How to set up partner program with password protected website area

BMGteam1 — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 22:56:09 GMT

We are new to the Square Online community. I need to set up a password-protected area for our distributor partners on our Square Online site in addition to the public retail shop functionality. I am not finding guidance on this, other than I can password protect a page or pages with a general password, which is lame, lame, lame. Anyone else figured out how to do this? Thanks in advance for recommendations!

Re: How to set up partner program with password protected website area

TheRealChipA — Sat, 27 Aug 2022 03:47:49 GMT

@BMGteam1 You are correct that there is not what I would term a “members only” gatekeeper for certain areas of your website. For another business that I own (a small apartment complex), that is what has kept me from using Square Online for my website, since I need a tenant’s-only portal with individual userids/passwords for each unit. Thankfully for that site I was able to use Weebly which has that functionality, since I don’t need to have an eCommerce Square store. (Square folks, if you are reading this, PLEASE DO NOT get rid of the Weebly editor/functionality until you have merged all of its features into Square Online!)

The only workaround I might have for you involves the following:

Splitting the two sides of the business into two Square locations, each with their own website
Installing a third-party app like Shopventory (there are others) to handle multi-location inventory management, which Square does not yet do, I don’t believe
Creating a website to handle the “gatekeeping” functions of validating your distributors’ logins and then redirecting them to your wholesale Square eCommerce website. Weebly has this functionality — you can use it to create a distributor account, email them instructions on how to set up a password, etc, and to control site access via user credentials.

Obviously, this has some drawbacks. For instance, you’d end up with three URLs — your current one “mybusiness.com,” one for the wholesale store “mybusiness2.com,” and one for the Weebly gatekeeper “mybusinessgatekeeper.com”

And there would be additional costs. But it is workable if you take the time at the beginning to set it up correctly. I’d be more than happy to expand on this concept if you want. Just let me know.

Alternatively, there are apps in the Square Marketplace that might be able to do this for you and link back to your Square account. I’m thinking WooCommerce, for example, but I’m sure there are others that are up to the task that integrate with Square.

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How to set up partner program with password protected website area

Re: How to set up partner program with password protected website area