Base Catalogs and Virtual Catalogs

Before you create and organize your catalogs, it is important to understand that you can create two types of catalogs: base catalogs and virtual catalogs. The two types of catalogs are described below, together with three examples of how you can use virtual catalogs.

Base Catalogs

Virtual Catalogs

Virtual Catalog Example 1: Providing Special Pricing

Virtual Catalog Example 2: Pricing Products in Other Currencies

Virtual Catalog Example 3: Offering a Subset of Products

Base Catalogs

Base catalogs contain categories and products, but they do not contain any specific pricing rules. Base catalogs also contain product data, which is stored in the catalog database.

Virtual Catalogs

Virtual catalogs reference the product data in one or more base catalogs. If you add a product to a base catalog, the product may also appear in the associated virtual catalog, depending on the inclusion rules. Products in a virtual catalog are represented only once in the database, regardless of how many virtual catalogs they appear in.

There are three primary uses for virtual catalogs:

• To aggregate multiple catalogs so they appear as one catalog to users.
• To price products in multiple currencies.
• To provide special pricing, or subsets of products, for specified groups of users.

Virtual catalogs support price rules. That is, you can specify whether the price for the category or product is the same as the price in the base catalog or different. For example, the price could be a percentage or set amount more or less.

Virtual Catalog Example 1: Providing Special Pricing

In the following figure, two fictional European companies – Wheels and Bikes Galore– have entered into a contract. The Wheels Company will sell motorcycle wheels at a 20 percent discount to the Bikes Galore customers. All products are priced in euros. To create this virtual catalog, you set the following rules:

1. Include the Wheels catalog.
2. In the Bikes Galore catalog, set the price of the products in the Motorcyle wheels category to 20 percent off.

Virtual Catalog Example 2: Pricing Products in Other Currencies

The following figure shows a virtual catalog that includes products in a base catalog, which are priced in U.S. dollars. To show the prices for products sold in Canada in Canadian dollars, the prices in the virtual catalog are multiplied by 160 percent. To create this virtual catalog, you set the following rules:

1. Include the Clothes catalog.
2. Set the price of the products in the clothes catalog to 160 percent.

Virtual Catalog Example 3: Offering a Subset of Products

The following figure shows a virtual catalog that includes a subset of products from a base catalog. The subset of products will be sold in France. All products are priced in euros. To create this virtual catalog, you set the following rules:

1. Include the Clothes catalog.
2. Exclude the Dresses category.

See Also

Creating a Base Catalog

Creating a Virtual Catalog

Converting Prices to an Alternate Currency

Discounting Product Prices in a Virtual Catalog

Aggregated Catalogs

Multilingual Catalogs

Catalog Sets

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