Availability Groups
Availability Groups allow you to control what categories and products your customers see in your store, based on their membership in a group. For example, you could use Availability Groups to offer different products or packaging to retail versus wholesale customers.
Availability Groups are similar to Price Groups. However, where Price Groups focus on a product’s price, Availability Groups focus on making certain products available only to select customers.
Creating an Availability Group
To create an Availability Group, click the Customers header on the left side of the page, then click the Availability Groups tab.
Next, click the Add Availability Group button in the upper right corner. Give the group a name and then click Save Changes , or if you want to create another Availability Group, hit enter on your keyboard.
After that, click the box next to the group in the batch list you wish to work with.
From there, you have several options.
Clicking the Categories button, allows you to select the Categories you wish to include in the Availability Group.
If you select the Menu button, a drop down opens with the following options:
- Products : Opens a window with a batch list where you can assign Products to the Availability Group.
- Customers : Opens a window with a batch list where you can assign Customers to the Availability Group.
- Business Accounts : Opens a window with a batch list where you can assign Business Accounts to the Availability Group.
- Shipping Methods : Opens a window with a batch list where you can assign Shipping Methods to the Availability Group.
- Payment Methods : Opens a window with a batch list where you can assign Payment Methods to the Availability Group.
- CSV : Allows you to download a list of the Availability Groups you have created.
- Delete Record : Allows you to delete the selected Availability Group(s).
Use Case: Using Availability Groups
In this Use Case we will create a store category called “Bulk Produce” and we’ll also create two Availability Groups; “Retail” and “Wholesale.” We’ll add a customer to each group, but no categories or products yet.
At this point, when a customer visits your online store, they will either be:
- Not signed in.
- Signed in, and a member of the Retail group.
- Signed in, and a member of the Wholesale group.
Note
Technically the customer could be a member of both the Retail and Wholesale groups, but for the sake of this example, we’ll assume that they are in one of the groups.
At this point, we have not assigned the Bulk Produce category to any Availability Group, so it is visible to everyone; members of any group as well as customers who visit your store and are not signed in.
Next, we’ll add the Bulk Produce category to the Wholesale Availability Group.
- Now the Bulk Produce category is visible ONLY to customers who sign in AND are a member of the Wholesale group.
- Customers who do not sign in, or are not part of the Wholesale Group, cannot see the Bulk Produce category on your website.
Finally, we’ll add the Bulk Produce category to the Retail Availability Group, in addition to the Wholesale Availability Group.
- Now the Bulk Produce category is visible to customers who sign in, AND who are a member of either group.
- Customers who do not sign in, or are not part of either group, cannot see the Bulk Produce category.
Caution
Availability Groups are “subtractive” in nature. Things that are added to a group, like a shipping method, or a category of products, cannot be seen or used by customers who are not part of that group.