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User Guide
The information contained in this section applies to WebSphere Commerce Version 8. The documentation also applies to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in a newer section.WebSphere Commerce is a single, unified e-commerce platform that offers the ability to do business directly with consumers (B2C), directly with businesses (B2B), and indirectly through channel partners (indirect business models). WebSphere Commerce is designed to be a customizable, scalable, and high availability solution that is built to leverage open standards. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels.
Operating
IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce
The IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce, or Management Center, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, and others).
Catalogs tool
Use the Catalogs tool in Management Center to manage catalogs, categories, catalog entries, merchandising associations, product attributes, and attachments in your store. The Catalogs tool lets business users create, and manage online catalogs. Catalogs provide a way of organizing the products that you want to sell. You define catalog data in groups of categories and products. Catalog data contains descriptions and pricing information for products and services.
Managing categories
The Category Manager manages the category hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting categories. The category hierarchy organizes products or services offered by the store.

User Guide
The information contained in this section applies to WebSphere Commerce Version 8. The documentation also applies to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in a newer section.WebSphere Commerce is a single, unified e-commerce platform that offers the ability to do business directly with consumers (B2C), directly with businesses (B2B), and indirectly through channel partners (indirect business models). WebSphere Commerce is designed to be a customizable, scalable, and high availability solution that is built to leverage open standards. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels.
- Planning
  Creating a custom implementation of a WebSphere Commerce store requires a significant amount of planning. From gathering client needs, to deploying the live solution, much work is needed to successfully deploy a custom client store. Use the resources in here to help you plan every phase of store creation.
- Installing
  Review the following sections for information about installing the WebSphere Commerce product, associated maintenance, and WebSphere Commerce enhancements.
- Migrating
  Before you migrate to WebSphere Commerce Version 8.0, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.
- Deploying
  The topics in this section describe how to publish stores to either a test or production environment, and how to deploy customized code.
- Operating
  - IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce
    The IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce, or Management Center, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, and others).
    - Planning to use Management Center
      If you are using WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, consider using Management Center to manage your store.
    - management-center/refs/rtfgetstart.htm
    - Management Center keyboard shortcuts
      Use the Management Center keyboard shortcuts to access user interface functions or complete tasks, using a single key or combination of keys.
    - Working in extended site stores in Management Center
      If your company operates an extended site, you can perform certain tasks directly from your extended site store within Management Center.
    - Manage content externally for use in Management Center
      If content management capabilities other than the functionality that is provided by default with WebSphere Commerce is required, WebSphere Commerce can be integrated with IBM Web Content Manager. If WebSphere Commerce is integrated with IBM Web Content Manager, you can use content from IBM Web Content Manager content libraries with Management Center objects.
    - Manage marketing externally with IBM Marketing Center
      If your site is integrated with IBM Marketing Center, Management Center users can open IBM Marketing Center from Management Center to upload promotion codes and to create and manage marketing campaigns.
    - Management Center user interface
      The Management Center user interface provides a usable, intuitive, and efficient way to complete your business tasks.
    - Using the Management Center
      The starting point for all Management Center tasks is to open the tooling. Afterward, you can use several methods to complete a task: by selecting menu options, by clicking toolbar buttons, by right-clicking and selecting menus, or by keyboard shortcuts.
    - Catalogs tool
      Use the Catalogs tool in Management Center to manage catalogs, categories, catalog entries, merchandising associations, product attributes, and attachments in your store. The Catalogs tool lets business users create, and manage online catalogs. Catalogs provide a way of organizing the products that you want to sell. You define catalog data in groups of categories and products. Catalog data contains descriptions and pricing information for products and services.
      - Working with catalogs
        The Category Manager or Product Manager manages the catalog hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting catalogs for stores. There are two types of catalogs: master catalogs and sales catalogs.
      - Managing Catalog Upload
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can use the Catalog Upload feature in the Catalogs tool to upload sales catalogs, categories, catalog entries (products, SKUs, bundles, and kits), attributes, asset references, and more into Management Center.
      - Managing categories
        The Category Manager manages the category hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting categories. The category hierarchy organizes products or services offered by the store.
        Categories
        A category groups products and services offered by the store. You can create, find, list, change, and delete categories. You can classify products and SKUs under different parent categories.
        Creating categories in the master catalog
        If you are expanding your store inventory or changing your category structure, you can add categories to the master catalog.
        Creating categories
        If you are expanding your store inventory or changing your category structure, you might want to add a category.
        Changing categories
        You can change the information for a category, including code, name, description, images, and parent category.
        Deleting categories
        You might want to delete a category if you are changing your inventory or reorganizing your catalog structure, and no longer have any use for that category. You cannot delete a category if there are any associated catalog entries.
        Hiding categories
        You can hide a category in your catalog so that it does not display to customers, for example, if the category contains out-of-season merchandise. If you hide a category, the products and SKUs within that category can still be found in a sales catalog or during a search. To hide the products or SKUs, you must clear the Display to customers check box in the product or SKU properties views.
        Moving categories
        You can move a child category to a new parent category in the master catalog for example, if you are getting rid of a category or find that the child category is better defined under a new parent.
        Sequencing categories
        To change the order in which customers see categories on your site, change the display sequence of the category.
        Managing faceted navigation attributes in categories
        You can manage attribute dictionary faceted navigation attributes in categories to control how facets are displayed at a category level. Managing faceted navigation attributes in categories enables changing the attributes display sequence, and assigning attributes to display or hide in category pages. Managing faceted navigation attributes in categories ensures that customers see only the appropriate facets. That is, those facets that are most effective for targeting and comparing similar products within a category.
      - Managing catalog entries
        The Category Manager manages catalog entries in the store including, products, bundles, kits, and SKUs.
      - Managing products
        The Category Manager or Product Manager manages products, including adding or changing products in the catalog hierarchy.
      - Managing SKUs
        The Product Manager is responsible for determining the best way to display, price, and sell products in the online store.
      - Managing kits
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can organize kits in the catalog hierarchy, and create and change kits to determine the best way to sell them in the store.
      - Managing bundles
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can organize bundles in the catalog hierarchy, and create and change bundles to determine the best way to sell them in the store.
      - Managing attributes
        The Category Manager or Product Manager determine the best way to display, price, and sell products in the online store, including assigning or changing product attributes.
      - Managing facets
        Facets group similar items and attributes together in the left sidebar of your store to target meaningful product results. The facets are displayed with the number of products that are contained in each facet, and are clickable to filter search results. The Category Manager or Product Manager determine the best way to display facets in the online store, including assigning or changing product attribute and category facets.
      - Managing merchandising associations
        Product Managers, can find, list, create, and change merchandising associations (such as up-sells or cross-sells).
      - Managing catalog assets
        A catalog asset is a managed file, URL, or attachment that is associated to a category or catalog entry. For example, a product image or a PDF document. The usage type of the catalog asset determines the store page on which the asset is displayed, and the location on the page.
      - Managing external content from Watson Content Hub
        You can manage external content coming from Watson Content Hub in the Catalogs tool.
      - Managing search term associations
        The Product Manager is responsible for creating and managing search term associations. Search term associations include synonyms and search term replacements, and linking search terms with landing pages.
      - Managing site search statistics
        By reviewing site search statistics, you learn what customers are intending to find on your web site when they enter keywords in the search field. You can then make targeted improvements to optimize your site search, improve your site navigation, and ultimately increase conversions. Management Center provides site search statistics in two reports: the Top Search Hits report and the Top Search Misses report.
      - Managing content versioning
        Category Managers and Product Managers can manage versions of business objects to: rollback changes, make seasonal changes, or track the history of a business object.
      - Improving search results on your site
        WebSphere Commerce provides several tools that you can use to improve search results from search engines, and search results on your storefront.
      - Working with IBM Digital Analytics product and search reports
        You can open in Management Center several catalog-related reports from IBM Digital Analytics, formerly known as Coremetrics Analytics. After you open a report, you can view any other reports and dashboards that are available to you in IBM Digital Analytics.
      - Default and hidden fields
        Not all fields in the Catalogs tool views are displayed by default. This page lists all of the database fields that can be displayed in a properties view in the Catalogs tool, and if they are displayed by default.
      - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
        Find answers to some frequently asked questions about using certain features of the Catalogs tool and completing tasks.
      - Troubleshooting
        If you encounter issues while you are using the Catalogs tool, review this troubleshooting topic to solve common problems.
    - Marketing tool
      Use the Marketing tool in Management Center to create and manage marketing campaigns and other store content, excluding catalog content. You can use the extensive precision marketing features in the tool to deliver targeted marketing messages to customers.
    - Promotions tool
      Use the Promotions tool in Management Center to create and manage promotions that support the marketing campaigns for your site.
    - Assets tool
      As a Product Manager, Marketing Manager, or Category Manager, you can use the Assets tool to upload and manage your store assets. The term assets refers to web content that you use on your storefront and in marketing campaigns, such as marketing image files, catalog image files, PDF documents, and multimedia files.
    - Catalog Filter and Pricing tool
      Use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool in Management Center to create and manage catalog filters, price lists, and price rules. Sellers, Sales Managers, and Account Representatives can use the tool's flexible features to implement catalog filtering and pricing strategies that meet the site's business needs over time.
    - Installments tool
      Use the Installments tool in Management Center to create and manage installment rules that support the payment methods for your site.
    - Commerce Composer tool
      Create pages and build layouts for your store directly in Management Center without involving IT by using the Commerce Composer tool. Take advantage of the tool's page design and management functions to improve your productivity and give you more control over the customer experience.
    - Store Management tool
      As a Seller, Site Administrator, or Channel Manager, you can use the Store Management tool in Management Center to manage your stores. The Store Management tool in Management Center replaces all of the store management features in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, except store creation and the ability to suspend and resume stores. Continue to use the Store Creation wizard in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to create new stores; continue to use WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to suspend and resume stores.
    - Workspace Management tool
      You can use the Workspace Management tool in Management Center to manage and edit workspaces and its tasks and task groups that you are authorized to work with.
    - Previewing a store
      Preview your store to ensure that changes made in Management Center show up in your store as expected. You can use store preview in production, authoring, and staging environments.
    - Management Center frequently asked questions (FAQ)
      Find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the Management Center.
    - Management Center Troubleshooting
      If you encounter issues with the Management Center that are not related to any specific tool, review this troubleshooting topic to solve common problems.
  - WebSphere Commerce Accelerator
    Use the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to maintain online stores.
- Integrating
  Topics in the Integrating category highlight the tasks that are commonly performed for using WebSphere Commerce in combination with other products.
- Administering
- Tutorials
  WebSphere Commerce provides many tutorials to help you customize and understand your WebSphere Commerce instance and stores.
- Samples
- Developing
  The topics in the Developing section describe tasks performed by an application developer.
- Compliance
  The following section describes how you can leverage WebSphere Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.
- Securing
  These topics describe the security features of WebSphere Commerce and how to configure these features.
- Performance
- Troubleshooting

Managing categories

The Category Manager manages the category hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting categories. The category hierarchy organizes products or services offered by the store.