How the site and the platform fit together
Understand what is shared between your site and your Kabaido account, and what happens to an order placed online.
There is one product database, one customer list and one order book, and they are the platform's. The site reads from them and writes back into them, which is the whole reason Commerce is a module rather than a web project.
| On the site | In the platform |
|---|---|
| A product page | A catalogue record, including its price and specification |
| A registered account | A customer, with any special pricing you have agreed |
| An order placed online | A platform order, with the same numbering, documents and notifications as any other |
| An enquiry form | An enquiry in the Commerce queue, workable into a quote |
| A product finder | A wizard preset, run against the same catalogue |
Inviting your existing customers
Trade customers you already have can be invited to the site by email, one click per customer, so the portal starts with the people who buy from you rather than with strangers.
Length priced and configured products
A catalogue product can be priced parametrically rather than per unit: a rate against a driver (a length, an area, a weight) with an add-on and a minimum charge. Cut to size stock sells online that way without a configurator. Products with a real configurator behind them are Design Engineer categories; see the Design Engineer.
The connection itself
The link between the site and your account is a key we mint and hold, not something for you to configure. The site streams events, enquiries, accounts and orders into the platform, and the platform pushes changes back so a price edit shows on the site without waiting for a rebuild. If you ever leave, your catalogue, customers and orders are already in the platform and export as CSV.
Who can change what
Any member sees the workbench. Editing content text and ticking checklist items are admin actions. Everything structural, the pages themselves, the templates and the connection, is ours: that is what managed means, and it is why there is no page builder to learn.