Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms used in the SparkLayer docs. Each entry links to the guide that covers it.

Business to business: selling to other businesses, such as retailers, trade customers and distributors, usually at trade (wholesale) prices. SparkLayer adds B2B ordering to your existing store. See How SparkLayer works.

DTC

Direct to consumer: selling to the public at your normal retail prices, also called B2C (business to consumer) or retail. A hybrid store serves DTC and B2B customers from the same store.

SKU

Stock keeping unit: the product code on each product and variant in your eCommerce platform. SparkLayer matches B2B prices to products by SKU, so every product needs one, and each must be unique. See Check your products have unique SKUs.

Tag

A keyword on a customer record in your eCommerce platform's admin (on Wix, a label does the same job). SparkLayer reads tags to know who is a B2B customer (b2b) and which customer group they're in (such as b2b-vip). See Assign customers to a customer group.

CSV

A spreadsheet file saved as comma-separated values, which most spreadsheet apps can export. You can upload exact B2B prices to a price list as a CSV file. See Price lists.

Setup checklist

The Setup screen: 5 steps from your first price list to SparkLayer showing on your store's theme, each ticking itself off when it's done. It's Setup in the Shopify app's menu, or Open Setup on Home in the SparkLayer Dashboard. See Get started.

Try it out

A screen where you place a test order on your own store as a B2B buyer would, without inviting anyone. Test orders don't count towards your plan. See Try it out.

Customers and accounts

B2B customer

A customer who sees your B2B pricing and ordering rules when they sign in to your store. On Shopify, that's a customer tagged b2b. See Customers.

Customer group

A set of ordering rules shared by a group of B2B customers, such as their price lists, payment methods and order limits. On Shopify, an extra tag such as b2b-vip puts a customer in a group. See Customer groups.

Base customer group

The customer group every SparkLayer account starts with. B2B customers who don't have another group's tag are in it. See Customer groups.

Company user

A colleague a B2B customer invites to share their account, so the team sees the same orders, shopping lists and addresses. Sometimes called a sub-account. See Company users.

Main user

The company user who sends the invitations, controls who can access the company account and approves orders from limited users. See Company users.

Limited user

A company user who can build orders but not complete them. Their orders go to the main user for approval. See Limited access.

Sub-account

Another name for a company user. In the Ignite docs, it also means the customer accounts created for company users on the eCommerce platform.

Sales reps

Sales agent

A member of your team who signs in to place orders and manage accounts on behalf of B2B customers, also called a sales rep. Their role controls what they can do. See Sales rep setup.

Sales agent role

A set of permissions that controls what a sales agent can see and do in SparkLayer. See Roles.

Pricing

Price list

A set of B2B prices for your products, keyed by SKU. You assign price lists to customer groups or individual customers. See Price lists.

Automatic price list

A price list calculated from your store's own prices, for example 50% off retail. See Price lists.

Manual price list

A price list where you set exact prices, usually by uploading a CSV file. See Price lists.

Price editor

A tool in the SparkLayer Dashboard for one-off price changes to individual products. See Price editor.

Quantity pricing

Lower unit prices when a customer buys more, for example 1 at $10 or 10 at $8. Also called tiered pricing or price breaks. See Quantity pricing.

Unit of measure pricing

Prices set for different units, such as boxes, cartons or pallets. See Unit of measure pricing.

Pack size

The multiple a product must be ordered in, for example units of 6. See Pack sizing.

RRP

Recommended retail price, also known as MSRP. You can show it alongside a customer's B2B price. See How prices are shown.

B2B discounts

SparkLayer's own discounts and promotions, such as money off an order, volume tiers and coupon codes, which work on top of price lists. They need the Growth plan. You may also see them called the Discount Engine. See Discounts.

Ordering and payment

Draft order

An order saved for review rather than completed straight away. On Shopify, orders paid with offline methods, such as Pay on Account and Pay by Invoice, arrive as draft orders by default. See Shopify payment methods.

Upfront payment

Paying online by card, through your eCommerce platform's checkout, when the order is placed. See Payment methods.

Pay by Invoice

An offline payment method where the customer places the order and pays later against an invoice, often on net terms. See Payment methods.

Pay on Account

An offline payment method that charges the order to the customer's account balance, within their credit limit. See Credit, net terms & invoicing.

Net terms

The number of days a customer has to pay for an order they didn't pay for at checkout, because they used Pay on Account or Pay by Invoice. For example, Net 30 gives them 30 days. Net terms are on every plan. See Let trusted customers pay later on Net 30.

Credit limit

The maximum balance a customer can have outstanding on their account. It applies to Pay on Account orders, and is on every plan. See Credit, net terms & invoicing.

Awaiting merchant

An order the customer has placed in SparkLayer that isn't a completed order in your store yet. Usually it's a Pay on Account or Pay by Invoice order that's still a draft order, waiting for you to complete it (or for Auto-complete draft orders to do it); it can also be an order whose sync to your platform hasn't finished. It has a purchase ID, such as P#1264, and shows as Awaiting merchant in Orders (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab) and in the customer's My Account. Once the order is completed in your store, it becomes a normal order. See Orders.

Quote

A customer's request (or a sales agent's offer) for a price on a set of products, which can be negotiated and then converted into an order. See Set up quotes.

Shopping list

A named list of products a customer saves so they can reorder quickly. See Shopping lists.

Intelligent Cart

AI features in the cart, on the Starter plan and above: Upload a file builds a cart from a PDF, photo or forwarded email, and camera barcode scanning adds products by their barcode. Importing a CSV or spreadsheet of SKUs works on every plan. See Intelligent Cart (AI).

Timeline

The record of messages, internal notes and events on an order or quote. See Timeline & communications.

Setup and storefront

SparkLayer Dashboard

The admin area at app.sparklayer.io (opens in a new tab), with a grouped sidebar, where you manage pricing, customers, settings and integrations. On Shopify, the same screens are also in the SparkLayer Wholesale app. See Find your way around SparkLayer.

SparkLayer Wholesale

SparkLayer's app inside Shopify admin, under Sales channels. It has the same screens as the SparkLayer Dashboard, except Forms and Data tables, with one menu item per area and its pages as tabs. See Two versions of the same app.

Explore features

A screen that lists what SparkLayer can do, with the plan each feature needs and a way to set it up or preview it. See Explore features.

Theme setup

The Shopify screen that shows which SparkLayer blocks are on your theme, and opens the theme editor at any of them. See Theme setup.

Platform connection

The link between SparkLayer and your eCommerce platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, WooCommerce or Magento). See Managing integrations, or Platform connection if you're building an Ignite integration.

API key

A pair of credentials (a client ID and a secret) that lets another system, such as your ERP, read and write your SparkLayer data. You create it at Settings,API (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab) (Pro plan) for your developer or integration partner, and treat it like a password. See API.

iPaaS

Integration platform as a service: a tool such as Patchworks or Zynk that connects systems which don't talk to each other directly, such as an ERP and SparkLayer. See Integrations.

Source of truth

The one system whose data wins when 2 systems disagree. If your ERP is the source of truth for prices, you change prices there and the change flows into SparkLayer, not the other way round. See Integrations.

Site ID

The unique identifier for your SparkLayer site, used when setting up frontend interfaces, forms and the API. See Your account and team.

Site environment

A store connected to your SparkLayer account. With test mode, one account has a live (production) environment and a test (staging) environment. See Test mode.

Test mode

A way to switch the SparkLayer Dashboard between your live store and a test store, so you can try changes without affecting live customers. See Test mode.

Product and customer sync

The process that copies product and customer data from your eCommerce platform into SparkLayer (also known as data sync). Product sync has its own screen, Integrations,Product sync (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab), and customer sync problems show as a banner on Customers (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab). See Product and customer sync.

Metafields

Extra fields stored against products or customers in your eCommerce platform, which SparkLayer reads for settings such as pack sizes. See Metafields.

Core Script

The SparkLayer code in your store's theme that loads SparkLayer on your storefront, added when SparkLayer is installed. You don't normally need to touch it, but your developer or agency may change its settings for advanced changes, such as custom checkout fields or changing text in code. See Add a Core Script setting.