Availability Groups in Miva 5.5

If you want to offer select items as an exclusive to particular customers, the Availability Groups feature will let you do just that. There are several reasons a store might offer such exclusives, including:

• You want your existing customers to get "first dibs" on new or rare product.
• The items might be "wholesale only," so you want to offer them just to retailers at a wholesale cost.
• You want to offer your best customers an item that is scarce, or hard to find.
• You run a membership club, whereas only club members can purchase certain items.
• You also want to run an employee store, making certain products available only to employees. Many corporations use availability groups for this purpose.
• You want someone else, such as a vendor or co-worker, to review the product listing in the store before making it available to the public.

With Availability Groups you can make selected products invisible to any customer who is not included in the group.

Customers assigned to an availability group must first log in. Otherwise, they will not see the assigned categories and/or products.

Process for creating and utilizing Availability Groups:

1. Create the group
2. Assign the product(s) and/or categories
3. Assign the customer(s) who you want to be able to view the products and/or categories that are part of the group

Creating the Availability Group

1. In the Admin Menu, click the + next to your store's link
2. Next to Availability Groups click the Add link
3. Enter the name of the Availability Group
4. You can name the group whatever you'd like. Your customers will not see this name – it is for Administrative purposes only
5. Click the Add button

Editing Availability Groups

After creating Availability Group you will automatically be taken to the Edit Availability Group area. This is where you will assign customers and products, as well as any special categories.

You can also reach this area any time by navigating to this group's name in the Admin Menu. Just click the ► next to Availability Groups, then the link of the group you want to edit.

1. In the Edit Availability Group screen, click the Customers link
2. Check off all the customers you want to assign to this group
3. Click the Update button
4. Click the Categories link
5. Select any Categories to assign to this Availability Group then click the Update button
6. Click the Products link
7. Once you've made all your changes/additions, click the Update button

Deleting Availability Groups

Once you are finished offering specific groups of items to select customers, or if you've made a mistake you can delete the Availability Group.

1. In the Admin Menu, click the Availability Groups link
2. Check off the remove box next to the group you want to delete
3. Click the Update button