Branch

What Is a Branch?

In B2BCMarket, a Branch represents a specific operational or geographic presence of a Company.

A Branch can provide information about where and how a Company participates in the marketplace.

Branch information can include its name, description, contact information, geographic information, physical address, service area, marketplace status, and connected Products.

Branch in the Connected Entity Architecture

The Branch occupies the third level of the primary B2BCMarket entity hierarchy.

The Branch provides the connection between the Company and the Products that are assigned to that Branch.

Independent Branch Identity

Every public Branch has its own public identity within B2BCMarket.

The Branch can therefore be accessed independently rather than requiring a visitor to first open the parent Company.

The current Branch public identifier is constructed from the Branch slug and the Branch public share identifier.

Conceptually:

The Branch slug is generated from information such as the Branch name, city, province, and country.

Branch Public URL

A Branch has its own public catalog URL.

The public URL allows visitors to access the Branch directly and discover its marketplace Products.

The Branch URL also provides a navigation path back to the parent Company.

Branch and Company

Every Branch is connected to a Company.

The Company provides the organizational context for the Branch.

The Branch maintains its own identity and information while remaining connected to its parent Company.

This allows visitors to understand both the individual Branch and the Company to which it belongs.

Branch to Company Navigation

Visitors can move from a Branch back to its parent Company.

This reverse relationship maintains the broader business context of the Branch.

Branch and Business

A Branch is connected to a Business through its parent Company.

This allows a Branch to remain connected to the broader Business context even though the immediate parent entity is the Company.

Branch and Products

A Branch can have marketplace Products assigned to it.

The relationship between a Branch and Product is represented through the marketplace's branch-product assignment structure.

This relationship determines which Products are associated with a particular Branch.

BranchAssignedProduct

B2BCMarket uses the BranchAssignedProduct relationship to connect Products with Branches.

This relationship is important because a Product can be associated with a particular Branch through its marketplace assignment.

Changes to this relationship can cause the related Product, Branch, Company, and Business catalog representations to be refreshed.

Branch Availability

Branch availability is an important part of the current B2BCMarket catalog architecture.

A Branch is considered available when its current availability state indicates that it can participate in the marketplace.

The current catalog rules also require the Branch to have at least one assigned marketplace Product before its standalone Branch XML representation exists.

Branch with No Products

A Branch may exist within the underlying application database without having an active marketplace Product relationship.

However, under the current public XML catalog rules, a Branch without marketplace Products does not receive an active Branch XML catalog representation.

This keeps the public marketplace catalog focused on Branches that currently have marketplace activity.

Branch Contact Information

A Branch can provide contact information associated with its operational presence.

The current Branch catalog model can represent:

• Phone number
• Mobile number 1
• Mobile number 2

This allows visitors to identify appropriate contact channels for the Branch.

Branch Geographic Information

Geographic information helps identify the location and geographic context of a Branch.

The current Branch representation can include:

• Political name
• Locality name
• City
• District
• Province
• Country

This information provides geographic context for the Branch and its marketplace activity.

Branch Address

A Branch can provide an outlet address representing its operational location.

The current catalog representation maps the Branch outlet address into the Branch address information.

This provides visitors with a human-readable location for the Branch.

Branch Service Area

A Branch can also provide service-area information.

Service-area information can describe the geographic area served by the Branch beyond its physical outlet location.

This distinction allows the Branch representation to separate its physical address from the area in which it provides marketplace-related services.

Branch Status

The Branch catalog representation includes status information describing its current marketplace state.

The current Branch status includes:

• Active — based on Branch availability.
• Approved — currently represented as approved.
• Published — based on Branch availability and the presence of Products.
• Deleted — based on the Branch deletion state.

The current implementation assumes the Approved state rather than obtaining it from a separate approval check.

Branch and Product Navigation

A Branch can provide navigation to its connected Products.

Each Product maintains its own public identity and public URL.

The Product URL can also include the Branch context so that the relationship between the Product and Branch remains explicit.

Branch as a Marketplace Context

The Branch provides important context for Product availability.

Rather than treating a Product as an isolated marketplace listing, B2BCMarket can associate the Product with the Branch through which it is available.

This allows marketplace visitors to understand not only what the Product is, but also where within the Company's operational structure the Product is connected.

Branch and Buyers

Buyers can use Branch information to understand the operational context of marketplace Products.

A buyer discovering a Product can navigate to its Branch and then continue to the Company and Business.

This provides geographic and organizational context during marketplace discovery.

Branch and Sellers

Sellers can use Branches to represent their operational or geographic marketplace presence.

A seller's Company can have multiple Branches, allowing marketplace participation to reflect different operational locations or service areas.

Products can then be associated with the appropriate Branches.

Branch and Merchants

Merchants can benefit from the Branch-level context when interacting with marketplace activity.

A Branch can provide a more specific operational context for marketplace Products and business opportunities.

Learn more about the Merchant Ecosystem

Branch in the XML Catalog

The Branch is represented as an independent entity in the B2BCMarket machine-readable XML catalog architecture.

The Branch XML representation can contain:

• Branch identity
• Branch name
• Branch URL
• Description
• Contact information
• Geographic information
• Outlet address
• Service area
• Branch status
• Parent Company
• Connected Products

The Branch XML therefore represents both the Branch itself and its relationships with the surrounding marketplace entities.

Learn more about Catalog Architecture

Branch Within the Company Catalog

Branch information can also appear as part of the Company's catalog representation.

This creates two related representations:

• Standalone Branch XML — the complete public representation of the Branch.
• Company Branch representation — Branch information embedded within the Company catalog.

Both representations describe the same underlying Branch relationship while serving different catalog purposes.

Branch as an Independent Entity

A Branch can be independently identified and accessed while remaining connected to its Company and Products.

This is one of the central principles of BCEA:

The Branch therefore has its own public identity and URL, while its relationships provide the context needed to understand its place within the marketplace.

Branch in the Complete Entity Hierarchy

The Branch is therefore the entity that connects the Company level with the Product level.

It provides the operational, geographic, and marketplace context for Products associated with that Branch.

Reverse Branch Navigation

BCEA allows visitors to move upward from a Branch.

Visitors can also move downward from a Branch toward its marketplace Products.

This makes the Branch an important connection point within the B2BCMarket entity graph.

Branch Relationship Summary

• A Branch represents an operational or geographic presence of a Company.
• A Branch has its own public identity.
• A Branch has its own public catalog URL.
• A Branch is connected to a parent Company.
• A Branch is indirectly connected to its Business.
• A Branch can have marketplace Products.
• Products are connected to Branches through marketplace assignments.
• A Branch can contain contact information.
• A Branch can contain geographic information.
• A Branch can contain address information.
• A Branch can contain service-area information.
• A Branch has marketplace status information.
• A Branch can be represented independently in XML.
• A Branch can also be represented within a Company catalog.
• A Product can navigate back to its Branch.

Explore the Connected Entity Architecture

• Connected Entity Architecture
• Business
• Company
• Product
• Connected Navigation
• Catalog Architecture
• What Is B2BCMarket?