Selling location and sales channel
Give every channel and store one stable identity with its trading rules and services, so that assortment, prices, sales and returns refer to the right place.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
2 bundles · 2 layers · 4 findings · 8 questions
Location identity Which selling location this is and its history.
Identity and history
Identifier, host site, operator and history.
Identity
Identifier, format, operator and host.
- Which identifier, format and operating legal entity does this selling location have?
- Which physical site or online address hosts this selling location, and since when?
History
Relocations, refits and closure.
- Was this selling location relocated, refitted or closed, and when?
Trading and services How and when the location trades.
Operating rules
Trading hours, services and governing terms.
Hours
Trading hours with time zone and exceptions.
- What trading hours apply to this selling location, in which time zone, with which exceptions?
Services
Fulfilment services, payment methods and platform terms.
- Which fulfilment services, such as pickup or ship from store, does this selling location offer?
- Which payment methods are accepted at this selling location?
- Which marketplace or platform terms govern this online storefront?
- Which region or district does this selling location report to?
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Enterprise profiles
- Category
- Enterprise subject
- Entry kind
- subject
- Domain
- EnterpriseRTL
- Industry
- Retail and e-commerce
- Tags
- EM-RTL-01W-INDsubjectSellingLocationSalesChannelStoreFormatTradingHoursFulfilmentCapability
What it is Filled
A place where a retailer sells: a physical store, an online storefront, a marketplace storefront or a pop-up, with its format, trading hours, services and fulfilment capabilities. The physical site and the legal entity are separate contours.
Why it exists Filled
Give every channel and store one stable identity with its trading rules and services, so that assortment, prices, sales and returns refer to the right place.
Distinguishing features Filled
- A selling location is a trading role, separate from the building and from the legal entity.
- Online storefronts and marketplace storefronts are selling locations too.
- A relocation keeps the identity where company policy says so.
- Trading hours state their time zone and exceptions.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Open, close or relocate a selling location.
- Publish trading hours without approval.
- Accept marketplace terms on behalf of the company.
Only with a human decision
- Opening, closing and relocating locations require management decisions.
- Acceptance of marketplace or platform terms requires an authorized person.
May
- Answer questions about locations, hours and services.
- Flag inconsistent hours or missing time zones.
- Propose updates of location attributes for approval.
Moral aspects Filled
- Closures affect staff and local customers.
- Location data combined with customer data can reveal shopping patterns.
Who is affected
- Store staff
- Customers
- Landlords and marketplace operators
Owners Filled
Steward
The head of retail operations who answers for the network of selling locations.
Master systems
- ERP
- Store management system
- E-commerce platform
Links to other meta-models Filled
neighbor
- EM-FAC-01
- EM-ORG-02
- EM-ORG-04
- EM-RTL-02
- EM-RTL-04
- EM-LND-08
references
- WM-BLT-006 - conceptual-candidate
- WM-BLT-008 - conceptual-candidate
- WM-XCT-010 - conceptual-candidate
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- A selling location has a company store number and may have a GS1 Global Location Number.
- An online storefront is identified by its channel and storefront identifier.
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
Enterprise record contour: physical properties belong to referenced world models.
Recognition required Filled
- Records show a location code, a format, a channel, trading hours and services.
- A selling location must be distinguished from a warehouse, a site and a legal entity.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- The contour supports assortment, pricing, sales reporting and returns by location.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Wrong hours or services mislead customers.
- Broken identity across relocations breaks like-for-like reporting.
Standards and interfaces optional Filled
- GS1 publishes the Global Location Number for parties and locations.
- Schema.org defines the Store and OpeningHoursSpecification types for publishing store information.
Context of use required Filled
- The contour is used by store-based, online and omnichannel retailers.
- Local rules may restrict trading hours.
Sources Filled
- GS1 Global Location Number: identification of locations and parties
- schema.org: Store, OnlineStore and OpeningHoursSpecification
- Retail store format and sales channel practice
- Schema.org Store type - Checked live (HTTP 200) on 2026-10-21.
- Schema.org OpeningHoursSpecification type - Checked live (HTTP 200) on 2026-10-21.
Open questions
- When is a refitted store a new selling location and when the same one?
- How are online storefronts and marketplace storefronts represented next to stores?
- Which fulfilment capabilities, such as pickup or ship from store, belong to the location?
- Settle the boundary and the reuse, extend or new decision against the current specifications.
- Confirm the semantic crosswalk, rights and source mastership.
- Choose immutable references and run fixture checks before claiming publication readiness.
Machine files
Provenance
enterprise research programme · published-partial
Built from: enterprise/models/em-rtl-01/brief.json, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/em-rtl-01.json