What's New!

Each month, we release new features to SparkLayer and you can see our latest updates below.

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Sales agents - custom shipping methods

One of the most requested features for our Sales Agent Ordering tool is to allow sales agents to make changes to the shipping costs during the checkout. We've now released the ability for sales agents to set custom shipping prices for any orders they place on behalf of their customers.

To learn more about how this works, see our guide here.

Order filtering by date

It's now possible for B2B customers to filter orders by date range within the My Account Interface. This is a great way to quickly see orders based on a specific time period, making it easier to keep track of order activity.

To see this in action, click "View All" within "Recent Activity" and you'll see the option within the date menu at the top.

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS

Mobile layout improvements

We've made improvements to the Cart & Checkout to better support smaller (mobile) devices. When a B2B customer is using SparkLayer on these devices, the interface will now show more line items and offer an easier way to navigate between checkout steps.

Shopify - improved handling of B2B prices

We've improved how SparkLayer handles pricing in Shopify, removing the need for B2B pricing to be applied as a "discount". When a B2B customer now places an order, the price shown against a product will exactly match the B2B pricing you set via SparkLayer Price Lists.

To iillustrate the difference, the screenshot below shows how pricing was calculated previously (using a discount against the line item product price)

With the latest change, the price shown will exactly match your B2B pricing without needing to apply a discount.

Shopify - support for new customer accounts

If you're using Shopify and you'd prefer to use Shopify's new "Customer Account" feature, SparkLayer is now fully compatible. This means that SparkLayer can now work with Shopify stores that use either new "Customer Accounts" or classic "Legacy Accounts". To learn more, read our guide here.

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Change ownership status in the Dashboard

If you have multiple users invited to your Dashboard, you can now easily transfer ownership to another user. This is especially useful if you're initally setting up SparkLayer and you want another user to manage the ongoing account management.

To learn more about how this works, head over to our guide here.

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Integrating Google Analytics with SparkLayer

If you're looking to track key events in Google Analytics (GA4) or Google Tag Manager (GTM) through SparkLayer, you can now set this up directly in your integration. This will help you capture valuable B2B events like "add to cart" "checkout," and "purchase" actions. Learn more

New Email Notifications for Company Users

We've now added the ability for Company Users to receive emails when "Limited Users" submit an order for a review. Email notifications are sent to both the "main" and "limited" Company Users at key stages of the order review process, without requiring them to be logged in. You can learn more about how this works in our guide here

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Product Matrix Interface

We've introduced a major update to our Frontend Interfaces that now lets you convert your product pages into a special "product matrix" table view, making it even easier for your customers to order products!

If your products come in multiple variant types (e.g. colour and size), it's a great way to allow customers to quickly see all variants available and purchase them. To learn more about how this works, please see our guide here.

Order details

When viewing an order within the My Account Interface, if an order has more than 10 unique items, a "View all" link will now show allowing the customer to see all items in one go.

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Custom checkout fields - support for new fields

If you need to collect additional data from your B2B customers during the checkout, our custom checkout fields now supports the ability to add drop-down menus ("select" menus).

For example, you may want to give customers a list of options to choose from to include in their order and it's even possible to group the options with different headings. You can learn more about how this works in our guide here.

Stock display improvements

It's possible to display stock levels to your B2B customers when they browse your store, giving them visibility of your inventory. Our latest update now gives you even more flexibility and has a number of major improvements.

Firstly, it's now possible to display stock levels on a per-customer group basis. For example, you may have some customer groups that you don't want to show inventory to or you may want to configure specific stock settings.

You can also now hide and show the specific inventory count and just show a stock status (e.g. In stock versus In stock [100 available].) Beyond this, we've also simplified how you can manage max/low/last stock levels and you can learn more in our full guide here.

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Line Item Tax Support

If you sell products that have different tax requirements, you'll like our latest update! We've just released full support for "line item tax", ensuring your B2B customers see fully accurate tax calcualtions when checking out.

This feature is ideal if you have more complex tax requirements for your catalogue (e.g. you're selling coffee, children's clothing, or products that have varying tax obligations).

You can see a full overview of how it works in our full guide here.

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS

🎉 NEW FEATURES

B2B Discount Engine!

It's here... our most request feature EVER! The SparkLayer Discount Engine.

Our new Discount Engine immediately unlocks a range of discount rules, with more to come in the future. Right now, you'll be able to set up:

You can see a full overview of what’s possible in our guide here.

Custom slots (add custom code)

Custom slots have arrived! You can now add custom code to a range of the SparkLayer Frontend Interfaces allowing you to customise the B2B experience for your customers.

It's a great way to further enhance your B2B customer experience and use-cases could include displaying promotional messages, links to pages within your store, and much more! Learn more

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS

🎉 NEW FEATURES

File uploads (checkout and product-level)

We're excited to announce the launch of one of our top 5 most requested features, file uploads! As of today, your B2B customers can now upload file attachments during the checkout process, allowing you to capture additional information such as Purchase Orders, custom files (e.g. for personalisation) and much more.

And there's more! In addition to file uploads during the checkout, you can now configure product-level file uploads! Learn more in our guide here.

Stock location support ("inventory locations')

As brands scale their operations and build out more advanced inventory management processes, it’s very common to see multiple ‘locations’ where inventory is managed. This could be based on geographic location (eg by country) or by more niche use cases specific to a brand’s internal workflows, like routing stock based on what type of customer is ordering.

Stock locations allow you to specify which stock (or "inventory") locations you want your B2B customers to use stock 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 purchasing stock from the correct locations. Learn more in our guide here

🎉 NEW FEATURES

New Customer Groups interface

We've just released a major improvement to the Customer Groups area of the SparkLayer Dashboard, making it easier to manage your B2B customer rules! We've completely reworked how your customer groups are displayed with a new and improved way to quickly manage all your customer groups settings from one place.

The update also includes new visibility of "customer group inheritance", allowing you to see which rules are being used from another customer group. Check our video below or head on over to the new Customer Groups area!

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Product Customisations

If you sell products that require "customisations" such as custom text or any other unique requirements, you'll like our latest update! We've just released the ability to support customised products via the SparkLayer JavaScript SDK. You can see how it works in our video below.

This allows your B2B customers to add customised text to products within their order and the information is sent through to your eCommerce platform when an order is placed.

"Draft order" visibility in My Account

We've just released a major improvement to the My Account Interface that gives your B2B customers much better visibility on orders they place. Previously, if a customer placed an order via payment methods such as "Pay on Account" or "Pay by Invoice" these wouldn't show in the My Account until the order was marked as "Completed". Now, as soon as an order is placed, these will show with a new status "Awaiting Merchant".

When you (the merchant) completes the order, these will then change to standard order statuses such as "Processing", "Shipped", etc. You can learn more about order status in our guide here.

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Company Order Approvals

We're excited to announce a major update to our Company Users functionality: order approvals that let teams set role-based permissions!

Via our Company Users feature, B2B customers can invite colleagues and set powerful role-based controls on what they can and can’t do (e.g. some can add items to an order, whereas others can complete the order to be fulfilled). Please note, this feature will be launched later in March.

Sales agent order history

We've released a much requested improve to our Sales Agent Ordering feature. Sales Agents can now view recent order history pertaining to customer accounts they manage. When a sales agent logs in, they'll see this new section on the sales agent search interface.

Sales Agent - Setting overwrites

It's now possible for Sales Agents (with "Administrator" access) to overwrite product settings such as pack sizing and min/max product quantities. When signed in as a customer, free form quantities can be entered to increment or decrement the line item level quantities. Learn more.

My Cart - CSV file upload

If your customers make use of the CSV file upload feature, they can now upload CSVs using a barcode as the primary identifier. This works in addition to use a SKU.

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Dashboard usability improvements

As part of our ongoing improvements to the SparkLayer Dashboard, we've released our first major update to make managing your B2B configurations even easier. For the Price Lists and Shipping sections of the dashboard, you'll see a new and improved way to create and manage your settings with our new "slide out" feature.

In the very near future, we'll be rolling out a brand new Customer Groups section that will bring some major improvements to how you manage your B2B customers. Stay tuned!

"Purchase status" improvements

Under the hood, we've made some major improvements to how SparkLayer handles "purchases" (essentially orders that can have different statuses). This will allow SparkLayer to handle purchase types such as orders that may require review (e.g. a Draft order), orders that may require approval, and a range of other statuses that may be relevant to your B2B operation. In next month's update, we'll be sharing how this works and what it will unlock for our customers!

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS

🎉 NEW FEATURES

Purchase history reports

Our headline update this month is the release of our new My Account reporting tool that gives your B2B customers even easier (and faster!) ways to place B2B orders!

The first report we've released is the new "Purchase history by time period" which gives customers a breakdown of all products they've purchased over a period of time (e.g. by quarter, by month, by week). The best part? In a matter of clicks, they can re-order an entire range of products and then proceed through the checkout to complete their order.

It's a great way to allow your customers to more rapidly repeat-order and easily see products they've purchased from your store. Learn more

Custom payment method messaging

On the final step of the My Cart Interface, Review & Pay, it's now possible to display a "custom payment messages" that let you add additional details about a payment method.

For example, if a customer is paying by "Pay by Invoice", you could add some additional text to inform them on how this process works. Learn more

Improved messaging within the My Account and My Order

When your B2B customers haven't completed certain actions (e.g. placed an order, saved a shopping list), we've improved the messaging and how this looks to give a more consistent feel and experience. You'll see the same style of "empty state" messaging appear in both the My Account Interface and My Cart Interface.

🛠️ IMPROVEMENTS