Get to Know the D2C Commerce Data Model

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Describe how the Salesforce B2B and D2C Commerce data models differ.
• Explain how shopper registration works in the D2C commerce world.
• List the D2C Commerce standard objects.
• Explain how the store object relates to other objects in the D2C data model.

D2C Commerce Data

Maria Jimenez, Ursa Major Solar admin, is ready for a deep dive into the D2C Commerce data model. She’s happy to know that the D2C data model is a lot like the B2B Commerce data model, but with differences that reflect the two selling models. Here’s how they differ.

Registration Data

In the B2B Commerce world, it’s all about selling to buyers. Companies like Ursa Major Solar have a working relationship with each of them. Buyers are registered and their contact data is collected. With B2B, there are no anonymous buyers.

This is not true, however, in the D2C world, where there are shoppers, not buyers, and many of them don’t bother to create an account. Taylor Givens, senior merchandiser for Ursa Major Solar says it this way: “We’re all shoppers. Some of us are known to a merchant and some aren’t. Shoppers who actively register get faster checkout, special discounts, and product previews. Unregistered guests get anonymity.”

Salesforce includes extensive settings for managing privacy and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.

The D2C Data Model

A data model describes how data is organized and explains how pieces relate to each other and the whole. Picture the data in a table, such as a spreadsheet. Here’s what some of the data from a D2C Commerce org could look like in a spreadsheet format.

The entire table is an object, in this case the store object, and each column is a field. Each row is a record, in this case the store, Ursa Major Solar. Data doesn’t actually look like this in the Salesforce app. What you see instead are things like record pages, which show you information in page fields.

D2C Commerce comes with a set of standard objects in the org, such as these.

• Store
• Catalog
• Category
• Entitlement Policy
• Product
• Price Book
• Price Book Entry
• Buyer Account*
• Buyer Group*
• Buyer Group Member*

*You need to configure these, but they are mostly relevant to B2B Commerce.

Later, we take a look at how these objects relate to one another in Ursa Major Solar’s data model.

The Store Object

The store is an important object in the D2C Commerce data model. It is the hub around which the various spokes that Maria can add later revolve. This framework gives her maximum flexibility to add what she needs to meet her business requirements. The following data is associated with it by default, before she starts associating other objects. 

• A store experience
• Default and supported languages
• Default and supported currencies

Once she sets up her store, it becomes a container for her commerce data, including catalogs, categories, price books, and products. Like with B2B Commerce, D2C Commerce stores use Experience Cloud sites for the front-end buying experience. With Experience Cloud, her store can showcase products, arrange information for shoppers, and process orders. She can create multiple stores to serve different business areas or regions.

The Products Object

Stores sell products, which are also part of the data model (the Product2 object in Salesforce). Maria can import products data from an external system or enter product data manually. Ursa Major Solar products, such as solar panels, are stored as a record in the Product2 object, each product having its own SKU (store-keeping unit) number. The product record contains other data, such as product description, specifications, and links to product media. 

D2C Commerce uses the concept of store as the default for catalog, entitlement policy, and buyer group. When Maria imports data into the org, using the data importer feature, it automatically creates a default catalog, entitlement policy, and buyer group.

The Price Book Connection

In B2B Commerce, each product is tied to a price book record that records its list price. In D2C Commerce, however, the price book is assigned to the store in the webstorepricebook object. 

Relate a Catalog to a Store

Maria is thrilled to have her first store and a few products. To show those products in the store she needs a catalog, which relates to categories and subcategories. 

Let’s start with the catalog. Catalogs are the organizational principle that enables her to offer products in a store. There are a few rules.

• A single catalog includes categories and subcategories up to five levels.
• Only one catalog can be associated with a store.

Once she has a store, she can relate a catalog to it, or when she runs the import tool the default catalog for that store is created automatically. When she has several stores set up in her org, she can associate the same catalog with multiple stores. 

Taylor says they need a basic online retail store and a digital popup for a special sale. They want to sell the same products in both stores, but the popup will have flashier graphics and content and use a different price book. When a shopper accesses the basic store, they see the same products as a shopper viewing the popup.

Now Maria has two stores, a catalog, and categories. What if each store needs to show different products? In that case, Maria can create two different catalogs and associate each of them with a different store. Here’s what it would look like.

 

In this example, not only does each store have its own experience and pricing, it also has a specific catalog of products. The beauty of the D2C Commerce data model is that it’s flexible. You can do whatever you need to meet your business needs. You can, for example, have multiple stores pointed to the same single catalog and category set.

Enable Buyer Accounts and Buyer Users

Maria must now decide who has access to the data. B2B Commerce is organized around buyer accounts because different buyers can have different pricing. D2C Commerce, however, uses one buyer group for all shoppers. This is a required step, but largely B2B relevant.

D2C Commerce uses buyers merely as a data element in the same data structure as B2B Commerce. This buyer, representing all the shoppers of a site, can see all the products and prices associated with the store. This is also true for entitlement policies, which define which products a buyer can see based on their buyer group memberships—once again, all shoppers.

The Schema Builder

Maria wants to dig deeper into these data models to explore their objects and the relationships between them.

• Store
• Buyer account, buyer group, and entitlements
• Product, product catalog, and pricing
• Product media
• Cart
• Order and order summary

A great way to do that is with Schema Builder.

In this module, we assume you are a D2C Commerce administrator with the proper permissions to perform a variety of tasks. If you’re not an administrator for D2C Commerce, that’s OK. Read along to learn how your administrator would take the steps in a production org. You can also follow these steps in a Trailhead playground.

Here's how to view you data model with Schema Builder.

1. Open the org.
2. In the Quick Find box in Setup, enter Schema Builder.
3. Click Schema Builder.
4. Click Objects.
   
5. To see the relationships between the various parts of B2B Commerce, filter the Standard Objects.
6. To see an object’s API name, select Display Element Names in View Options.

Next Steps

In this unit, you learned how the D2C Commerce data model compares with B2B Commerce. Next, learn the general steps you need to take to deploy a D2C Commerce storefront.

Resources

• Trailhead: Salesforce B2B Commerce Basics
• Salesforce Help: Data protection and Privacy
• Trailhead: B2B Commerce on Lightning Experience Data Model
• Trailhead: Trailhead Playground Management