Stock Display
SparkLayer works by taking the inventory (stock) data from your eCommerce store (e.g. Shopify) and showing the same inventory to your B2B customers. Whether you're managing inventory manually or via a backend system (e.g. ERP), SparkLayer will simply display the inventory you've set up via these methods.
Setting up stock locations per customer SparkLayer also supports Stock locations ("inventory locations"), allowing you to specify which locations you want specific customer groups to use stock from. You can learn more in our guide hereο»Ώ.
Stock levels are retrieved automatically from your eCommerce platform (or integration if you're using the SparkLayer APIο»Ώ) and you can choose to display these to your customers as well as customise the status messages.
To get started, you'll need to ensure you're using the latest version of SparkLayer (2.0 and above) and you can check this in our guide hereο»Ώ. Once setup, within the SparkLayer Dashboard, go to Customer Groups and you can then configure how you want your stock display to work.
You can read our full guide on how these configurations work in our guide hereο»Ώ.
On smaller screens, if you have variants enabled with stock display, the Product Detail Interfaceο»Ώ will display a "stock key" indicating to the customer the stock status shown in the table above.
If you're wanting to set a maximum stock level that your customers see, you can configure this via the SparkLayer Dashboard.
For example, if you set the limit to 100, it will display as 100+ to the customer if the stock level exceeds this.
You can also display live stock levels in the Product Card Interfaceο»Ώ. To enable this please read our guideο»Ώ.
SparkLayer has full support for different stock status messages and it's possible to set up products as pre-order / back-order. This will allow products to be added to an order and concurrently show the pre-order / back-order messaging to the customer.
To enable this within Shopify
- Set the product as 'Continue selling when out of stock'
- Set a stock level of zero (or less)
Please note Activating "Continue selling when out of stock" will also take affect to non-B2B customers, allowing them to purchase additional inventory. If you'd prefer to restrict this, you may want to create specific products that only show for your B2B customers and we've a guide hereο»Ώ of some recommended approaches.
It's also possible to configure pre-ordering / back-ordering at a variant level, allowing you to set an exact amount of stock you want to allow customers to be able to pre-order / back-order.
Setting up metafields on Shopify π€ Automatically add this to your Shopify store by going to configure metafields. π Learn more about how metafields work in our guide hereο»Ώο»Ώ
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Custom data type | ο»ΏVariantsο»Ώ |
Metafield type | This must be set as an integer |
Namespace | This must be set as sparklayer |
Key | This must be set as min_stock_level |
Value | This must be set as a negative integer, e.g. -6, -12, -20, etc |
If you're using stock locationsο»Ώ, you can also set reserve stock levels on a per-location basis.
"Custom dates" allow you to set an exact date when the product is expected to be available. Itβs a great way to give the end customer better visibility of when to expect receipt of the products on order, and helps deliver an overall better customer experience.
Use-cases could include:
- Setting a "due in" date of when you're expecting the product to be in stock
- Setting an "estimated shipping" date of when you're expecting the product to ship
Setting up metafields on Shopify π€ Automatically add this to your Shopify store by going to configure metafields. π Learn more about how metafields work in our guide hereο»Ώο»Ώ
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Custom data type | ο»ΏVariantsο»Ώ |
Metafield type | This must be set as an date |
Namespace | This must be set as sparklayer |
Key | This must be set as restock_date |
Value | This must be set in the appropriate date format, e.g. 17/11/2022 (for the UK) |
If you're using stock locationsο»Ώ, you can also set reserve stock levels on a per-location basis.
If you're running a store that combines both retail (DTC) and B2B, you may want to offer your B2B customers the option to purchase special "pre-order" / "back-order" products that regular retail customers cannot purchase. Perhaps you need your B2B customers to order "pre-season" or you have a special range of products that aren't available to regular customers.
Setting up pre-order / back-order products
Out of the box, Shopify doesn't allow you to specify products to hide or show based on a specific customer type. One of the most effective ways to "restrict" products is to use the following approach:
- Create a brand new product (or range of products) and set this up as normal (e.g. with images, description, etc).
- Using a third-party app (such as Locksmith), you can then configure the product to only show on your website on certain conditions (e.g. the customer logged in has the tag b2b set against them)
- Via SparkLayer, you can then configure your B2B pricing and any settings required (e.g. Quantity Rulesο»Ώ) allowing your B2B customers to then purchase them
When a regular customer (i.e. not a B2B customer) visits your store, they won't see any of the special products you've set up via the method above nor will they be able to purchase them.
Whilst this approach does require duplicating data, it can be an effective way to manage "pre-order" / "back-order" products that you only want your B2B customers to see.
Managing orders with pre-order / back-order products
Alongside setting up pre-order / back-order products (as detailed above), it's also possible to add automations to streamline the management of orders that have these products within them.
One way is to use built-in Shopify automations to do this using the Shopify Flow app and the process broadly works as follows:
- Tag products that are on pre-order / back-order with a special tag
- When an order is placed with a product that has this tag, add a tag to the order itself
- Within Shopify, add a filter to segment any orders that have this tag
To get started, you can follow these steps:
First, within your Shopify catalogue, add a tag of b2b-pre-order to any product(s) that you want to make pre-orders / back-orders.
Next, download the Shopify Flow app and upload the below sample files. When run, orders and draft orders that have pre-order / back-order products within them with have a special tag added b2b-pre-order
Finally, within the Shopify Orders admin, you can set up a basic filter to segment all orders that have the tag b2b-pre-order. You can then use this to manage your internal workflows (e.g. how you fulfil items)
SparkLayer will by default show products as pre-order if they match the criteria set within your store. You can learn more about how to disable this showing below
SparkLayer will show the pre-order stock message based on the following criteria:
- On a product (or variant) level, "Track quantity" is enabled
- The product (or variant) is set to "Continue selling when out of stock"
- The inventory (Quantity) is 0 or less
To disable the message showing in SparkLayer, you can apply the following:
- Turn off "Track Quantity"
- Turn off "Continue selling when out of stock"
Stock locations allow you to specify which stock (or "inventory") locations you want specific customer groups to see stock display settings from. If your B2B store is set up with multiple stock locations (e.g. by geography), it's a great way to ensure your B2B customers are viewing stock disaply settings from the relevant location.
Looking to enable stock locations? You can learn more about how this works in our guide here.ο»Ώο»Ώ
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.
For example, your B2B customers could place large orders which inhibit DTC customers from being able to order. SparkLayer has a way to solve this using a special setting called "Reserve stock quantity". It works as follows:
- A product is set up within your store with a Reserve Stock Quantity, e.g. 50
- Both DTC and B2B customers can order this product via your store
- When the total stock level reaches 50, B2B customers will be prevented from adding the item to their order
- DTC customers can continue to order the item, thus reserving stock for them
Setting up metafields on Shopify To learn more about how to configure metafields on Shopify for SparkLayer, please refer to our guide hereο»Ώο»Ώ
Item | Details |
|---|---|
Custom data type | ο»ΏVariantsο»Ώ |
Metafield type | This must be set as an integer |
Namespace | This must be set as sparklayer |
Key | This must be set as reserve_stock_quantity |
Value | This must be set as an integer, e.g. 50 |
Within the Frontend Interfacesο»Ώ, SparkLayer will display the "stock status" of a product (and its variants), allowing customers to easily see the inventory availability. Providing you have the "Show stock levels (inventory)" configuration enabled, you can then adjust the messaging that is shown by overwriting the default language settings.
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