How can we improve B2B login and UX without additional apps?

[Gibbs]

The normal login portal needs to be able to recognize B2B customers. Don't tell me that I need to download a certain app. If the function of B2B is to have your "wholesale" customers and B2C customers on the same web experience with different pricing, they need to be able to have the same login, and their prices adjust accordingly. I hope this becomes a function of the new B2B experience. 

The only way for B2B customers to log into their account is to go to their "B2B account access emaill" and log in through their email. If my B2B customers ever get logged out, they have been returning to the "login" tab and get frustrated when their prices aren't adjusted. I then have to get them to return t the original B2B access email, if they have it, or send them a new access email.  This is a poor UX for B2B customers to have to go outside of the webpage they are trying to buy our products from to login. I've had several of my B2B clients complain about the functionality.

[-Gita]

Hi Gibbs. Sorry to hear your B2B customers are having difficulty logging in. The best/easiest way to have your B2B and D2C customers able to log in using the same login portal is to enable New customer accounts for all your users, which is a more secure login experience. You can do this from the Admin under Settings > Customer Accounts > Choose "New customer accounts" under the "Accounts in online store and checkout" section. If for some reason you don't want your D2C users to use new customer accounts (i.e., you want to keep them on Classic customer accounts) you can also add a button or link in your store header or navigation (you could call it something like "Wholesale Login" or "B2B Customer Login") to points to the new customer login URL for your store (you can find this URL in Settings > Customer account under the "URL" section at the bottom)

[jclarklanza]

The decision to force all merchants to switch to such a terrible login flow is absolutely insane. I genuinely cannot believe you guys have implemented this as-is, likely without any input from the merchants who it affects. Who the hell thought this through and finalized this decision? It should have never made it this far to begin with. I'm genuinely baffled by this, and the lack of an alternative.

What a freaking disappointment you guys have become.

[arranch1]

we hear that Wintereditions24 is just about to be released... and with shopify specifically mentioning that they're putting a lot of emphasis on B2B, hopefully they've taken note from those of us that live and breathe B2B, and release some fixes to solve these issues. They're genuinely only small tweaks that are needed... the sort of thing that should only take a few hours to fix... The unfriendly passwordless login is definitely a big issue for merchants. @-Gita please make sure this is on the roadmap for next week's release.

[arranch1]

Hello @-Gita any feedback when this is going to be sorted? Winter Editions2024 has come and gone and this has unfortunately still not been resolved. If you guys are serious about supporting B2B and DT2-B2B mixed companies, this needs to be given priority... otherwise you'll be loosing these big companies to your favorite competitors who handle this very professionally.

I don't think I've come across a single shopify store setup with this whacky new account login.

https://www.shopify.com/news/hot-take-b2b-is-the-biggest-commerce-opportunity-of-2024

[jclarklanza]

+1 this needs absolute priority 

[almurray10]

Agree with everything about this! Many of our B2B customers have reported frustration with the login experience. Some companies want to share a login among several users, and just simply want to login with an email/password - not retrieve a code from an email every time. Username/password login capability should be a priority on the Shopify B2B roadmap!

[arranch1]

Fully agree that this needs to be streamlined with the next updates of B2B. The B2B features are not only used by "wholesalers" but also standard D2C clients that buy bulk quantities. These 2 customer types are often merged nowadays, especially with large D2C clients wanting to buy online rather than by phone/email. Also having to login with a 1-time email confirmation code just seems so clunky and unfriendly UX.

Also the B2B needs to have an additional feature to allow us to assign a catalogue for "all visitors", including those that are not logged in. Not just people logged in and assigned to a company.

[JuliusJ]

+1 on this for a feature needing a solution. Hoping to see something come through in the short term.

[JosephPH]

Agreed, The decision to completely change the login process doesn't make sense. Users shouldn't be forced to change the way they login, or at least we should be given a choice of which one to use. I don't understand why B2B would be exclusive to the new accounts. I have 2 stores that I need this for, please make this a priority for upcoming updates!

[clyde_ezcloud]

• We need b2b login to support sso and process to process login with a pwd. We have a portal, and authenticate our users with Auth0, then we pass them seamlessly between numerous applications. Shopify b2b users now have to login again using the shopify dialogue, and then have to provide an otp sent to an address the user specifies in that dialogue. If b2b login worked like the old style login with multipass type capability our sso would be seamless. I would like to see this in Shopify asap, please. Roadmap Q1 2024? Even if b2b login only sent an email to the users registered email address, we could incorporate it as a "forced mfa process" and explain it is for added security.

[arranch1]

yes exactly what's we're looking for. Sincerely hope it's on the roadmap for Q1 2024

[jclarklanza]

Just circling back on this topic as it appears that B2B stores now have the option to use classic customer accounts (this doesn't seem to be documented anywhere at the moment)... however, the "store credit" feature is only compatible with the new customer accounts, and it warns you of that before switching, but it does indeed let's you switch and use the classic accounts now.

[clyde_ezcloud]

Hey - Thank you jclarklanza - that would be great news.
We will inspect and see what we find. If we see anything noteworthy, we will post an update here.

We ended up using classic accounts for the benefit of passing an SSO session via Auth0, (which we used to manage our RBAC, and controlled what the user can do on the portal we built on Shopify pages) and then forcing the user to login again anyway with a new style login to enable b2b store functionality. Hardly elegant and caused much pain for the closed-community of B2B users of the site when sessions between the two logins get all out of wack.