[intro]If you intend to set up your EKM online shop for B2B and use a combination of the Trade Discounts and Customer Login features or offer some of your customers reduced prices using the Trade Discounts feature, this guide takes you through the process of assigning customers to existing Price Lists using a spreadsheet. [/intro]
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[remember]The Trade Discounts feature is only available for EKM online shops on the Advanced and Pro tiers. If you wish to have this functionality on your own EKM online shop, you must upgrade your account first.[/remember]
Trade Discounts allow you to set up specific discounts for trade customers on your EKM online shop. You can set up your shop to ensure customers log in before viewing the product prices. Individual products can be excluded from Trade Discounts, so you can pick and choose which items your trade customers can apply their discount to. You can also create different Price Lists within this feature and customers can then be assigned to Price Lists accordingly.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to add customers to different Price Lists within the Trade Discounts feature using spreadsheets. If your EKM online shop is brand new and has not received any orders yet, please refer to the first set of steps.
For EKM online shops that are more established, have already had lots of orders and have existing customers that are a combination of standard Customer Login accounts and Trade Discounts, please follow the second set of steps further down this article as you’ll need to filter out any Guest accounts in the process of generating your spreadsheet.
On a brand new EKM online shop
[remember]Before you begin, you must have installed the Customer Login and Trade Discounts features. Within Trade Discounts, you also need to set up your Price Lists and note down the names of these Price Lists, as you’ll be referring to these on your spreadsheet.[/remember]
1. Your next step is to create your spreadsheet. All you need at this point is a list of your customers’ names and email addresses and which of the Price Lists you’ve set up in the Trade Discounts feature you’d like to add them to. You then need to create the following headers on your spreadsheet with these exact spellings:
- A - Action
- B - EmailAddress
- C - FirstName
- D - LastName
- E - DiscountTier
[caution]Creating accounts manually for your customers involves adhering to GDPR legislation, as you will collect personal data from your customers and process it to create an account. To do this, you need to ensure that the customer has expressed their consent for you to create an account for them, and this consent should be recorded and stored safely in your records. Whilst this Support Guide is for guidance, any personal information in our customers' EKM online shops is their responsibility. We have taken security measures to protect our customers against loss, alteration or misuse, but GDPR compliance is the sole responsibility of the website/business owner.[/caution]
2. When you have populated your spreadsheet, it should look like this:
On this test shop, I have set up three different Price Lists within the Trade Discounts feature, titled Gold, Silver and Bronze. Each customer has been assigned a specific tier, and then I’ve added the command Add Customer in the Action column so the system understands what I want it to do with this data.
[tips]If you want to add your customer to more than one Price List, separate the Price List names in the DiscountTier column with a colon. For example: Gold:Silver [/tips]
3. Save your spreadsheet and return to the browser tab displaying your EKM online shop. Within the Import/Export System feature, click Import From File:
4. Now you need to click Choose File:
5. Select your spreadsheet from your computer and click the Open button in the File Explorer window. When you can see the name of your spreadsheet within the feature, click the green upload button:
6. When the spreadsheet is uploaded onto your EKM online shop, you’ll see it displayed within the feature. Click the file name:
7. Click Test For Errors:
[caution]ALWAYS test a spreadsheet for errors before importing it to your EKM online shop. This ensures the spreadsheet is checked and will not cause serious issues when imported. If you do encounter any error messages and you’re not sure what they mean, please contact the Customer Support Team who will be able to help you. [/caution]
8. Click Start Import Process:
9. You’ll then see that all your customers have been added to your EKM online shop. Click the green Done button:
10. Now you have uploaded your customers’ details onto your EKM online shop, you need to email them to let them know that an account has been created for them and that they need to set up a password. On the left-hand menu, you need to click Orders:
11. On the Orders page, click View Customers in the top right-hand corner:
12. You’ll then see the list of customers you’ve uploaded to your EKM online shop. For each customer, you need to click on their name:
13. This will reveal the record you have for that particular customer. Notice that the Price List I’ve assigned to this customer is highlighted in blue. To send the customer the email to encourage them to set up their account, click the Send Email button:
[tips]To customise the email you send to customers during this step, click on the Outgoing Emails page within the Settings of your EKM online shop. The template you need to customise is called Merchant Triggered Account Password. The instructions in this guide will help you to customise it. [/tips]
14. When you have clicked the Send Email button, this window will appear. Click Okay:
15. Your customer will then receive an email like this:
16. Then, you need to repeat this process with the next name in the list:
17. After finishing this process, you only need to wait for your customers to set up their accounts on your EKM online shop and begin shopping.
On an Established EKM online shop
If your EKM online shop is not completely new and has already had many orders, adding customers to Price Lists is a little different compared to the steps above, as you may need to filter the customers as you generate your spreadsheet.
[remember]Before you begin, you must have installed the Customer Login and Trade Discounts features. Within Trade Discounts, you also need to set up your Price Lists and note down the names of these Price Lists, as you’ll be referring to these on your spreadsheet.[/remember]
1. To begin, log into your EKM online shop and click Features on the left-hand menu:
2. Open the Import/Export System feature:
3. Click Export to File:
4. Click Export Customers:
5. At this point, untick the box on the far right-hand side:
6. This will make the Customer Filters visible. For Account Type, select Registered, and for Account Status, select Unlocked before clicking the green button on the right-hand side:
[remember]By selecting Registered and Unlocked here, you will filter out all Guest accounts (people who have bought from your EKM online shop previously but have not made an account on your shop) and any Locked customer accounts.[/remember]
7. On this page, you need to leave the following boxes ticked and un-tick the others before clicking the green button on the right-hand side:
8. Now, you need to click the relevant button to download your spreadsheet:
9. When the file is ready, click the link to download it to your computer:
10. When you open your spreadsheet, it should look something like this:
11. The test shop used in this guide already has the Trade Discounts feature installed, and within that, I’ve sent up three different Price Lists called Gold, Silver and Bronze. You’ll see I already have one customer assigned to each one of those Price Lists in the Discount Tier column: 
12. As those customers are already allocated to my Trade Discounts, I can delete them entirely from my spreadsheet, leaving only the customers that need to be assigned to different Price Lists. Equally, if you have customers who have created accounts on your EKM online shop but won’t be offering them Trade Discounts, you’ll need to delete them from your spreadsheet too. To begin, highlight the Action column and click the Find & Select button in the top right-hand corner:
13. From the drop-down menu, select Replace:
14. In the Find & Replace window, add ‘Customer’ in the Find What field and Replace With ‘Edit Customer’ before clicking the Replace All button:
15. This will amend the command in the Action column to Edit customer, so when you upload the spreadsheet back to your EKM online shop, the system knows what it needs to do. Now you need to add the name of the relevant Price List to each customer within the DiscountTier field, like this:
[tips]If you want to add your customer to more than one Price List, separate the Price List names in the DiscountTier column with a colon. For example: Gold:Silver [/tips]
16. Save your spreadsheet and return to the browser tab displaying your EKM online shop. Within the Import/Export System feature, click Import From File:
17. Now you need to click Choose File:
18. Select your spreadsheet from your computer and click the Open button in the File Explorer window. When you can see the name of your spreadsheet within the feature, click the green upload button:
19. When the spreadsheet is uploaded onto your EKM online shop, you’ll see it displayed within the feature. Click the file name:
20. Click Test For Errors:
[caution]ALWAYS test a spreadsheet for errors before importing it to your EKM online shop. This ensures the spreadsheet is checked and will not cause serious issues when imported. If you encounter any error messages and are unsure what they mean, don't hesitate to contact the Customer Support Team, who can help you. [/caution]
21. Click Start Import Process:
22. You’ll then see that all your customers have been added to your EKM online shop. Click the green Done button:
23. Once complete, you’ll see all customer details in the Trade Discounts feature.
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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in EKM Community. If you need some inspiration for your EKM online shop, listen to our podcast on iTunes and Spotify.[/contact]