Understand the different types of shopper

Commerce supports several types of shopper:

• Anonymous shoppers have not logged in and are not associated with a saved profile. These shoppers are also called guest shoppers.
• Registered shoppers are shoppers who log in to a personal account. These shoppers are allowed to self-register and manage their own billing and shipping addresses.
• Account-based shoppers are shoppers who log in using contact credentials that have been defined as part of a business account. They use account-level billing and shipping addresses that have been created by a merchant administrator. Account-based shoppers need to be given special roles in order to create and manage personal addresses, and/or create and manage account-level addresses. Refer to Work with account contacts and Work with account addresses for more information.

Account-based shoppers can be added to a business account by an administrator in Commerce. There is also an option for an account-based shopper to submit a new account registration request which is then either approved or rejected by an administrator for the account. The shopper requests a new account by providing required business details. After submitting the required details, the information is reviewed by an account administrator. If needed, there may also be a request for additional details such as credit checks and other information. The request is then either approved or rejected. If the request is approved, the new contact with account is activated and can then begin transacting business with the account. After the shopper has been approved, they become an account-based shopper who logs in using contact credentials that have been defined as part of a business account. Refer to Configure Account-based Shoppers and Configure Business Accounts for more details.

In Commerce, an anonymous shopper can browse and add items to her cart. The anonymous shopper will see products in the default catalog and prices from the default price list group. Registered shoppers will also see products from the default catalog and default price list group, while account-based shoppers will see the catalog and price list group assigned to their business account.

If an anonymous shopper logs in to a business account, the login triggers a comparison between the items in the shopper’s cart and the products available in the business account’s assigned catalog. If items exist in the cart that are not present in the business account’s catalog, those items are removed and the shopper is notified.

If an anonymous shopper logs into a personal account, no comparison is necessary because anonymous shoppers and registered shoppers use the same catalog and price list group.

Understanding the types of shoppers your storefront must support is critical to designing page layouts properly and making appropriate choices about the widgets you use. The following sections describe settings you can use to control the storefront experience for different types of shoppers.