Different Product Lines Available to Different Customers

Company D supplies uniforms to fast food companies, and each one usually runs restaurants under several brand names. Company D gives each client their own website, but they all work the same way: head office buyers order uniforms in bulk, and outlet managers can buy top-up supplies for their outlet. Head office buyers can buy uniforms for any brand, but outlet managers can only buy for their own brand. In this example, we'll look at how Personalized Catalog Views is set up for the Fast Food Inc website. Fast Food Inc. runs 100 restaurants under the names Fast Pizza and Fast Burgers.

Layout

First, Company D needs to figure out how to segment their items and customers. Let's see how their answers to some key questions help to layout Personalized Catalog Views.

Question	Answer	Layout Input
What are the customer groups I need?	Head office buyers need access to buy all products. Outlet managers should only be able to buy items for their outlet brand. For example, the head office buyer at Fast Food Inc. should be able to buy uniforms for Fast Pizza and Fast Burgers staff but a Fast Burgers outlet manager should only be able to see and buy Fast Burger Uniforms. Outlet staff can't buy anything, but they should be able to see product details for their brand so they can tell the manager what item and size they need. We don't think they'll use the website much. All other Fast Food Inc head office employees should be able to see product details and prices, but they shouldn't be able to buy anything. The general public can't see any products on the site.	Head office buyers Fast Pizza Outlet managers Fast Burger Outlet managers Fast Pizza Outlet staff Fast Burger Outlet staff Fast Food Head Office General public — Anonymous Users
On what basis will I assign a customer to one group or the other?	There are three named head office buyers. When one of them is replaced, we receive an email from Fast Food Inc. – but this rarely happens. Outlet managers and staff change often. Managers have their own work email addresses, but staff share a common email, like [e-mail].	Head Office Buyers should be a static customer group so the Account Manager can add or remove people as needed. Outlet Managers should be dynamic customer groups that use saved searches based on brand code and the job title field on the customer record. Outlet Staff can be static or dynamic customer groups, since each group only has one user that's shared by all staff for that brand. Fast Food Head Office should be a dynamic customer group based on @fastfoodinc.com email addresses.
Do I want any of my customers to be in more than one customer group?	No. Each job role has its own function and different permissions.	Head Office buyers will be in the Head Office Buyers group, and they'll also be in the Fast Food Head Office group, which is based on a search using email addresses. The Head Office Buyers group can buy all products, but the Fast Food Head Office group can only view items and prices. Customers in more than one customer segment get access to items based on the customer segment with the highest permissions. So, head office buyers can buy all items because they're in the Head Office Buyers group.
What item segments do I need?	We have separate uniforms for each brand. Outlet managers and staff shouldn't be able to see or order uniforms from another brand. The Fast Pizza uniform includes tops and pants. The Fast Burger uniform includes tops, pants, and accessories.	Item segments to be created: Fast Pizza Uniforms, which has subcategories: Fast Pizza Tops Fast Pizza Pants Fast Burger Uniform, which has subcategories: Fast Burger Tops Fast Burger Pants Fast Burger Accessories
On what basis do I want to assign an item to one segment or another?	Based on brand.	Both commerce categories and item collections work for this.
Do the item segments correspond to the sections in my website navigation or are they different?	They're the same. The website navigation has the brand name at the top and sub-levels for each brand.	Commerce categories are a good fit here because you can use them for both navigation and Personalized Catalog Views.
Which item segments should be visible and purchasable to my customer segments? Which item segments should be visible but not purchasable? Can all customer segments view item prices?	Head office buyers should be able to see and buy everything. Outlet managers should be able to see and buy everything for their brand, but not for other brands. Outlet staff should be able to see product details for their brands. The general public shouldn't be able to see any products.	Head office buyers permitted to view, view prices, and buy items from all item segments Fast Pizza Outlet managers permitted to view, view prices, and buy items from Fast Pizza Uniforms Fast Burger Outlet managers permitted to view, view prices, and buy items from Fast Burger Uniforms Fast Pizza Outlet staff permitted to view items from Fast Pizza Uniforms Fast Burger Outlet staff permitted to view items from Fast Burger Uniforms Fast Food Head Office employees permitted to view and view prices of all items General public not permitted to view any products
Who should be able to view any items that are not in item segments mapped to a customer segment? Should they be able to view the prices?	All item segments should be mapped to customer segments. If any items aren't in an item segment, it's because they haven't been classified yet, so they shouldn't be visible to anyone.	Unmapped items should be set to Hide Fully
Do all my customers fall into one or more customer groups or do I have some ‘leftover’ customers? What items, if any, do I want the leftover customers to see?	All Fast Food Inc. employees are in a customer group.	Anyone who can log in is in a customer group. Anonymous visitors shouldn't be able to see any product details.

Implementation

From the layout inputs, Company D creates the following in NetSuite:

• Three saved searches:

  • Fast Burgers Outlet Managers (based on Job Title and @fastburgers.com email address)

  • Fast Pizza Outlet Managers (based on Job Title and @fastpizza.com email address)

  • Fast Food Head Office (based on @fastfoodinc.com email address)

• Dynamic Customer Groups (based on the saved searches):

  • Fast Burgers Outlet Managers

  • Fast Pizza Outlet Managers

  • Fast Food Head Office

• Static Customer Groups:

  • Head Office Buyers

  • Fast Pizza Outlet Staff

  • Fast Burger Outlet Staff

• Commerce Categories:

  • Fast Pizza Uniforms, with subcategories

    • Fast Pizza Tops

    • Fast Pizza Pants

  • Fast Burger Uniform, with subcategories

    • Fast Burger Tops

    • Fast Burger Pants

    • Fast Burger Accessories

• Personalized Catalog View Setup:

  • Fast Pizza Uniforms subcategories (Fast Pizza Tops and Fast Pizza Pants) set to Display Fully for Head Office Buyers and Fast Pizza Outlet Managers customer groups

    Set to Disable Purchase for Fast Food Head Office

    Set to Disable Purchase and Hide Price for Fast Pizza Outlet staff

  • Fast Burger Uniforms subcategories (Fast Burger Tops, Fast Burger Pants, and Fast Burger Accessories) set to Display Fully for Head Office Buyers and Fast Burger Outlet Managers customer groups

    Set to Disable Purchase for Fast Food Head Office

    Set to Disable Purchase and Hide Price for Fast Burger Outlet staff

  • Set Unmapped Items segment to Hide Fully

  Note:

  In this case, the subcategories hold the items, so you need to map those to customer segments. The empty parent categories are required for navigation—they aren't needed for Personalized Catalog Views.

Related Topics

• Personalized Catalog View Examples

General Notices