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Restrict what buyers see with portal catalogs

Out of the box, a portal account sees every active product you stock, unless you've marked a catalog as the default. A portal catalog narrows that down: a gift shop sees your kitchen and drinkware range, while a distributor sees everything except one brand you sell direct. Buyers can only browse, add to cart, quote and order products in their account's catalog.

Before you begin​

  • You need the portal.manage permission. Without it, the Portal tab doesn't appear on the customers page.
  • The customer should already be a portal account. See Invite buyers to the Customer Portal.

How the rules combine​

A catalog is a list of rules. Each rule names a product, a brand or a category, and either includes or excludes it.

  • No rules: the catalog includes every product.
  • Include rules: the catalog holds everything matched by any include rule. An include for the brand Harbor & Lane plus an include for the category Drinkware shows both ranges.
  • Exclude rules always win. A product matched by an exclude rule is hidden even when an include rule also matches it. Use them to carve exceptions out of a brand or category.

Brand and category filters in the buyer's catalog only offer the brands and categories left after the rules.

Steps​

  1. Go to Contacts → Customers, then click the Portal tab and Catalogs.

    The Portal Catalogs list

  2. Click Add Catalog. A new catalog opens in the Edit Catalog window.

  3. In Catalog Name, type a name your team will recognize, such as Kitchen & Drinkware Wholesale. It saves when you leave the field. Tick Default catalog if this catalog should apply to every account that has no catalog of its own.

  4. Add a rule:

    1. In Rule, choose the kind of rule, for example Include brand.
    2. In the next field, search for the brand, category or product and select it.
    3. Click Add Rule. The rule appears in the table, green for an include and red for an exclude.

    Building rules in the Edit Catalog window

  5. Repeat for each rule. To remove one, click its delete icon.

  6. To include many individual products at once, click Add Products:

    • Browse products: tick products in the list, then add them.
    • Paste or import SKUs: paste one SKU per line (or comma-separated), or click Choose file to load a CSV whose first column holds SKUs. Click Add N products.

    Pasting SKUs into Add Products to Catalog

    Each SKU you add becomes an Include product rule. SKUs that match no product are listed back to you rather than dropped silently.

    The result: four products added and one SKU that matched nothing

  7. Under Assign to an Account, search for the customer in Portal account (customer), select it, and click Assign.

  8. Click Done. The Rules and Accounts columns on the list update.

Change an account's catalog from the customer​

An account has one catalog at a time. You can also set it from the customer:

  1. Open the customer and click Settings.
  2. Click Edit, then in the Customer Portal section choose the Catalog. Clear it to fall back to the default catalog, or to every product when there is no default.
  3. Click Save.

What the buyer sees​

The next time a buyer on the account loads the catalog, only the products the rules allow appear, at their own prices.

A buyer's catalog limited to the assigned range

Next steps​

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