B2B Overview

The IRP provides the same high-quality experience for trade businesses as it does for B2C businesses. Trade businesses can reach out globally to other businesses using their native languages and currencies and they can customise their sites using country-specific imagery and messaging — all the sections of the interface are translatable into any language in the system.

More than this, trade businesses can create customised price lists for all of their trade customers, for use anywhere in the world, and they can develop and issue invoices easily using highly-effective templates.

By reading through this overview you will become familiar with the key areas of IRP B2B and gain a good understanding of how B2B works from both a customer’s point of view and an IRP Admin User’s point of view.

Recommended Sequence for Setting Up B2B
Trade Customers
Trade Site Invoicing
Trade Application Settings
Trade Orders on the Front End
Trade Orders on the Back End
Trade Alerts Bar
Other Trade Site Options

There are some fundamental prerequisite steps that need to have been taken before configuring B2B on the IRP, most of which will have been carried out with the assistance of your Deployment Manager. For example this would include things like Admin Users being configured, all product data and imagery in place, integrations completed, payment gateways set up, shipping configured, stock control working (if applicable), partner IDs and traffic sources set up, customers imported, IRP EPOS configured (if applicable), and so forth. With all these elements in place, here are the steps you need to take to get your trade site up and running:

1. Interface & Design You need to ensure that your navigation is optimised and that all interface design and layout is completed. For details, see the Trade Navigation and Trade CSS Stylesheet help topics. If you have specific trade site logos, see the Site Logos help topic. You can also create specific banners for different locations on your trade site, for example below the logo, on the right side or centrally. For more information, see the Banners help topic.
2. Price Lists There is a default price list in the default currency of your website, however you can also configure custom price lists if you want to. For example, you can define a price list for a specific country and currency and you can either pick the exact products that you want to include in the price list or you can choose to discount the prices from an existing price list. You can also use the TradePriceListDownloadHistory.aspx page to view all attempts to download trade price lists from the front end of your website. Both successful and unsuccessful attempts are logged, as is the IP address used to download the trade price list. For details, see the Trade Price Lists and Trade Price List Download History help topics.
3. Invoice Templates You need to configure customised invoices for your different trade customers. For details, see the Invoice Templates help topic.
4. Trade Customers & Drop Shipping You need to make sure that your customers are correctly set up as trade customers, including establishing credit limits and drop shipping status. You can also create categories for your trade customers and assign specific price lists to those categories. For more information see the Trade Customers section below and the Trade Customer Categories help topic.
5. System Emails You should design and configure the various system emails that are available for trade customers. There are multiple placeholders that you can use when entering the content of the emails. See the B2B System Emails section below for more details.
6. Trade Promotions & Vouchers To maximise your trade sales you can set up promotional offers, discounts and vouchers, for example, 'Buy 3 for 2', 'Buy one, get one free' and so forth. You can configure single or multiple-use vouchers and restrict their usage by brand and category. For more information see the Trade Promotions and Trade Vouchers help topics.
7. Application Settings You need to enable a few settings at the application level to ensure that your B2B system is up and running. See the B2B Application Settings section below for more details.
8. Orders With all of the above configured, you should now receive and process orders from your trade customers. See the Trade Orders section below for more details. You can also easily keep up-to-date with trade activities on your website using the Alerts bar at the top of your Admin. See the Trade Alerts Bar section below for more details.

You configure details of trade customers either under Customers > Customers (where you can view both trade and retail customers) or under Trade Site > Customers (trade customers only – for details see the Trade Customers help topic).

Under Customers > Customers (Customers.aspx) you can view all customers, edit their details and create new customers. You can use the ‘Other Options’ search feature to show only trade customers:

To designate a customer as a trade customer, set their Account Type to ‘Business’ and then complete the settings in the Trade Settings section:

The settings are as follows:

• Company Name: Enter the name of the company that this customer belongs to. This is a requirement for business accounts.
• Account Status: Select a status from the drop-down list. This can be ‘Awaiting Approval’, ‘Approved’, ‘Suspended’, ‘Rejected’ or ‘Not Trade Account’.
• Customer Category: Select the Customer Category to which the customer belongs.
• Tax Number: Enter the customer’s Tax / VAT Number.
• Tax Exempt: Check this box if the customer is exempt from tax. Otherwise leave this box unchecked.
• Has Credit Limit: Check this box to set a credit limit for the customer (the following ‘Credit Limit’ setting will then be displayed).
• Credit Limit: (Appears only if the ‘Has Credit Limit’ box is checked.) Enter a credit limit for the customer.
• Price List: Select a previously-configured trade price list for this customer. A ‘default’ price list takes any default trade price values held against stock items.
• Product Export Status: Select a product export status for this customer. The status can be ‘Requested’, ‘Enabled’ or ‘Not Enabled’. If set to Enabled, this customer will be allowed to download an extended product information file, which contains images and descriptions, in addition to their prices.
• Drop Shipping Status: Select a drop shipping status for this customer. The status can be ‘Requested’, ‘Enabled’ or ‘Not Enabled’. With this set to ‘Enabled’, you are the drop shipper for your B2B customers.
• Drop Shipping Logo: Browse to the location where you have a drop shipping logo for the customer, then click the Upload button.

Click the Insert Customer button to save your changes.

Importing trade customers

You can import details of trade customers using the standard process in the Import Customers section in IRP Admin. In addition to the template columns available for all customer data, the following columns are relevant for trade customers:

• TradeAccountStatus (SMALLINT)
• TradePriceListID (INT)
• TradeCreditLimit (MONEY)
• TradeCreditLimitCurrencyISO (CHAR : 3)
• TradeDropShippingStatus (SMALLINT)
• TradeEnablePayByCredit (BIT)
• TradeHasDropShippingLogo (BIT)

Trade Customer Email Profiles

In the Email Profiles section of IRP Admin you can create specific profiles that will act as the ‘Trade Default’. This means that it will be the default profile that users will subscribe to when attempting to join the trade site mailing list. For more details see the Email Profiles help topic.

Trade Customer Catalogue Profiles

In the Catalogue Profiles section of IRP Admin you can create specific profiles that will be viewable only on your trade site. For more details see the Catalogue Profiles help topic.

You can use the System Emails section of IRP Admin (under Email Marketing) to set up emails that are sent automatically to trade customers. You can insert multiple placeholders in the emails that will be converted to the relevant values when the email is sent. The available emails include the following:

• Trade Password Reset Email
• Trade Order Confirmation Email
• Trade Account Requested Email
• Trade Account Approved Email
• Trade Account Rejected Email
• Trade Password Reset Email
• Trade Account Suspended Email

There is an Application Setting called 'Enable Trade Site Invoicing' (located in the 'Trade Site' grouping). Invoicing throughout IRP Admin and the front-end trade site will function as normal while this setting is enabled. Disabling this setting will hide all functionality involving invoicing for trade orders throughout the Admin and front-end site. In IRP Admin, this includes:

• All trade invoicing alerts in the Alerts drop-down within the top navigation section.
• Invoice sheet printing option on the Sheets lightbox.
• Invoice tab and invoice alerts on the Order Manage page.

On the front-end trade site, this includes:

• 'View Outstanding Invoices' button on the Payment Details page.
• 'View Invoices' button on the Order Details page of the 'My Account' section.

Additionally, any trade orders that are placed while this new Application Setting is active will also be marked as 'Invoiced Externally' and will not be taken into consideration when trade customer account 'Outstanding Balance' value is calculated.

'Recently Viewed' functionality on trade site invoicing

'Recently Viewed' functionality is available on the trade site via a drop-down link within the top navigation bar (visible only when a trade customer logs in). When a customer hovers their cursor over this link, it displays their five most recently-viewed models, ordered from newest to oldest, top to bottom. The customer can click these models to navigate to the associated trade site model pages.

When a customer clicks the 'Recently Viewed' drop-down link they will see a 'Recently Viewed' page, where up to 21 of the customer's most recently-viewed models are listed.

'Similar Products' functionality on trade site invoicing

The 'Similar Products' functionality is available on the trade site. When viewing a model via the trade site, a 'Similar Products' section can appear at the bottom of the page. This section displays models that have been linked to the currently-viewed model. You configure this using the 'Linked Models' functionality - for more details see How To Add or Edit a Model .

For the Models in the 'Similar Products' section, users can choose their stock options via a drop-down menu, enter the quantity desired and add the model to their basket. Users can also click the models in the 'Similar Products' section to navigate to their trade site model page.

There are a few Application Settings for the B2B functionality that you can find under Application Settings (‘Trade Site’ grouping):

• Default Trade Credit Limit Type: This defines how the credit limit assigned to a customer operates. 'Use Outstanding Balance' - this means the customer can only ever have orders outstanding with you up to the value of their credit limit. 'Single Max Order Value' - this means the customer can place as many orders with you as they need to, but each order has the max value of their credit limit.
• Enable Fixed Top Navigation Trade: When enabled, the top navigation on the trade site will remain fixed to the top of the screen when scrolling.
• Enable Purchase Of Out Of Stock Items Trade: When disabled, this Application Setting will prevent the purchase of stock items that are marked as Out Of Stock on the trade site.
• Enable Trade Site Invoicing: Enable this setting to enable invoicing functionality to be made available on the front-end trade site and within the orders section of IRP Admin. When disabled, further trade orders placed on account will no longer affect customers' credit balance and invoicing functionality throughout the front-end trade site and orders section of IRP Admin will no longer be available. Invoicing alerts will also be disabled.
• Header Trade Display Style: 'Display Style 2' uses the standard components for the header elements. You can customise the styles under 'Header Controls' on the Standard Controls Stylesheet page (CssStylesStandardControls.aspx).
• Trade Site Exclude Default Price List From Promotions: Enabling this will exclude the default price list from promotions.
• Trade Site Require Purchase Order Number: Enabling this means that a PO Number is required for trade orders.

If you make any changes to the Application Settings, click the Update Application Settings button. You will be asked to confirm that you want to update the settings. Also make sure you click the Uncache button in the bottom nav.

If the customer is configured in your system as a trade customer and you have allowed them a credit limit, then they will see the following options when they go to the checkout stage (PaymentDetails.aspx ) with an order:

The screen shows the customer’s available credit limit and their outstanding balance. To use this payment option the customer would click the Review Your Order button. Alternatively they could elect to pay by card, as shown in the screen capture above.

If the customer decides to use the Pay by Account option, the summary screen OrderSummary.aspx will display some further information about their invoice:

Their confirmation screen OrderConfirmation.aspx will also state ‘Invoice’ as their payment method, as in the following example:

At this point the customer would receive an ‘Order Confirmation’ email.

'Favourites' functionality and Quick Order page

On a product page, trade customers can mark a stock item as a 'favourite', thus enabling faster locating and purchasing in the future. This feature is facilitated by a greyed-out star shown beside the stock options on the model page:

When a customer clicks the star, it turns gold and the item is marked as a favourite for that customer until such a time as they remove it by clicking the star again. (Note that there is a title above the stars that says 'Favourite'; this is configurable using Small Translation 2845.)

The Quick Order page (QuickOrder.aspx) linked to from the customer's /Trade/MyAccount/MyAccount.aspx page (or from the links above the search bar), features product listings for products marked as 'favourites' by the customer, items ordered by the customer in the past and recently-viewed items (all of these links are also available in the left nav of the /Trade/MyAccount/MyAccount.aspx page):

The customer can filter items by part code if desired and then add items from any of these lists to the their basket directly from the Quick Order tab:

On each of the three product lists on the Trade/MyAccount/QuickOrder.aspx page there is a column called 'Last Ordered' (the header text is configurable via Small Translation 2728). If the customer has ordered the stock item before, this column will show the date on which they last ordered it and the quantity they ordered at that time:

You can view trade orders under Orders > Orders (Orders.aspx) in the IRP Admin left navigation menu. If you search by Order Type you can select Trade from the drop-down menu – you can also select the date range:

After the trade customer has placed the order described above, the order will be logged in IRP Admin with a status of ‘New Trade’:

Click the New Trade link to view the details of the order on the Orders.aspx?OrderStatus=NewTrade screen. This will show the Source listed as ‘Trade’ and the Payment Method as ‘Invoice’ (if the customer had not been allowed a credit limit in IRP Admin, the Payment Method would be simply ‘New’):

From here you can proceed to process the order in the usual manner. You can raise an invoice for the order by clicking the Invoices tab on the OrderManage.aspx screen:

Click the Raise Invoice for Selected Items button to include all items in the order. Use the drop-down list to select whether or not the Shipping Costs (if not previously invoiced) should be included. The newly-raised invoice will then be listed in the grid:

From here you have the following options:

• Cancel: Click to cancel the open invoice. If you proceed with this, the order will be listed in the main grid as cancelled.
• Mark as Paid: Click this button to denote the order as paid. You will be asked to confirm this after you click the button.
• Card Payment: Click this button to take a card payment for the invoice order and complete the details in the window that pops up:
  
• View: Click this button to view the completed invoice in a pop-up window.

You can use the Enable Alert Bar link on your account drop-down box located at the top-right corner of IRP Admin to display key trade information along the top of the screen:

When you select the 'Trade' option, the following information is shown at the top of the screen:

The following details are shown:

• Customers To Approve: Click this button to take you to the TradeCustomers.aspx?AwaitingApproval=True page in IRP Admin. Here you can see the list of customers who are awaiting approval as trade customers. This means that their Account Status setting (under ‘Trade Settings’ on their CustomerEdit.aspx page) has a status of ‘Awaiting Approval’. From this page you can change their status to ‘Approved’, ‘Suspended’, ‘Rejected’ or ‘Not Trade Account’.
• Orders Missing Invoices: Click this button to take you to the Orders.aspx?TradeOrdersAwaitingInvoice=true page in IRP Admin. Here you can see a list of trade orders that have been dispatched but that do not have invoices. From this page you can proceed to create invoices for those orders.
• Overdue Invoices: Click this button to take you to the Orders.aspx?TradeOrdersOverdueInvoice=True page in IRP Admin. Here you can see a list of trade orders that have invoices overdue. From this page you can proceed to follow up on the invoices.
• Drop Shipping Requests: Click this button to take you to the TradeCustomers.aspx?DropShippingRequested=True page in IRP Admin. On this page you can see a list of trade customers who have requested drop shipping. This means that their Drop Shipping Status setting (under ‘Trade Settings’ on their CustomerEdit.aspx page) has a status of ‘Requested’. From this page you can change their status to ‘Enabled’ or ‘Not Enabled’. You can also upload a drop shipping logo for the customer.
• Product Export Requests: Click this button to take you to the TradeCustomers.aspx?ProductExportRequested=True page in IRP Admin. On this page you can see a list of trade customers who have requested products to be exported. From this page you can change their status to ‘Requested’, ‘Enabled’ or ‘Not Enabled’. If set to Enabled, this customer will be allowed to download an extended product information file, which contains images and descriptions, in addition to their prices.

You can also see the following alerts for trade orders and customers when you expand the Alerts drop-down menu at the top of IRP Admin:

The menu contains the following trade alerts:

• New Trade Orders: Click this button to take you to the Orders.aspx?OrderStatus=NewTrade page in IRP Admin. Here you can see the list of new trade orders. From this page you can manage the orders using the standard process in IRP Admin.
• Trade Customers Awaiting Approval: Click this button to take you to the TradeCustomers.aspx?AwaitingApproval=True page in IRP Admin. Here you can see the list of customers who are awaiting approval as trade customers. This means that their Account Status setting (under ‘Trade Settings’ on their CustomerEdit.aspx page) has a status of ‘Awaiting Approval’. From this page you can change their status to ‘Approved’, ‘Suspended’, ‘Rejected’ or ‘Not Trade Account’.
• Uninvoiced Trade Orders: Click this button to take you to the Orders.aspx?TradeOrdersAwaitingInvoice=true page in IRP Admin. Here you can see a list of trade orders that have been dispatched but that do not have invoices. From this page you can proceed to create invoices for those orders.
• Requesting Trade Drop Shipping: Click this alert to take you to the TradeCustomers.aspx?DropShippingRequested=True page in IRP Admin. On this page you can see a list of trade customers who have requested drop shipping. This means that their Drop Shipping Status setting (under ‘Trade Settings’ on their CustomerEdit.aspx page) has a status of ‘Requested’. From this page you can change their status to ‘Enabled’ or ‘Not Enabled’. You can also upload a drop shipping logo for the customer.
• Trade Orders Overdue Invoices: Click this alert to take you to the Orders.aspx?TradeOrdersOverdueInvoice=True page in IRP Admin. On this page you can see a list of trade orders that have overdue invoices. From this page you can proceed to follow up on the invoices.

Trade Fulfilment Countries

You can use the 'Trade Fulfilment Countries' tab on the StockLocationEdit.aspx page to allow the stock in a stock location to contribute to the stock levels shown in more than one country. For example, you could have a location in France show its stock to all countries in the EU by adding all EU countries to its Trade Fulfilment Countries. For more information, see Stock Locations.

Exporting trade data

You can export some data relevant to trade using the standard process in the Export Data section in IRP Admin. The trade tables that you can export are as follows:

• TradePriceListPrices
• TradePriceListProductRestrictions
• TradePriceListQuantityDiscounts
• TradePriceLists
• TradeSalesRanks

Stock Supplier trade details

If applicable, you can configure B2B details for your stock suppliers, including a Username, Password and Website URL. See How To Add or Edit a Stock Supplier for details.

Live Chat for trade sites

You can offer a Live Chat facility to customers on your trade site. For more details, see Live Chat Sessions and Trade CSS Stylesheet.

Parked trade telesales orders

You can also ‘park’ trade orders using the telesales functionality in IRP Admin. This means that you can pause or end a telephone call, and take another call, while waiting for the previous customer to call back. For more details see the Parked Telesales help topic.