Can I offer customer-specific product access on my skincare website?

Store Design
1

Hi

I work with a variety of different skincare brands, 2 of which are medical grade & have strict internet/brand protection rules. If I don’t adhere to the rules then they will end my supply contract instantly. The two non-negotiable rules are:

  1. No RRP of individual products advertised online

2)No Products sold without carrying out skin analysis first

What we are approved to do, to allow our clients the convenience to buy online from our website, is once I have carried out skin analysis and prescribed products, allow them to log in to their own customer account where they will have approval to purchase ONLY THE PRODUCTS THEY HAVE BEEN PRESCRIBED. So basically each customer log-in could have a different product shop.

Can anyone tell me if this is possible to do on Shopify? I’m a complete technophobe so have no idea if this is doable and before I waste time, hours & money going down the rabbit hole of learning it all I figured I would just ask first.

It is worth mentioning that I have online booking and can do virtual skin analysis and also that I am allowed to advertise packages pricing so for instance I can advertise a starter kit of 3 products at such and such price - as long as individual prices aren’t advertised.

any advice welcome on the easiest way to incorporate this

thanks!

2

Hey @TH1982

Welcome to the Shopify Community! Thanks for posting this here - I think it’s a really interesting scenario.

After reading through your post, I can see that you have some very specific requirements for how you sell your products, which are enforced by your suppliers. I totally understand why you would want some sort of system like that in place, so that you can ensure the continuity of your supply contract.

I am not a developer myself, so from a technical point of view I cannot offer an exact solution as Shopify does not offer this advanced functionality as standard, however it does sound like something that should be achievable. There may be others here in the Shopify Community that can offer their insight also! As far as I can see, there are two main ways that you could approach this:

  1. Considering using a pre-made app from the Shopify App store. I had a look and there are quite a few apps that offer customer access & product restrictions. I would suggest taking a look at the current offering of apps, and contacting the developers of whichever ones you like the look of. You could explain your exact use case to them and they should be able to advise whether or not their app will work for you.

    To contact the app developers, simply click into the Support tab on the app store page, and you will see the relevant contact methods. Here’s a few that I would recommend checking out:

  2. Hire a professional developer to help you implement a custom solution on your store. This will most likely work out more expensive than simply using a pre-existing app, so perhaps you should only consider this route if the above doesn’t work out. I would recommend checking out the Shopify Experts website - here you can find many freelance developers who can carry out a wide variety of jobs such as app creation and custom coding solutions.

    The Shopify Partners who offer their services on the Shopify Experts website are trusted and usually have a proven track record, which you can see on their profile before engaging with them.

I’d love to know what you think about those two solutions - and if you do come across another way to achieve, this I would be very interested to hear about it! Have you been selling products on your Shopify store for long, or are you just starting out and currently getting set up with everything?

3

Hi Rick

Thank You so much for your reply, the Apps most definitely sound like the most cost effective option to trial first. I will check out the ones you have recommended and ask for advice from them to make sure it fits the need of the business.

My shop isn’t up and running yet - just at the planning stage. I wanted to make sure this particular method was doable first before I proceed as if shopify couldn’t I would have to look elsewhere but I think the apps must be the answer - there must be so many business who lock pricing etc until approved. I know when I create accounts with wholesalers I can’t see pricing etc until they approve me as a qualified business so it must be on the same lines as that

Thanks again for your response and recommendations!

Tracy

4

Sanity check, A suppliers viewpoint is the only one that matters when it comes to a contract.

Always check if a supplier is aware of a platform/service such as shopify and if they understand it or provide guidance, OR have other merchants using it already.

Hi @TH1982 , Many solutions some simple that may not require apps, but there are gotchas depending on how strict the supplier is, see “adverting” below.

For the online-sales channel the simplest solution is to use customer tags with a theme customization for content gating like this to control what accounts can see things such as product price, the add-to-cart or checkout buttons. There are many posts in the forums about that topic.

And most content control apps allow using customer tags to control access.

  1. No RRP of individual products advertised online> > 2)No Products sold without carrying out skin analysis first

If they are okay with prices being shown on a website itself you should be fine.

There are gotchas on shopify to be aware of with price publishing, while the keyword “advertised” in the rule may mean a purposeful intent to market it by purchasing ad space , making youtube videos, tweeting a sale /w price etc…

There are actions in shopify where product prices will be easily exposed online by default so you want to be sure your obligations do not count such displays as “advertising”.

Example if you added the facebook channel showing products with prices on a facebook page that is NOT paid advertising. Or attached a google shopping feed, etc.

AJAX api data

Note: You cannot turn off the online-sales channel ajax api as themes & apps depend on it.

Be aware that when using the online-sales-channel even if you content gate your products with the theme system and|or an app that the AJAX api still leaks. So someone without an allowed account may not be able to see the rendered page /products/medical-skincare and it’s price but they could still inspect the .json endpoint and see the price there in the JSON data.

To get around this if that’s counted as “advertising” you would need to either implement a solution where a product on the frontend has no price in tandem with draft orders with custom line item prices. Or use the storefront api and run your own website instead of the online-sales channel so you can have strict control of where prices are exposed.

If the product is extremely valued by consumers, example a new supreme drop, also be aware the ajax api on the onlines sales channel means technically inclined purchasers can use it to get to checkout bypassing standard content gating.

To prevent clever users buying a product using the ajax-api despite not being approved with you will need backend automation checking a customers order is valid.

5

Hi @TH1982

You are most welcome! I hope my information will be helpful to you while you get this set up on your store. I can see @PaulNewton has also provided some more in-depth technical information, so you have some resources to help you get started!

Well done on carrying out research first before jumping in and launching your store - it sounds like you have planned this carefully which is great.

I think that it is a good idea to approach some app developers first and inquire about the apps. They should be able to easily tell you if their particular app will be applicable to your situation. Also, by going this route you will avoid installing and paying for apps that you might not keep in the long run.

Besides this specific requirement - how is the rest of your store setup going? Just so you know, we have some excellent resources available for new merchants looking to learn more about Shopify and get set up with their store. In particular I would recommend checking out the following: