What's New!
Each month, we release new features to SparkLayer and you can see our latest updates below.
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
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๏ปฟ
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
Product Matrix Interface
We've introduced a major update to our Frontend Interfaces๏ปฟ 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๏ปฟ.
Order details
When viewing an order within the My Account Interface๏ปฟ, 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.
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
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๏ปฟ 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.๏ปฟ
Stock display improvements
Please note This feature requires being on the latest version of SparkLayer. To benefit from our latest updates, please upgrade your SparkLayer Core Script๏ปฟ.
It's possible to display stock levels๏ปฟ 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๏ปฟ.
๐ ๏ธ IMPROVEMENTS๏ปฟ
- My Account Addresses When adding or editing an address within the My Account area, the First Name and Last Name fields are now mandatory.
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
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๏ปฟ.
๐ ๏ธ IMPROVEMENTS๏ปฟ
- Sales Agents within the SparkLayer Dashboard Based on customer feedback, we've made it easier to access Sales Agents within the SparkLayer Dashboard. You'll see this in the main navigation when signing in, or you can access it here.
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
B2B Discount Engine!
It's here... our most request feature EVER! The SparkLayer Discount Engine๏ปฟ.
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:
- Order-level discounts: eg, spend $1,000 and get 10% off, spend $2,000 and get 15% off
- Percentage and fixed discounts: eg, 20% off an order total, $100 off an order totalย
- Coupon codes: eg, enter code NEWCUSTOMER and get 5% off
- Scheduled discounts: eg, start discount today and end it on a specific date and time
- Customer-specific discounts: eg, only allow customer group โb2b-vipโ qualify for the discountย
You can see a full overview of whatโs possible in our guide here๏ปฟ.
Custom slots (add custom code)
Custom slots have arrived! You can now add custom code to a range of the SparkLayer Frontend Interfaces๏ปฟ 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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
๐ ๏ธ IMPROVEMENTS๏ปฟ
- Purchase history re-ordering When viewing the Purchase History in the My Account Interface๏ปฟ, you can now add individual items directly to any order
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
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๏ปฟ.
Stock location support ("inventory locations')
As brands scale their operations and build out more advanced inventory management processes, itโs very common to see multiple โlocationsโ where inventory is managed. This could be based on geographic location (eg by country) or by more niche use cases specific to a brandโs 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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
New Customer Groups interface
We've just released a major improvement to the Customer Groups๏ปฟ 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!
๐ ๏ธ IMPROVEMENTS๏ปฟ
- Price list improvements: It's now possible to set up a price list to support a 100% discount against an automatic price source (e.g. your Shopify retail prices). This is useful if you have a requirement to allow specific B2B customers to purchase products at a zero-rated cost (e.g. $0.00)
- My account credit limits now support multi-currency If you're store is set up to allow multiple currencies for your B2B customers and you're using credit limits and account balances๏ปฟ, you can now configure these specific to the customer's currency (e.g. GBP, EUR, USD)
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
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๏ปฟ. 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.
Please note This is an advanced configuration of SparkLayer and will require a developer to implement on a store that requires this feature. Please refer to our JavaScript SDK๏ปฟ for full details.
"Draft order" visibility in My Account
We've just released a major improvement to the My Account Interface๏ปฟ 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๏ปฟ.
๐ ๏ธ IMPROVEMENTS๏ปฟ
- Purchase numbers to support new order types Inline with the "Draft order visibility in My Account" above, you can now set "Purchase numbers" to indicate orders that are currently in review. Learn more๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
- Support for Shopify web pixels SparkLayer now supports the new Shopify web pixel tracking system. This will in time replace the need to use the SparkLayer checkout script when implementing SparkLayer on Shopify.
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
Company Order Approvals
We're excited to announce a major update to our Company Users๏ปฟ functionality: order approvals that let teams set role-based permissions!
Via our Company Users๏ปฟ feature, B2B customers can invite colleagues and set powerful role-based controls on what they can and canโt 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๏ปฟ 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๏ปฟ.
My Cart - CSV file upload
If your customers make use of the CSV file upload feature๏ปฟ, they can now upload CSVs using a barcode as the primary identifier. This works in addition to use a SKU.
๐ ๏ธ IMPROVEMENTS๏ปฟ
- My Cart - show stock status If you've configured SparkLayer to show stock levels๏ปฟ, the My Cart Interface๏ปฟ will automatically show the stock status for any items added. It's a great way to give customers more visibility of the specific inventory levels of items in their order.
- Product Card - Hide Prices It's now possible to hide the total price from showing on the Product Card Interface๏ปฟ if you'd prefer to keep this hidden. Learn more๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
- Product Stock - Hide inventory count If you have Stock Display๏ปฟ turned on, you can now selectively hide the specific inventory count from showing. Learn more๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
- Dashboard Price List - upload multiple CSV files It's now possible to upload multiple CSV price lists at once when managing your B2B price lists. Learn more.๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
- Cin7 Core integration - multi-currency We've upgraded our Cin7 Core integration to now better support stores that have a multi-currency setup. Please contact our support team to learn more.
- Loading interfaces We've improved the loading interfaces that show when the Frontend Interfaces๏ปฟ first load on a page, making for a smoother experience.
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
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๏ปฟ and Shipping๏ปฟ 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๏ปฟ 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!
๐ ๏ธ IMPROVEMENTS๏ปฟ
- Frontend interfaces - "Cart" terminology We've updated the terminology for "Order" to "Cart" to make it more obvious to customers that products are added to a shopping list. This change will apply to any buttons and titles used in the Frontend Interfaces๏ปฟ. This text can also be modified should you want to adjust to anything else. Learn more๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
- Frontend Interfaces - Notifications We've improved the display of notifications within the frontend interfaces for actions such as "success", "information", and "warning" messages, ensuring a more consistent look and feel.
๏ปฟ๐ NEW FEATURES๏ปฟ
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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
Custom payment method messaging
On the final step of the My Cart Interface๏ปฟ, 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๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
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๏ปฟ and My Cart Interface๏ปฟ.
๐ ๏ธ IMPROVEMENTS๏ปฟ
- Sales Agents - "Recently Access Accounts" When a sales agent logs in, they can now see their most recently accessed accounts, making it easier to login as a customer (this works based on their browser session).
- Sales Agents - Search improvements We've extended the sales agent customer search to now include additional data sources: the default billing postcode (Zip code), first line of address, and city
- Sales Agents - Customers created by sales agents When a sales agent now creates a new customer on the fly, this will automatically assign any "b2b" tags assigned to the sales agent themselves. This now makes it easier to filter and segment by sales agent created customers within Shopify or BigCommerce.
- My Account - Order History "RRP" pricing When viewing an order within the My Account area, if a product has RRP pricing๏ปฟ configured, you'll see this show next to the main B2B price.
- Price Lists - support for 4 decimal places When setting up an automatic price list (e.g. 50% off your retail prices), you can now specify up to 4 decimal places (e.g. 24.1245%)
- Product Cards - selectively hide variant drop-downs By default, the Product Card Interface๏ปฟ will show any variants (such as colour and size) and allow the customer to change them. If you'd prefer, you can now hide specific variant groups you don't want to show, giving you more flexibility on what's shown to your customers. Learn more๏ปฟ๏ปฟ
You can also browse previous years of SparkLayer updates in the Archive๏ปฟ
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