When we launched SparkLayer a few years ago, one of our core goals was to make it easier for brands to manage their B2B pricing.
Simply put, when a B2B customer logs into your website, how do you show them their correct pricing? We knew first-hand the challenges brands faced and just how complex this could be: different pricing rules for different customers, quantity pricing, handling for tax, SKU-specific pricing - the list goes on!
We’re beyond excited to announce the latest innovation at SparkLayer; but, before we do, let’s start by setting the scene…
A plotted history of B2B pricing
Our approach to solving the problem of B2B pricing over the years has come in three key milestones. First, we engineered SparkLayer to have an API-first approach, allowing brands to connect pricing from their back-office system (e.g. ERPs or PIMs). This enabled total visibility and control over how B2B pricing was shown to customers online - however, it also required technical expertise to implement which was a cause of friction for many brands.
Second, based on initial feedback from our users, we devised a way to empower brands to upload pricing directly to SparkLayer via a spreadsheet file: what we came to term a ‘Manual CSV import’. This was a game-changer at the time (and still is!) and provided a simple tool to upload a spreadsheet into SparkLayer, and for customers to see the exact prices they qualified for. It meant brands could configure SKU-level- and quantity-based pricing and have total control over their pricing structures.
Third, once again based on continual user feedback, we launched the next iteration of how brands could manage pricing: automatic pricing. What if you could use the retail pricing from your eCommerce store and simply apply a percentage discount to it? With automatic pricing, you can.
For Shopify brands, merchants can simply use the Shopify retail price (e.g. $100) and set a 50% discount for their B2B customers when they log in (i.e. the B2B price was $50). This opened up an easier way to manage more simplistic pricing structures, and it was also possible to ‘combine’ manual pricing rules alongside automatic rules (e.g. overwriting the automatic pricing for a specific range of SKUs).
Announcing our latest innovation
Based on the above, you’d think this would cover all eventualities for how brands managed their B2B pricing. But one last piece of the B2B pricing puzzle was missing… discounts!
Today, we’re thrilled to announce a huge leap forward in how brands can manage pricing, with the launch of the new SparkLayer Discount Engine!
Brands using SparkLayer can now create powerful new discounts that work alongside their existing B2B pricing rules. This opens up new opportunities to run promotions and incentives that ultimately help retain customers and grow brands’ B2B businesses.
Allow your B2B customers to apply discounts during the checkout process
What’s possible
Our new Discount Engine immediately unlocks a range of game-changing discount rules including:
- Order-level discounts: eg, spend $1,000 and get 10% off, spend $2,000 and get 15% off
- Percentage and fixed discounts: eg, 20% off an order total, $100 off an order total
- Free product: eg, spend $1,000 and get free product ABC
- Coupon codes: eg, enter code NEWCUSTOMER and get 5% off
- Scheduled discounts: eg, start discount today and end it on a specific date and time
- Customer-specific discounts: eg, only allow customer group ‘b2b-vip’ qualify for the discount
And much more! You can see a full overview of what’s possible in our help guide here.
The SparkLayer Dashboard lets you configure powerful discount rules
Most importantly, discounts can be configured to work alongside existing B2B pricing that’s set up, allowing a great deal of flexibility in how pricing works. It’s entirely up to you how discounts are incorporated into your pricing rules.
Roundup
Our approach at SparkLayer has always been to continually improve our product, and we’ve got even more discount possibilities planned to be released.
If you’re already a SparkLayer customer, you can begin using the new Discount Engine right now. We can’t wait to see the creative use cases our customers solve with this new release, and how we can help them offer an even better B2B customer experience.
If you’d like to learn more about the new Discount Engine or how SparkLayer can help your B2B business, we’d love to hear from you. You can also sign up to be the first to hear of new product launches that ship from SparkLayer HQ.
Until next time!