WebSphere Commerce Enterprise

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 adifferent subset of the catalog to the other two extended site stores.
  • For the Canada store, the sales manager does not want customers to be able to purchase any products in the Master Cylinders category.
  • For the 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.


Extended Site Catalog Filter scenario

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:
  1. In WebSphere Commerce Accelerator:
    • Assign the US Catalog Filter catalog filter to the storefront asset store contract.
  2. 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:
  1. In the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool:
    • Include the entire catalog in the catalog filter.
    • Exclude the Master Cylinders category from the catalog filter.
  2. From WebSphere Commerce Accelerator:
    • Assign the Canada Catalog Filter catalog filter to the default contract for the Canada store.
  3. 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 called 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:
  1. 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.
  2. From WebSphere Commerce Accelerator:
    • Assign the UK Catalog Filter catalog filter to the default contract for the UK store.
  3. 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 multiple values to the attribute dictionary attribute condition.