User management in Shoxl webshops - Blog

The ERP system stays at the core

Your ERP is central to the account management process. In the ERP you create your customers and give them access to the webshop. This information then becomes available to your webshop through the standard Shoxl integrations.

This is an important difference from webshops aimed at consumers. In B2C shops it is common for users to create an account themselves. In a B2B environment, however, buyers typically first have to be accepted as a customer by the supplier. This often involves various credit checks and price agreements.

To get access to a Shoxl shop, visitors will therefore often first be in touch with the supplier, who agrees the terms on which business will be done and then opens an account.

An acceptance procedure can also create barriers and put off new customers. So the shop owner can choose to open the shop to buyers without an account or customer number as well (guest customers).

In the ERP system, orders from guest customers usually end up on a collective account (the guest customer number), which keeps the accounts clear. Less common is automatically creating a new customer record for every new customer, but that is also possible in Shoxl shops. 

Creating accounts

As mentioned, accounts in a Shoxl shop are created by supplying the user information in the format Shoxl specifies. A distinction is made between the customer organization (in Shoxl terms: “Customer”) and the accounts within it (“Users”). In Shoxl shops, each customer organization can have several accounts. Each customer organization must have at least one account defined.

If no account is supplied, the system creates one. That user then gets the customer number as username. If accounts are supplied, the username can be chosen freely; the only restriction is that it must be unique within the webshop.

An email address is required when creating a user. Users can log in with either their username or the email address linked to the user. The exception is when several users within one customer organization share the same email address; in that case only the unique username can be used.

Since the username can be chosen freely, the email address can also be used as the username. That adds little value, however, because the email address is already available as an alternative to the username by default.

Using an email address as the username really only helps during account activation, because a username has to be entered at that point. Users generally know their email address, whereas a username assigned by the organization has to be communicated explicitly.

Activating accounts

Users activate their accounts themselves. They switch their own account “on” and choose their own password. The activation process works as follows:

• The webshop owner informs users about the new shop and refers them to the activation page
• On that page, users enter their username and receive an email with a link to the “change password” page.
• After that, they can log in with their username or email address and the password they chose.

Account maintenance in Vendisto

Customer information is managed in the ERP system, but it can also be viewed and changed in the shop management system, Vendisto.

Changes made in Vendisto are undone at the next synchronization with the ERP system. As far as the shop is concerned there is only one source of truth, and that is the ERP system.

Changes in Vendisto can still be useful, though, when a new user needs access to the shop straight away. By creating the user in the shop, you do not have to wait for the sync with the ERP system. The same applies to revoking access to the shop with immediate effect. Blocking the user in Vendisto removes their access at once.

Shoxl shops have an optional, powerful authorization module. It links users to profiles that give access to selections of product data and content. If the ERP system can supply such profiles, they are used; if not, this information can be maintained in Vendisto.

Guest customer accounts

Optionally, the shop can be set up to create a “local account” for guest customers. The buyer then does have their own purchase history, but it is not known in the ERP system. In the ERP system, all order information ends up on the guest customer number.

The advantage of this approach is that small one-off purchases no longer “clutter” the ERP system and make it harder to keep track. The disadvantage is that a lot of order information is bundled on one account, which makes it harder to analyse. In that respect, a customer record for every customer gives a much clearer picture.

Which approach is chosen depends strongly on the preferences and habits within an organization. Organizations with a long history, a regular customer base and a shop mainly aimed at serving existing customers will tend to opt for the collective account. Companies that mainly use their shop to open up new markets will often choose to create a customer record automatically for every new customer.