Base Associate Types, Associate Types, and Price Groups Explained

Learning Experience Team

April 24, 2020 21:59

In the Inventory Items Price and Discounts configuration, you can select the Price Group.

When you click the Price Group dropdown, the selection menu is populated with what appear to be Associate Types.

So, what’s the difference between Associate Types and Price Groups?

Types of Associates

In the system, Associates are assigned three different values:

Base Associate Type - The Associate Type that is chosen when an Associate enrolls and typically these do not change. They can change in special cases such as when a customer upgrades to a Distributor Associate.
- Distributor Associate - Customer who has signed up to sell for your company.
- Retail Associate - Customer that shops in a Distributor Associate’s eCommerce Shop.
- Preferred Customer - Customer that has signed up for an account to shop or an AutoShip.
  
  Preferred Customer is better suited as an Associate Type, but it’s usually set up as a Base Associate Type.
Associate Type - Derived Associate types that augment the Base Associate Type based upon the state of the Associate. Shown in the UI and reports.

For example:
- A Retail Associate signs up for an AutoShip.
- The Retail Associate is then upgraded/changed to a Preferred Customer.
- If they cancel their AutoShip, then they are downgraded back to a Retail Associate.
- The customer’s Base Associate Type of Retail Associate doesn’t change, but their Associate Type is changed to Preferred Customer.
You can add more types on the Corporate Admin Associate Types page. See Adding Associate Types for more information.
Price Group - Exactly like Associate Types, except the Associate is not considered a different type of Associate. How the system treats them differently is all in the configuration. Usually, this is in inventory to give them a different product line or different prices.

Associate Type Scenarios

With the three Base Associate Types in mind:

Distributor Associate
Retail Associate
Preferred Customer

Let’s say you wanted an additional, custom Price Group called First 500 Club.

In this scenario, you want to have the first 500 Associates that enroll in the system get special pricing.

How the system checks for a Price Group is custom code and can check any data point in the system. In this case, it checks the Associate ID to see if they are within the first 500. If so, it changes just the Associate’s Price Group to the First 500 Club.

Technically, you can set First 500 Club as a Base Associate Type and new Associates could enroll as that type; however, when the system is configured with Base Associate Type Distributor Associates, then new Associates wouldn’t be a part of that type. It’s better to have a hierarchy in a place where the first 500 enrollees are configured both as Distributor Associates and First 500 Club, so as to not lose other distributor configurations.

With the preceding example configuration, here are some more scenarios:

Example 1. The Associate IS one of the first 500 Associates to enroll

The Associate enrolls as a Distributor Associate
The Associate IS one of the first 500 Associates to enroll
- Base Associate Type = 1. Distributor Associate
- Associate Type = 1. Distributor Associate
- Price Group = 4. First 500 Club

Example 2. The Associate IS NOT one of the first 500 Associates to enroll

The Associate enrolls as a Distributor Associate
The Associate IS NOT one of the first 500 Associates to enroll
- Base Associate Type = 1. Distributor Associate
- Associate Type = 1. Distributor Associate
- Price Group = 1. Distributor Associate

Example 3. The customer IS one of the first 500 Associates to enroll

The customer is a Retail Associate
The customer signs up for AutoShip
The customer IS one of the first 500 Associates to enroll
- Base Associate Type = 2. Retail Associate
- Associate Type = 3. Preferred Customer
- Price Group = 4. First 500 Club

Example 4. The customer DOES NOT signs up for AutoShip

The customer is a Retail Associate
The customer DOES NOT signs up for AutoShip
The customer IS one of the first 500 Associates to enroll
- Base Associate Type = 2. Retail Associate
- Associate Type = 2. Retail Associate
- Price Group = 4. First 500 Club

Example 5. The customer IS NOT one of the first 500 Associates to enroll

The customer is a Retail Associate
The customer signs up for AutoShip
The customer IS NOT one of the first 500 Associates to enroll
- Base Associate Type = 2. Retail Associate
- Associate Type = 3. Preferred Customer
- Price Group = 3. Preferred Customer