Merchant Classifications

Merchant classifications categorise merchants by their type of business. Rather than storing category data directly on the merchant profile, the platform links merchants to classification items in the general product catalogue. This design enables a rich, hierarchical classification taxonomy shared across the platform.

How classifications work

Classification items

Classification categories are stored as records in the general product catalogue with the MERCHANT_CATEGORY item type. These items form a hierarchy through item relationships, allowing arbitrarily deep category trees. For example:

Healthcare
├── Medical Imaging Provider
├── Dental Practice
├── Physiotherapy
└── ...

Merchant classification assignments

Merchant classification assignments link a merchant to one or more classification items:

Field	Purpose
merchant_id	The merchant being classified
item_id	The classification category (a catalogue item)
is_primary	Whether this is the merchant's primary business category

Duplicate classification assignments are prevented within each tenant.

Primary classification

The is_primary flag marks one classification as the merchant's principal business category. This is used for default display, search ranking, and reporting. A merchant may have multiple classifications (e.g. a clinic that is both a "Medical Imaging Provider" and a "Physiotherapy" practice) but typically designates one as primary.

Relationship to merchant items

Classifications describe what kind of business a merchant is, while merchant items describe what they sell or provide. These are deliberately separate concerns:

Concept	Example
Business category	"Medical Imaging Provider"
Service offered	"CT Scan - Abdomen"

Both reference the general product catalogue but use different item types: MERCHANT_CATEGORY for classifications and service-specific types for items.

Authorisation model

Classifications are reference data. They are broadly visible within the tenant, while changes are limited to users with the appropriate permissions.