers.
Shopify only
On Shopify, apps can create and invite many customers at once:
- Matrixify (opens in a new tab) has tools to create customer records and invite them quickly.
- BAIS Bulk Account Invite (opens in a new tab) invites customers in bulk without sending them emails.
On other platforms, see your platform guide.
Shopify only
On Shopify, customers can apply for access on your store, and you review each application before they can place B2B orders. See the options in Shopify B2B registration and login.
On other platforms, see your platform guide.
Ready for the next phase: Your first customers are signing in and ordering without problems.
Phase 3: Launch
When your first customers are ordering without problems, launch your B2B store fully and invite the rest of your customers.
Shopify only
A preview mode banner on your store means the final launch step in the SparkLayer Wholesale app isn't done yet.
- In your Shopify admin, under Sales channels, click SparkLayer Wholesale to open the app's Home.
- Click Start taking B2B orders.
If you don't see Start taking B2B orders, the app thinks a setup step isn't complete, such as Add SparkLayer to your theme. Check every step at Home,Setup (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab) is ticked off. See Work through Setup.
More detail
If every step looks done and the button still isn't there, contact our support team. We may need collaborator access to your Shopify store, with the Apps and channels permission, to check the app's setup.
Explaining the benefits encourages customers to use your new B2B store. Our ready-made onboarding landing page does this for you. Headed "Welcome to our B2B store", it introduces the B2B cart and My Account area. It also lists what customers can do, such as view their order history, track orders, download invoices and update their addresses.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store,Pages (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab) and click Add page.
- In the Content editor, click Show HTML and paste in the page code from this gist (opens in a new tab).
- Change the Title and content as you like.
- Under Search engine listing, set the URL handle to
b2b-onboarding(our recommendation). - Under Visibility, choose Visible, then save. Click View to see the page.
- Link to the page from your store's navigation, such as the header or footer. If you use our B2B registration and login page, you can link to it from there too.
See your platform's own help for how to create a custom landing page.
You can also create a landing page that B2B customers see as soon as they sign in. Use it to highlight products, share important information or act as the hub of your B2B store. See Shopify B2B landing page.
Use our example email to invite your customers, as a newsletter or a personal email from your B2B sales team. Replace the text in square brackets with your own details.
The example is written for Shopify's Legacy customer accounts, where customers activate their account and set a password. If you use new customer accounts, rewrite the Account Activation part. Tell customers to go to your store's sign-in page and enter their email, then the one-time code they're sent.
Dear [Valued Partner],
We're excited to announce our new online B2B store and we're excited to have you join!
To ensure a smooth start, we've put together a guide to help you activate your account and start placing orders.
Account Activation: The First Step to Joining
- Look Out for Our Email: Keep an eye on your inbox for an email from [My Store] with the subject "Activate Your [My Store] Partner Account."
- Activate with a Click: Within that email, you'll find the 'Activate My Account' button. Click it to move forward with your activation.
- Secure Your Login: Follow the link to create your own secure password. After this, your account is all set and ready to go.
B2B Portal: Streamlining Your Business
- Fast Track with Quick Order: Speed is essential in business. That's why our 'Quick Order' feature offers a simple layout to place your orders quickly and efficiently - perfect for when you know exactly what you need.
- Explore Products in Detail: Curious about a product? Visit the 'Products' page for an in-depth look at the benefits, and quickly add to your order
Effortless Account Management
- Your Orders, Simplified: By clicking on the 'Account' or 'Cart' icons, you can view your Order Summary, adjust account settings, and monitor your orders in real-time.
- Get a Shipping Quote: Ready to finalise your order? Get live shipping costs right before you place your order
- Approval Before Payment: If you need administrative approval, select 'Pay on Account' to submit your order and we'll take care of the rest.
Account Extras:
Within 'My Account,' you'll also discover tools to:
- Review your order history.
- Save personalised shopping lists for quick reordering.
- Update your shipping addresses whenever necessary.
We're Here for You
Should you have any questions or need assistance, our dedicated team is ready to help at [Your Support Email].
Thank you for choosing [My Store] as your partner, we're excited to have you on board!
Warm regards,
[Your Name] [Your Position] [My Store] [Contact Information]
A few changes to your website help B2B customers find your B2B store:
- Navigation: add a clear link in your header or footer. On Shopify, edit your menus in Online Store,Navigation (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab).
- Landing page: set up a page to attract new and existing customers, with graphics, the benefits of your B2B store, testimonials and featured products.
- Emails: update your email marketing to promote your new B2B store.
You're live. All your B2B customers are invited and ordering. Here's where to go next.
After you launch
See the B2B orders coming in through SparkLayer, and your sales over time
Add groups for different prices, payment methods and order limits
Pack sizes, stock display and the other options for your B2B store
Contact our team if anything isn't working as expected
Additional resources
We also publish guides to help you grow your B2B and wholesale business.
Plan and deliver a strategy that gets your B2B customers ordering online.
The wholesale tactics brands are using to stay ahead.
Ways to make B2B ordering simpler for your team and your trade customers.
A free video series for brands, wholesalers and distributors on the B2B customer journey, from winning customers to keeping them.
A free toolkit for growing your B2B eCommerce business, with expert videos, strategy guides, case studies and 1:1 consultations.
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