Customer groups

Customer groups let you group customers so you can offer them the same sales conditions on the store site:

• list and sale prices
• applied promotions
• whether to apply promotions to the list price or sale price
• whether to show prices with or without VAT
• tax area for product prices in the catalog and cart
• whether to allow orders, possibly with a minimum and maximum amount
• whether to allow quotes (B2B editions only)
• payment and shipping methods the customer can choose (B2B editions only)

List and sale prices

While a price list, in Customers > Price lists, defines a price to assign to each SKU, the customer group is where you choose which lists to use for the list price and the sale price.

The list price is the price shown crossed out above the sale price on the store site. Showing a list price higher than the sale price makes customers feel they are getting a better deal.

The sale price is the price, including any catalog promotion, that customers pay for a product. It does not include other promotions that are applied only when the product is added to the cart.

Price lists can be the same for multiple groups or different, so you can have different prices per customer. Having a different list price per customer also lets you present your commercial offer more effectively.

Tax area

A customer's tax area, together with a product's VAT class, is used to determine the VAT rate to apply to prices. When a customer places an order, the appropriate tax area is determined based on the order's billing and shipping addresses, which may differ from those of the registered customer.

In the online store, there are three basic situations that determine the VAT rate calculated during checkout.

• The customer has not registered or logged in: Product prices in the catalog and prices in the cart are shown with the VAT rate of the customer group set as Main. If the group is set to show prices without VAT, the group's tax area will still be used to determine the cart VAT total.
• The customer has completed initial registration: Product prices in the catalog and prices in the cart are shown with the VAT rate of the customer group assigned by default to customers who register. If the group is set to show prices without VAT, the group's tax area will still be used to determine the cart VAT total.
• The customer has logged in: Product prices in the catalog and prices in the cart are shown with the VAT rate of the customer group assigned by the merchant. If the group is set to show prices without VAT, the group's tax area will still be used to determine the cart VAT total.

Promotions on list price or sale price

For each customer group you can choose whether promotions should be applied to the sale price or to the list price. That is, whether the promotion should override the current discount between list price and sale price or be added on top of it.

Note

If the promotion should be applied to the list price but the product does not have a list price or it is lower than the sale price, the promotion will be applied to the sale price.

Allow orders and quotes

For each customer group, that is for each customer in the group, you can allow or disallow placing orders and requesting quotes on the store site. For example, we might allow private customers to place orders only, and allow registered customers in the "Companies" group to request quotes.

For customers to be able to order or request a quote for a specific product, orders and quotes must also be allowed for the product itself. This can be set in the product card in the admin.

If orders are allowed, you can also set a minimum and maximum orderable amount.

Prices shown with or without VAT

For each customer group you can indicate whether to show prices on the store site with VAT or without VAT. We could choose to show prices with VAT to private customers, while after logging in, show prices without VAT to resellers.

This flexibility makes it easy to adapt your offer to the different needs of customers such as private customers, resellers, or others.

Make a customer group the Main group

1. Go to the Customers section.
2. Go to the Groups subsection.
3. Click the checkbox to the left of the customer group you want to make main. A confirmation window will open.
4. Verify you selected the correct customer group and click OK. From this moment, users who visit the site without logging in or registering will see prices and VAT rates associated with this customer group.

Assign a default customer group to users who register

1. Go to the Settings section.
2. Go to the Options subsection.
3. Go to the Main tab.
4. For the item "After registration the customer is assigned the group", select the group that will be assigned to customers after they register on the site.
5. Verify you selected the correct customer group and click Save. From this moment, users who visit the site and register or log in will see prices and VAT rates associated with this customer group, unless the customer is assigned to a different customer group.

Change a customer's group

1. Go to the Customers section.
2. Go to the Customers subsection.
3. Click the customer whose group you want to change.
4. Click Change in the panel on the right where the Group item is shown.
5. Choose the group to assign to the customer from the Group menu.
6. Click Save.

Choose payment and shipping methods

The Standard B2B and Advanced B2B editions allow you to specify which payment and shipping methods a customer in a group can choose in the cart and during checkout.

For example, we can allow RIBA payments only for resellers and PayPal payments only for unregistered customers. For customers in a certain group we can enable some shipping methods that we do not allow for everyone.