Customers are the organizational units that buy merchandise recorded in your retailing system.

The following types of customer exist:

• Non-identifiable customers (consumers). This term is generally used to describe customers who buy merchandise from stores.
• Named customers. This term is used to describe customers for whom a customer master record exists in R/3.

Customer records can be created in a simple form (for people) or in a more complex form that allows the use of sales and distribution functionality (for example, external customers).

The latter type of customer master record can be created not only for external customers but also for the sites in your own company that procure merchandise from a distribution center. If returns from a site to a vendor are to be processed with the aid of sales and distribution documents, the vendor must also be created as a customer in the system.

Each site always exists as a customer in SAP Retail as well. Defining a site as a customer is a required action in site maintenance.