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B2B Accounts & Customers

Vectis supports B2B wholesale accounts, B2C retail customers, and hybrid configurations through a channel-based commerce mode system.

Commerce Modes

Each channel operates in one of three modes:

Mode Behavior
B2B (wholesale) Only authenticated account employees can browse and purchase. Full account hierarchy with locations, approval workflows, and payment terms.
B2C (retail) Individual customers register and shop. Standard e-commerce experience with guest checkout option.
Hybrid Both B2B accounts and B2C customers can use the same storefront. Pricing and features adapt based on the buyer type.

The commerce mode is set per channel in Settings → Channels.

B2B Account Hierarchy

B2B accounts use a four-level hierarchy:

graph TD
    A[Account] --> L1[Location: Main Warehouse]
    A --> L2[Location: West Coast Office]
    L1 --> E1[Employee: Jane — Buyer]
    L1 --> E2[Employee: Mike — Approver]
    L2 --> E3[Employee: Sara — Admin]
    L1 --> AD1[Address: 123 Industrial Blvd]
    L2 --> AD2[Address: 456 Commerce St]
  • Account — the company entity. Holds payment terms, tax exemption status, and customer group membership.
  • Location — a physical or logical site (warehouse, office, branch). Each location can have its own pricing, tax exemption, and shipping addresses.
  • Employee — an individual user who belongs to a location. Employees have roles that control what they can do (browse, order, approve, manage).
  • Address — shipping and billing addresses attached to locations.

Account Status Progression

Accounts move through statuses 0–11: Prospect → Applied → Documents Pending → Under Review → Verification (4–7) → Approved → Active → Suspended → Closed. Not every deployment uses all statuses — the progression can skip steps.

Tip

Only Active (9) accounts can place orders. Monitor the Accounts → Pending Review queue to keep applications moving.

Customer Groups

Customer groups are tags that drive pricing and visibility:

  • Pricing — groups map to the group-level pricing tier. Members of "Gold Distributors" see Gold pricing.
  • Product visibility — product catalogs can be restricted to specific groups (e.g., "Controlled Substances" visible only to "Licensed Pharmacies").
  • Promotion targeting — discount rules can use customer group as a condition.

An account can belong to multiple customer groups. The best price across all matching groups is used.

B2C Customers

B2C customers are a separate, simpler model:

  • Registration — email and password, optional profile fields.
  • Preferred currency — stored on the customer profile; the storefront defaults to this currency.
  • Guest checkout — when enabled on the channel, buyers can complete checkout without registering.

Note

B2C customers do not have locations, employees, or approval workflows. For B2B features, use account registration.

Channel Configuration

Channels control the buyer experience:

Setting Options Effect
commerce_mode b2b, b2c, hybrid Determines which buyer types can access the channel
login_wall_mode open, login_required, login_to_price Controls what anonymous visitors can see
guest_checkout true / false Whether B2C guests can complete checkout without registering

Login wall modes:

  • Open — anyone can browse products and see prices.
  • Login required — visitors must log in to see anything.
  • Login to price — products are visible but prices are hidden until login.

Registration & Approval

B2B Account Registration

  1. Prospect fills out the registration form (company name, tax ID, contact info).
  2. State-by-state rules may require specific documents (resale certificates, business licenses).
  3. Documents are uploaded and attached to the account.
  4. The account enters the approval workflow — staff review in the admin panel.
  5. Upon approval, the account moves to Active status and employees can log in.

Document Upload

Registration can require document uploads (PDFs, images) that are stored in S3/MinIO. Required documents are configurable per jurisdiction.

Admin Panel

From Accounts in the admin:

  • Account list — search, filter by status/group, view account details.
  • Account detail — manage locations, employees, addresses, group memberships, and payment terms.
  • Registration queue — review pending applications, request documents, approve or reject.
  • Customer groups — create and manage groups, assign accounts.
  • B2C Customers — separate list for retail customers with profile management.