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BigCommerce B2B Module Setup

Synchronize customers, contacts and ship-to locations in Business Central to your BigCommerce site.

Prerequisites:

  • CSM for BigCommerce B2B module subscription 
  • BigCommerce Enterprise  

Initial Setup

CSM for BigCommerce allows you to synchronize customers, contacts, and ship-to locations in Business Central to B2B companies, users, and locations in BigCommerce. If you are using BigCommerce’s B2B features and want to manage them from within Business Central, there are additional setup activities you must perform.

CSM Sales Channel Setup

There are some basic B2B configuration fields that are present on the CSM Sales Channel card.

  • Open your BigCommerce sales channel
  • On the General FastTab, turn on the Enable B2B Features setting. This will make a separate B2B FastTab visible to you.
  • A B2B FastTab will now be available
Field

Description
New B2B Customer Template Enter a customer template that will be used for the creation of new B2B customers. When working with a sales channel’s B2B company, it is possible to instruct Business Central to create a new customer from the company’s information. In such a scenario, the assigned customer template’s default values will be assigned to the newly created customer. 
New Company Behavior

Choose how CSM will process B2B companies that are retrieved as part of a sales order. When a B2B sales order is retrieved from BigCommerce, CSM will attempt to match that order’s company to one of the sales channel’s existing B2B companies. If it is unable to find an existing match, it will proceed according to the option that is selected in this field:

Auto Create: a new CSM company based on the company information on the retrieved sales order will be automatically created.

Manual: CSM will not take any action; you or another user must manually create a new CSM company.
New Company Contact Behavior

Choose how CSM will process B2B company contacts that are retrieved as part of a sales order. When a B2B sales order is retrieved from BigCommerce, CSM will attempt to match that order’s company contact to one of the sales channel’s existing B2B company contacts. If it is unable to find an existing match, it will proceed according to the option that is selected in this field:

Auto Create: a new CSM company contact based on the company contact information on the retrieved sales order will be automatically created. 

Manual: CSM will not take any action; you or another user must manually create a new CSM company contact. 
New Company Location Behavior

Choose how CSM will process B2B company locations that are retrieved as part of a sales order. When a B2B sales order is retrieved from BigCommerce, CSM will attempt to match that order’s company location to one of the sales channel’s existing B2B company locations. If it is unable to find an existing match, it will proceed according to the option that is selected in this field:

Auto Create: a new CSM company location based on the company location information on the retrieved sales order will be automatically created.
Manual: CSM will not take any action; you or another user must manually create a new CSM company


Note: BigCommerce’s out-of-the-box APIs do not include company location information as part of a retrieved order’s data. If you are working with these APIs, CSM can automatically create CSM locations from retrieved sales order data, but it will be unable to include the external ID from BigCommerce, as this information is not retrieved via the APIs. 

CSM Contact Roles

Some eCommerce platforms support the concept of user-based roles or permissions, making it possible for different people from the same company to perform different activities. CSM refers to these as “CSM contact roles.” CSM contact roles do not have a corresponding record type in Business Central, but they can be manually assigned to CSM contacts and then sent to the connected eCommerce platform with the rest of that contact’s information.

BigCommerce does not include API support for the retrieval of a BigCommerce user roles, so it is necessary for you to manually set this up in Business Central:

  • Open your BigCommerce B2B Sales Channel
  • From the Related ribbon, select B2B and then choose Contact Roles.
  • On the next available line, enter a name for the role in the Name field
  • In the External ID field, enter the unique identification number that is assigned to the user role on BigCommerce. 
  • Repeat this process to set up additional CSM contact roles. 

The following table presents the out-of-the-box user roles that are included as part of BigCommerce’s B2B edition. This list does not accommodate for any additional user roles that you may have added.

Name External ID
admin 0
senior_buyer 1
junior_buyer 2

Creating CSM Companies, Contacts and Locations

A CSM company links a Business Central customer record to a BigCommerce B2B company. You can create a CSM company from customer information in Business Central and then instruct CSM to create a new B2B company on BigCommerce from this data. Alternatively, you can retrieve company information from BigCommerce and link these records to customers in Business Central.

In addition to the companies themselves, the following integrations exist:

  • CSM Company Contacts: a single company may have multiple contacts, which represent the different people within an organization that can place orders on BigCommerce.  A CSM company contact links a Business Central contact record to a BigCommerce B2B company user.
  • CSM Company Locations: a single company may have multiple locations, which represent the different addresses to which a BigCommerce order can be shipped.  A CSM company location links a Business Central customer and/or ship-to address record to a BigCommerce B2B company address.

Prerequisites

If you want to send a customer and its related contacts/ship-to addresses to BigCommerce as a B2B company, the following conditions must be met:

  • The customer must have a primary contact, which is defined in the Contact Code field on the Customer Card page.
  • The customer’s primary contact, as well as any additional secondary contacts, must all have unique e-mail addresses.

Creating CSM Company, Contacts, and Locations

A new CSM company can have multiple contacts and/or locations.

  • Open your BigCommerce B2B Sales Channel
  • From the Related ribbon, then select B2B then choose Companies.
  • Choose the New action in the ribbon to open a blank CSM Company Card
  • Fill in the following fields:
    • BC Customer: enter a Business Central customer.
    • Name: this will be automatically populated with the name of the assigned Business Central customer, but you can manually change it if you want to identify the company by a different name on BigCommerce.
    • Notes: you can optionally enter any notes about the company in this field.  This field is for informational purposes only and is not communicated to BigCommerce.
    • Status: select a status for the CSM company. This allows you to manage the status of the company as it exists on BigCommerce.  For example, you might initially indicate that a company’s status is pending, then update it to approved at a later time and send this update to BigCommerce.

Once you have set up a CSM company, you can define company contacts. A CSM company must have at least one company contact, which corresponds to the primary contact that is assigned to the related Business Central customer. If the customer has additional contacts, they can also be created for the company.

  • On the CSM Company Contacts FastTab, choose the New action in the ribbon to open a blank CSM company contact card.
  • In the BC Contact Code field, enter the customer’s primary contact. 
  • From the Actions ribbon select Data and then choose Sync Company Contact.  This will instruct CSM to automatically populate name, phone, and e-mail information from the assigned contact.
  • From the Actions ribbon select Data and then choose Link or create CSM customer. CSM will attempt to link the new CSM contact to one of the sales channel’s existing CSM customers using the assigned e-mail address. If it is unable to find a matching e-mail address, a new CSM customer will be automatically created and linked to the CSM contact.
  • In the Role field, select one of the sales channel’s contact roles to the contact.  BigCommerce requires the assignment of a role to all users. 
  • Repeat steps above to set up additional CSM contacts for the company.
  • When you are done setting up CSM contacts, return to the General FastTab of the CSM Company Card
  • In the Main Contact Name field assign one of the company’s contacts as the main contact

You can also define one or more company locations for the CSM company. A CSM company must have at least one company location, which corresponds to the address information that is assigned to the related Business Central customer or a ship-to address. If the customer has additional ship-to addresses, they can also be created for the company.

  • On the CSM Company Locations FastTab, choose New from the ribbon to open a blank CSM company location card.
  • In the Company Location Type field, select the source of the company location:
    • Customer: the company location is based on the related Business Central customer’s address information.
    • Ship-To: the company location is based on one of the related Business Central customer’s ship-to addresses. 
  • If you choose the Ship-To option, you must also enter the Location Type Code field to assign the desired ship-to address.

When these selections are made the Billing and Shipping FastTabs will be automatically populated with information from corresponding fields on the related Business Central record.

  • In the Name field, enter a name to better identify the company location.
  • Enable the Is Billing and Is Shipping fields to indicate whether the company location is used for billing and/or
  • Enable the Is Default Billing and Is Default Shipping fields to indicate whether the company location is used as the default location for billing and/or shipping. A CSM company can only have a single default billing and shipping location.
  • Repeat steps above to set up additional CSM locations for the company.
  • When you are done setting up CSM locations, return to the General FastTab of the CSM Company Card page
  • In the Default Billing Location and Default Shipping Location fields, assign one of the company’s locations as the default shipping and/or billing location.

Sending CSM Company Information to BigCommerce

Once you have set up a CSM company and its related contacts and locations, you can send this information to BigCommerce:

  • on the CSM Company Card page, choose the Actions ribbon, then select Channel Integration then Send Company to channel.

CSM will send the CSM company’s information to BigCommerce, where a new company will be created. This company’s ID will then be retrieved by CSM and entered in the External ID field on the Company Status FastTab.  BigCommerce will also create a new B2B user and customer based on the company’s primary contact.

  • From the Actions ribbon, select Retrieve information from channel and then choose Retrieve contacts.
  • CSM will retrieve the contact’s customer ID from BigCommerce and enter it in the External Customer ID field on the relevant line in the CSM Company Contacts FastTab.

If you have defined additional contacts for the CSM company, you can now send them to BigCommerce:

  • On the CSM Company Contacts FastTab, select the contact you want to send to BigCommerce
  • Select the Channel integration menu group on the CSM Company Contacts FastTab, then choose the Send Company Contact to channel action.

CSM will send the information for the selected CSM company contact to BigCommerce, where a new B2B user and customer will be created. The contact’s customer ID will then be retrieved by CSM and entered in the External Customer ID field on the relevant line on the CSM Company Contacts FastTab.

  • Repeat steps above to send additional CSM company locations to BigCommerce

Note: it is necessary to link these BigCommerce customer IDs to the corresponding CSM customer records. This process will be automated in a future Suite Engine release, but for the time being it is a manual activity.

  • Copy the retrieved external customer IDs
  • Close the various CSM pages until you have returned to the CSM Sales Channel page for your BigCommerce sales channel
  • From the Related ribbon, select Customers then choose Sales Channel Customers
  • On the CSM Customers page, locate the CSM customer records that represent the CSM company’s contact. 
  • In the External ID field, paste the appropriate customer ID

If you have defined locations for the CSM company, you can now send them to BigCommerce

  • Re-open the CSM company from the CSM Sales Channel card by choosing the Related ribbon, then selecting the B2B menu group and choosing the Companies action.
  • On the CSM Company Locations FastTab, select the location you want to send to BigCommerce.
  • Select the Channel integration menu group on the CSM Company Locations FastTab, then choose the Send Company Location to channel action.

CSM will send the information for the selected CSM company location to BigCommerce, where a new B2B address will be created. The address’s ID will then be retrieved by CSM and entered in the External ID field on the relevant line on the CSM Company Locations FastTab.

  • Repeat steps above to send additional CSM company locations to BigCommerce

Next: BigCommerce B2B Company Maintenance Activities