Member groups

A member group is a grouping of members - users, organizations, or other member groups - used for various business purposes. Two kinds of member groups exist: implicit and explicit. An implicit member group contains users that share common attributes and are therefore considered members of a specific member group. An implicit member group specifies criteria or attributes that users must satisfy in order to be considered members of that member group. You can also explicitly exclude certain users although they satisfy the criteria. An explicit member group contains explicitly assigned users, who may or may not share common attributes. A member group can be both implicit and explicit at the same time.

Member group data can be stored only in the Commerce+ database. Furthermore, member groups are not part of the membership hierarchy but are owned by organizational entities. This ownership determines the set of access control policies that apply to accessing the member group.

For access control purposes, the following definitions apply:

  • A user owns itself
  • An organizational entity owns itself
  • A member group is owned by an organizational entity

By default, Commerce+ supports the following types of member groups:

Access groups

Access groups are usually implicit groups. Access groups are referenced in access control policies. The criteria for members in this group are usually based on roles, the organization to which the user belongs, and the user registration status.

For example, a member group called Seller Administrators is a group whose users play the role of seller administrators.

Commerce+ includes a number of default roles, and corresponding to each role is a default member group. For instance, by default there is a role called Seller Administrator and a corresponding member group called Seller Administrators.

The default set of access groups (roles) which are available for Commerce+ profile management are Account Representative, Buyer (buy-side), Buyer (sell-side), Buyer Administrator, Buyer Approver, Category Manager, Channel Manager, Customer Service Representative, Customer Service Supervisor, Logistics Manager, Marketing Manager, Operations Manager, Procurement Buyer, Procurement Buyer Administrator, Procurement Manager, Product Manager, Pick Packer, Receiver, Registered Customer, Returns Administrator, Sales Manager, Seller, Seller Administrator, and Site Administrator.

Customer price groups

A customer price group is a type of member group that is used to offer different prices depending on the group that a customer belongs to. Customer price groups are intended for entitling a contract to a defined set of customers so that they get the contract's terms and conditions, often used to enforce custom pricing for the group. Customer price groups can comprise any user, who can be included and excluded explicitly. Customer price groups can be administered by Seller Administrators and Site Administrators only.

To create a customer price group follow these steps:

  1. Create a member group.
  2. Assign a customer to this group.
  3. In the Commerce Lab Tools, create a contract.
  4. Add this group as its participant of the contract.
  5. In the contract catalog filter, lower the prices of some products.
  6. Active this contract.
  7. Log in to the B2B store as a customer that belongs to the contract. You will see adjusted prices.

Customer territory groups

Member groups of type customer territory group are intended for creating groupings of customers, typically by territory. Customer territory groups can comprise customers only. Registered customers can be included both implicitly and explicitly, and can also be explicitly excluded. Guest customers can be included implicitly. Customer territory groups can be administered by Seller Administrators and Site Administrators only.

Customer territory groups are only used for assigning customers to a customer service representative or customer service representative team to control how ticklers are assigned . Typically these groups will be used to assign customers from a specific geography to a specific customer service representative team. To do so, you would create a member group (a customer territory group) based on customer information.

Customer service representative groups

Member groups of type customer service representative group are intended for defining teams of customer service representatives, which in turn can have customer territory groups or customer accounts assigned to them. Customer service representative groups can comprise Customer Service Representatives, Customer Service Supervisors, and Sellers only, who can be included and excluded explicitly. Customer service representative groups can be administered by Seller Administrators and Site Administrators only.

Approval groups

Member groups of type approval group are intended for grouping users for approval purposes. An example is a group of members within an organization who have the authority to approve orders before they are shipped.