Different Product Lines Available to Different Customers

Company D supplies uniforms to fast food corporations, each of which typically runs restaurants under multiple brand names. Company D provides each corporate client with a separate website but each website functions in the same way: buyers at the head office buy uniforms in bulk and outlet managers are able to buy topup supplies for their outlet. Head office buyers can buy uniforms for any of their brands, whereas outlet managers are allowed to buy only for their own brand. In this example, we will look at how the PCV is set up for the Fast Food Inc website. Fast Food Inc. runs 100 restaurants under the brand names Fast Pizza and Fast Burgers.

Layout

First, Company D must decide how to segment their items and customers. Let’s look at how their answers to some important questions helps to layout PCV:

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 cannot buy any products but they should be able to see product details (only for their brand) so they can tell the outlet manager what item and size they need. We don’t think they will use the website much. All other Fast Food Inc head office employees should be able to see product details and prices but they should not be allowed to buy any products. The general public cannot 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 often change. Outlet managers have individual work email addresses. Outlet staff share a common email address, for example, [e-mail].	Head Office Buyers should be a static customer group so that the Account Manager can add and remove people to it when needed. Outlet Managers should be dynamic customer groups that use saved searches based on the brand code and the Job Title field on the customer record. Outlet Staff can be either static or dynamic customer groups since each group will contain only a single user (that is 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 a separate function and different permissions.	Head Office buyers will be in the Head Office Buyers group. They will also be in the Fast Food Head Office group, which is based on a search using email addresses. The Head Office Buyers group has access to buy all products whereas the Fast Food Head Office group only has access to view items and prices. Customers who belong to more than one customer segment have access to items based on the customer segment with the highest access. So the head office buyers will have access to buy all items because of their inclusion in the Head Office Buyers group.
What item segments do I need?	We have separate uniforms for the different brands. Outlet managers and staff should not be able to see or order the uniforms of a different brand. Fast Pizza uniform consists of Tops and Bottoms. Fast Burger uniform consists of Tops, Bottoms, 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 would work for this.
Do the item segments correspond to the sections in my website navigation or are they different?	They are the same. The website navigation has the brand name at the top level and is divided into the sub levels applicable for the brand.	Commerce categories would be a good fit in this case because they can be used for website navigation as well as PCV.
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 all items Outlet managers should be able to see and buy all items for their brand. They should not be able to buy items from a different brand. Outlet staff should be able to see product details for all brands The general public should not 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 there are any items that are not in item segments, it is because they have not yet been classified. They should not be visible to any customer.	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 fall into a customer group.	Anyone who can log in belongs to a customer group. Anonymous visitors should not 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 contain the items so the subcategories must be mapped to the customer segments. The empty parent categories are required for website navigation but they are not required for PCV.

Related Topics

Personalized Catalog View Examples

General Notices