Customers in Storefront 365

Storefront 365 is an e-commerce solution that moves Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Dynamics 365 for Retail and Dynamics AX 2012 R3 into the web sites of Episerver CMS and makes for using features configured in Dynamics ERP in the webshops. All business logic configured in Dynamics ERP is available in the web sites using Dynamics Retail Server and Commerce Runtime (for Dynamics AX 2012 R3). Dynamics business logic handles all customers, assortments, catalogs, prices and discounts.

Dynamics business logic is used during the shopping experience in several cases. When an article is displayed on a product page, the business logic calculates the price. When the visitor adds articles to the shopping cart, price and discounts are calculated, and the cart itself is entirely managed by Dynamics business logic.

Finally, when the visitor creates an order, the Dynamics business logic is used to manage the checkout flow. The checkout includes cart editing, selection of delivery methods, selection of payment methods and the payment transactions created, and the last step of creating an order. The sales transaction is created and managed by the Dynamics Retail Server.

Storefront imports the products and navigation defined in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations for an online retail channel into Episerver catalog and loads the search engine used by Episerver with the information. The web site then uses the search engine and Episerver for instant access to the information, optimized for high performance, and renders the web site on demand. The navigation and the pages are filtered and loaded with information. 

Customers are classified as Organizations or Persons in Dynamics ERP and in most e-commerce systems. The two types of customers have information that is specific to the customer type, but they also have common information. Customers are created in the ERP system, CRM system or in the e-commerce system. In Storefront 365 the customer types Organization and Person are mapped to Episerver types Organization and Customer.

Customers are created and used in a legal entity in Dynamics ERP, and the retail channels created in that legal entity will share the customers in the company. The address book assigned to the channels determines which customers that are available in each channel. Dynamics ERP will send only customers in the address book to the channel.

Storefront 365 uses the ERP system as a master data system for all customer information except user credentials for web login. User credentials are managed by the identity provider used in the Storefront 365 solution. Storefront 365 uses Microsoft Azure Active Directory B2C as the default implementation of identity provider but any OAuth 2.0 and OpenID provider can be used.

Customers in a channel

The customers to export from Dynamics ERP to the retail online channel are defined by the address book used in the channel configuration. This is a standard feature of Dynamics ERP. Retail online channels that share the same customers must also share the same address book. The address book contains customers in the legal entity where the retail online channel is defined.

Storefront 365 uses the customers exported to the channel database in the retail online channel and have no requirements on how the customers are organized or defined in Dynamics ERP. Storefront 365 uses the Dynamics Retail Server or the Dynamics Commerce Runtime for Dynamics AX 2012 R3 to fetch and create customers.

Creating a customer

Storefront 365 supports the creation of a customer on the webshop. The creation of a customer is implemented using the Dynamics ERP Retail Server or Commerce Runtime. That means that the customer is created in the ERP and is immediately available for transactions. User credentials are created by the web site in the identity provider used in the solution. Customers are not imported to Episerver Commerce except for a reference between the customer number and the access token.

All administration of username and password is managed by the identity provider used in the solution since user account information isn’t available in Dynamics ERP.

Removing a customer

There is no support out-of-the-box in Storefront 365 to remove a customer. Customers are removed in Dynamics ERP since it is the master system. Customer accounts are removed in the identity provider. Removed customers are updated in the channel database by Dynamics ERP.

Users and web accounts

Visitors that browse the webshop logs in using the account information provided by an identity provider. For solutions using Dynamics 365 for Operations supports Storefront 365 the OAuth 2.0 protocol for authentication. With OAuth 2.0 support may public identity providers such as Azure Active Directory B2C, Facebook, Twitter, Google and many more providers be used for authentication.

For solutions using Dynamics AX 2012 R3 is Episerver Customer management used as an identity provider.

Dynamics ERP do not store any user account information for the users.

An anonymous visitor in the webshop is always assigned the customer created in ERP and defined as the default customer in the online retail channel definition.

A logged-in user will override the default customer in the retail online channel regarding business logic for prices and orders.

Trade agreements and B2B solutions

Storefront 365 uses the Dynamics Retail Server and Commerce Runtime for all price calculations. Price calculations include the logged-in customer for any trade agreements affecting the customer. In the case of an anonymous visitor, Storefront 365 uses the default customer configured in the retail online channel in Dynamics ERP.

Any trade agreement set up in Dynamics ERP that is affecting the assortment and the prices are supported in Storefront 365.