Roles & Rules B2B enable role-based pricing for B2B / wholesaler customers or a hybrid B2C/B2B solution, show store as catalog, set discount on categories, products and set up sales in the store.
Installation ↑ Back to top
- Download the .zip file from your WooCommerce account.
- Go to: WordPress Admin > Plugins > Add New
- Upload the ZIP file using the, “choose file” button.
- Activate the extension.
More information at: Installing and Managing Plugins.
Setup and Configuration↑ Back to top
B2BKing is a WooCommerce ad-on plugin that provides a complete platform for running a B2B wholesale solution in WooCommerce. The plugin really does have it all. While being packed full of features, it won’t slow your site down, works seamlessly with WooCommerce, and does not conflict with other plugins. B2B Multi-Vendor Marketplace for WooCommerce allows the buyers to chat with the suppliers for any query or discussion regarding the product quote. The chat system will be managed by the supplier end that is known as ChitChat. B2B Market The first B2B solution for WooCommerce. WooCommerce and B2B shops finally make the perfect match – including in the German-speaking area. Set yourself up for both B2B and B2C sales. Benefit from tailored pricing for specific customer groups, VAT number validation, sliding-scale prices, sophisticated discounts and much more besides. B2B companies often have custom needs that don’t fit WooCommerce. Here are a few examples. Multiple users per account. B2B companies can have multiple people who serve as buyers on the same account. Choose between B2B Shop and B2B+B2C Shop types. The main difference between the two: There are B2B – only functionalities such as Messages or Shopping lists that are visible in users’ My Account panels. If the shop type is B2B, all users are considered B2B and will see these. Otherwise, only selected users will see them.
To set up your store with Roles & Rules B2B:
Go too: WooCommerce > Settings > Roles & Rules B2B.
The options are:
- Hide Prices: This option hides prices and cart functionally for users who are not logged in. This option also changes the “add to cart” button to “view product.” Your shop is now like a product catalog with no prices. If you do not use this option, your store shows your normal prices for B2C customers.
- Not Logged In price Text: If you would like, you can write text here instead of just having a hidden price. For example: Login to view prices.
- Hide retail price: Use this option if you do not want to show the retail price (current price before i.e rule reduction). After clicking this option your store only shows the B2B price for your customers.
- Hide variable retail price (from – to): If you have variable prices with no price range the price will be like this:
$20 – $0To avoid this you can hide the prices or set a price range. - Text before variable price: You can add i.e a label like From to get i.e From $10, then when you select a variant you get the specific price on that variation.
- Text after retail price: Write i.e RRP here to show customers what this price is. Format will be: $10.00 RRP. Setting a text in this field will add a new line after retail price and text.
- Text after B2B price: If you like to explain the B2B price i.e no VAT or the like. The text will come after the B2B price like this; $8.00 ex. VAT.
- Show reduction in %: With this option you can show your customers the reduction in percent. The reduction shows below/after the price.
- Text before reduction: If you like to set a text before reduction like; You save 30%, just enter “You save” in this text box.
- Set reduction text after %: If you like to set a text after reduction like; 30% reduction, enter “reduction” in this text box.
- Coupon label: If you enable and use coupons, you can set the text that will explain the extra discount you give your customers on checkout. Default text is: Extra discount.
Remember to click the “Save changes” button.
Next: Start setting up Roles and Rules
Go to: WooCommerce > Roles & Rules B2B
Set up Roles↑ Back to top
To use Roles & Rules you need to have Roles for your B2B or B2C users. Role names can be anything i.e: Wholesaler (something) or VIP Customers, these roles will then be used for your customers. In WP Admin > Users you can easily bulk update users with a Role.
If you need a role for a customer group (users), add a role name and a slug for that role. Slugs must be a whole word I.e wholesaler_vip. After this just click the “save” button. Now you can add users (customers) to this role. Above the “add role” section you will find a button which says, “add users to role.” This button sends you to the users list. Here you can bulk add users to any role. Add your users (customers) to the created role and use the button, “Roles & Rules B2B” to get back to Roles & Rules to continue adding roles or set up rules for the new roles.
Every role created here has minimal rights, so the logged in users have no abilities in WP Admin.
Set up General Rules↑ Back to top
Click the “General” tab (default view). Here you can set up every rule for your roles. Find: Create rule for > Select role > select your role and click the + button. Now you can start setting up rules for this Role. Free powerpoint for mac os x. Operation flashpoint red river for mac.
The columns:
- Active: make sure to check this to make the rule active for the role you are currently editing.
- Role: this column shows the role name (slug) and below a count of users assigned to this role. The column can be sorted by ASC (default) and DESC.
- Rule: General: this is the main column for setting up rules for a user role. First we decide if we want to adjust prices in percent or by fixed price. Let’s say we want to reduce in percent (select box: Adjust price by), then we enter a value like 5. Then the general rule is a 5% reduction on every product/variation in the store for this role. It is possible to increase prices or give reductions on your current prices using the adjust price via, “select dropdown options”.
- Default rule for categories: Here you can add extra rules for this role. If you have categories you want to give extra reductions to, just check those categories. Below that, you will find an input field. Add your desired discount, 15 here (in this case will be 15% a reduction in percent set, as the general rule). Now this role has a 5% reduction on every product/variation and 15% reduction on your products in the selected categories.
- The tab Categories has options to set rules for any selected category. More information on this page.
- Checkbox: Set category products: On Sale. When this is checked the products in the categories selected will appear in the store as, “On Sale” with sales badges (by your design in the store). If however, you have chosen to increase your prices, the sale is not valid and sales text (+badges) will not show.
- Coupon dropdown box: Here you can select one of your coupons to add to your rule. This is handy if you like to set an extra discount on checkout if i.e the customer purchase for i.e $300 or more. If you like to give your customers free shipping and more. The Edit Coupons button sends you direct to edit coupons.
- Default rule for categories: Here you can add extra rules for this role. If you have categories you want to give extra reductions to, just check those categories. Below that, you will find an input field. Add your desired discount, 15 here (in this case will be 15% a reduction in percent set, as the general rule). Now this role has a 5% reduction on every product/variation and 15% reduction on your products in the selected categories.
- Rule: Sale: This column is for storewide sales for the current role; this sale will override the general rule(s). First set reduction in percent or set fixed value + the sale value, then set sale start and sale end date using the date selectors + save rule. Once saved, your sale starts and ends on the set dates. The sale will show as on sale in the store with sales badges displayed. Sales are only valid if they have start and end dates.
Set up Category rules ↑ Back to top
This tab: Categories is for setting up rules for any category for you current role. Start by checking the categories you want (or the check all button) to have rules for + Add categories (button). Then you will see this categories is populated in a table to the right of the catalog tree. This is how the category table works:
- Remove (column): If you check this + Save changes (button) you remove this category rule.
- Category: The name of the category
- Hide: By checking this the category will be hidden and its products for the role you edit.
- Sale: If you check this for a category the category and its products will be on sale (including badges as in a normal B2C Woo store). However this only works if you have added values in Adjust and Value.
- Adjust: Use the select dropdown to select the type of adjustment you want on this category i.e Reduce by percent. Important to set or no adjustments will be made.
- Value: Set a numeric value her i.e 20 ( 20% when Adjust is in Reduce by percent).
- Save changes button: Use this after you have made changes in the categories table.
Set up product rules ↑ Back to top
The tab: Products give you the option to set prices on selected products or variations. On this page you can filter by role (dropdown box), this is handy if you have many products on a role. This is how it works (columns in the table):
- Active: If a green icon is shown, this rule is active
- Role: Shows the role and the amount of users attached to this role
- Search product: start typing a product and suggestions will appear, select the product/variation you want and click the Add (button). This adds the product to the product table.
- Rule Products: Shows all the rules you have created and enables you to add products with specific rules.
- Remove: Check this if you want to remove product rule (and Save changes)
- Product thumbnail: Move mouse over and magnify the image
- Product: Shows the name of the product / variation
- Hide: Check if you want to hide a product for the role. (read in FAQ for more info)
- Price: Shows the current price of your product (not adjusted by any rule).
- Adjust: Select dropdown box with these options:
- Reduce by percent (%)
- Reduce by fixed amount
- Increase by percent (%)
- Increase by fixed amount
- Fixed price
- Value: Set the value that will use the adjust rule (i.e reduce by percent)
- Save changes button – saves the values in the product table.
- Remove: Check this if you want to remove product rule (and Save changes)
Read the FAQ’s below to understand in what way the rules are applied and the order of them.
Usage↑ Back to top
Roles & Rules B2B is primarily created as a B2B extension, but this plugin can easily be used for B2C shops or a hybrid of both. The shop will work as normal for users who are not logged in, but if users are logged in and have a role that uses an active rule the extension will provide this users special prices based on your rules. So, if you use your shop for both B2B and B2C you can have a group of B2C VIP customers that you want to give special prices to on certain products. The other B2C customers will just see your regular prices.
Prices↑ Back to top
Roles & Rules B2B does not create any extra price fields on your products, the plugin uses your current product prices for the calculations. This means that when you show your prices in your B2B store the customer will see your regular price and your B2B price; like this: $40.00 – $30.00 (default setting). However, if you increase prices, the price will be shown like this: $40.00. There are several options for setting prices and labels for prices. In Roles & Rules settings you find several options for showing percentage reductions and labels for this.
Hidden prices / Catalog mode ↑ Back to top
You can easily hide prices and shop functionality using the hide prices checkbox in the Roles & Rules B2B settings. You also have the option to write text instead of empty prices; like: Login to view price. If the “hide prices” option is active your shop acts as a product catalog for both non logged in users and users with no active rule.
Using Coupons ↑ Back to top
You can apply a coupon to a rule easy by selecting the coupon that fit your customers. This can be i.e if customer purchase for more than $300 – customer gets a $20 discount and i.e free shipping. Use the button Edit Coupons to set up and edit your coupons. If Coupons is not present go to WooCommerce > Settings > General, find enable coupons and check this. Read more about coupons here:
Sales↑ Back to top
There are many reasons for setting up sales for your store – even for a B2B store. In Roles & Rules B2B you can easily set up sales on selected categories or set up a storewide sale using start and end dates. When setting up a sale, your B2B store behaves just like the B2C store with sales badges on your products. This means you can have many different sales based on the roles and rules you set up – running whenever you want.
To set it up a sale, use the “reduce price by” section, select the dropdown box, and select your desired method, like percent. Then set the percentage value to something like 30. This will calculate 30% off your current prices and display in the store like this: $40.00 – $30.00 and the “On Sale” badges will be shown. After setting the percentage value, you just need to set the start and end date for the sale. Enter the date fields and select your dates in the date selectors. Use the “clear sale” button if you want to set a new sale or just remove the current sale. Once finished – just click the “save rule” button and make sure the rule is active (first column).
Delete rule ↑ Back to top
To delete a rule, just click the “delete rule” button (red text). When you click this a message box is shown (ok or cancel). So make sure that no users have this role and that the role is not active before you delete it. The user role remains available and you can create a new rule again on this role as desired.
Last modified label ↑ Back to top
Below the save rule and delete rule you will find the date and time for when the table was last modified and by whom.
Logged in↑ Back to top
Logged in users that have an active rule for their role will see their discounts and sales. If the rule for this role is not active, the user will instead see the default prices in the shop with no discounts.
Not logged in↑ Back to top
If nothing is set in Roles & Rules settings then the typical customer will see your normal prices, general sales, and your normal shop. If you have selected the option to hide prices in the Roles & Rules settings, the typical customer will see no prices on products and only a “view product” button instead of “add to cart.” In addition, shop functionality like cart and checkout will be hidden.
FAQs↑ Back to top
Can I use Roles & Rules B2B for a hybrid store (B2B and B2C)?↑ Back to top
Yes you can, if you have customers you would like to give special prices to you can set up roles and rules for them. When they log in they will get the prices for that role.
How does hidden products work? ↑ Back to top
If you hide a product the product will not be visible in the store unless there is a database query i.e specific for a plugin or a theme that overrides this. So be sure to test with a test user that it works on your store.
Is the prices updated at once in the store? ↑ Back to top
When you save a new rule for one of your roles it can take a maximum of 60 seconds before it is updated in the store. This is due to the way caching of prices works.
How is the order of rules applied? ↑ Back to top
When you set up rules have in mind that the price rule that is most specific ( i.e product rules ) will be used first. The exception is a storewide sale will be used if it is set – then no other rules applies. So, in short, product rules is (#1), then category rules (#2) then general rules. I.e like this:
- The general rule applies for every product i.e 10% reduction for every product
- If categories rules this applies for every product in the categories i.e 20% reduction. For products not in the categories the general rule (1) applies (in this example 10%)
- Sales rules applies for every product and rule 1, 2 and 4 is not considered when calculating the prices. Example 30% reduction storewide applies to all products/variations.
- Product rules goes before rule 1, this means that special rules set for any product will always be first applied. One thing to note is that if a product is in a category and this category has Sale, the product will be on sale (including sales badges).
- Category rules will be set after any single product rules. If there is a storewide sale this will come before any category rule
We recommend to create a test user, put this user in the role you want to check then open a private browser window – login and see how you price rules works.
WooCommerce is among the fastest growing platforms. We’ve addressed it many times, including with columnist Richard Stubbings’ series on migrating from Magento to WooCommerce. B2C merchants, especially, value WooCommerce’s flexibility and plugin options.
My expertise, however, is with B2B companies. I own a web development firm that focuses on that niche. In my experience, companies with meaningful B2B sales should not choose WooCommerce.
To be sure, my company does not build WordPress or WooCommerce sites. We recommend other platforms because our firm focuses on manufacturers and distributors with $50-$500 million in annual revenue. We don’t believe that WordPress and WooCommerce is the right solution for these companies. There are successful B2B merchants using WooCommerce. In this post, however, I’ll explain why it is not the best choice.
In my experience, companies with meaningful B2B sales should not choose WooCommerce.
Security Concerns
A customer once contacted my company in a panic. The customer’s WordPress site had been compromised and was being used to host a phishing attack on other businesses. We had not set up that site, but we worked with the customer to clean and harden it as an initial step. Eventually, we moved the company to a different platform.
That customer is not alone. WordPress continues to be the most infected content management system — 83 percent of infected websites in 2016 were on WordPress, according to a report by Sucuri, a security platform.
Security vulnerabilities can also be introduced by the more than 55,000 WordPress plugins. The availability of these plugins is often seen as a benefit. While WordPress’s core software is created by a skilled development team, the ability of plugin developers varies, in my experience.
There are ways to improve WordPress’s security. I am not willing to assume that risk when setting up an ecommerce store, nor do I feel comfortable recommending it to a company that is responsible for protecting its customers’ data.
Doesn’t Scale
As a website grows — with more visitors, products, orders, and customers — its speed and performance cannot suffer. This is a problem for many WordPress sites, where growth equals slower performance. Speed matters. A delay in load time reduces conversions.
Certainly many WordPress sites can handle a large number of traffic and transactions. But it typically requires heavy configuration, including hosting tweaks and development effort.
Free, or Not
WordPress is an open source platform with a community of contributors, but not a lot of controls and not a lot of support options. There are companies that specialize in WordPress support. But support from WordPress directly, via its VIP support program, starts at $15,000 per year. For that kind of money, use a stronger platform than WordPress, especially for B2B.
Woocommerce Plugin
B2B Specifics
B2B companies often have custom needs that don’t fit WooCommerce. Tor using proxifier. Here are a few examples.
B2b Woocommerce
- Multiple users per account. B2B companies can have multiple people who serve as buyers on the same account. They all need to log in and obtain special pricing. They may need to see each other’s orders. WooCommerce is not set up for this. Customizing it could be messy and expensive.
- Non-standard checkout. Many B2B companies have special checkout configuration requirements. Certain chemical products cannot ship to some states, for example. There are WooCommerce plugins that will enable a merchant to restrict shipping in this manner. But we once worked with a company that wanted the checkout process to recommend another product if the original one was restricted. We were able to implement this in a straightforward way in the software we chose. It would have been more difficult in WooCommerce.
- Ongoing maintenance. In software development, there is usually a way to get things done. But it may make the application more difficult to maintain, costing time and money. It is important to use a platform that enables scalable innovation instead of piecing together plugins and layering your customizations on top and then maintaining them across updates to the core product and the plugins.
Woocommerce For Wordpress
The Right Tool
Don’t pick WordPress because it is well known, or it seems inexpensive. Understand your company’s B2B opportunities and unique requirements. Pick a platform to get you there.