Account Specific Pricing

note

Account Management API is now deprecated and we recommend that you use Account Management functionality built into Elastic Path Commerce 8.2 and later.

Seller organizations can use Elastic Path Commerce features, such as, price list and price list assignment to configure account specific pricing. Each account in a buyer organization might have specific pricing depending on contract agreements, initial negotiations, or initial terms and conditions. For example, the buyer associate of Austin Hardware Inc gets a different pricing and the buyer associate of Abb Corp gets a different pricing in the same store. The following scenario describes how account-specific pricing works for different accounts:

1. A seller administrator creates separate accounts for all customers, which are the buyer organizations, of a store in Account Management service.
2. The seller administrator creates a top-level account for the buyer organization and creates multiple sub-account depending on the stores, regions, departments, or divisions within the top-level account.
3. The seller administrator assigns associates to each sub-account.
4. The customer service representative uses Elastic Path Commerce Manager to configure account-specific pricing. For more information about the components, see the Elastic Path Commerce section.
5. The buyer associate1 shops on behalf of the different sub-accounts that are part of the buyer organization1. For example, John is a buyer associate and can shop on behalf of the north, east, and west regions stores, which are part of the Abb Corp.
6. The seller administrator adds an account for the buyer organization2, who is a wholesale buyer, such as, Austin Hardware Inc.
7. The customer service representative uses Elastic Path Commerce Manager to configure wholesale pricing for buyer organization2.
8. The buyer associate2 purchases products with exclusive pricing for the buyer organization2.

Account Specific Pricing Components

Account Management Service

Following are the account specific pricing components in Account Management service:

• Buyer organization and buyer

  • In a B2B transaction, a representative of an organization representative shops on a commerce website for an account within the organization. This account is the buying organization account and the representative is the buyer associate.

• Accounts

  • In B2B Commerce, seller administrators create the account hierarchy for a buyer organization depending on the organization’s structural requirements.
  • Each department, region, or premise part of buyer organization can be represented by a sub-account within the account.
  • Individual shopper who has the buyer role permission can shop on behalf of each account.

Elastic Path Commerce

Following are account specific pricing components in Elastic Path Commerce:

• Customer segment

  • Customer segment is a grouping of customers. In B2B, each account can be considered as a specific customer segment for account-specific pricing.

• Price list

  • Each store is configured with a catalog and products. Prices for the products in the catalogs are stored in price lists. A price list is associated with a price list assignment. A price list assignment associate the price list to a catalog and a currency.
  • The product code or SKU code in the price list associates the product or SKU in a catalog to corresponding price.

• Price list assignments

  • Shoppers can view appropriate price for each product based on the price list and price list assignment. Using price list and price list assignment, you can provide each customer segment the corresponding pricing for each product.
  • Provides each customer segment the corresponding pricing for each product.

Account Specific Pricing

In B2B, each buyer organization might have specific pricing depending on contract agreements, initial negotiations, or initial terms and conditions. Elastic Path supports account specific pricing that enables specific pricing for various buyer accounts in a seller organization. The seller organization can provide account and sub-account specific pricing for various entities across organizations. The following diagram illustrates account specific pricing in a seller organization that has a B2B online store, Store 1:

The buyer organizations, Buyer organization 1, Buyer organization 2, can purchase products from Store 1. However, Buyer organization 1 gets the pricing in the Price List 1 and Buyer organization 2 gets the pricing in the Price List 2.

The account for Buyer organization 1 has three sub-accounts, such as Sub-Account 1, Sub-Account 2 ,and Sub-Account 3. In this example, each associates in sub-account can purchase products from Store 1. However, each sub-account gets the account-specific pricing corresponding to that account. Sub-Account 1 gets the pricing in the Price List 1, Sub-Account 2 gets the pricing in the Price List 2, and Sub-Account 3 gets the pricing in the Price List 3.

The following workflow describes how Elastic Path Commerce Manager and Account Management services operate together:

1. A new account is added in Account Management service.
2. A customer segment for the account is added in Elastic Path Commerce Manager.
3. The price list containing the account specific prices is created in Elastic Path Commerce Manager.
4. A price list assignment for the customer segment that contains the selected account is created in Elastic Path Commerce Manager.
5. A customer is assigned to the customer segment.
6. Shopping cart is updated with account specific pricing.
7. When the associate shops, the account specific pricing is applied automatically. The pricing is provided by the price list assignment.