IBM WebSphere Commerce

WebSphere Commerce

Developer(s)	IBM
Stable release	8.0 with fix pack 1 (8.0.0.1) / 11/26/2014
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Internet application
License	Proprietary
Website	Official website

IBM WebSphere Commerce is a commerce platform that enables brands to promote and sell their products and services through digital channels. It provides the tools, customer and business insight, and transactional storefronts needed to engage individual shoppers or buyers by delivering personalized content and offers, optimizing mobile experiences and enabling brands to respond quickly to market opportunities. WebSphere Commerce includes capabilities for marketing, promotions, sales, order processing, managing catalogs, web and product content, pricing, site search, and more. It is a flexible platform that offers the ability to do business directly with consumers (B2C), with businesses (B2B), indirectly through channel partners (indirect business models), or all of these simultaneously. WebSphere Commerce is a customizable, scalable and high availability solution primarily based on Java and web technologies and using open standards.

IBM WebSphere Commerce is sometimes referred to as WCS, however this abbreviation was originally used as a reference to the platform when it was named WebSphere Commerce Suite. Use of the abbreviation continued with users and solution implementers after the platform was renamed to WebSphere Commerce with the announcement of WebSphere Commerce V5.4.

The first version of the platform was introduced in 1996, during the emergence of e-commerce with a product called Net.Commerce (V1.0 and subsequently V2.0, V3.1, and V3.2) that was first deployed to sell event ticket and merchandise for the 1996 Olympic Games. In 2001 Net.Commerce was renamed to WebSphere Commerce Suite, releasing versions V4.1 and V5.1. In 2002 WebSphere Commerce V5.4 was released, followed by V5.5 in 2003, V5.6 in 2004 and V5.6.1 in 2005. The latest major release versions are:

There are three editions of WebSphere Commerce software. Each edition provides an increasing set of functionality in comparison:

WebSphere Commerce is designed as a highly customizable solution and IBM provides an integrated development environment that is used to build and test customizations including changing the design of storefronts, extending business logic, and creating new business logic to meet business requirements. The developer platform used for customizing and implementing the solution is called IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer for which there are also 3 editions that pair with their runtime environments (i.e. WebSphere Commerce Developer Express, WebSphere Commerce Developer Professional, and WebSphere Commerce Developer Enterprise).