Creating Customers Manually
You can populate your B2B Wave eCommerce platform with customers manually or mass import them. Below, we will go through the process of creating a customer manually. However, before bringing in customers online, you may consider creating the following first:
- Price lists. Check out our article on price lists and go to Products >Price Lists on your Admin Dashboard to start creating them.
- Tax/VAT groups. See how to set your VAT/Tax rules and go to Settings >Sales Tax on your Admin Dashboard.
- Privacy groups. Explore how to create privacy groups, and go to Settings >Privacy groups on your Admin Dashboard to set up yours, if applicable.
- Payment methods. Check how to set your available payment options and go to Settings >Payment options on your Admin panel to start creating them.
To start creating customers manually, follow these steps:
Step 1. Go to the Customers menu on your Admin Dashboard and click “+ Create customer.”
Step 2. Fill in all the relevant fields on the “Customer details” tab on the “Create customer” page.
Here are fields you need to consider on the "Customer details" tab:
| Company name | Refers to the name of the customer’s company |
| Full name | Enter the name of the customer |
| Address/ Address line 2 |
Fill in the customer’s address. Importantly, if the customer’s billing address is the same as their contact address, check the "Same as contact details" box in the "Billing" tab |
| City, Province/State, Country | Add the customer’s city, province/state (if applicable), and country in the relevant field |
| Postal code, Phone, Email | Type the customer’s postal code, phone number, and email in the appropriate field |
| Notify customer by email |
Check this option if you want the customer to receive an email with login details to your B2B eCommerce store  Once you check this option, the customers will receive an email with a link to your store and login details.  |
| Activity | Specify the customer’s activity using the drop-down menu (e.g., Distributor) |
| Is active? | Check this option if the customer is active. Deselect it if the customer becomes inactive |
| VAT/Sales Tax group | Select the customer’s VAT/Sales Tax group through the drop-down menu |
| Price lists | Choose the customer’s assigned price list through the drop-down menu |
| Discount | Enter the discount percentage that applies to the customer’s orders, if applicable |
| Minimum order value | Set the minimum order value for the customer, if applicable. Discounts and MOV (Minimum order value) set here will apply only to this specific customer. You can set different discounts and MOV for each one of your customers based on the agreements you have with them |
| Disable ordering | Choose this option when a customer becomes inactive or when you wish to “freeze” the ordering process for a customer (i.e., because they haven’t paid you yet) |
| Discount percentage | Type in the discount percentage that applies to your customer orders, if applicable |
| Parent customer | Select the parent customer your customer belongs to, if applicable, through the drop-down menu. his also applies in case you have created sub-users for your customers |
| Privacy groups | Select the privacy group your customer is assigned to through the drop-down menu (if applicable)  |
Step 3. Move to the “Addresses” tab once you add the required information in the “Customer details” tab. Here, you can add the customer’s addresses. To do so, select the country from the drop-down menu. Then, fill in the relevant details.
Step 4. Click on the “Sales Rep” tab if you want to assign one or more sales representative(s) to the customer. Here you can create your sales rep profiles, which allow you to monitor their performance and order history. Note that you need to select their name(s) from the drop-down list and add or edit their commission percentages, if applicable.
Step 5. Move to the “Emails settings” tab to set and monitor your communication rules with your clients.
Specifically, you can:
| Attach new order as XLS file | Select this option if you wish to attach new orders as a .xls file in the email customers receive upon submitting them |
| Attach new order as PDF file | Select this option if you wish to attach new orders asa PDF file in the email customers receive upon submitting them |
| Email for new orders notification | Type in the customer’s email to inform them about new orders submitted on your B2B store. To enable it, add the email address of the customer or any other person they wish to be informed about any new orders placed. You can add multiple emails, separating them using a comma (,) |
| Email for invoice | Type in the email address to which the customer wants to receive invoices corresponding to their orders, if applicable. You can add multiple emails, separating them using a comma (,) |
| Receive email notifications | Check this box if you want to receive email notifications for the customer’s activity |
| Bcc outgoing emails to customers | Use this field to enter your email address to automatically bcc yourself or anyother person in your company when sending an email to the customer. You can add multiple emails, separating them using a comma (,) |
Step 6. Move to the “Customer homepage products” tab to select specific products to display on the customer’s home page.
Step 7. Select which payment options apply to this customer in “Payment options” tab. The customer will view the available payment options you set here during checkout.
Step 8. Move to the “Customer shipping options” tab to choose which shipping options your customer will see during checkout.
Step 9. Move to the “Admin fields” tab to see all the “Customer Edit” extra fields you have created. Remember that these fields are only visible to you and not to your customers Click here to find out more about extra fields.
Step 10. When you are finished, click “Save” to create the customer.
NOTE: Once you create a customer, you can click on their profile to view their details. On the “Editing customer” page, you will see a new tab named “Product Feed.” Through it, you can allow the customer to view the stock availability of your products on a dedicated page on their storefront. This page is available under their profile menu. To allow this, check the “Enable product feed” box. Check out more details on this functionality here.
Invite Customers via Email in Bulk
You can invite customers to your B2B eCommerce platform via email and automatically create accounts for clients whose emails you already have. This way, customers will receive an invitation email to log in to your online B2B store, including an auto-generated password and a short message defined by you. To do so, follow these steps:
Step 1. Go to the Customers menu on your Admin Dashboard and click “Invite Customers by Email.”
Step 2. On the “Invite Customers by Email” page that opens, you will encounter a series of fields.
Specifically:
| Emails * | Insert customers’ emails separated by a new line (that is, press “Enter” after you type an address). Remember that you can send up to 25 invitations daily and that this field is mandatory. Finally, send out invitations only to email addresses you have verified; otherwise, they may be considered spam |
| Sales Tax/ VAT menu |
Choose from the drop-down menu to the Sales Tax/VAT group the customers belong to |
| Price list menu |
Select the price list the customers belong to from the drop-down menu |
| Email subject * | Enter the email subject. Remember that this field is mandatory |
| Email content * | Type the content of the email and format it using the available options. You can also create custom welcome templates for invitations |
| Save subject and content for reuse | Check this option to save the email subject and content - this way, you can use it again |
| Enter alias | Type here a name under which to store the specific email subject and content |
Step 3. When you are done, click “Invite accounts” to send your invites to the selected customers. Invited customers will receive a welcome email with login details and information on how to set a new password.