Launching SparkLayer

book a free onboarding call remember, our expert team is here to help you go live if you need assistance along the way, please book your free call here ℹ️ introduction the sparklayer dashboard guides you through the steps to setup sparklayer such as adding the special frontend widgets, and setting up your b2b pricing and customer rules you can learn more about this in getting started docid 5djx1ycigzai6mrkq0u6 once you've completed the above, you're then ready to begin the process of launching! step details ✅ testing perform your own tests such as logging in and placing a test order 💌 inviting begin inviting a range of customers to use your new b2b store 🚀 launching going live with your new b2b store and onboarding more customers ✅ testing before you start testing, please make sure ✅ you've added the sparklayer frontend (or our team has done this for you) ✅ you've added a b2b price list (even if it's just a test one) ✅ you've added a b2b customer group (even if it's just a test one) you've setup the basics of sparklayer (see above), you're now ready to start testing it! we recommend going through a testing process to ensure you're familiar with how everything works 🔍 1 test as a customer and log in the first step is to test your website as if you were a b2b customer we recommend creating an example customer using the guide below before you start! for any customers that you want to place b2b orders, they must have a tag of b2b assigned to them in shopify without this tag, sparklayer will not load ensure customer accounts are enabled you’ll need to make sure that customer accounts are enabled on your storefront so that customers can sign in within your shopify admin, go to customer accounts and select either " customer accounts " or " legacy accounts " (both are compatible with sparklayer) edit or create a customer record within your shopify customers admin , find an existing customer record or add a new one fill in all the form fields, including the address it's important that an address is specified otherwise sparklayer won't find the customer record tag the customer next, tag the customer with b2b from within the customer record in shopify, go to the tags section and type b2b into the field you can either choose from an existing tag, or add it as a new tag invite the customer if you're using shopify " customer accounts ", you can simply direct your customers to the login page and they can then enter their email to receive a 6 digit access code you can access this by going to www yourstore com/account if you're using " legacy accounts " and you're creating a brand new customer record, you'll need to click " send account invite" and then confirm the account once you've received the activation email ( learn more here ) the customer will then receive an email asking them to confirm your account by setting a password should you require, you can also edit the contents of this email here login as a customer finally, return to your website and visit the login page (e g www yourstore com/account ) and enter your details if you're using shopify "customer accounts", you'll be prompted to enter a 6 digit code that will be sent to your email you'll then see sparklayer load and you can browse your store as a b2b customer! please note if you can't access this page, make sure you have customer accounts enabled inviting customers see our guide further down this page on how to invite your customers to get started, please following the below steps within wix, go to customers & leads and click contacts you can either create a new customer or edit an existing one please note please ensure that a valid address is added and all address fields are populated make a note of the email address you’ve added as you will need to access this to login to synchronise to sparklayer, the customer must have a label of b2b assigned to them and be a site member you can set this up by clicking the add label button when editing a customer please note the following on customer groups sparklayer will only synchronise customers that have a label of b2b assigned if you have created additional customer groups within sparklayer, please ensure that the labels are added to the contact record in wix exactly as shown e g b2b b2b additional group customers must be set up as site members to be able to sign in to your online store when adding a new label in wix, please ensure that it is not subsequently edited once your customers have been set up in wix (i e those with a label of b2b ), and you've assigned the customer group to at least one customer, you can then manage specific rules within the customer groups area you'll see a default base customer group that you can use for your b2b customers if you want to set up additional rules, you can simply click create customer group and configure accordingly for any additional customer groups you create, you'll need to update the labels on the customer record in wix to match (e g b2b and b2b account ) to simulate logging in as a b2b customer, please see ✅ testing & launching below you can also check if your customer record is syncing by using the customer sync area of sparklayer within wix, navigate to a contact record that has a label of b2b within the url, you'll see a unique id at the end of the url in the example below, the unique id is 66b4c99a 3431 47d6 995d 309e4e8c5908 with this unique id, you can then paste this into the customer sync area of sparklayer if the search results show the customer details, this confirms the customer is synchronosing correctly please refer to your platform for details checking a b2b customer you can also check that a b2b customer has successfully synchronised to sparklayer in the customer sync tool within the sparklayer dashboard 🆔 2 check you have product skus please note for sparklayer to work, all products that you want b2b customers to see pricing for must have unique skus without skus, sparklayer has no way to show b2b pricing or our special frontend "widgets" how to check for skus in shopify within your shopify products admin , if you navigate to any product, you should see a sku display within the product details in our example below, the product has a sku of mug cat which is the unique identifier for the product how to add skus if you don't already have skus, it's relatively quick to do you can either edit individual products and add them manually, or you can use the shopify admin's import or feature to do this in bulk you may also want to consider an app such as matrixify if you have a lot of skus to add ensuring you have unique skus for sparklayer to work, any skus added must also be unique (e g mug cat, mug dog) if skus are "shared" between products, these will need to be adjusted to ensure skus are individually set to get started, please following the below steps for any products that you want your b2b customers to be able to buy, these products must have unique skus assigned you can check this by going to catalogue > store products > products and editing a product for regular products, you'll see the option to add a sku within the inventory and shipping section for products that have variants (e g colour, size), you'll need to edit a variant and add this within the product variants section and ensure the setting "manage pricing and inventory for each product variant" is turned on next, go to price lists within sparklayer and click "create price list" to create your first b2b price list you can choose between an automatic or manual price list and configure how this works no customisations applicable ✅ 3 check your products are 'enabled' for sparklayer to show b2b pricing, products must be assigned to the sparklayer b2b & wholesale and online store sales channels for each product if the product is not assigned, sparklayer will not show any pricing if you don't want the product to be purchaseable by your b2b customers, leaving sparklayer b2b & wholesale channel unticked can be a good way to make specific products "unavailable" to your b2b customers no customisations applicable 💰 4 set up your b2b pricing please note sparklayer will not show any b2b pricing until this step is done now you've got your customer account setup, you'll want to test how your b2b pricing works you can add all your b2b prices in the price list section of sparklayer and set either automatic price lists (a percentage off your retail prices) or manually uploaded prices with manually uploaded prices, you can upload prices via csv if you want to set exact b2b pricing (you can also download managing pricing docid\ nx9q00ewv kbjxc3tg1ut ) 📦 5 set up your b2b shipping please note if you're wanting to customise shipping for your b2b customers, please follow this step sparklayer will by default use the shipping rules set up within your ecommerce platform (e g shopify) you can also configure sparklayer to use special "b2b specific" shipping rules that only show for your b2b customers and you can get started here if you'd rather use your ecommerce platform for shipping rules, you can learn more in shipping docid\ cfz zpgw2umovao73lc5m 🛒 6 set up your b2b payment methods and place an order providing you have skus set up for your products, you can place an order by going to any product page and adding items to your order when you add items, they will then appear in the my cart interface docid\ efevur a3ycjxuhvrr7t and you can then proceed to checkout to complete the order how payment methods work when customers reach the payment step, they'll see available methods and can select their preference payment method description payment on account 👪 for the b2b customer this will allow the customer to checkout without needing to enter any payment details 🏦 for merchants it's essentially an 'offline' payment method and you can even set credit limit rules and net payment terms such as net 30, net 60, etc credit, net terms, & invoicing docid\ ywm70oquosykooiqb4z4g payment by invoice 👪 for the b2b customer this will allow the customer to checkout without having to enter in payment details 🏦 for merchants like "payment on account", this is essentially an 'offline' payment method you can then process the order and take payment via offline channels (e g by bank transfer) pay online by card 👪 for the b2b customer the customer will be directed to your standard checkout process and will be required to make payment right away (e g by card or via another payment processor) this is sometimes referred to as "pro forma payment" 🏦 for merchants this will come through as a paid (or "completed") order and no further action should be required to collect payment note this is termed "upfront payment" within the customer groups docid 5 lwmnohhjbjjppg9e6vh area of the sparklayer dashboard request for quote 👪 for the b2b customer the customer can submit their order without choosing a payment method 🏦 for merchants the order will be marked as a 'draft' order and can subsequently be edited (e g changing the shipping cost, adding additional discounts, adding or removing products from an order) the diagram below helps to illustrate how payments working with sparklayer and shopify, based on the payment method the b2b customer selects how orders arrive into shopify depending on which payment methods docid\ ibikczvhm085bkejiffyv you've selected, orders will arrive into shopify in the following ways by default payment method flow status pay by invoice the order is submitted as a draft order within shopify and then has to be manually acted upon order is left in draft status until the payment is successfully made pay on account the order is submitted as a draft order within shopify and then has to be manually acted upon order is left in draft status until the payment is successfully made pay online by card the order is submitted as a completed order within shopify and the customer will receive an order notification order is "paid" status and can be fulfilled (shipped) request for quote the order is submitted as a draft order within shopify and then has to be manually acted upon order is left in draft status until the payment is successfully made draft orders and "completed" orders if you're using shopify, by default all payment methods other than upfront payment will be generated as draft orders if you'd prefer to automatically convert draft orders into completed orders, you can enable this via the sparklayer dashboard shopify checkout payment methods if a customer selects "pay online by card" (i e "upfront payment"), they'll be directed to the shopify checkout by default, they will see all shopify payment methods you have set up (e g card payment, paypal, etc) it's possible to set rules on which payment methods show for your b2b customers and we recommend exploring available apps here please note that if a customer uses "pay online by card" and doesn't complete their order, this will still show in your shopify draft orders admin for review please note you can automatically convert "draft" orders into "completed" orders by turning on the "auto complete shopify draft orders" in the sparklayer dashboard here additional order details when an order is placed via sparklayer, it will also include the following additional data attribute notes tag a tag of b2b is added to any order placed via sparklayer this is particularly useful for filtering and segmenting orders, or even adding more advanced automations note order note sparkcartid this is added as an order note this is primarily for internal use for debugging note order note sparkpaymenttype this is added as an order note this contains the name of the payment option used upfrontpayment paymentonaccount paymentbyinvoice quote viewing b2b orders in shopify you can quickly view b2b orders by logging into your shopify admin and adding this to the url orders?tag=b2b or by going here when customers reach the payment step, they'll see a variety of available payment methods and can select their preference payment method description payment on account 👪 for the b2b customer this will allow the customer to checkout without needing to enter any payment details payment by invoice 👪 for the b2b customer this will allow the customer to checkout without having to enter in payment details pay online by card 👪 for the b2b customer the customer will be directed to your standard checkout process and will be required to make payment right away (e g by card or via another payment processor) this is sometimes referred to as "pro forma payment" request for quote 👪 for the b2b customer the customer can submit their order without choosing a payment method how orders arrive into wix depending on which payment methods docid\ ibikczvhm085bkejiffyv you've selected, orders will arrive into wix in the following ways payment method flow pay by invoice the order will be created within sales > orders with a payment status of "unpaid" you can then manually mark the order as paid once you have received payment (e g via offline means) pay on account the order will be created within sales > orders with a payment status of "unpaid" you can then manually mark the order as paid once you have received payment (e g via offline means) pay online by card the order will be created within sales > orders with a payment status of "paid" you can then proceed to fulfil the order note this is termed "upfront payment" within the customer groups docid 5 lwmnohhjbjjppg9e6vh area of the sparklayer dashboard request for quote the order will be created within sales > orders with a payment status of "unpaid" you can then manually mark the order as paid once you have received payment (e g via offline means) "unpaid" orders and "paid" orders by default all payment methods other than upfront payment will be generated as "unpaid" orders wix checkout payment methods if a customer selects "pay online by card" (i e "upfront payment"), they'll be directed to the wix checkout by default, they will see all wix payment methods you have set up (e g card payment, paypal, etc) no customisations applicable 🎨 7 check your design customisations (css) please note if you've requested our team to install sparklayer for you, this step will already be completed we typically recommend adding some basic css customisations to your website to match your styling if you'd like to customise these further, please see customising the design docid\ qct2zk8wjhyiv2zbvbjyy 📝 8 set up a b2b login and registration process please note it's worth noting that you may not require a registration form at all if you are manually inviting your b2b customers you can learn more in our "inviting your customers" guide lower down on this page there are three recommended ways to set up a b2b registration process use our "b2b login and register" page we've a ready made template that also includes a registration form you can see this in action on our try our demo learn more in shopify b2b registration & login docid\ gfc0uw7mjnmnpnno6edrl use a third party app to really customise the registration process on shopify, you may want to consider installing a form builder app to allow you more control over the experience we strongly recommend customer fields by helium use custom shopify coding this is a more advanced approach but it is possible to use your existing shopify store and customise a registration form without apps you can shopify b2b registration & login docid\ gfc0uw7mjnmnpnno6edrl no customisations applicable 🚀 9 enable additional b2b features (hiding products, approval form, shipping) please note this step is optional and you can continue testing without applying customisations if you do not require them we've got a variety of additional features you can add such as showing a live stock level, pack sizes, b2b only products, retail prices (rrp), and much more you can explore all available sparklayer features in our our interactive demo customer experience ✅ shopify b2b registration & login docid\ gfc0uw7mjnmnpnno6edrl ✅ shopify b2b registration & login docid\ gfc0uw7mjnmnpnno6edrl ✅ shopify b2b only content docid 30hmtg4cqqv69ehqnvpnf ✅ shopify b2b only content docid 30hmtg4cqqv69ehqnvpnf ✅ shopify b2b only content docid 30hmtg4cqqv69ehqnvpnf ✅ shopify email notifications docid\ faw11uwvek1kn06woxik0 checkout process ✅ tax & shipping docid\ zssxg6fjrlcod gxolutn ✅ payment methods docid\ ibikczvhm085bkejiffyv ✅ cart & checkout docid\ o3ndhzbcxiswh6m6satdt product configurations ✅ quantity rules docid\ cmxfrpgjqxfz9vjztvv0d ✅ quantity rules docid\ cmxfrpgjqxfz9vjztvv0d ✅ stock display docid\ gj ao gq6oa jx0d27hys ✅ stock display docid\ gj ao gq6oa jx0d27hys ✅ stock display docid\ gj ao gq6oa jx0d27hys automations ✅ shopify flow for b2b docid\ uvxv1kug vszepr5dlb2z to see what else is possible, check features docid\ sszdkxunmleidooithqcu need help troubleshooting? please see our troubleshooting docid\ blcekkx3i30nkucglsfw7 guide for how to solve the most common queries 💌 inviting you've tested sparklayer and you're happy it works next, let's invite some customers to use it! we've some recommend tips you can use as part of your onboarding process 👤 inviting your customers before you invite your customers we strongly recommend you perform a full end to end test of the steps within " test & launch sparklayer" once you're done, you may want to invite a subset of customers to guage any feedback before inviting all your customers! when you're ready to begin inviting your b2b customers to your shopify store, you can easily manage this via the shopify admin by following the process below before you start you'll need to make sure you have accounts enabled in your shopify store within your shopify admin here , go to customer accounts and select either "customer accounts" or "legacy accounts" (both are compatible with sparklayer) to begin inviting customers, you can follow the steps below edit or create a customer record first, within your shopify customers admin, find an existing customer record or add a new one fill in all the form fields, including the address it's important that an address is specified otherwise sparklayer won't find the customer record tag the customer next, tag the customer with b2b from within the customer record in shopify, go to the tags section and type b2b into the field you can either choose from an existing tag, or add it as a new tag invite the customer if you're using shopify " customer accounts" , you can simply direct your customers to your login page (e g www yourstore com/account ) they will be prompted to enter their email address and this will email them a 6 digit access code to sign in if you're using "legacy accounts" and you're creating a brand new customer record, you'll need to click 'send account invite' within the customer record in your shopify admin the customer will then receive an email asking them to confirm your account by setting a password you can edit the contents of this email here login as a customer finally, the customer can return to your website and visit the login page (e g www yourstore com/account ) if you're using shopify "customer accounts", the customer will be prompted to enter their email and then their 6 digit code if you're using "legacy accounts", the customer can sign in with their email address and password they'll then see sparklayer load and they can browse your store as a b2b customer! please note if they can't access this page, make sure you have customer accounts enabled set up a customer record within your wix 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 label of b2b and be a site member any customer that has a label of b2b will automatically synchronise with sparklayer invite your customers when you're ready to invite your b2b customers to begin using your store, there are a variety of ways you can do this one of the easiest ways is to use the built in wix messaging system to simply notify your customer to sign in and begin placing orders you can access this by going to your wix dashboard, clicking customers & leads and then contacts you'll see a tab called inbox that allows you to send direct messages you could also think about sending a marketing newsletter to your customers to notify them of your new b2b store and to sign in you can access this by going to your wix dashboard, clicking customers & leads and then contacts you can then search and filter your customers and click send email campaign to send an email we also have some example messaging you can use when inviting your customers and you can explore more below in "using our example "welcome" email" please refer to your platform for details 👥 inviting your customers in bulk if you're looking to invite a set of b2b customers in one go, you can use third party shopify apps to streamline this for you a popular option is matrixify which has built in tools to quickly create customer records and invite them if you're looking to bulk invite customers but want to skip sending them emails, you can also try bais bulk account invite please refer to your platform for details 🤖 automating the approval process automating the approval process to further automate the process, it's possible to allow customers to "apply for access" on your store that you can then moderate before granting them the ability to place b2b orders we've detailed some great options in shopify b2b registration & login docid\ gfc0uw7mjnmnpnno6edrl please refer to your platform for details 🚀 launching you've invited a range of customers and things are working well what's next? we now recommend fully launching your new b2b store and inviting more customers to use it! we've a variety of handy resources you can use to speed up and optimise this process ⭐ create an onboarding landing page a great way to encourage your customers to use your new b2b store is to explain the benefits to help you get started, you can use our ready made "onboarding landing page" that gives a great overview of the features to your customers to install the onboarding landing page, please follow these steps in shopify, go to online store and click pages (or go here ) click the "show html" button and then paste in the code from here you can then customise the page title, url, and any of the content as required we recommend give the page a url of b2b onboarding finally, set the page to " visible " to publish it on your store and you can then click " view " to see the page to make customers aware of your new page, you could add this to your website navigation (such as your website header or footer) if you're using our ready made shopify b2b registration & login docid\ gfc0uw7mjnmnpnno6edrl you can also link to the page from there please refer to your platform on how to set up custom landing pages 💌 use our example "welcome" email to help with the process of inviting your customers, we've put together an example email you could send to them! perhaps this could be sent in a newsletter or as a personal email from your b2b sales team dear \[valued partner], dear \[valued partner], we’re excited to announce our new online b2b store and we’re excited to have you join! 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 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 account activation the first step to joining look out for our email 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 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 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 b2b portal streamlining your business fast track with quick order 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 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 effortless account management your orders, simplified 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 get a shipping quote ready to finalize your order? get live shipping costs right before you place your order approval before payment 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 account extras within ‘my account,’ you’ll also discover tools to within ‘my account,’ you’ll also discover tools to review your order history review your order history save personalized shopping lists for quick reordering save personalized shopping lists for quick reordering update your shipping addresses whenever necessary update your shipping addresses whenever necessary we're here for you we're here for you should you have any questions or need assistance, our dedicated team is ready to help at \[your support email] 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! thank you for choosing \[my store] as your partner, we’re excited to have you on board! warm regards, warm regards, \[your name] \[your name] \[your position] \[your position] \[my store] \[my store] \[contact information] \[contact information] 🎨 updates to your website alongside the above recommendations, there are also a variety of "on site" updates you could think about to encourage your b2b customers to access your b2b store navigation add a clear link to your navigation, e g in the header or footer you can typically do this from your shopify admin, under "online store" and clicking "navigation" landing page set up a landing page to entice new (and existing) customers this could include graphics, some selling points of your b2b store, testimonials, featured products, and more emails think about how you can update any email marketing you have to promote your new b2b store! please refer to your platform for details 📚 additional resources alongside the practical steps detailed above, we also regularly create publications to help you grow your b2b and wholesale business micropaper unlocking customer adoption devise and deliver a winning b2b customer adoption strategy micropaper reimagining b2b operations discover the cutting edge wholesale tactics brands are using to stay ahead micropaper simplifying b2b success discover the cutting edge wholesale tactics brands are using to stay ahead video series acquire, onboard, retain & adopt a free video series for brands, wholesalers, and distributors on mastering the b2b customer journey and driving sales