VIP Marketplace guide overview  > Customer account management

Customer administration 

Under the VIP Marketplace program, a reseller creates customer accounts through the marketplace platform provided by the direct partner. To learn how to do this, distributor authorized resellers should contact their direct partner.

Each VIP Marketplace direct partner creates a marketplace platform that is connected to Adobe through APIs. In the marketplace platform, the creation of a customer account is an immediate function. There is no delay or waiting period.

Once a customer account is created and the customer accepts Adobe’s VIP Marketplace terms and conditions, the new VIP Marketplace members will be able to manage their licenses using the Adobe Admin Console. For members, managing licenses is seamless and consistent with their familiar VIP experience.

VIP Marketplace members with deployment locations in three or more countries may purchase centrally from a worldwide reseller and deploy globally. Learn more about how worldwide resellers can support Global Customers.

Adobe Admin Console for customer admins

Customer admins are the representatives for a VIP Marketplace member who have access and privileges to manage software licenses in the Adobe Admin Console. The Admin Console allows a customer admin to do the following:

• View the products and the number of licenses purchased by their organization
• Add users
• Assign licenses to a user within their organization
• Add products to show intent to purchase

A customer admin may not place an order through the Admin Console. Orders come only through the direct partner’s marketplace platform. However, a customer admin may add products through the Admin Console for immediate use, but a corresponding order must be placed within 7 days. The direct partner will receive an email notification from Adobe when licenses are added in the Admin Console. If the direct partner is a distributor, then they should notify the appropriate distributor authorized reseller to place an order. Adobe will also notify the customer via an email and via the Adobe Admin Console that the license is valid only for 7 days, unless an order is placed. At the end of the 7 days, if no order has come from the direct partner’s marketplace platform, then the license will expire with immediate effect.

Learn more about the Adobe Admin Console and share this link with customers.

Managing customer admins in VIP Marketplace

A reseller can add more than one customer admin to a member account. The Create Customer API accepts more than one admin.

A customer admin’s welcome email can be triggered via APIs. A change in a customer admin email address triggers the email to be re-sent.

Account ID

The customer’s account ID with Adobe is set when the invitation to join VIP Marketplace is sent to the customer. In addition to Adobe’s account ID identifier, the external ID is a customer ID created by the direct partner. While the external ID within the customer account is a pass-through field from Adobe’s perspective, this is intended for partners to have their unique customer identifier as part of the customer.

• Adobe doesn’t update/remove this ID. This is not a required field.
• Adobe includes this ID as part of the Get Account API call and in the reconciliation file.

After VIP members migrate to VIP Marketplace, the Adobe API reports the customer account ID but not the old VIP membership ID.

VIP ID

When a VIP Marketplace invitation is sent, the customer receives a welcome email that includes a VIP ID. The VIP ID is the contract number under which the VIP Marketplace licenses are ordered. This ID is a unique identifier provided by Adobe. This ID can be used by the VIP Marketplace member to identify themselves with Adobe.

Scenarios where customer account creation may fail:

• The same customer (combination of organization name and admin) already exists in VIP Marketplace or in VIP.
• One of the customer attributes sent during creation failed the validation check.

Changing to a different reseller

If a VIP Marketplace member wants to purchase from a different reseller, the member can generate an authorization code from the Admin Console and provide it to their new reseller. The new reseller must provide the authorization code to the direct partner to complete the change with Adobe. Refer to Support in this guide.

Changing to a different distributor (for distributor authorized resellers) 

If a distributor authorized reseller wants to purchase from a different distributor’s marketplace, then the distributor authorized reseller will need to work with their new distributor to complete a reseller-initiated change of distributor request with Adobe. The Adobe support team will provide details on the process. Changing distributors requires distributor authorized reseller approval that will need to be attached to the request submitted by the distributor. The distributor authorized reseller will also need to provide the list of VIP IDs they wish to move to the new distributor’s marketplace. For more information, refer to the Support section in this guide. Distributor authorized resellers will also need to work with their new distributor to become a distributor authorized reseller under the new distributor.

Deleting a customer permanently

VIP Marketplace agreements are evergreen and do not expire. The ability to delete a customer permanently is currently not supported via API. Direct partners may contact the Adobe VIP Marketplace support team for assistance. Refer to Support in this guide.

Migrating a customer from VIP to VIP Marketplace

Several pre-requisites must be met for a customer to be migrated:

• The reseller must have the customer’s VIP ID.
• The direct partner must run the preview API check to ensure the customer account is eligible for the move.
• The reseller must work with the customer and communicate all details related to the move to VIP Marketplace.
• The reseller must be able to transact in the country in which the customer is located.
• The customer must be eligible to transact in the marketplace where they are being moved.
• The customer either does not have any orders that are in their return period or is willing to waive any VIP return period after migrating to VIP Marketplace.
• If the customer has any open VIP purchase authorizations, any licenses for which a corresponding order has not been placed will be deprovisioned upon migration to VIP Marketplace.
• If the customer is within their VIP renewal period, their full VIP renewal order may be placed either prior to or after migration. If the customer has placed a partial VIP renewal order, they may migrate to VIP Marketplace only after their Anniversary Date has passed. 
• All of the customer’s VIP offers must have a matching offer in VIP Marketplace. When a VIP contract is migrated to VIP Marketplace, the SKUs are automatically updated to VIP Marketplace SKUs. During the migration, the VIP standard offers will be mapped to VIP Marketplace offer SKUs.
• If the customer accepted a VIP 3-Year Commit Amendment prior to March 28, 2023, they may migrate to VIP Marketplace only after their second renewal (in the third year of their 3-year commit term.)

Adobe communications to VIP Marketplace members

Adobe communicates with VIP Marketplace members around product usage, customer support, and license lifecycle activities only. Communications sent directly by Adobe to members include but are not limited to the following:

• Welcome email—Sent to the customer admin when a customer is added or an admin is modified.
• Order confirmation or cancellation email—Sent with all new orders and cancellations.
• Order needed for license added in the Admin Console—Sent when a member adds licenses in the Admin Console and an order needs to be placed with Adobe within 7 days.
• Migration—Sent to notify the customer admin that they are now enrolled in VIP Marketplace.
• 3-year commit emails—Sent when the 3-year commit invitation is initiated and accepted, and if it is canceled.

Resellers’ ability to access a VIP Marketplace member’s purchase history

All previous VIP purchases remain in the Adobe Licensing Website (LWS), whether the customer has moved to VIP Marketplace or not. However, once customers migrate to VIP Marketplace, all VIP Marketplace purchases will be visible only in the direct partner’s marketplace platform. Historical VIP purchases made prior to migration will be accessible on the LWS; however, no VIP Marketplace purchases will show in the LWS.

Creating a Linked Membership

To create a Linked Membership, a VIP Marketplace member’s reseller must initiate the Linked Membership and specify the Linked Membership Admin. This generates an invitation for the Linked Membership Admin to accept the Linked Membership Terms & Conditions from the Admin Console. Direct partners should refer to the API documentation for details on how to create a Linked Membership.