Using the Public Store feature, Partners can set up and embed a version of their Store on their own website. There are different workflows for accepting payments depending on whether or not you are set up to use Vendasta payments. Partners can decide if website visitors create their own account, submit an order, purchase services instantly, and auto assign salespeople to a new account.
Why are the Public Store and the shopping cart important?
Partners can use the Public Store to showcase their products and services, collect contact information from visitors who are interested in a product, and automatically send an assigned salesperson a hot lead notification.
How to use your public store with the shopping cart
The Shopping Cart’s functionality changes depending on whether or not Vendasta Payments has been set up:
If you’re using Vendasta Payments, customers can enter their credit card information to purchase and activate the products in their cart. Users will also receive a receipt for their payment via email. Once you have enabled Vendasta Payments, you will be able to accept credit card payments from your customers via the Shopping Cart.
If you are not using Vendasta Payments (or when the cart contains one or more products that can’t be purchased through the Shopping Cart,the Shopping Cart checkout process will always submit a sales order. Once the order has been reviewed and approved, the customer will be able to access the products they ordered via Business App.
When Vendasta Payments is not set up, customers will still be able to submit an order for products in their Shopping Cart.
Set up your Store
To ensure that your customers can easily browse products and services, add them to their Shopping Cart, and complete a purchase, we recommend reviewing the setup steps for accepting purchases using the Shopping Cart.
For partners who are not using Vendasta Payments, customers will still be able to add products to their Shopping Cart and sign in to an existing account—or create a new account—to place an order for the contents of their cart.
Embedding Your Public Store on Your Website
To configure your public store, go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Manage Store > Public Store.
To allow website visitors to sign in to an existing account or create a new account directly from your Public Store copy the Embed Code (with Sign In) snippet and paste it into a top-level page on your website. Your Public Store will display a Sign in/ Create an account button at the top of the page, in addition to a Shopping Cart that visitors can fill with the products and services they find in your Store.
Alternatively, copy and embed the second Embed Code snippet in your website to omit the Sign in/ Create an account button on your Public Store page. Note that customers will still be able to sign in or create a new account on your Public Store when they check out the contents of their Shopping Cart.
Creating a New Account or Signing in From the Public Store
Customers viewing your Public Store now have the ability to sign in to an existing account or create a new account directly from your Public Store. This can happen one of two ways:
- Customers can click the Sign in/ Create an account button at the top of your Public Store, or
- Customers can check out the contents of their Shopping Cart, which requires them to sign in or create a new account to continue
Customers who do not have an existing account can easily create one by clicking Create an account. They will be presented with a form through which they can input their email address, and search for their business to automatically create their account. If their business can’t be found, they can click 'Click here to manually create an account' to manually input the following information necessary to create their account:
- Email address
- First and last name
- Business name
- Business category
- Country or region
- Street address
- City
- State or province
- ZIP/Postal code
- Business phone number
Your customer will then receive an email through which they can set their password. Once their password has been set, they can sign in to your Business App with their new account.
Note that, currently, your Automatic Activation settings in Partner Center > Marketplace > Products will not apply to new accounts created through the Shopping Cart from your Public Store. Accounts created by Partner Center users will still include automatically activated products.
After signing in to Business App, your customer’s Shopping Cart contents will be automatically carried over from your Public Store. Customers can continue browsing your Store and adding products to their cart and can complete the checkout process to purchase or place an order for the contents of their cart.
Auto-assigning new accounts to salespeople
Just like when a Partner Center user creates accounts, new accounts created by customers in your Public Store can be automatically assigned to salespeople and/or placed on email campaigns using the auto-assign rules you have set in Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts.