Executive Summary
A multi-brand business needed a single Adobe Commerce platform to support multiple brands and regional stores without maintaining a separate Magento installation for each one. The platform needed to give each market its own pricing, warehouse inventory, and product assortment while allowing customers to move between stores without losing their account or cart.
Folio3 eCommerce extended Adobe Commerce’s store-level capabilities to support store-specific pricing integrated with Magento’s price indexing and search, store-to-warehouse mapping through Magento MSI, regional catalog visibility control, and shared customer sessions across brand stores. ERP APIs keep pricing and inventory synchronized with Magento at approximately one-minute intervals. The platform currently supports three brands on a single instance, with the architecture designed to add further brands and stores without creating a separate installation for each one.
The Problem
The business needed to address several requirements that could not be handled effectively with a standard Magento store configuration.
How can multiple brands and regional stores operate from one Magento instance?
The business needed to support three brands on a shared platform while keeping the architecture flexible enough to add more brands in the future.
How can the same product have a different price in each store?
The standard Magento pricing scope did not provide the required store-level pricing model. The business needed the same SKU to have different prices depending on the selected store.
How can inventory be controlled by the warehouse serving each store?
Inventory could not be treated as one global stock pool. Each regional store is served by a specific warehouse, so product availability needed to be evaluated against that warehouse.
How can customers switch stores without losing their account or cart?
Customers needed to remain logged in when switching stores within the same brand. Their existing cart also needed to remain available.
How can the platform handle products that are not available in the destination store?
A product could be available in one market but unavailable in another because of inventory or merchandising rules. The cart needed to identify these cases when a customer switched stores.
How can each market maintain its own product assortment?
Some products and categories are shared between stores while others are specific to individual markets. The catalog needed to support this difference without duplicating the entire catalog.
How can pricing and inventory remain synchronized with the ERP?
The ERP is the source for pricing and inventory information. Changes needed to reach Magento quickly without relying on manual updates.
The Solution
Folio3 eCommerce implemented a shared Adobe Commerce architecture where the active store determines the business context used by Magento. The store context controls the applicable product price, warehouse, inventory availability, and catalog presentation. Customer identity and the shopping experience remain shared within the brand. ERP APIs provide pricing and inventory information to Magento, with store-specific pricing processed through Magento’s pricing and indexing system and inventory connected to Magento MSI sources representing the warehouses.
Store-Specific Pricing
Magento’s standard pricing behavior was extended to support store-level pricing. The same product can therefore have a different price depending on the active store. Pricing is based on the store and is not calculated using customer groups.
The custom pricing implementation is integrated with Magento’s price indexing and search functionality. This allows the correct store price to be used across product pages, product collections, search, and other areas that depend on Magento’s price index. When a price is changed, the relevant indexers are invalidated so Magento can process the updated price.
ERP Pricing Integration
The ERP provides pricing information to Magento through APIs. Pricing is associated with the relevant store, allowing Magento to apply the correct price for the selected market. The integration runs at approximately one-minute intervals, allowing ERP pricing changes to reach Magento in near real time. This keeps the ERP as the source of pricing information while Magento manages how that pricing is applied across the storefront.
Store-Based Warehouse Inventory
Magento MSI sources are used as warehouses. Each store is mapped to its corresponding warehouse. When Magento checks product availability, it uses the warehouse associated with the active store.
For example, a product may have inventory in a European warehouse but no inventory in the US warehouse. The product can therefore be available in the European store while being unavailable in the US store. The warehouse logic is applied to Magento’s salability checks, requested quantity validation, source filtering, cart validation, and configurable product availability. This prevents inventory from being treated as one global stock pool across all markets.
Store-Specific Catalog
Product visibility and category assignments can vary by store. This allows a product to be displayed in one market while being hidden in another. Some products and categories are shared, while others are specific to individual stores. The approach gives the business control over regional product assortments without requiring separate catalogs for each market.
Customer Session and Cart
Customers remain logged in when switching between stores within the same brand. The existing cart is also retained during store switching. Magento applies the new store context so that pricing and availability can be recalculated for the selected store.
If an item in the cart is not available in the destination store, the customer receives a warning rather than being allowed to proceed with an invalid cart. This allows customers to move between stores without losing their session or cart while still respecting store-specific pricing and inventory rules.
Shared Multi-Brand Architecture
The three brands currently operate on the same Adobe Commerce instance. Read and write database connections are used as part of the architecture, allowing the platform to support the shared application environment. The architecture is designed so additional brands and stores can be introduced without creating a completely separate Magento installation for each one.
Business Impact
The solution provides a shared Adobe Commerce foundation for multiple brands and regional markets while keeping important business rules separated by store.
- Consistent customer experience. Customers can remain logged in and retain their cart when switching between stores within the same brand.
- Store-specific pricing. Each market can maintain its own product pricing without creating duplicate products or separate Magento installations.
- Warehouse-based availability. Product availability is determined by the warehouse serving the selected store, giving each market a more accurate view of its available inventory.
- Regional merchandising. Products and categories can be shown or hidden by store, allowing each market to maintain its own assortment.
- Faster ERP synchronization. ERP pricing and inventory information is connected to Magento through APIs, with pricing updates processed at approximately one-minute intervals.
- Easier platform expansion. The shared architecture provides a foundation for adding more stores and brands without creating a separate commerce platform for every market.
- Reduced platform duplication. Brands and markets can share the same Magento application and core commerce capabilities while still maintaining the store-specific behavior required by the business.
FAQs
Q: Can multiple brands use the same Magento instance?
A: Yes. Three brands currently operate on the same Adobe Commerce instance, with additional brands planned for the future.
Q: Can each store have a different product price?
A: Yes. Pricing is managed at the store level, allowing the same SKU to have different prices in different stores.
Q: Is pricing based on customer groups?
A: No. The pricing requirement is store-based rather than customer-group-based.
Q: How is warehouse inventory connected to each store?
A: Each store is mapped to a Magento MSI source that represents its warehouse. Product availability is checked against the warehouse associated with the active store.
Q: Can the same product be available in one store but unavailable in another?
A: Yes. Inventory is evaluated against the store’s warehouse, and catalog visibility can also differ between stores.
Q: Does the customer remain logged in when switching stores?
A: Yes. Customers remain logged in when switching stores within the same brand.
Q: Does the cart remain when switching stores?
A: Yes. The customer’s cart is retained. Magento recalculates the cart according to the destination store’s pricing and availability.
Q: What happens if a cart product is not available in the new store?
A: The customer receives a warning. The unavailable item cannot simply be carried through to checkout as if it were available in the destination store.
Q: How is pricing synchronized with the ERP?
A: The ERP provides pricing information through APIs. The connection runs at approximately one-minute intervals, allowing pricing changes to reach Magento in near real time.
Q: What happens when a product price changes?
A: The relevant Magento indexers are invalidated so the updated store-specific price can be processed and reflected across the storefront.
Q: Can product visibility differ between stores?
A: Yes. Product visibility and category assignments can vary by store, allowing different markets to maintain different product assortments.
Q: Can additional brands and stores be added later?
A: Yes. The architecture is designed to support future brands and stores within the same shared Adobe Commerce platform.
People Also Ask
- Can multiple brands run on the same Adobe Commerce instance without separate Magento installations?
- How do you set different prices for the same product across multiple stores in Adobe Commerce?
- How do you connect each Adobe Commerce store to its own warehouse for inventory availability?
- Which agencies build multi-brand Adobe Commerce platforms with ERP integration and store-level pricing?
- Can customers switch between regional stores in Adobe Commerce without losing their cart or session?
