***

title: "Customers"
metaTitle: "Managing Customers and Customer Groups in Vendure"
metaDescription: "How Vendure models customers, addresses, guest checkouts, and customer groups for promotions, shipping rules, and B2B segmentation."
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A [`Customer`](/current/core/reference/typescript-api/entities/customer/) is a person who can buy from your shop. A customer can have one or more
[`Addresses`](/current/core/reference/typescript-api/entities/address/), which are used for shipping and billing.

If a customer has registered an account, they will have an associated [`User`](/current/core/reference/typescript-api/entities/user/). The user
entity is used for authentication and authorization. **Guest checkouts** are also possible, in which case a customer will not have a user.

:::info
See the [User Management](/current/core/core-concepts/user-management/) guide for a detailed explanation of the relationship between
customers and users.
:::

![Customer](./customer.webp)

Customers can be organized into [`CustomerGroups`](/current/core/reference/typescript-api/entities/customer-group/). These groups can be used in
logic relating to promotions, shipping rules, payment rules etc. For example, you could create a "VIP" customer group and then create
a promotion which grants members of this group free shipping. Or a "B2B" group which is used in a custom tax calculator to
apply a different tax rate to B2B customers.