Merchant Groups

What is a Merchant Group?

A Merchant Group represents a collection of related merchants that share common characteristics or business relationships. Each merchant belongs to exactly one merchant group, creating a clear organizational hierarchy.

Business Value

1. Operational Efficiency: Manage multiple merchants as a single unit
2. Local Wallet Sharing: Local wallets are shared within merchant groups, enabling a unified customer experience. When merchants within the same group use identical merchant-specific identifiers to create or identify customer wallets, this sharing becomes particularly valuable. If a customer is not found in EIMP, the shared local wallet ensures consistent performance across all merchants in the group.

Business Use Cases

Use Case	Description	Business Benefit
OptumRx Pharmacy Services	Group OptumRx Home Delivery and OptumRx Specialty pharmacy merchants	Unified patient experience across pharmacy services with shared payment methods and streamlined medication management

OptumRx Example

The OptumRx merchant group demonstrates our solution in action:

• OptumRx Home Delivery: Standard prescription fulfillment service for maintenance medications
• OptumRx Specialty: Specialized pharmacy for complex conditions requiring unique handling and storage

By grouping these related pharmacy services:

1. Patients can use the same payment methods across both services
2. Prescription copayment history is consolidated for better financial tracking
3. Administrative teams manage consistent payment configurations centrally
4. Reporting provides holistic view of pharmacy service utilization

Merchant Group Properties

Property	Description	Business Significance
ID	Unique system identifier	Ensures accurate internal referencing
Name	Human-readable identifier	Enables easy identification in reports and management interfaces
Associated Merchants	All merchants belonging to this group	Provides visibility into the scope of the merchant group

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Managing Merchant Groups

Creating a New Merchant Group

Business administrators can create new merchant groups to reflect:

• New business acquisitions
• Reorganizations of existing merchant structures
• Creation of new business divisions
• Implementation of new payment strategies

Assigning Merchants to Groups

When onboarding new merchants, business administrators must:

1. Determine the appropriate merchant group based on business relationships
2. Assign the merchant to this group during the creation process
3. Verify that group-level settings align with merchant needs

Updating Merchant Groups

Changes to merchant groups are synchronized across all associated merchants automatically, ensuring:

• Consistent configuration
• Uniform customer experience
• Reliable reporting