Introduction
Dynamics 365 Commerce supports three different types of channels: online, retail, and call center.
Online channels - Represent the online stores that are connected to e-commerce storefronts. They give customers the option of purchasing products from the retailer's online store in addition to its retail stores. Dynamics 365 Commerce brings a fully integrated, out-of-the-box, e-commerce storefront to the platform, together with surrounding apps.
Retail channels - Represent standard brick-and-mortar stores and traditional face-to-face retail. Each retail store channel has its own Store Commerce registers, income accounts and expense accounts, and staff.
Call center channels - Represent call center order and customer management. Call center orders are created in the Commerce headquarters (operating system) of Dynamics 365 Commerce and have the appearance of a regular sales order. However, if enabled as a Commerce channel, call center channels trigger the retail pricing engine and other Commerce omnichannel features (payments, auto charges, and more).
Commerce headquarter configurations drive all Commerce channels, which enables customers (and retailers) to have the same information everywhere, making it a true omnichannel experience. All channel configuration is performed in the Commerce headquarters, and each channel type has a unique set of features that might need to be configured. For example, a retail channel needs assigned employees, registers, and customers. Orders from the different channel databases are also stored in Commerce headquarters.