This quickstart tutorial will help you understand how B2B Handsfree works. It takes you through the steps to configuring its settings and how the app operates once its up and running.
Let's get started.
How B2B Handsfree Works
B2B Handsfree's core feature is a custom registration form that allows B2B customers to register a customer account on your store while providing additional information that verifies that they are indeed a business.
B2B Handsfree currently only works with legacy customer accounts, not the new passwordless accounts. So if you're using passwordless customer accounts on your store, you have to switch to legacy customer accounts if you want to use B2B Handsfree.
The custom registration form is intended to be added to your store's registration page. There it can either be used alongside the default registration form, or, if you want to use B2B Handsfree exclusively for registering customers, it can replace the default registration form.
Key element of the registration process is the customer's EU VAT ID number. The vast majority of businesses registered in the EU have a VAT ID, a unique sequence of letters and numbers that identifies a business.
B2B Handsfree's registration form requires customers to enter and validate their VAT ID. This validation process occurs in real time by querying the official VIES system of the European Commission.
B2B Handsfree's registration form with the VAT ID field waiting for the customer to enter and validate their VAT ID.
If the customer's VAT ID is successfully validated, they can proceed with the registration by filling out the registration form.
The Registration Process
Once a customer has successfully validated their VAT ID, the full registration form is shown which the customer then fills in with their business information.
B2B Handsfree's registration form after successfull validation of a VAT ID.
When the customer has filled out all the required form fields, she clicks the registration button. B2B Handsfree then creates a customer account on your Shopify store for this customer with the details provided by the customer.
What happens next depends on how you've configured B2B Handsfree's settings. So let's take a look at those, you can access them from the app's dashboard by clicking Edit settings.
B2B Handsfree's settings.
You can click the little question mark icon next to each setting to get details on what each option does. But let's quickly go through them.
The first option determines whether B2B Handsfree send you (the store owner) a notification email each time a new B2B customer registers through the app's registration form. The second option determines whether new B2B customers who are located outside of your store's country should be set to tax exempt. And the third option determines whether Shopify should send new B2B customers automatic customer account invites.
The text field at the bottom lets you assign one or more tags to each new B2B customer. This can be useful when you're using other apps to create customer-specific pricing or only showing certain parts of your store to certain customers.
After the Registration
Once the registration process is complete and a customer has a customer account, they can then log into their account and shop on your store. For each order they place, B2B Handsfree adds their VAT ID to the order data from where you can then use it on your invoices.
Provided you've configured B2B Handsfree to set customers to tax exempt and your store is using ex-VAT prices, foreign B2B customers will be able to make purchases without paying VAT.
Where to go from here
That covers the basics of what you can do with B2B Handsfree.
If you want to go a step further and customize the registration form, you can do so by adding additional fields with the Custom Fields feature. If you want to show prices on your store only to your registered B2B customers, check out this page on how to set that up using B2B Handsfree's tagging feature and additional apps. If you want to offer different prices to your B2B customers, you can use B2B Handsfree's tagging feature together with wholesale pricing apps.
Be sure to also check out our Knowledge Base that answers many common questions. And if you have any questions not answered there, feel free to open a support ticket through the messenger in the bottom right corner of this help site.