Scenario 2: Catalog filtering for an extended sites store
The following scenario shows how
a sales manager for a B2B store might entitle their customers to a
subset of their catalog on three extended sites, each in a different country. This scenario highlights
catalog filtering based on a combination of categories, and property
conditions.
Site description
- An automotive parts store.
- Has operated a store in the US for a year.
- Now launching new stores in Canada and the UK by using the extended site business model.
What the sales manager wants to do
The sales
manager must entitle different subset of the catalog to the other
two extended site stores.
- For Canada store, the sales manager does not want customers to be able to purchase any products in the "Master Cylinders" category.
- For UK store, the sales manager does not want customers to be able to purchase products from Manufacturer A and Manufacturer B.
How the sales manager uses catalog filter
To achieve these goals, the sales manager must create two additional catalog filters, one to exclude the "Master Cylinders" in the Canada store, and the other to exclude Manufacturer A and Manufacturer B.
1 Storefront Asset Store
Initially, the sales manager creates a catalog filter
called "US Catalog Filter" and assigns it to the default contract
for the storefront asset store. Any extended site stores that do not
have their own catalog filter inherit this "US Catalog Filter" catalog
filter. The steps that are used to achieve
this goal:
- In WebSphere Commerce Accelerator:
- Assign the "US Catalog Filter" catalog filter to the storefront asset store contract.
- On the storefront:
- Verify that all products are shown.
2 US Store
The US store inherits the "US Catalog Filter" catalog filter from the storefront asset store, so the US store does not require its own catalog filter. In this case, there is no catalog filter that is assigned to the default contract for the US store. When customers view catalog entries on the US store, the "US Catalog Filter" catalog filter determines the catalog entries that they can see and purchase.
3 Canada Store
The catalog entries in the "Master Cylinders" category
are unavailable in Canada, so the sales manager must exclude the category
from the Canada store. This means that the default contract for the
Canada store must be assigned its own catalog filter, rather than
inheriting the "US Catalog Filter" catalog filter from the storefront
asset store. The steps that are used to achieve this goal:
- In the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool:
- Include the entire catalog in the catalog filter.
- Exclude the "Master Cylinders" category from the catalog filter.
- From WebSphere Commerce Accelerator:
- Assign the "Canada Catalog Filter" catalog filter to the default contract for the Canada store.
- On the storefront:
- Verify that the "Master Cylinders" category is not displayed.
- Verify that all other products are still shown.
4 UK Store
Catalog
entries from Manufacturer A and Manufacturer B are unavailable in
the UK, so the sales manager wants to exclude all the catalog entries that
belong to Manufacturer A and Manufacturer B from the UK store. To
do so, the sales manager creates a catalog filter "UK Catalog Filter"
that adds property conditions to exclude catalog entries from both
Manufacturers. The sales manager then assigns the "UK Catalog Filter"
catalog filter to the default contract for the UK store. When customers
view catalog entries on the UK store, the "UK Catalog Filter" catalog
filter determines the catalog entries that they can see and purchase.
The steps that are used to achieve this goal:
- In the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool:
- Include the entire catalog in the catalog filter.
- Create a condition group against the entire catalog.
- In the condition group, create a property condition that excludes Manufacturer A and Manufacturer B.
- From WebSphere Commerce Accelerator:
- Assign the "UK Catalog Filter" catalog filter to the default contract for the UK store.
- On the storefront:
- Verify that none of the catalog entries from Manufacturer A or Manufacturer B are displayed.
- Verify that all other products are still shown.
Highlights of this scenario
- Extended site stores can inherit catalog filters from the storefront asset store, as demonstrated by the US store. This way, you do not have to create and maintain a separate catalog filter for the extended site store.
- You can assign multi-values to the attribute dictionary attribute condition.