Here you can learn when it is best to open multiple online stores and when it is better to use multiple store versions of a single online store.
In MyCashflow, you can use store version to designate separate areas of your online store to different target groups (language versions, B2B store etc.) or for different purposes. In certain cases, store versions might make it difficult or impossible to perform certain tasks, and in many cases opening multiple online stores is a preferable option.
Below we present the most common use cases that can be handled either by creating multiple store versions or opening multiple online stores and discuss their pros and cons.
Product catalog
If you sell in your online store the same products to different target groups (e.g. different language areas), the easiest way to manage your product catalog and contents is to create a single online store with a separate store version for each language group. You can create, for instance, versions in different languages or closed versions, depending on your needs.
If a product category should be limited to certain target groups, you can set an individual product catalog for the relevant version in the version form in the admin panel.
If product catalogs for different target groups are almost completely different, you may want to open separate online stores as managing product visibility in the admin panel is bound to be challenging in case of product catalogs that differ significantly between versions.
Selling at different countries' tax rates
If you'd like to sell your online store's products at different countries' tax rates, your only option is opening multiple online stores. Currently, MyCashflow doesn't allow you to set product prices basing on different countries' tax rates, but, rather, you must use a single country's tax rates throughout the entire store.
Reseller store (B2B)
- manage the store's accessibility (open to all or a login-required store version for your approved resellers only)
- display prices excluding or including tax and set different prices for each target group by using campaigns
- configure the visibility of products and shipping and payment methods, as well as other content by version.
Stock management
If all of your online store's products ship from a single warehouse irrespective of the target group, the product catalog can be managed within a single online store with multiple store versions.
If products are shipped from different stocks depending on the store version, and products' stock balances may differ across warehouses, opening multiple online stores is a preferable option. Currently, specifying multiple stock balances for a single product is not possible in MyCashflow, which means that stock balances must be maintained in separate online stores so that individual products can be managed in multiple warehouses.
Multiple online stores can use the same warehouse.
If you run multiple online stores and would like all of your stores to use the same stock, you can build an integration application for this purpose using the MyCashflow API.
Building an application requires advanced programming skills, so you may want to take this matter up with one of our partners or our customer service.
Customer register
In MyCashflow, separate store versions share the same customer register, which means that customers can use the same credentials to log in to different versions of your online store (with the exceptions of versions that are limited to certain customer groups).
Store versions can have completely unique brands and customers can sign up for only one out of multiple store versions. In such case, you may want either to 1) make it clear that the brands belong to the same company and the same credentials enable logging in to different store versions or 2) open multiple online stores instead of creating multiple store versions. Otherwise the attempts to sign up for different store versions may lead to confusion among your customers: the same email cannot be used for signing up for another version.
If you need to manage multiple customer registers, most often it's best to create a separate online store for each of them. Managing multiple customer registers is possible to some extent within a single online store by diving customers into different customer groups.
Bookkeeping
As a starting point, if the sales of different online stores / brands should be recorded in the accounts of different companies, using multiple online stores is the most straightforward solution.
In MyCashflow, a single online store can use only one company ID, which means that versions cannot be used as different companies' individual online stores. All of the versions must be stores that are run by the same company.
Example: If a company has an accountable subsidiary abroad, most often it is best to open a separate MyCashflow online store for the subsidiary.
Settings and agreements
Most often it is possible to use the same payment, logistics as well as other credentials and agreements across different store versions and even different online stores at the same time.
You can also specify separate terms and conditions for different store versions.
