The Buyer Portal experience was released for B2B Edition in 2023. The Buyer Portal replaces the BigCommerce storefront’s customer account area with an account portal that supports improved functionality and doesn’t require a customized B2B theme. Additional benefits include:
- Improved page speed
- Improved mobile optimization
- Out-of-the-box compatibility with most Stencil themes
- Features and settings that aren’t supported in the legacy experience
If you are provisioning B2B Edition for the first time, the Buyer Portal experience is enabled by default, and you can use the previous chapters in this guide to set up and manage your B2B Edition account. If you have an existing B2B Edition store using a legacy B2B theme, this chapter will walk you through the steps and considerations involved in enabling the Buyer Portal and offering an improved B2B experience to your buyers.
Comparing the Legacy Storefront and Buyer Portal Experiences
As the latest version of B2B Edition, the Buyer Portal experience includes new functionality for both merchants and buyers and receives regular feature updates. In the table below, we’ve outlined the major differences between the two experiences.
| Feature | Legacy Storefront Experience | Buyer Portal Experience |
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| Storefront appearance | The legacy experience modifies the existing customer account area of the storefront to provide B2B functionality for customers with Company accounts. | The Buyer Portal is a unique account portal that replaces the default BigCommerce storefront account area for your B2C and B2B customers. |
| Customization | All customizations must be made in the theme files. | Customize colors, text, and display for Buyer Portal pages in your B2B Edition settings. Storefront customization is still managed from your theme. |
| Storefront registration form |
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| Company account management | Company details are divided into tabs which are display-only until you click Edit. Each Company account must have its own customer group and it cannot be reassigned. |
View and edit Company information seamlessly in each tab, and receive a warning when navigating away from unsaved changes. Upload file attachments to Company accounts for later reference. Use Independent Companies to assign multiple Company accounts to a single customer group, or leave them unassigned. |
| System users | Manage user accounts, Sales Staff user assignments, and custom roles from different areas of the B2B Edition control panel. | All user and role settings are located under Settings › System users and roles. |
| Buyer roles | Assign one of three predefined buyer roles to determine which Company users can make purchases and manage their account. | Use the predefined roles, and create custom roles for your buyers to support more precise access control in the Buyer Portal. |
| Shopping Lists | This is only available for B2B buyers with Company accounts; B2C customers can use Wish Lists. | Shopping Lists are available for B2C and B2B customers, and provide a Notes field for customer reference. |
| Multiple consignment shipping | Storefront order details do not indicate which products were in individual shipping consignments. | The order details separate products by individual shipment. |
| Sales quotes |
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| Invoices |
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| Multi-Storefront settings | Enable or disable B2B Edition on individual storefronts, create storefront-specific email templates, and set a unique logo for each storefront | In addition to the legacy features, manage a suite of Storefront settings for unique design, Buyer Portal text, and buyer experience |
Requesting the Buyer Portal Experience
The process for migrating to the Buyer Portal consists of requesting it from the B2B Edition Product team, testing compatibility and customizing the storefront experience in a sandbox environment, and applying the changes in your live store.
To request the Buyer Portal experience, fill out this application form. After reviewing the application, the Product team will enable the experience in your sandbox store and add the self-service migration tool to your live store. This process can take up to a week, and the Product team will contact you when it is complete.
Configuring the Buyer Portal in Your Sandbox Store
While it is not mandatory to test Buyer Portal functionality and compatibility in a sandbox environment, it is highly recommended. These steps allow you to identify any potential issues with your preconfigured storefront experience, checkout flow, and any third-party integrations before they can impact customers in your live store.
Control Panel
Once the Buyer Portal experience has been implemented in your sandbox store, the B2B theme used with B2B Edition’s legacy storefront experience are not compatible with the Buyer Portal. You will need to switch to an uncustomized Stencil theme, or remove the B2B Edition customizations from your current theme.
For more information on B2B Edition custom code and where to find it in your theme, consult this document.
After ensuring that your theme no longer contains legacy B2B elements, go to the Display tab of Settings › General and disable storefront Wish Lists. The Buyer Portal replaces the storefront account area where customers would manage their Wish Lists, and Shopping Lists provide improved tools for B2C customers and B2B buyers to curate products for purchase.
Storefront
Now that the storefront no longer hosts B2B buyer management tools in the built-in customer account area, it is important to confirm that all storefront links to the Buyer Portal function properly. These links are referred to as entrance points. The following areas of the storefront act as entrance points:
- Sign In — typically located in the header of your storefront, and uses the /login.php URL tail
- Register/Create Account — located in the storefront header as well as the login page, and uses the /login.php?action=create_account URL tail
- Forgot Password — located in the login page, and uses the /#/forgotpassword URL tail
- Account — the link to the Buyer Portal for signed-in customers located in the storefront header; this also uses the /login.php URL tail
We also recommend looking at storefront product pages to confirm that your Add to Quote and Add to Shopping List buttons are functioning and displaying correctly. You may need to identify the location selectors and class names in your theme and adjust them in the B2B Edition control panel. See B2B Edition Settings for more information.
While the Buyer Portal is compatible with many themes on the Stencil platform, some Stencil themes may require additional customization to add compatibility for entrance points and storefront buttons. Customized or third-party themes may also require custom development to fully support the Buyer Portal.
If you are using an uncustomized Stencil theme that does not fully support the Buyer Portal’s storefront elements, you can request it be supported by emailing buyerportalmigration@bigcommerce.com.
Lastly, test your checkout flow while logged in as a buyer with a Company account to identify potential errors. We recommend using B2B Edition’s Optimized One-Page B2B Checkout in conjunction with the Buyer Portal. If you are using a custom checkout script, make sure it integrates B2B Edition’s latest checkout source code.
How can I access B2B Edition’s checkout source code to develop a custom checkout? Contact our support team, and they will assist you with accessing the checkout repository.
B2B Edition Control Panel
While many of your B2B Edition setting configurations will carry over from the legacy storefront experience, you now have additional options to customize the functionality and design of the Buyer Portal.
Navigate to the Settings area of the B2B Edition control panel, or go to the Storefronts tab if you want to customize the Buyer Portal of each storefront provisioned in B2B Edition. In the list below, we’ve highlighted the settings that have been added and updated for the Buyer Portal experience:
- General — The following options are available:
- Allow storefront account registration for B2B Company users, B2C customers, or both.
- Restrict product visibility and purchases for Company accounts pending approval.
- Buyer Portal — Customize Buyer Portal colors, change the appearance of the Super Admin Masquerade button, and add custom CSS coding.
- Login Page — Adjust the appearance and behavior of the login page by including your logo and specifying the login landing location from the logo display, entering custom button text, and editing the page’s HTML.
- Quotes — The following options are available:
- Customize the Add to Quote buttons appear on storefront product pages and the cart page, as well as the Finish Quote button that takes buyers to the quote request form in the Buyer Portal.
- Enable quote-only products and allow buyers to request them from the storefront with a dedicated quote button.
- Shopping List — Use Shopping List settings to manage access for B2B buyers and B2C customers, and customize the appearance of the storefront button.
- Account Form Fields — Create dedicated application experiences for visitors registering for a B2C customer account, a B2B Company account, or both.
- Translation — Import a CSV file with all Buyer Portal text strings to match your branding or translate to your region’s language.
Once you’ve configured your desired settings, test common B2B workflows in the Buyer Portal, such as requesting quotes, curating Shopping Lists, and paying invoices. After building your desired B2B experience, you’re ready to take action in your live store.
Activating the Buyer Portal in Your Live Store
After the B2B Product team has reviewed your Buyer Portal request, you will receive a self-service migration tool in your live store. This is a banner that appears as a banner at the top of your B2B Edition control panel. Note that your B2B Edition user account must be assigned the Owner or Admin role in order to view and manage the self-service tool.
Before using the tool, you will need to sync historical orders with B2B Edition. Since the Buyer Portal replaces the storefront account area for B2C customers as well as B2B buyers, they need to be accessible in your B2B Edition account in order for customers without an established Company account to view and manage previous orders. This is not necessary for B2B orders, as they are automatically synced in B2B Edition.
Email buyerportalmigration@bigcommerce.com to request a scheduled order sync in your account. Be sure to include your store’s URL in the email. We recommend scheduling the sync for the same day that you plan to migrate your store to the Buyer Portal experience in order to minimize the interruption of order information.
Depending on the number of previous orders, the syncing process may take a few minutes or several hours. Once the Buyer Portal has been enabled in your store, all new B2C orders will sync automatically.
When you’re ready to migrate, return to the Dashboard area and click Enable the Buyer Portal. The Buyer Portal experience will apply to your storefront immediately, but you’ll need to refresh the page to view Buyer Portal-specific settings.
Once enabled, implement the configuration actions you tested in your sandbox store, starting with applying a theme without the legacy storefront customizations. Perform additional Buyer Portal and checkout flow tests when you’re finished to make sure everything is functioning properly.
If you need to revert to the legacy storefront experience, click Disable the Buyer Portal in the self-service tool and apply your legacy theme. You can re-enable the Buyer Portal at any time. When you have confirmed that the Buyer Portal experience is fully implemented in your store, click Migration complete to remove the self-service tool from your B2B Edition control panel.
FAQ
Can I create a custom role that allows users to access the self-service migration tool?
No, only users with the predefined Owner or Admin role can use the self-service tool.
Can I still revert to the legacy storefront experience after completing Buyer Portal migration?
If you’ve dismissed the self-service tool in your B2B Edition control panel, you can request for it to be reactivated by creating a support case. Our support team will notify you when the tool is available again, and you can click Disable the Buyer Portal to return to the legacy experience.
Which Stencil themes are recommended to use with the Buyer Portal?
While you can apply any Stencil theme to your storefront in conjunction with the Buyer Portal experience, certain themes support the Buyer Portal’s storefront buttons and entrance points without requiring additional customization.
See the table below for a list of themes with native Buyer Portal compatibility. Themes marked with an asterisk (*) are specifically recommended if your B2B buyers intend to assign the Junior Buyer role to members of their staff.
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Are there any storefront features that are not supported in the Buyer Portal experience?
The following features are currently not available in the Buyer Portal, or have a feature equivalent:
- Wish Lists — This functionality is replaced by Shopping Lists for all customers.
- Order messages — While customers cannot send and receive messages on orders, they can communicate on open sales quotes from the Messages tab.
- Returns — This is currently not supported in either B2B Edition experience.
- Stored payment methods — Users can add and select stored payment methods on the checkout page, but they currently cannot be managed within the Buyer Portal.
- Recently viewed products — This area is not present in the Buyer Portal; however, this functionality can be added to other areas of the storefront via custom development.
- Store credit — Store credit is not currently viewable in the Buyer Portal, but it can still be viewed and applied at checkout.
Can I adjust the source code of my storefront’s Buyer Portal?
Yes; in addition to the B2B Edition control panel settings for adding or overriding CSS coding in certain areas of the Buyer Portal, you can also develop and deploy a customized Buyer Portal to suit your unique business needs. To learn more, see the B2B Buyer Portal repository in GitHub.
