In this 7-part series, we will answer all of your questions about Customer Groups in Magento 2 and break down everything you need to know to create and configure customer groups on your Magento 2 store.
First up, Magento 2 customer group basics – what is a customer group, what can you do with customer groups and what are some real-world examples of their use?
What is a Customer Group?
One of Magento 2’s simplest features for targeted customer management and marketing is customer groups. Customer groups give merchants more control over their customer’s user experience and allow merchants to create different experiences for different customers.
Customer groups let you categorize site’s customer base into different groups. Once you have grouped customers you can create rules, tax classes, and group-specific discounts that pertain to individual customer groups. Magento 2, by default, comes with a few customer groups – General, NOT LOGGED IN, Retailer and Wholesale.
The default customer groups in Magento 2
What Can You Do with a Customer Group?
Customer groups give you the ability to configure and personalize your store for different groups of customers in a variety of ways.
With customer groups you can:
- Set different tax classes per customer group
- Set different promotions for different customer groups
- Set different pricing rules for specific customer
Examples of Customer Group Applications
One common use for customer groups is with Business to Business merchants (B2B). B2B merchants will often require customers to set up an account before they are able to make a purchase. This then allows the merchant to set visibility for wholesale pricing to only these registered customers, whereas a normal unregistered user to the site would see retail prices.
Customer groups can also be used in many different Business to Consumer (B2C) applications. For example, you could set up a customer group for loyal customers that has a free shipping discount applied as a perk for these customers. You would then identify which customers you consider to be loyal customers (i.e. customers who regularly spend over a certain dollar amount) and then assign them to this special loyal customers group. The free shipping discount will only apply to the customers in that customer group.
Closing Thoughts
You should now have an understanding of what a customer group is and what customer groups can do in Magento 2.
If you missed the other questions we answered about customer groups be sure to stay tuned for rest of the series where we will cover:
- Changing the Default Customer Group Settings in Magento 2
- Creating a New Customer Group in Magento 2
- Adding Customers to a Customer Group in Magento 2
- Assigning Tax Rules to a Customer Group in Magento 2
- Assigning Promotional Rules to a Customer Group in Magento 2
- Setting Group Specific Pricing to a Customer Group in Magento 2
Are you enjoying this series on creating and configuring customer groups? Let us know your ideas for how to use customer groups on your Magento 2 store! Connect with us on Facebook or Twitter to let us know if there are any questions you have about customer groups that we didn’t answer for you.
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