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HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. 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. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
Operating
Topics in the Operating category highlight tasks that are typically performed by business users, customer support representatives, to complete their day-to-day tasks in the operation of the HCL Commerce site.
Management Center for HCL Commerce
The Management Center for HCL Commerce, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, Buyer Administrator, Customer Service Supervisor and others).
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.
Widgets for Commerce Composer
A widget is a frame that displays a specific type of store content, such as ads, product recommendations, or navigational links. To create a layout, you add widgets to slots in a layout template, and then set the properties and content for each widget.
Commerce Composer widget library
HCL Commerce provides over two dozen layout widgets that you can use in the Commerce Composer tool to create layouts for store pages.
Merchandising Associations widget
Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display merchandising associations for a catalog entry. Merchandising associations are catalog entries that are defined as cross-sells, up-sells, replacements, or accessories for another catalog entry.

Documentation
HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. 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. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
- Getting started
  HCL Commerce has different advantages for business users, administrators and developers. HCL Commerce targets each of these roles with a tailored set of offerings so that each of your users can get maximum benefit.
- Installing and deploying
  Learn how to install and deploy HCL Commerce development environments and HCL Commerce production environments.
- Migrating
  Before you migrate to HCL Commerce Version 9.1, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.
- Operating
  Topics in the Operating category highlight tasks that are typically performed by business users, customer support representatives, to complete their day-to-day tasks in the operation of the HCL Commerce site.
  - Management Center for HCL Commerce
    The Management Center for HCL Commerce, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, Buyer Administrator, Customer Service Supervisor and others).
    - 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 HCL Commerce is required, HCL Commerce can be integrated with IBM Web Content Manager. If HCL Commerce is integrated with IBM Web Content Manager, you can use content from IBM Web Content Manager content libraries with Management Center objects.
    - Management Center Dashboard
      The Management Center user interface helps you quickly access business tools and provides a usable, intuitive, and efficient way to complete your business tasks. The Management Center dashboard has all the tools with descriptions displayed on the screen. The dashboard view will contain the tools the user has access to.
    - 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.
    - HCL Commerce License Metrics
      A Resource Value Unit (RVU) is a proof of entitlement based on the number of units of a specific resource that are used or managed. HCL Commerce License Metrics is an order line resource where you are able to produce a report of the count of any completed order lines for auditing purposes. For your specific RVU entitlement, refer to your license.
    - 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.
    - 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.
    - Attachments tool
      As a Product Manager, Marketing Manager, or Category Manager, you can use the Attachments tool to manage URLs that point to marketing image files, catalog image files, PDF documents, and multimedia files that you use in marketing campaigns.
    - 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.
      - Commerce Composer overview
        The Commerce Composer tool gives you the freedom to quickly create and assemble the contents of your store pages without involving IT. By using a library of prebuilt layout templates and widgets, you can manage store page layouts directly in Management Center. The Commerce Composer tool offers a streamlined workflow that improves your productivity and reduces time-to-market for your campaigns.
      - Managing pages
        By using the Commerce Composer tool, you can add URLs for new pages to your store whenever you need a new page. You can also manage the SEO data for content, category, and catalog entry pages to optimize your site for search.
      - Managing layouts
        The Commerce Composer tool provides templates and widgets for you to build layouts for your store pages without involving IT.
      - Widgets for Commerce Composer
        A widget is a frame that displays a specific type of store content, such as ads, product recommendations, or navigational links. To create a layout, you add widgets to slots in a layout template, and then set the properties and content for each widget.
        Commerce Composer widget library
        HCL Commerce provides over two dozen layout widgets that you can use in the Commerce Composer tool to create layouts for store pages.
        Add to Requisition List widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to add an Add to Requisition List button that buyers can click to add the item (SKU) that they are viewing to a requisition list. A requisition list is a reusable list of items (SKUs) that buyers plan to periodically reorder.
        Associated Assets widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display links to associated assets for a catalog entry, such as videos, user manuals, and warranty documents. Each link is displayed with a corresponding icon and a display name.
        Breadcrumb Trail widget
        This widget automatically retrieves and displays a horizontal list of links that show customers their current location within the site hierarchy. Customers can click any link in the breadcrumb to navigate to another page within the hierarchy.
        Catalog Entry List widget
        This widget automatically retrieves and displays a list of catalog entries that apply to the current page. Optionally, you can insert marketing content, such as an ad, into the catalog entry list.
        Catalog Entry Recommendation widget
        Use this widget to display a list of catalog entries (products, SKUs, bundles, and kits) on a store page. For example, you might want to display a list of featured products on a landing page, or a list of recently viewed products on a category page.
        Category Navigation widget
        This widget automatically retrieves and displays a list of category links to help customers navigate as they browse and search your catalog. For each category link, the number of catalog entries is displayed in parentheses. Typically, this widget is placed in the left sidebar of the page.
        Category Recommendation widget
        Use this widget to display a list of categories on a store page. For example, you might want to display a list of subcategories on a department page, or a list of featured categories on a brand landing page.
        Components widget
        Use this widget in a layout for a bundle, kit, or dynamic kit to display the catalog entries that are included.
        Content Carousel widget
        Use this widget to display two or more pieces of content that transition from one to the next in an image carousel. You can include scrolling controls and image counters on the widget to give customers more control over the transitions. This type of widget is commonly used at the top of a landing page.
        Content Recommendation widget
        Use this widget to display content, such as images, text, HTML, and Flash content, on a store page.
        Defining Attributes widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display the defining attributes, such as color and size, of the catalog entry.
        Descriptive Attributes widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display the descriptive attributes of the catalog entry. Each applicable descriptive attribute is displayed in a bulleted list that displays the name followed by the value.
        Discounts widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display the short descriptions of certain promotions that the catalog entry qualifies for. The promotion must be a catalog entry or category promotion that is not a site-wide promotion. Order and shipping promotions are not displayed in this widget. This widget informs customers of applicable store promotions to encourage them to purchase the catalog entry.
        E-Marketing Spot widget
        Use this widget to display content, catalog entries, and categories in an e-Marketing Spot in the layout. In the e-Marketing Spot, you can run web activities and specify default content.
        Facebook Like widget
        Use this widget in a layout to display a Like button to allow customers to like the catalog entry that they are viewing and share it on Facebook. Customers can click a Share button to add a message to the link and then share the link on their timeline, or with Facebook friends or groups.
        Facet Navigation widget
        This widget automatically retrieves and displays a list of facets, such as the Brand, Price, and Color facets. For each facet value, the number of matching catalog entries is displayed in parentheses. Typically, this widget is placed in the left sidebar of the page.
        Full Image widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display the full image of the catalog entry. The widget also displays any angle images that are defined as associated assets for the catalog entry.
        Heading widget
        This widget automatically retrieves the name of a category or catalog entry to display as a page heading.
        IBM Product Recommendations widget
        Use this widget in a layout to display recommendations that are generated by the IBM Product Recommendations engine, part of the IBM Digital Marketing Optimization solution. This widget supports both flat file and dynamic recommendations.
        Inventory Availability widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display information about the online and in-store availability of a catalog entry.
        Links widget
        Use this widget to add one or more text links from a store page to other store pages, or to external URLs. The widget displays the links in a vertical list and supports an optional display title.
        Long Description widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display the long description of the catalog entry.
        Merchandising Associations widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display merchandising associations for a catalog entry. Merchandising associations are catalog entries that are defined as cross-sells, up-sells, replacements, or accessories for another catalog entry.
        Name, Part Number, and Price widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display the name, part number, and price of a catalog entry.
        Predefined Dynamic Kit List widget
        Use this widget in a layout for a dynamic kit page to automatically retrieve and display a list of the associated predefined dynamic kits that customers can purchase. The widget displays the thumbnail image, name, and price of each predefined dynamic kit. Customers can add the predefined dynamic kit to their cart directly from the widget, or they can click the kit to open the Predefined Dynamic Kit Details page and get more information.
        Search Summary widget
        On a search results page, this widget displays the search term the customer used and the number of matching search results. If there are no matches for the search term, this widget also displays suggested search terms. Typically, this widget is used above a Catalog Entry List widget.
        Shopper Actions widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display the Quantity entry field, and the Add to Cart and Add to Wish List buttons for a catalog entry.
        Short Description widget
        Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display the short description of the catalog entry. This widget also indicates whether the catalog entry is offered as a recurring order.
        Site Content List widget
        Use this widget in a layout for a search results page to display links to site content that matched the customer's search term. This widget broadens the search results to include more than just matching products.
        Site Map widget
        Use this widget in a layout for a site map page to display links to all categories in the catalog that the shopper is browsing, arranged according to the catalog hierarchy. The Site Map widget is configured to be three categories deep.
        SKU List widget
        Use this widget in a layout for a product page to display a list of SKUs for the product. In the widget, customers can view the full set of SKUs associated to a product in a table and scan the attributes quickly to pick the right combination. Customers can specify the quantity of each SKU and then add those SKUs to their cart or current order, or to a requisition list.
        Text Editor widget
        Use this widget to add text or HTML content to a page. The widget contains a built-in text editor for you to enter custom HTML code, or format text by using options in the editing toolbar.
        Creating page-specific e-Marketing Spots for the E-Marketing Spot widget
        If you add an E-Marketing Spot widget to a layout and choose page-specific e-Marketing Spots, each page to which the layout is assigned has its own generated e-Marketing Spot. For each page, you must use the Marketing tool to create the e-Marketing Spot and populate it with default content, or web activities, or both.
        Creating a web activity from within a Commerce Composer widget
        In certain Commerce Composer widgets, you can create a web activity directly from the widget properties view. By running a web activity in the widget, you can take advantage of web activity capabilities for managing the widget content. These capabilities include personalization, scheduling, and prioritization.
        Web activity actions supported in Commerce Composer widgets
        Certain widgets in the Commerce Composer widget library support web activities. When you build a web activity to run in one of these widgets, you must choose a web activity action that is supported by the widget.
      - Organizing content pages and layouts with folders
        By using folders to group and organize your content pages and layouts, you can work more efficiently in the Store Management tool.
      - Tutorial: Creating a page and its layout by using the Commerce Composer tool
        In this tutorial, you use Management Center to create a new content page. You then build a layout for the page by using a selection of widgets from the Commerce Composer widget library.
    - 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 HCL Commerce Accelerator, except store creation and the ability to suspend and resume stores. Use the Store Creation wizard in Management Center to create new stores.
    - Workspace Management tool
      The Workspace Management tool is a graphical user interface tool that is used to manage workspaces and workspace-related activities. It provides a single view across all workspaces and all tasks in the workspaces where managers can see how work is progressing.
    - Organizations
      An organizational entity is a type of member in HCL Commerce. An organizational entity is classified into one of three types: an organization, an organization unit, or an authorization domain. For site administrators, one of your first tasks after installing and configuring HCL Commerce is setting up and managing access to your e-commerce site. This process involves creating organizations that participate at your site, and defining users that are members of those organizations. After an instance is created, you can publish a starter store that defines the organization structure. Sometimes, organizations joining your site might be buyer organizations. In other cases, you might have customers registering at your site who are engaged in a business-to-consumer relationship with your business. Defining the organizational structure of site is an important step in managing the types of access that members have to your system.
    - Assets tool
      As Product Manager, Marketing Manager, Marketing Director, or Category Manager, you can use the Assets tool to manage URLs that point to marketing image files, catalog image files, PDF documents, and multimedia files that you use in marketing campaigns.
    - Analytics Tool
      Management Center now has a new tool called Analytics listed at the top of the menu.
    - Approvals
      Accurate, secure transactions require that a second individual approve some electronic marketplace actions before they proceed. This individual, called an approver, can accept or reject requests to perform a specific action. During the organization registration process, the organization administrator selects the business processes for which they want to enable approval. This is done by signing up for the appropriate approval member group during membership registration. The organization administrator also populates the approver member groups. Only users within these groups have the authority to accept or reject requests to perform those actions for which approval has been enabled.
    - Approving requests
      Submitters and administrators with the appropriate access can view approval requests and verify the status of their associated approval decisions. When an approvable action enters the approval process, the submitter sees it as an approval submission or submission in the user interface. The approver responsible for approving the action sees it referred to as an approval request or request in the user interface.
    - Security Policies
      For enhanced security of your site, ensure that you are aware and up to date on all account related policies.
    - Registries
      The Registries tool allows site administrators to update a registry without requiring a server restart. The Registry Manager maintains a set of registries for catching HCL Commerce runtime data. Each registry provides methods to enable adding, deleting, and refreshing of the registry content. These methods are available to the URL interface by using the ListRegistry and the RefreshRegistry commands.
    - Search Tool
      Management Center now has a new Search tool listed in the hamburger menu.
    - Page Composer tool
      Like the Commerce Composer tool in Management Center, the Page Composer tool lets business users manage store pages. The Page Composer tool is available only on Auth environment and specifically for use with React stores. This tool allows users to create store pages and assign SEO URLs to them.
    - Marketplace
      A marketplace is a web storefront that enables third-party sellers to sell their products on your platform.
    - Managing shipping
      You can set up shipping at a store-level by using Management Center.
    - Managing taxes
      You can set up taxes at a store-level by using the Management Center.
    - Users
      When a user first accesses an e-commerce site and is browsing product pages, the user is running as a generic user. The generic user has a common user ID (-1002) that is used across the entire system. The use of a common user ID on the site minimizes system resource usage. Once the user performs an operation that requires a unique identity, for example, adding a product to the shopping cart, the user is converted from a generic user to a unique guest user. A guest user has a unique user ID, but no password. This user implicitly belongs to the Default Organization and does not have any roles in the site. Depending on the business model of the store, and the access control policies, the user may be able to do other operations on the site, for example, placing an order. Both the generic user and a unique guest user have the registration type of "G" (Guest user). If the guest user registers to the current store, then the user is converted to a registered user, and any assets that the guest user owned will now be owned by the registered user.
    - Messages
      Site Administrators can use the resend function in HCL Commerce to resend messages that are stored in the HCL Commerce system.
    - Member groups
      A member group is a grouping of members - users, organizations, or other member groups - used for various business purposes. Two kinds of member groups exist: implicit and explicit. An implicit member group contains users that share common attributes and are therefore considered members of a specific member group. An implicit member group specifies criteria or attributes that users must satisfy in order to be considered members of that member group. You can also explicitly exclude certain users although they satisfy the criteria. An explicit member group contains explicitly assigned users, who may or may not share common attributes. A member group can be both implicit and explicit at the same time.
    - Extended Sites Store Management
      You can create store quickly and easily from Management Center Tools. The wizard asks a customer to provide some basic data about their store (name, description, and so on), allows the customer to select the storefront or catalog they want to use, and then creates the store. The resulting store has some unique data, but uses the storefront and catalog data from existing asset stores.
    - Scheduler
      A job is HCL Commerce command that is scheduled to run on behalf of a site or store at a specified time or interval. The three types of jobs are: site level jobs, store level jobs, and broadcast jobs.
    - Message types
      HCL Commerce predefines several message types and sets them as active. You can create or change the parameters for message types from Management Center.
    - Transport methods
      HCL Commerce provides several transport methods. By default, the e-mail transport method is configured and active. You can also use these transport methods: File, IBM MQ, or a sample adapter. You can configure transport methods for the site, or for particular stores.
    - Accounts
      Managing a business account involves tasks that create and modify business accounts. The various tasks that are involved in managing a business account are performed by different roles.
    - 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.You can use store preview within the authoring instances for any of your environments. Do not use store preview within the live instance of your HCL Commerce on Cloud 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.
  - HCL Commerce Accelerator
    Use the HCL Commerce Accelerator to maintain online stores.
  - HCL Customer Service for HCL Commerce JSP stores
    HCL Customer Service for HCL Commerce provides customer service enhancements that enable a customer service representative (CSR) to resolve common issues and capture orders. These capabilities are built into the HCL Commerce Aurora storefront and enable a CSR to complete key tasks on behalf of a guest and registered customers for both B2B and B2C stores. Customer Service for HCL Commerce is offered for Enterprise edition.
  - HCL Customer Service Hub for HCL Commerce React stores
    HCL Customer Service Hub for HCL Commerce provides customer service enhancements that enable a customer service representative (CSR) to resolve common issues and capture orders. These capabilities are built into the HCL Commerce Reference Store application and enable a CSR to complete key tasks on behalf of guest and registered customers for headless stores that are built based on the Emerald and Sapphire reference stores. Customer Service Hub for HCL Commerce is offered for Enterprise edition.
- Integrating
  Topics in the Integrating category highlight the tasks that are commonly performed for using HCL Commerce in combination with other products.
- Administering
  Topics in the Administering category highlight tasks that are typically performed by the Site Administrator, to support daily operations of the HCL Commerce site.
- Customizing
  The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize HCL Commerce.
- Tutorials
  HCL Commerce provides many tutorials to help you customize and understand your HCL Commerce instance and stores.
- Samples
  Topics in the Samples category highlight the various samples that are provided with HCL Commerce.
- Compliance
  The following section describes how you can leverage HCL Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.
- Securing
  These topics describe the security features of HCL Commerce and how to configure these features.
- Performance
  Topics in the Performance section describe the means by which to plan, implement, test, and re-visit the optimization of HCL Commerce site performance.
- Troubleshooting
  Topics in the Troubleshooting section highlight common issues that are encountered with HCL Commerce, and how they can be addressed or mitigated.
- Reference
  Topics in the Reference section contain all of the HCL Commerce reference documentation.

Merchandising Associations widget

Use this widget in a catalog entry page layout to display merchandising associations for a catalog entry. Merchandising associations are catalog entries that are defined as cross-sells, up-sells, replacements, or accessories for another catalog entry.

You must define the merchandising associations for each catalog entry in the Catalogs tool. When you set up merchandising associations in the Catalogs tool, you can specify the sequence in which to display the catalog entries in the widget. The Merchandising Associations widget automatically retrieves and displays all defined merchandising associations regardless of type (cross-sell, up-sell, replacement, or accessory). All four types are displayed the same way in the widget.

This widget displays the catalog entries in a single horizontal row in a tabbed frame labeled Coordinate. The thumbnail image and name are pulled from your catalog data. The widget includes a Buy Now! link that expands to allow customers to select the attributes and quantity for the catalog entry, and then click an Add to Cart button.

Page dependency

Use this widget only in layouts for catalog entry pages. For any other page type, this widget is not rendered on the page.

Example of widget content

Example of a Merchandising Associations widget

See an example layout for a product page that uses this widget.

Alternative widgets

Consider displaying merchandising associations by using the Catalog Entry Recommendation widget instead. In the widget, run a web activity that uses the Display Merchandising Associations action. Setting up the web activity requires extra work; however, there are several benefits:

You can specify the types of merchandising associations that you want to display in the widget (cross-sell, up-sell, replacement, or accessory).
You can show merchandising associations based on the customer's shopping cart contents or purchase history.
You can use the Catalog Entry Recommendation widget on any page, not just catalog entry pages.

Prerequisites for using this widget

Ensure that merchandising associations are set up for catalog entries in the Catalogs tool. For more information, see Creating merchandising associations.

Widget properties and content

This widget has no configurable properties other than the widget name. The merchandising associations are automatically retrieved from your catalog data.