Create Commerce catalogs for B2B sites
This article describes how to create Commerce product catalogs for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce business-to-business (B2B) sites. For answers to frequently asked questions about Commerce catalogs for B2B sites, see Commerce catalogs for B2B FAQ.
Note
This article applies to Dynamics 365 Commerce version 10.0.27 and later releases.
You can use Commerce catalogs to identify the products that you want to offer in your B2B online stores. When you create a catalog, you identify the online stores that the products are offered in, add the products that you want to include, and enhance the product offerings by adding merchandising details. You can create multiple catalogs for each B2B online store, as shown in the following illustration.
Commerce product catalogs let you define the following information:
Catalog type – Configure the value as B2B. You can define B2B catalog-specific properties such as a navigation hierarchy, a customer hierarchy, and attribute metadata for the catalog.
Catalog-specific navigation hierarchy – Organizations can create a distinct category structure for their specific catalog.
Catalog-specific attribute metadata – Attributes contain details about a product. By assigning attributes to a category of the navigation hierarchy, you can define values for those attributes at the level of products that are assigned to that category. Organizations can then complete these tasks:
- Define catalog-specific attribute values.
- Control the visibility of attributes at the catalog level.
- Select the refiners that are specific to an individual catalog.
Channels – Organizations can associate more than one B2B online channel with a catalog. End-to-end support for catalogs is currently available only for B2B online stores.
Customer hierarchies – For a given B2B channel, organizations can make a specific catalog available to selected B2B partners by associating customer hierarchies with that catalog.
Price groups – You can configure prices and promotions that are specific to a given catalog. This capability is a core reason for defining a catalog for a B2B channel. Price groups for catalogs enable organizations to make products available to their intended B2B organizations and apply their preferred pricing and discounts. B2B customers who order from a configured catalog can benefit from special prices and promotions after they sign in to a Commerce B2B site. To configure catalog-specific prices, select Price groups on the Catalogs tab to link one or more price groups to the catalog. All trade agreements, price adjustment journals, and advanced discounts that have been linked to the same price group will be applied when customers order from that catalog. (Advanced discounts include threshold, quantity, and mix and match discounts.) For more information about price groups, see Price groups.
Note
- The Enable use of multiple catalogs on retails channels feature is available starting with the Commerce version 10.0.27 release. To configure catalog-specific configurations such as navigation hierarchy and customer hierarchy in Commerce headquarters, go to the Feature management workspace (System administration > Workspaces > Feature management), enable the Enable use of multiple catalogs on retails channels feature, and then run the 1110 CDX job.
- When you enable this feature, all the existing catalogs that are used for POS stores or a call center will be marked as Catalog type = B2C on the Catalogs page. Only existing and new catalogs that are marked as Catalog type = B2C are applicable to POS stores and a call center.
- Once this feature is enabled, it's required to have at least one catalog associated with every B2B partner organization (customer hierarchy), otherwise even successfully onboarded and signed-in B2B partner site visitors won't be able to find any categories or products, and will see the message "No catalogs found, please contact system administrator".
B2B catalog process flow
The process of creating and processing a catalog has four general steps. Each step is explained in detail in the next section.
Note
Before you proceed, ensure that the catalog is marked as Catalog type = B2B.
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- Associate the navigation hierarchy.
- Specify time-effective and expiration dates, if they are applicable.
- Add and categorize products.
- Associate price groups.
- Associate a customer hierarchy that is specific to your B2B organizations.
- Associate default dimension attribute group for refiners such as size, style, and color.
- Set attribute metadata.
Validation – In this step, you run validation rules that enforce specific behavior. Here are some examples:
- Ensure that there are no uncategorized products.
- Ensure that all the items that are assorted to each channel are associated with a catalog.
Set up the catalog
Use the information in this section to set up your catalog.
Configure the catalog
In Commerce headquarters, go to Retail and Commerce > Catalogs and assortments > All catalogs to configure your catalog.
When you create a new catalog, you must first associate it with one or more channels. Only items that are linked to your selected channel assortments can be used when the catalog is created. To associate the catalog with one or more channels, select Add on the Commerce channels FastTab of the Catalog setup page. Ensure that the catalog is marked as Catalog type = B2B.
Associate the navigation hierarchy
To add products to a catalog, you must select a navigation hierarchy. The navigation hierarchy supports the category structure for the catalog. You must select one of the navigation hierarchies that are associated with the channels that you selected on the Commerce channels FastTab of the Catalog setup page. To associate a default navigation hierarchy with each of your channels, go to Retail and Commerce > Channel setup > Channel categories and product attributes.
Specify time-effective and expiration dates
To specify time-effective and expiration dates for a catalog, select the top node of the catalog hierarchy to return to the main catalog header view. Then, on the General FastTab, configure effective and expiration dates as required.
Add and categorize products
To configure products to add to the catalog, in Commerce headquarters, go to Retail and Commerce > Catalogs and assortments > All catalogs. Then, on the Catalogs tab, select Add products.
Alternatively, select a node in the navigation hierarchy. You will then be able to add products directly to a category in the catalog.
Associate price groups
To configure products to add to the catalog, in Commerce headquarters, go to Retail and Commerce > Catalogs and assortments > All catalogs. Then, on the Catalogs tab, select Add products.
Products that were added to a catalog from the root node of the navigation hierarchy by selecting Add products on the Action Pane will inherit their categories if the source navigation hierarchy is also associated with the catalog. Changes to categories that are made on the source navigation hierarchy will immediately be reflected in the catalogs. You must republish the catalogs to update the channels.
Alternatively, you can select a node in the navigation hierarchy and add products directly to a selected category in the catalog.
When you add products, the Automatically include all variants when only product master is selected option will be available. To prevent the inclusion of all variants, select at least one variant for the product master.
Note
If you choose to automatically include all variants in a large product masters selection, you might experience longer processing times. For large selections, we recommend that you select Include all variants on the Action Pane of the catalogs page to run the operation in batch mode. If you included only the product master in the catalog and didn't include any variants, the variant picker might not be available when you navigate to a product details page.
To configure catalog-specific prices, you must link one or more price groups to the catalog. To associate price groups with a catalog, in Commerce headquarters, go to Retail and Commerce > Catalogs and assortments > All catalogs. Then, on the Catalogs tab, under Pricing, select Price groups. All trade agreements, price adjustment journals, and advanced discounts (threshold, quantity, and mix and match discounts) that have been linked to the same price group will be applied when customers order from the catalog.
For more information about price groups, see Price groups.
Note
You can't create a new price group from the All catalogs page. Instead, you must create it from the All price groups page. You must then associate it with the catalog on the All catalogs page.
Associate a customer hierarchy
To associate customer hierarchies, in Commerce headquarters, go to Retail and Commerce > Catalogs and assortments > All catalogs. Then, on the Catalogs tab, under Customer hierarchy, select Assign hierarchies to link one or more customer hierarchies to the catalog.
Note
You can't create a new customer hierarchy from the All catalogs page. Instead, you must create it from the Customer hierarchies page. You must then associate it with the catalog on the All catalogs page.
Associate default dimension attribute group for refiners such as size, style, and color
To associate a default dimension attribute group for refiners such as size, style, and color, in Commerce headquarters, go to Retail and Commerce > Catalogs and assortments > All catalogs. Then, on the Catalogs tab, under Attributes, select Attribute groups.
Set attribute metadata
To configure attribute metadata, in Commerce headquarters, go to Retail and Commerce > Catalogs and assortments > All catalogs. Then, on the Catalogs tab, under Attributes, select Set attribute metadata. To select the attributes that should be viewable and refinable, select a category in the associated catalog-specific navigation hierarchy, and then, under Catalog product attributes, select an attribute. Then select Show attribute on channel. By default, all viewable attributes are also searchable. To optionally make attributes refinable, select Can be refined.
Validate the catalog
Before a new catalog is available to use, it must be validated and published.
To validate a catalog, follow these steps.
- On the Catalogs tab of the All catalogs page, under Validate select Validate catalog to run a validation. This step is required. It will validate that the required setup is accurate.
- Select View results to view the details of the validation. If errors are found, you must correct the data and then run the validation again until it passes.
Note
If Catalog type = B2B, validation will fail if you added POS stores or a call center to the catalog. B2B catalogs must have only B2B online channels associated with them. Validation will also fail if no customer hierarchy is associated with a B2B catalog.
Approve the catalog
After a catalog is validated, it must be approved.
To start the catalog approval workflow, follow these steps.
- On the action pane of the All catalogs page, select Workflow > Submit.
- Go to Retail and Commerce > Headquarters setup > Commerce workflows to configure the steps and authorized users for the workflow. The workflow will define the steps that are required to get the catalog into an Approved status.
Publish the catalog
After a catalog is in an Approved status, you can publish it by selecting Publish on the Catalogs menu. After the catalog is in a Published state, it can be used in call center order entry and send catalog processes. You can publish a catalog either manually or by using a batch process. The effective date that you defined for the catalog determines when the products are available in the online store. The expiration date that you defined determines when the products are removed from the online store.
Note
You can publish a catalog that contains products that have warnings. However, those products won't appear in the online store.
Additional resources
Extensibility impact of Commerce catalogs for B2B customizations