Managing B2B customers

After you create a catalog and a company, customers for that company access catalogs by logging in to their profile in your online store. When the customer logs in, they're prompted to enter a six-digit verification code that is sent to their email address.

Add a customer to a company

You can add an existing customer to a company and then select the locations to which the customer has access, or add the customer to a location directly. If you add a customer to a location, then that customer will only have permissions for the specific location that you add them to. Customers can be added from your list of existing customers, or created on the Companies page.

When you assign a customer to a company or create a new B2B customer profile, you select one of the following permissions to assign to them:

• Ordering only - The customer can make purchases for the company location and view the list of orders that they have placed.
• Location admin - The customer can make purchases for the company location and view the list of orders that all customers have placed for that location and can edit billing and shipping addresses from their account page.

When you assign a customer to a company or create a new B2B customer profile, you can send an email to them indicating that they're now able to submit B2B orders on behalf of the company. This notification is optional and can be customized.

Customize and send the B2B notification

To customize the email notification template that informs your customers that they have access to B2B in your store, perform the following steps:

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications.
2. In the Customers section, click B2B access email.
3. Make the desired customization to the notification template.
4. Click Save.

After you have customized your email notification, you can send the email to any new customers you add to a company. You can send the notification to existing customers by performing the following steps:

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Customers > Companies.
2. Select a company.
3. In the Main contact section, click View all customers.
4. Select the customer that you want to send an email notification to.
5. In the Company section, click the ... icon.
6. Click Send B2B access email.
7. Click Send email.

You can also send the email notification through a company's location page.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Customers > Companies.
2. Select a company.
3. Select a location.
4. Select the customer that you want to send an email notification to.
5. In the Company section, click the ... icon.
6. Click Send B2B access email.
7. Click Send email.

Add a customer from the company page

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Customers > Companies.
2. Click the company that you want to add a customer to.
3. In the Main contact section, click the ... icon.
4. Click Add customer.
5. Do one of the following:
   • To add an existing customer to the company location, click the Find a customer box and start typing. When you find the customer that you want to add, click the customer's name.
   • To create a new customer profile, click the Find a customer search box and then click Add new customer.
6. Optional: Click the checkbox next to Notify customer that they can start placing B2B orders. to send the customer an email to inform them that they can start sending B2B orders.
7. Click Save.

Add a customer from a company location

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Customers > Companies.
2. Click the company that you want to add a customer to.
3. In the Locations section, click the location's name.
4. In the Customers section, click the ... icon.
5. Click Add customer.
6. Do one of the following:
   • To add an existing customer to the company location, click the Find a customer box and start typing. When you find the customer that you want to add, click the customer's name.
   • To create a new customer profile, click the Find a customer search box and then click Add new customer.
7. Optional: Click the checkbox next to Notify customer that they can start placing B2B orders. to send the customer an email to inform them that they can start sending B2B orders.
8. Click Save.

Add a customer from a customer profile

You can also add a customer to a company from that customer's profile page.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Customers.
2. Click the customer's name.
3. In the Customer section, click Add to company.
4. Click the Find company search box and start typing. When you find the company that you want to add a customer to, click the company name.
5. Select the locations the customer has access to and assign permissions.
6. Optional: Click the checkbox next to Notify customer that they can start placing B2B orders. to send the customer an email to inform them that they can start sending B2B orders.
7. Click Save.

Revoke a customer's permissions for a specific location

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Customers.
2. Click the customer's name.
3. In the Company section, under Permissions, click Manage.
4. Uncheck the location to remove the customer from.
5. Click Save.

To remove customer permissions from all locations, uncheck all the locations for that company. The customer's permissions display in the Company page as No access.

Remove a customer from a company

Steps

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Customers > Companies.
2. Click the company to delete customers from.
3. In the Customers section, click ... and then click Remove customers.
4. Check the customers to be removed from the company.
5. Click Remove customers.

Allow store access to B2B customers only

If you have a dedicated B2B store, then you can restrict access to your store.

Steps:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online store > Preferences.
2. In the Restrict store access section, check Restrict access to B2B customers only.
3. Click Save.

After you click save, B2B customers must log in before they can visit your store's pages. Direct-to-customer (DTC) customers aren't able to enter the store.

GDPR and US state privacy laws data requests

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and US state privacy laws are laws that affect how you manage your customer's data, including the right of a customer to request their personal data or to request that their data is deleted.

The data related to B2B customers also includes the following data from the company that the customer purchases for:

• Orders
• Email addresses
• Shipping and billing addresses
• Phone numbers

You can update your privacy policy to clarify how customer information is shared.

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