Overview: What are Store groups and Store markets?

1. Store groups

Definition: A Store group is a collection of one or more Store markets. A Store group is an entity created to  help you organize your different stores and markets. A Store group can be aimed at specific target groups or enable you to sell using multiple brands, for example “Nordics” and “EU” or “Brand 1” and “Brand 2”.

• Role: Store groups centralize the management of multiple Store markets, ensuring consistent operations across those markets.
• Type: A Store group can be either Business to Consumer (B2C) or Business to Business (B2B). The difference in this context is tax related.
• Connection: Store groups tie together Store markets.

2. Store markets

• Definition: Store markets represent individual countries where your store operates. This is where most of the operational configurations are set.
• Components:
  • Currency: Each Store Market has a designated currency, and prices can either include or exclude VAT.
  • Payment Provider: Defines the payment gateway used within the Store market. The options depend on the payment providers you have added, for example Klarna or Adyen.
  • Gift Card Payment: Enables or disables the use of gift cards within the market. This also depends on the gift card providers you have added.
  • Shipping Provider: Manages the shipping options available for the Store market. The options depend on the shipping providers you have added.
  • Inventories: Store markets can be connected to several inventories. Inventories can be prioritized for stock management. Inventories are defined in another section of Merchant Portal.
• Role: The regions where your products are sold and which settings to use for each..
• Connection: Store markets are grouped together within Store groups.

Please note that a Store market can be the same in multiple Store groups. You can, for example, have “Sweden” in both the “Brand 1” and “Brand 2” Store groups. Brink Commerce sees these as separate markets. You can use different (or the same) settings for a Store market in different Store groups, for example Swedish Krona as currency in one Store group and EUR in another. This solution offers you full flexibility in your setup.

3. Inventories

• Definition: Inventories represent the stock levels for products within a Store group.
• Role: Multiple inventories can be associated with a Store market, allowing for flexible inventory management. The same inventories can also be associated with multiple Store markets. For example, the “Nordics” inventory can be associated with the Store market “Sweden” and “Denmark”  in one Store group, and “Norway” in another.
• Prioritization: Inventories can be prioritized within a Store market to determine which inventory is used first when fulfilling orders. This is accomplished by sorting inventories in the Store market details.
• Connection: Inventories are managed in a separate section of Merchant Portal and then added to one or more Store markets.

4. Tax groups

• Definition: Tax groups determine the tax rates applicable to product variants in one or more Store markets.
• Role: Tax is managed independently from the Store groups on the product variant level (for example, Small, Medium, and Large), allowing for precise control over tax settings per product variant, per Store market.
• Connection: Tax groups are set on the product variant level and then inherited by the Store market, for each product variant.
• Example: The standard VAT in Sweden is 25% and 21% in Belgium. You can define this in a Tax group (for example, “Standard VAT”) and then associate applicable product variants with this Tax group. This ensures the correct VAT is added depending on the buyer's country.

How It All Comes Together

When setting up stores, you begin by defining a Store group (you can, of course, set up multiple groups). You then add Store markets. Within each Store market, you configure essential settings like currency, payment providers, shipping providers, and inventories.

Lastly, you will need to link Inventories to each Store market, providing the necessary stock management for your operations.

Tax groups work independently but play a crucial role in making sure each Store market within a Store group uses the correct tax rates.

See also: How to create a Store group.

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