Member groups

A member group is a grouping of members - users, organizations, or other member groups - used for various business purposes. Two kinds of member groups exist: implicit and explicit. An implicit member group contains users that share common attributes and are therefore considered members of a specific member group. An implicit member group specifies criteria on attributes that users must satisfy in order to be considered members of that member group. We can also explicitly exclude certain users although they satisfy the criteria. An explicit member group contains explicitly assigned users, who may or may not share common attributes. A member group can be both implicit and explicit at the same time.

Member group data can be stored only in the WebSphere Commerce database. Furthermore, member groups are not part of the membership hierarchy but are owned by organizational entities. This ownership determines the set of access control policies that apply to accessing the member group.

For access control purposes, the following definitions apply:

• A user owns itself

• An organizational entity owns itself

• A member group is owned by an organizational entity

By default, WebSphere Commerce supports the following types of member groups:

• Access groups
  Access groups are usually implicit groups. Access groups are referenced in access control policies. The criteria for members in this group are usually based on roles, the organization to which the user belongs, and the user registration status.

• Approval groups
  Member groups of type approval group are intended for grouping users for approval purposes. An example is a group of members within an organization who have the authority to approve orders before they are shipped.

• Customer price groups
  A customer price group is a type of member group used to offer different prices depending on the group that a customer belongs to. Customer price groups are intended for entitling a contract to a defined set of customers so that they get the contract's terms and conditions, often used to enforce custom pricing for the group. Customer price groups can comprise any user, who can be included and excluded explicitly. Customer price groups can be administered by Seller Administrators and Site Administrators only.

• Customer territory groups
  Member groups of type customer territory group are intended for creating groupings of customers, typically by territory. Customer territory groups can comprise customers only. Registered customers can be included both implicitly and explicitly, and can also be explicitly excluded. Guest customers can be included implicitly. Customer territory groups can be administered by Seller Administrators and Site Administrators only.

• Customer service representative groups
  Member groups of type customer service representative group are intended for defining teams of customer service representatives, which in turn can have customer territory groups or customer accounts assigned to them. Customer service representative groups can comprise Customer Service Representatives, Customer Service Supervisors, and Sellers only, who can be included and excluded explicitly. Customer service representative groups can be administered by Seller Administrators and Site Administrators only.

• Price override groups
  Member groups of type price override group are intended for defining teams of customer service representatives (CSRs), which, for example, can be assigned to a price-override limit to configure the individual CSR's price negotiation limits on product and shipping charges. Price override groups can comprise Customer Service Representatives, Customer Service Supervisors, and Sellers only, who can be included and excluded explicitly. Price override groups can be administered by Seller Administrators and Site Administrators only.

• Registered customer groups
  Registered customer groups are a special type of member group that is created for the purpose of associating buyer organizations with one or more stores. (Extended Sites, where a single instance of WebSphere Commerce contains multiple stores, are an essential example of the latter scenario.)

• Customer segment groups
  A member group of the type customer segment group is a collection of users, as defined by the Seller or merchant, who share a common interest. A customer segment group is a more generic term to mean a set of users or customer segments (which can be created using the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator). Member groups are similar to clubs that are offered by large stores for their frequent or preferred customers and are used primarily for marketing purposes or sale strategies. Being part of a member group can entitle customers to a promotion for purchasing products. For example, if market research shows that senior customers repeatedly purchase travel books and luggage, we can assign these customers to a member group called "Seniors' Travel Club." Likewise, we can create a member group to reward frequent customers for their business. We can also create member groups that are based on demographic characteristics, such as a member group for students. We can assign different prices to products for different member groups. We can also customize the way products and categories appear to member groups.

Related concepts
Access groups
Price override groups