Customer Accounts

On the Wholesale store, it is important to follow these practices when creating and maintaining customer accounts.

  • To add or edit Customer accounts, go to Customers | Manage Customers in the Magento backend.
  • To select only the customers who belong to your site, choose from the "Website" dropdown at the top right of the list, then click the orange "Search" button.
  • Click on any customer row to edit, or use the orange "Add New Customer" button in the top right to add new.

Editing a Customer account

  • When entering a customer account you will only use the first three items in the Customer Information menu on the left side: Customer View to see an overview, Account Information for general information about the account, and Addresses to enter names and addresses for billing and/or shipping.
  • Saving. You can save your work at any time by using the orange "Save"  or "Save and Continue Editing" buttons in the top right. If you have errors or have not filled in a required field, there will be an error message at the top of the screen (below the Magento main menu.)

Manage Customers

Account Information

  • If you are creating a new customer account, make sure you choose your store from the first pulldown labelled "Associate to Website". You cannot change this setting once you have first saved the account!
    If you do not set the proper store here, you must delete the account and start over.
  • Group. The customer group determines the customer's discounts. For the Wholesale store, the normal choice is "Wholesale".
  • First Name. Enter the customer's Retail Pro account number here,
  • Last Name. Enter the name of the customer (the name of the business or account, not the contact person's name.)

This First and Last name will appear at top of all website pages while this customer is logged in. They will also appear in the customer emails that are sent when an order is placed and shipped.

  • Email. Every account must have an email address. And no two accounts can have the same email address. If you do not know the email address for a customer, enter a made-up address, like this: "msw+" then the RP account number then "@mysticseaport.org". For instance, if you had no email address for the example customer, you would enter "msw+30109@mysticseaport.org".
  • Tax/VAT number. This field is available to store a tax ID if you choose.
  • Password. Type a long (very long) nonsense string of characters in this field the first time you set up the account. It will never be needed, so there is no need to write it down.
  • The remaining fields should be left blank. They will take care of themselves.

Customer Information

Addresses

  • Use the orange "Add New Address" button to add another address (!)
  • In each address block in the center of the screen there are two buttons. The "x" button deletes that address. The blue button chooses that address for editing.
  • The fields are pretty much self-explanatory. The address info, including the name and Company Name, will appear on invoices and shipping lists.
  • Blank required fields. First Name and Last Name are required. Sometimes one or the other may need to be blank because you don't know the contact's full name. In that case, type a period in the field.
  • Country and State/Region. The Country field is a dropdown—if the country you need is not available, please ask and it can be added. If the country you choose requires a State or Region, that field will appear after you choose from the Country dropdown.
  • Second telephone. Magento only offers one phone field. If you need to enter a second phone number, use the Fax field.
  • Kluging. Don't kluge the address fields. The City needs to be in the City field and the ZIP or postal code in the Zip/Postal code field, even for foreign addresses.

Customer Addresses