Installing SparkLayer on BigCommerce

introduction sparklayer enables b2b functionality on your existing bigcommerce store, allowing your b2b customers to login, place orders, manage their account, and much more to familiarise yourself with sparklayer, we also recommend reviewing the following guides how sparklayer works docid 2g8hwcxnn7ofy4o199y1 the fundamentals of what sparklayer does frontend docid\ ogkfvqx13dhw2582d57kj the special "interfaces" sparklayer enables features docid\ sszdkxunmleidooithqcu the available features and functions requirements before installing sparklayer on your bigcommerce store, please ensure the following 275 false true left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type left false unhandled content type want to see bigcommerce and sparklayer in action? try out our bigcommerce docid 6zlph9x8 qeuitchs2obe the onboarding process when you create an account on sparklayer, you'll get access to the sparklayer dashboard the dashboard has a customised onboarding process that gently guides you through all the necessary steps before you're ready to start inviting your b2b customers and taking orders on your website 🔗 connecting your bigcommerce store this enables sparklayer to connect to your bigcommerce store and begin synchronising the information it requires ➡️ view in dashboard 📓 setting up your b2b price lists you'll then set up the b2b price lists that you want your customers to see when they login these can be automated or you can manually upload specific pricing ➡️ view in dashboard 👪 setting up your b2b customer groups you'll then set the ordering rules for your customers such as minimum order values, available payment methods and price lists they are assigned to ➡️ view in dashboard 🛠️ installing the frontend widgets you'll need to install special code snippets ("widgets") into your bigcommerce theme in order to show the special sparklayer b2b interfaces ➡️ view in dashboard ✅ testing & launching you'll then need to run through some final checks (such as placing a test order) once you're happy, you can then launch sparklayer and start taking orders! ➡️ view in dashboard let's now dive into each of them! 🔗 connecting your bigcommerce store once you've installed the sparklayer bigcommerce app this step of the onboarding process happens automatically once sparklayer is connected to your bigcommerce store, it will automatically synchronise product and customer data and then allow you to upload price lists and proceed to install the frontend widgets installing for the first time? when installing on bigcommerce for the first time, the process works as follows you'll need to install the sparklayer app (much like you would any other app) you can do this within your bigcommerce admin by going to apps and clicking marketplace and then searching for sparklayer you'll then be asked to create an account on sparklayer , or sign in if you already have one finally, you need to confirm acceptance of our billing plan within bigcommerce to begin your free trial once the above is complete, you can then return back to the sparklayer dashboard to continue with the onboarding process you can also access the sparklayer app within your bigcommerce store by going to the apps and clicking my apps within your bigcommerce admin and you'll find a summary of your onboarding process 📓 setting up your b2b price lists within the price lists area of the sparklayer dashboard, you can create and manage your b2b pricing rules sparklayer allows you to set the following pricing types 180 false true false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type please note the following on price lists sparklayer will only use the price lists set up directly within the sparklayer dashboard and will not synchronise any price lists you may already have set up in bigcommerce ready to set your pricing? to learn more about pricing, please see our price lists docid\ s8xcbzgxqpgdeigwtxset 👪 setting up your b2b customer groups customer groups let you configure specific rules for your customers, from defining their minimum order values and which price lists they see, through to what payment methods they're allowed to use when checking out much like with price lists, you can fully manage this via the sparklayer dashboard sparklayer will automatically synchronise customer groups from your bigcommerce store rather than you having to manually set these up in the sparklayer dashboard to get started, please following the below steps within bigcommerce, go to customers and click customer groups you can either create a new customer group, or edit an existing one to synchronise to sparklayer, the customer group name must start with b2b in our example below, we've set up b2b default for any customer groups you want to synchronise, please ensure b2b is added in the group name please note the following on customer groups once you've set up your customer groups in bigcommerce, these must be assigned to at least one customer record before sparklayer will synchronise and show them in the customer groups area sparklayer will only synchronise customer groups that start with b2b in the customer group name once the customer groups have been set up in bigcommerce (i e those starting with b2b ), and you've assigned the customer group to at least one customer, you'll then see these appear within the sparklayer dashboard, within the customer area when the customer groups are imported into sparklayer, they will always use this format true falsefalse unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type ready to configure your customer groups? to learn more about customer groups, please see our customer groups docid 5 lwmnohhjbjjppg9e6vh 🛠️ installing the frontend widgets sparklayer comes with ready made b2b optimised "widgets" that we collectively call the sparklayer frontend docid\ ogkfvqx13dhw2582d57kj the widgets simply overlay sections of your existing bigcommerce store and enable our powerful b2b features we offer two ways to get started with sparklayer on your bigcommerce theme installing our frontend widgets yourself if you're experienced in working with bigcommerce and the stencil templating language , you should find our onboarding process a breeze (see below) request us to install for you our expert team can help set up the special sparklayer frontend widgets on your bigcommerce store and some example b2b pricing once we're done, we can then arrange an onboarding call to walk you through it support docid\ nnuw1g9z7eaj4m78vk7t9 installing sparklayer yourself backing up your bigcommerce theme if you'd prefer not to make these changes on your live bigcommerce theme, you can create a "duplicate" and make the changes there before publishing to make a duplicate, go to channels and click themes from within your bigcommerce admin if you’re looking to install yourself, there are five steps to follow install the sparklayer core script within /templates/layout/base html you'll need to add the sparklayer core script that activates the sparklayer functionality 🛠️ view instructions to get started, head over to the sparklayer dashboard and you'll see your customised sparklayer core script within the frontend configurations the script simply needs to be included within the main header of your website's source code within the \<head> \</head> tags in your /templates/base html file if you are making edits to your website via the bigcommerce admin, you can access the template files via this url yourstore mybigcommerce com/manage/channel/1/my themes install the product detail interface you'll need to update your storefront's product detail page with the sparklayer product purchasing interface when a customer logs in and sparklayer recognises them as being a b2b customer, this will load a special interface with their specific prices and a way to purchase 🛠️ view instructions \<spark pdp parent id="{{id}}">\</spark pdp> to get started, add the code snippet above to your product detail pages depending on which bigcommerce theme you are using, this is likely to be a file within the /templates/pages/ directory, e g /templates/pages/product html if your store is setup to use components, try looking in /templates/components/products/product view\ html once this is added, the interface will display for all logged in b2b customers and they can begin placing orders based on the theme you're using, the variable id may need to be adjusted to the appropriate setting, e g product id if you are making edits to your website via the bigcommerce admin, you can access the template files via this url yourstore mybigcommerce com/manage/channel/1/my themes important! if you're using sparklayer on your existing website, you will need to hide elements that you don't want your b2b customers to see to do this, you can hide elements by adding data spark="b2c only" to any element in the code you will need to do this for any code that renders a price, quantity selection, product options, buy now buttons, and anything else you want to hide from your b2b customers please see our frontend integration guide docid\ qwxsym9x5 pviogutekcp for more details install the product card interface you'll need to update your product collection pages to show the product card interface this allows your customers to see their unique pricing and add items to their order from anywhere on your website 🛠️ view instructions \<spark product card parent id="{{id}}">\</spark product card> to get started, add the code snippet above to the file that renders products on your collection pages depending on which bigcommerce theme you are using, this is likely to be a file within the /templates/components/ directory, e g /templates/components/products/card html once this is added, the interface will display for all logged in b2b customers and they can begin placing orders based on the theme you're using, the variable id may need to be adjusted to the appropriate setting, e g product id if you are making edits to your website via the bigcommerce admin, you can access the template files via this url yourstore mybigcommerce com/manage/channel/1/my themes important! if you're using sparklayer on your existing website, you will need to hide elements that you don't want your b2b customers to see to do this, you can hide elements by adding data spark="b2c only" to any element in the code you will need to do this for any code that renders a price, quantity selection, product options, buy now buttons, and anything else you want to hide from your b2b customers please see our frontend integration guide docid\ qwxsym9x5 pviogutekcp for more details add the css customisations within /templates/base html or in a standalone css file, you can customise the look and feel of sparklayer by editing special css controls that overwrite the sparklayer defaults for example, you can change button colours, font sizes, spacing, even typefaces 🛠️ view instructions the customisations work by adding a special snippet of css to the source code of your website to get, you can add the sample css code available in the sparklayer dashboard once added, these then overwrite the "default" styling for sparklayer to match your website's look and feel frontend integration guide docid\ qwxsym9x5 pviogutekcp if you are making edits to your website via the bigcommerce admin, you can access the template files via this url yourstore mybigcommerce com/manage/channel/1/my themes enable the checkout script when a customer places an order via the bigcommerce checkout, sparklayer needs to know when the order is completed by adding a special checkout script, this then resets contents of the customer's order and allows them to place additional orders if they wish 🛠️ view instructions to get started, head over to the sparklayer dashboard and you'll see your customised sparklayer checkout script within the frontend configurations within your checkout order confirmation page (typically /pages/order confirmation html ) simply add this code at the very end of the file finished adding the code widgets? please review our frontend integration guide docid\ qwxsym9x5 pviogutekcp you can also explore all the configurations and customisations we have available that you may want to activate on your shopify store! configurations docid\ sbeaoacq a7ffbtatx8bd ✅ testing & launching the final step is to run some tests and checks to ensure sparklayer is fully configured within the sparklayer dashboard, you'll see a number of launch checks to perform, from logging in as a b2b customer, through to placing an order we recommend following the below steps set up a customer record within your bigcommerce admin, you'll need to ensure you have an example customer record set up (either a new one or an existing) most importantly, a customer must be associated with a customer group that starts with b2b any customer groups that start with b2b will automatically synchronise with sparklayer place a test order we recommend placing test orders using the my cart interface docid\ efevur a3ycjxuhvrr7t you've selected to set up please note the following true false 207false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type false unhandled content type invite your customers please refer to customer groups docid 5 lwmnohhjbjjppg9e6vh on our recommended way to do this troubleshooting to troubleshoot the most common issues (such as issues with pricing), please see troubleshooting docid\ blcekkx3i30nkucglsfw7 you can also support docid\ nnuw1g9z7eaj4m78vk7t9 and we'll be happy to assist frequently asked questions plans and pricing which sparklayer plans do you offer for bigcommerce? all sparklayer plans are compatible with bigcommerce, from "starter" right through to "enterprise" learn more about our plans and pricing how does billing work? when you sign up to sparklayer, our team will contact you to discuss the most appropriate plan for your needs billing is managed via a monthly billing cycle with the option to pay annually how do i select and change plan (upgrade or downgrade) you can sign up to sparklayer on bigcommerce without initially selecting a plan once you've installed sparklayer, our team will contact you to discuss the next steps once you've activated a plan, we are happy to work with you to upgrade or downgrade based on your changing requirements bigcommerce setup where do i find the sparklayer bigcommerce app? you can find the official sparklayer for bigcommerce app in the bigcommerce app store what bigcommerce plan do i need to be on to use sparklayer? sparklayer works on all versions of bigcommerce, from bigcommerce essentials right through to bigcommerce enterprise all you need is an active bigcommerce store and you're good to go can i use sparklayer with my development website? yes! if you're setting up sparklayer on a development store (e g a test account), we can enable a special developer mode that lets you use sparklayer until you're ready to activate a billing plan please support docid\ nnuw1g9z7eaj4m78vk7t9 for more details can i have dtc and b2b on the same bigcommerce website? yes, it's possible to install sparklayer onto your existing bigcommerce dtc store (i e retail), meaning you can run both dtc and b2b on the same store we call this a 'hybrid setup'; when your b2b customers sign in, they simply see the special sparklayer frontend docid\ ogkfvqx13dhw2582d57kj interface that allow them to see their prices and place orders if you want to see this in action, you can try our b2b/b2c demo store here https //b2b demo store usd myshopify com/ theme setup can you help me install sparklayer on my bigcommerce website? yes! within the sparklayer dashboard , you'll see an option to request our team to install sparklayer for you typically we can do this within 1 2 working days and you're then good to go we then offer an onboarding session to walk you through how everything works does sparklayer work on any bigcommerce theme? yes! sparklayer is compatible with all bigcommerce themes, even fully customised if you need help in the setup, our team can add all the code snippets for you how does sparklayer affect my current bigcommerce theme? the sparklayer b2b widgets, including b2b pricing, cart and my account area, are only loaded once a customer who has been added to a b2b customer group successfully signs in to your store for all other users, your store will remain completely unaffected this allows you to have full control over which customers are able to see your b2b pricing and place b2b orders what if i'm already using a wholesale b2b app on my website? if you already have a b2b / wholesale app installed on your store, sparklayer can work alongside this it's a great way to test out sparklayer and, once you're happy, you can simply uninstall any previous b2b apps you were using if your previous b2b app has made code changes to your bigcommerce store, you may want to ask the app developer to remove these although this is optional payments can i use my existing payment methods on the checkout? in terms of payment methods supported by sparklayer and bigcommerce if your customers choose "pay online by card" during the sparklayer checkout process, they will simply be taken to the bigcommerce checkout from there, any payment methods you have set up in bigcommerce (e g paypal, affirm pay) will show up, allowing the customers to pay by this method we've attached a screenshot to illustrate this in short, if bigcommerce support this payment method, your b2b customers could select it during the checkout providing they choose "pay online by card" products how do i hide products or set up b2b only products? bigcommerce does have the ability to hide collections from customer groups which could be one way to achieve this there are a few things we recommend to make the experience better you could create a b2b only collection and redirect customers to this once they login if you wanted to show special b2b only products, you would need to create these as separate products within bigcommerce (i e with unique skus, etc) with sparklayer pricing, if you don't upload a price against a sku, the b2b customer won't be able to purchase it so this is a way to prevent them from adding items you don't want them to purchase it is possible to adapt the bigcommerce themes to hide/show products using custom coding can i use my bigcommerce prices for my b2b pricing? yes! sparklayer allows you to automatically synchronise your bigcommerce prices (e g your main bigcommerce retail price), making it really easy to set up b2b pricing for your customers for example, you could set your b2b prices to be 20% off your bigcommerce prices and we can even make provisions for your tax set up in bigcommerce (e g exclusive or inclusive of tax) how do i set up pre order and backorder products? in terms of pre ordering, sparklayer has full support for different stock status messages and it's possible to set up products as pre order/back order easily it does rely on some configuration within bigcommerce, but it's relatively easy to do! we've stock display docid\ gj ao gq6oa jx0d27hys on how it works and you can even set up "due in" dates to give your customers visibility do i need to use product skus? in terms of product skus, sparklayer relies on these being added to your products within bigcommerce so that we can display the correct b2b pricing when your customers log in without a unique sku, there's no way for sparklayer to do this if you don't already have skus in bigcommerce, it's relatively quick to do you can either edit individual products and add them manually, or you can use bigcommerce's 'import' or 'edit products' feature to do this in bulk how do i restrict b2b customers from dtc inventory (and vice versa) if you're installing sparklayer on a single website and you are looking to run both dtc and b2b at the same time, it will be necessary to use the same stock pool behind the scenes from an inventory point of view, this essentially means that both dtc and b2b customers will be ordering from the same stock source which can pose challenges sparklayer has a way to "reserve" stock for your dtc customers, essentially blocking b2b customers from ordering too much inventory for a specific product stock display docid\ gj ao gq6oa jx0d27hys important it is not possible to block dtc customers from ordering from your inventory and there is no mechanism in bigcommerce to do this if you are wanting to implement this, you will need to consider creating b2b specific products on your store creating a separate store just for your b2b customers, effectively separating out your inventory completely user experience how do i set up a b2b registration form? if you're looking to enable a wholesale/b2b registration form there are a few good options for this and in summary, these are the options we recommend you could use your current login/registration page and enhance the registration page with some custom coding you could use a recommended form builder app to achieve this it's also worth noting that you can manually add customers via the bigcommerce customers admin and from there you could moderate your wholesale applications how do i invite a b2b customer to my website? please refer to customer groups docid 5 lwmnohhjbjjppg9e6vh will sparklayer slow down my bigcommerce website? no for performance, the sparklayer frontend only loads when a valid b2b customer successfully logs into a website; for your standard (dtc) customers, no code is loaded at all when a b2b customer logs in, all loading of the interfaces is asynchronous which means a negligible impact on page load times and performance even though sparklayer is a hosted third party solution the result is the end customer will have a rapid experience browsing products and placing orders how do i setup b2b specific content on my bigcommerce website? we recommend consulting with a bigcommerce expert developer before making changes to your website for their reference, you may find the following stencil code can be used as a mechanism to hide and show content based on a b2b customer being logged in {{#contains (tolowercase customer group name) "b2b"}} {{/contains}} orders where do i find my b2b orders in bigcommerce? manual payments for manual (non card) payment orders (e g payment by invoice), the order is saved as a "draft order" you can view these in your bigcommerce admin within orders and then click draft orders you can then convert these into approved orders by marking them as paid or marking them with payment terms it's important to note that once an order has been approved, it will only then show in the customers my account section and the sparklayer dashboard https //app sparklayer io/orders card payments you can view these in your bigcommerce admin within orders how do i edit orders? it is possible to edit orders within bigcommerce when an order is placed via sparklayer if you have it configured to create orders as 'draft orders' you can go into the order and make changes if you subsequently then manually complete the order (i e mark as paid), you can still edit the order up until the point of fulfilment how do i send an invoice? in terms of invoicing, sparklayer doesn't send invoices directly but there are some good ways to do this within bigcommerce using a recommended invoicing app or by sending invoices manually to your customers via your existing back office financial system how do i set a minimum order quantity? within sparklayer, we do have support for minimum (and maximum) quantities, but you're only able to set these at a product or product variant level it's not currently possible to set minimum order level quantities but it's something we are considering as part of a future update! how do i send order notifications to customers and my team? you can manage notifications from bigcommerce by going to settings and clicking order notifications need assistance? we'd be happy to help guide you through this process please refer to support docid\ nnuw1g9z7eaj4m78vk7t9