This guide is intended for BigCommerce merchants who are connecting their store to Violet. During this process, the merchant will create a Store-level API account in their BigCommerce dashboard and then provide the generated credentials to Violet through the Violet Connect onboarding tool. The merchant will retain full control of the created Store-level API account and can modify or remove it at any time from within the BigCommerce dashboard. Total time for completion is around 5 minutes.

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Step 1: Creating the Store-level API Account

  1. From your BigCommerce dashboard navigate to Settings → API → Store-level API accounts.
  2. Click the blue Create API account button.
  3. In the modal that appears, enter an account name (ex. Violet)

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Step 2: Configuring Scopes

The following OAuth scopes are the minimum required for Violet to perform all necessary functions with your store.

Customers modify - used to add new customers when performing non-guest checkouts.

Information & settings read-only - used to read the store profile for plan type, supported currencies, and measurement units.

Orders modify - used to update and read orders previously submitted by Violet into your system.

Products read-only - used to read your product catalog.

Carts modify - used to create carts for checkout.

Checkouts modify - used to checkout carts.

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Step 3: API Credentials

Click Save at the bottom of the ‘Create account’ page.

You will be presented with a modal showing generated BigCommerce API credentials. Important: these values can only be viewed once. It’s recommended that you copy and paste it into a temporary location until you finish the Violet onboarding process. If you lose these values before completing the Violet onboarding process you must start-over with a new Store-level API account.

Client ID

This key is used to identify Violet as the origin of any API requests made against your BigCommerce store.

Client secret

This key is used to verify the signatures of any data sent from your BigCommerce store to Violet.

Access token

This key is used to authenticate any API requests made by Violet against your BigCommerce store.

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Step 4: Provide BigCommerce API credentials to Violet

Once you have generated the API credentials, it’s time to return to the Violet Connect onboarding tool and enter the following credentials created in the previous steps:

  • Client ID
  • Client secret
  • Access Token

Once entered, click the Next button to validate the credentials and complete the connection between your store and Violet. If the credentials are invalid you should check for any spaces or other copy/paste errors and try again.

Refunding Orders

When refunding a Violet-sourced order in your BigCommerce dashboard you will see a notice informing you that the refund will be processed “offline” if you continue. This is OK as the payment was processed outside of your BigCommerce store, which BigCommerce calls “offline”. When you create the refund in BigCommerce, Violet will automatically be made aware of the refund by BigCommerce and will then refund the shoppers payment.

Orders should always be refunded or cancelled from within your BigCommerce admin dashboard.


Creating Coupon Codes

When creating coupon codes in your BigCommerce dashboard for use in Violet you will want to create true Coupon Codes and not Promotions. Promotions are intended for use in your BigCommerce storefront and cannot be applied to carts through the BigCommerce API at this time.


Using Presentment Currencies

When operating in a different default currency from the channel(s) you are selling your products through, realtime currency exchange rates will be used by default. If however you define explicit per-currency prices in your BigCommerce store these can be synced and used through our Contextual Pricing feature. Please notify the channel(s) you are connected to if you wish to have this feature enabled for your store.