Stores are a feature of Composable Commerce that can, alongside Product Selections and Channels (such as distribution and supply channels), be used to model a variety of use cases, including individual brands, retail and digital stores, and multi-channel and multi-country sales.
Stores contain or reference carts, orders, shopping lists, customers, and products. For each Store, you can set unique configuration settings, localize content, and apply specific pricing strategies and promotion rules to help you tailor content to your customers. In addition, Stores help you to simplify other complex parts of commerce, for example, inventory management, pricing, and order fulfillment.
In this guide, you'll learn about common use cases and how to best utilize Stores based on the unique needs of your organization.
Use cases
Sell across multiple brands
When selling across multiple brands, we recommend that you create a Store for each brand, with each Store having unique branding, assortment, and pricing rules. This separation between Stores helps you maintain distinct brand identities and cater to the specific needs of each brand.
Next, leverage our tips and suggestions for getting started with this use case:
Store structure: define how you want to structure your multi-brand store:
- A single online store with multiple brands.
- A single online store with separate sections for each brand.
- A separate online store for each brand.
Then, create a Store for each individual brand inside your Composable Commerce Project.
Brand profiles: extend Stores using Custom Fields and Custom Objects to create separate profiles or entities for each brand you want to feature in your Store. This can include brand logos, descriptions, and other relevant information.
Product catalog management: organize your product catalog based on the brands that you offer. To do this, create a Product Selection for each individual brand and then associate it with the corresponding Store.
Product Filters and Categories: create product Filters and Categories that help customers navigate and find products from specific brands. For example, you can filter by attributes, such as brand name, or filter by category.
Pricing: create and associate a distribution Channel for each Store. Then, define prices at the Store level to apply brand-specific pricing. This ensures that customers see the correct prices through scoped price product discovery, based on the brand they are purchasing from.
Frontend: create a frontend for each individual brand, or create a frontend that features multiple brands, or both, depending on your business needs.
Checkout: set up a flexible checkout process that allows customers to purchase products from multiple brands in a single order (if desired). You can define Customers as Store-specific or global. Store-specific Customers can only purchase from a designated Store, while a global Customer could make a purchase inside any Store in your Project.
Inventory management: assign specific supply Channels to each Store to manage inventory and fulfillment. By connecting the appropriate supply Channel to each Store, you can ensure efficient order routing and accurate inventory management for each brand.
Marketing and promotion: to run brand-specific marketing campaigns and promotions, use Store-specific Product Discounts that have predicate rules defined for product attributes, categories, and distribution channels. If you use Cart Discounts, scope them to individual stores.
Sell across multiple countries and locales
If you're selling across multiple countries and locales, Stores simplify a number of complex topics, such as localization, pricing, taxation, shipping methods, and payments.
Next, here are some tips and suggestions for getting started with this use case:
Multi-Store configuration: create a Store for each storefront or website. Each Store can cater to a specific country or region and offer:
- Localized content
- Products
- Pricing
- Promotions
- Carts
- Orders
Internationalization and localization: utilize our internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n) features to adapt your commerce platform to use different languages, currencies, date formats, and other regional preferences. Make sure to translate and configure product descriptions, prices, and other content for each locale.
Pricing and taxation: configure pricing rules and Tax Rates specific to each country or region. Composable Commerce supports dynamic pricing adjustments and tax calculations based on the location of your customers.
Customer accounts: enable customers to create accounts in your store. You'll need to save customer data like names, shipping addresses, as well as preferences for language and currency. You can also implement account registration and login flows that are customized for each region.
Shipping and delivery options: offer a variety of shipping and delivery options that are relevant to each region. You can configure Shipping Methods, rates, and delivery times based on the location of your customers.
Payment methods: provide region-specific payment methods to accommodate local preferences and payment regulations. Integrate with payment gateways that are widely used and trusted in each country.
Sell in physical and digital stores
You can leverage Stores to simplify selling across physical and digital stores, sharing resources, for example, product catalogs, channels, or assortments, as needed.
Next, leverage our tips and suggestions for getting started with this use case:
Digital Stores (website or mobile)
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Product catalog management: create a Product Selection and associate it to the Store. Product Selections are a powerful tool for determining which products are displayed in a particular Store or under specific conditions.Assign Products or specific Product Variants (SKUs) from your general product catalog to a Product Selection to manage assortment. Consider whether the product is to be sold at a retail store or in a digital store.
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Pricing: create and associate a distribution Channel for each Store. Set up prices for each Store using the associated distribution Channel. This ensures that customers see the correct prices through scoped price product discovery, based on the Store they are purchasing from.
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Customer management: link Customers to Stores. Each customer record should include information about their preferred or default Store, if applicable. This helps to personalize your customers' shopping experience and enable features like Store-specific pricing, inventory availability, and order history.
Consider creating customer segments (Store-specific or global) that align with your Store structure or other business requirements.
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Shopping cart and checkout: create Store-specific Carts. During checkout, the system verifies that the contents of the Cart adhere to any Store-specific rules or requirements that are in place.
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Inventory management: assign specific supply Channels to each Store to manage inventory and the fulfillment process. By connecting the appropriate supply Channels to each Store, you can ensure efficient order routing and accurate inventory management for each brand.
Retail Stores
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In-store Point of Sale (POS): Composable Commerce can integrate with in-store POS systems to provide a seamless shopping experience for customers who visit your physical retail locations.
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Inventory sync: synchronize your in-store inventory with your commerce store, ensuring that product availability is consistent across all channels. Inventory can be tracked separately per Store by associating supply Channels to Stores.
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Unified customer data: maintain a unified view of customer data, whether customers shop online or in-store by scoping customer access to individual Stores or globally (across all Stores in your Project). When you define the scope of your customers' access, it makes it easier to provide them with better customer service and more targeted marketing communications.
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Omnichannel fulfillment: implement fulfillment strategies, such as buy online, pick up in-store, or ship from store:
- Create Shipping Methods for your Project.
- Allow customers to choose the specific physical store location where they want to pick up their purchases. Locations are identified by the supply Channel associated with the Store.
- Extend Stores with Custom Fields or Custom Objects to provide additional information. For example, if you wanted to provide a list of nearby stores with relevant details like address or opening hours, you can add the necessary information to these custom types.
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Promotions and loyalty programs: you can scope promotions and loyalty programs to individual Stores or across multiple Stores, as well as create promotions based on your business needs. For example, you can set up discounts and offers such as Buy one get one (BOGO), Buy two for X amount, Buy one get a percentage off, or any other promotions that you would like to offer.
Sell to other businesses B2B
If you would like to sell to other businesses, Stores are a flexible yet robust tool that can help you implement B2B ordering processes, no matter how complex your use case may be.
Here's what you need to know to get started with this use case:
Business Units are representations of companies or divisions within a company. Each Business unit can have one or more Stores associated with them.
Stores associated with a specific Business Unit inherit the configurations and settings defined at the Business Unit level. However, you can also override these settings at the Store level to accommodate unique requirements for each sales channel. These relationships help you to manage and organize your sales channels within the context of your various business divisions or regions.
Conclusion
In this guide, you learned how to use Stores, a flexible and powerful feature that can help you manage commerce operations across various physical and digital channels while tailoring your offerings and strategies to specific markets or locations. Now, you can leverage this knowledge to align your commerce solution with your business's needs, no matter how simple or complex they may be.