WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0: Delivering Smarter Commerce
IBM has announced the release of WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0, which delivers a market-leading customer interaction platform, which enables companies to provide a rich, customer-centric experience across multiple channels and touchpoints. WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 enhancements enable you to:
- Design and execute a differentiated brand experience by recognizing and responding to customer interactions across multiple channels and touch points
- Build a dialogue with the shopper by delivering contextual targeted marketing information to shoppers
- Support automated, one-to-one ongoing dialogs with shoppers based on preference, purchase history, and shopping behavior
- Support mobile devices for browsing the catalog, receiving marketing messages, promotions, coupon codes, and completing transactions
- Integrate product review & ratings, blogs, photo galleries, and user profiles into your online store
- Provide rich, streamlined and B2C-like experience to B2B e-commerce sites
- Enable peak performance and process higher transaction volume while minimizing cost
- Reduce the cost of operation and deployment
- Accelerate the integration with e-commerce ecosystem
Key Enhancements at a glance
To help customers achieve the above benefits, WebSphere Commerce provides the following enhancements:
- Precision Marketing engine to capture customer triggers (e.g. abandoned shop cart, mobile interaction, social participation) across channels and respond with a wide range of actions (e.g. promotions, mobile coupons, loyalty rewards) that goes far beyond just the web.
- Dialog Activity Builder for business users to compose and execute automated one-to-one dialog with shoppers using triggers and actions.
- Automated, one-to-one ongoing interactions with shoppers based on preference, purchase history, and shopping behavior.
- Mobile store model optimized for smartphones including iPhone and Blackberry to provide end-to-end shopping
- flow including stock locator, store locator, and buy on mobile and pick up in-store.
- Support product ratings and reviews, blogs, photo galleries, and user profiles into the shopping flow by
- integrating with 3rd party vendors.
- New B2B Starter store leveraging Web 2.0 best practices to deliver rich experience, buyer-centric marketing and operational automation.
- Enhanced business user tools to create and manage dynamic customer segments and e-marketing spots.
- New data load tools allow for efficient loading for catalog, pricing, and inventory information.
- Web analytics integration framework for consistent integration with third-party web analytics vendors.
- Latest software stack of IBM WebSphere Application Server V7 and DB2 9.5 for improved performance.
- A set of standardized services to quickly and easily integrate WebSphere Commerce with existing back office infrastructure and 3rd party solutions.
WebSphere Information
IBM WebSphere Commerce is an e-commerce solution for consumer direct, business direct and indirect business environments. It consists of a set of integrated software components that enables enterprises to build and customize e-commerce sites. WebSphere Commerce software uses an open architecture based on a Java™ programming model that allows you to customize the behavior of your sites. WebSphere Commerce is a complete commerce solution that includes WebSphere Application Server, DB2™, WebSphere Commerce Payments, and HTTP server. WebSphere Commerce comes in three editions: Express, Professional, and Enterprise. Depending on the edition, WebSphere Commerce also provides additional software to support live customer care, collaboration, and advanced business analytics. The following figure shows the key components of WebSphere Commerce. For detailed about each component, see WebSphere Commerce product overview.
WebSphere Commerce Editions
There are three editions of WebSphere Commerce available, each tailored to suit a certain realm of business needs:
WebSphere Commerce-Express is an easily installed, affordable, yet complete solution designed to help growing mid-market companies do business on the Web. Start your online presence with the basics then grow with the industry leaders as your needs change.
WebSphere Commerce Professional provides a comprehensive online selling solution for maximizing revenues, improving operational efficiencies, and increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Through the use of advanced marketing and merchandising, configurable business processes, and powerful analytics and personalization, businesses will be able to attract, motivate, transact, and understand their customers throughout the customer lifecycle.
WebSphere Commerce Enterprise provides a powerful, flexible infrastructure based on a unified platform for running large, high-volume business-to-business and advanced business-to-consumer e-commerce Web sites for global e-businesses.
New and Improved Features
WebSphere Commerce-Express offers the following new and improved features:
- Lightweight development
- Starter stores
- Catalog import utility
- Content
- WebSphere Commerce business process models
- Information center
- Sales catalogs
- Streamlined installation
- Improved business user tools
- Extend e-Marketing Spots to e-mail activity
- Manage e-mail
- Integration reference applications
- Migration wizard
- Payments plug-in controller
WebSphere Commerce Professional offers everything in WebSphere Commerce-Express plus the following new and improved features:
- Scalable, mission critical platform
- Workspaces
- WebSphere Commerce Analyzer enhancement
- E-mail templates
- Single datamart database for WebSphere Commerce Analyzer
- IBM Gift Center
- IBM Sales Center
WebSphere Commerce Enterprise offers everything in WebSphere Commerce Professional plus the following new and improved features:
- Wizard driven extended site creation
- Business accounts and contracts
- Catalog filtering
- Advanced B2B direct starter store model
- Business models
- Contract enhancement
- Business accounts
- Business policies
- Buyer and Seller collaboration
- Request For Quote (RFQ) and shopping cart
