Store community membership for profiles and permission sets
Key Takeaway
Only users whose profile or permission set is a member of the store's community can access a B2B store. Only the store creator, or someone with the creator's profile, can manage that membership.
Each B2B store has a community of members, which you manage as a site under Digital Experiences in Setup. You control who belongs to the community by adding profiles and permission sets in the site's Administration workspace. Membership matters because it decides who can access the store at all.
Store community membership as a gate
Store community membership acts as a gate. Only users whose profile or permission set is a member of the store's community can access the store. So a buyer whose profile and permission sets are not members can't get in.
There are preconfigured permission sets for buyers, buyer managers, and account switchers. They manage access to the store's features and data, which is why they belong in the store's "Selected Permission Sets" list. Assigning one of these permission sets to a user doesn't open the gate by itself. The permission set must be in Selected Permission Sets, or the user's profile must be in "Selected Profiles".
Dana created a store and added the permission set for buyers to Selected Permission Sets. She didn't add the permission set for buyer managers. Ravi leads purchasing at a customer company, so Dana assigns him the buyer manager permission set. Ravi's profile isn't in Selected Profiles, and none of his permission sets are in Selected Permission Sets, so Ravi can't access the store. Dana drags the buyer manager permission set to Selected Permission Sets and clicks Save. Membership no longer blocks Ravi.