Elastic Path Commerce Manager Client User Guide
Reklama
Reklama
Commerce Manager Client
User Guide
Elastic Path
™
Commerce 6.17.0
Copyright © 2016 Elastic Path Software, Inc. [Rev 10.28.2016]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (photocopying, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise), without permission in writing from Elastic Path
Software, Inc.
Elastic Path TM and the Elastic Path logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Elastic Path Software, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to Elastic Path Commerce .................................. 11
Chapter 2: Commerce Manager ............................................................... 13
Chapter 3: Getting Started ...................................................................... 14
Chapter 4: Application Configuration ...................................................... 22
Chapter 5: eCommerce Configuration ..................................................... 52
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Chapter 6: Catalog Management ............................................................. 91
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Chapter 7: Price List Manager ................................................................ 169
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Chapter 8: Customer Service ................................................................. 185
Chapter 9: Marketing Activities ............................................................. 205
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Chapter 10: Shipping/Receiving ............................................................ 253
Chapter 11: Change Sets ........................................................................ 262
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Appendix A: Workflow Diagrams .......................................................... 287
Appendix B: Keyboard Shortcuts ........................................................... 291
Appendix C: State Tables ....................................................................... 293
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Appendix D: Query Language ................................................................ 298
Appendix E: Promotion Shopper Segment Conditions and Rules ........... 302
Appendix F: Permissions ....................................................................... 310
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Elastic Path
Commerce
Elastic Path Commerce is a flexible ecommerce framework with reusable services and a rich out-ofthe-box feature set. Elastic Path provides full access to source code for zero constraints – develop custom features, integrate with any third party system, and maintain internal control. This open approach gives enterprises the easiest and most cost-effective way to implement their custom ecommerce solution.
Elastic Path Commerce is comprised of a platform - EP Server, Search Server, Database - the
Commerce Manager - server and associated client application.
Web Browser
Storefront
- used by customers
Commerce
Manager Client
Client
- used by Customer Service
Reps, Business Users and
Elastic Path Commerce
Administrators
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Through the Commerce Manager client, administrative users configure lower level system settings, such as search engine optimization, system configuration parameters, user accounts and payment gateways. Similarly, Customer Service Representatives (CSR) use Commerce Manager client to manage customer orders.
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Chapter 2: Commerce Manager
What is the Commerce Manager?
The Commerce Manager is a server and desktop application that enables you to manage online stores. The server manages the Elastic Path Server and its related web components, while the
Commerce Manager allows you to interact with the Commerce Manager Server.
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Chapter 3: Getting Started
Logging on to the Commerce Manager Client
1. Start the Commerce Manager.
2. Enter your user name, password, and the URL of the Commerce Manager Server. (Ask your store administrator for this information if you do not have it.)
Note:
If this is your first time logging on, use the default administrator account. The default administrator username is admin . The default password is 111111 .
The first time you log on, you will be prompted to change this password.
3. Click Login.
For more information, see Activities.
Permissions determine which activities and functionality the user can access. The following sections discuss each activity, which permissions are required to access it, and what users are able to see and do based on the catalogs, stores, and warehouses that are assigned to them.
Note: If a user does not have any permissions within an activity, the user will not be able to access that activity in the Commerce Manager and the corresponding Activity menu item will be disabled.
Customer Service
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Customer Service permission.
Customer Service permissions determine which of the following content appear.
Order Search tab
The search results in the Order Search tab include orders in stores that are assigned to the user.
Customer Search tab
The search results in the Customer Search tab include customers in stores that are assigned to the user.
Customer Import Jobs
The Customer Import Jobs list contains import jobs for the stores that are assigned to the user. The store list in the Create Import Job wizard contains stores that are assigned to the user.
Create Order
When the user creates an order from the Commerce Manager, a list appears, containing stores that are assigned to the user.
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Orders in the Customer Profile
The Orders area in the customer profile contains orders in stores that are assigned to the user. The list of stores next to the Create Order button contains stores that are assigned to the user.
Catalog Management
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Catalog Management permission.
Catalog Management permissions determine which of the following content appear.
Master Catalogs and Virtual Catalogs
If a user has permissions on a virtual catalog but not the corresponding master catalog, the user can only make the following product changes:
Prices
Product associations (including up-sells and cross-sells)
Category assignments
Important: If you assign a master catalog to a user, that user can make changes that could affect virtual catalogs based on that master.
Catalog Browse tab
The catalog list in the Catalog Browse tab contains catalogs that are assigned to the user.
Catalog Search tab
The search results in the Catalog Search tab include products in catalogs that are assigned to the user.
Note: The brand filter in the Catalog Search tab contains brand names from all catalogs, including those not assigned to the user. If the user searches for a brand name that is not in an assigned catalog, no matches will be found.
Advanced Search tab
The Advanced Search tab is only displayed if the user has a User Role with at least one Query
Management permission.
Catalog Import Jobs
The Catalog Import Jobs list contains import jobs for the catalogs that are assigned to the user. The catalog list in the Create Import Job wizard contains catalogs that are assigned to the user.
Configuration
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Configuration permission.
Important: Users with access to the Configuration activity can perform actions that affect multiple stores, catalogs, and warehouses, even if they are only assigned to a subset of those objects.
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Reporting
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Reporting permission. Users can run reports on the stores and warehouses that are assigned to them.
Shipping/Receiving
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Shipping/Receiving permission.
Shipping/Receiving permissions determine which of the following content appear.
Receive Inventory
Users can only perform operations on the currently selected warehouse (under Shipping/Receiving >
Switch Warehouse). Users can receive inventory for warehouses that are assigned to them.
Complete Shipment
Users can only perform operations on the currently selected warehouse (under Shipping/Receiving >
Switch Warehouse). Users can complete shipments if the inventory is located in a warehouse assigned to them.
Warehouse Import Jobs
The Warehouse Import Jobs list contains import jobs for the warehouses that are assigned to the user. The warehouse list in the Create Import Job wizard contains warehouses that are assigned to the user.
Switch Warehouse
The list of available warehouses in the Shipping/Receiving > Switch Warehouse menu contains warehouses that are assigned to the user.
Inventory tab
Users can only perform operations on the currently selected warehouse (under Shipping/Receiving >
Switch Warehouse). Users can access inventory in warehouses that are assigned to them.
Returns and Exchanges tab
Users can only perform operations on the currently selected warehouse (under Shipping/Receiving >
Switch Warehouse). Users can access returns and exchanges for inventory in warehouses that are assigned to them.
Store Marketing
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Store Marketing permission. Store
Marketing permissions determine which of the following content appears.
Promotions tab
Users can only search for catalog promotions created in catalogs assigned to them. Users can only search for cart promotions in stores assigned to them.
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Shipping Service Levels tab
Users can only search for shipping service levels in stores assigned to them.
Settings tab
Users can only view settings in stores assigned to them.
Dynamic Content Delivery tab
Users can search for and access all Dynamic Content Delivery regardless of which stores are assigned to them.
Create, Edit and Delete Dynamic Content
Users can view and modify all Dynamic Content Delivery, regardless of which stores are assigned to them. When creating Dynamic Content Delivery, they can select any active stores in the system.
Controlling Access to File System Assets
There are several places in the Commerce Manager where the user is able to interact with resources in a file system.
In the Catalog Management activity, the user can select images from the assets directory
(Category Types, Product Types, and SKU Options, Brands).
In the Customer Service activity, the user can upload CSV files from their local file system to the assets directory.
In the Configuration activity, the user can indirectly select resources from the assets directory
(themes, gift certificates).
In the Shipping/Receiving activity, the user can upload CSV files from their local file system to the assets directory.
In the Store Marketing activity, the user can upload CSV files from their local file system. The user can select resources from the assets directory.
The Commerce Manager does not restrict access to file system resources. It is the responsibility of your organization’s system administrators to ensure that the appropriate permissions are configured at the file system level.
Do not use the file protocol for the Commerce Manager’s VFS settings in a production environment.
Use either FTP or SFTP and configure the COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/RCP/ASSETS/vfs settings appropriately.
If you want to control access to resources within the assets directory, you must configure permissions
at the file system level. For more information, see Changing a User's Password.
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Account Locking after Failed Login
By default, if you are unable to log on to Commerce Manager client after six attempts, your account will be locked. If this occurs, you must ask a Commerce Manager client user with administrator privileges to unlock it. When your account is unlocked, your password is reset and you will receive an e-mail containing the new password. You will be able to log on with this password one time only and must change it immediately after logging on.
Commerce Manager User Interface
The Commerce Manager user interface is divided into three main sections. On the left is a navigation and search pane. Generally, the upper right pane displays search results or a list of items relating to a selection made in the navigation pane. The lower right pane displays the details for items selected from the search results.
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Use the tabs in the left pane to search for items
This menu changes according to
Activity selected.
Search results appear on tabs in this upper pane
Use the Activity menu to select the area of Commerce
Manager Client you want to work in. (Customer
Service, Catalog
Management,
Marketing, etc.)
Double-click an item in the upper pane to display its detail in this lower pane.
Note: You can resize a pane by clicking and dragging right, left, up or down on the division frames between each pane. You can also quickly resize a pane by clicking the minimize and maximize buttons in the upper right of each pane.
The Activity menu is the starting selection for most tasks performed in Commerce Manager client.
Using that menu you select the area of Elastic Path that you want to work in (Customer Service,
Marketing, Configuration, etc.). Once you have made a selection on the Activity menu, the navigation/search pane will display search or selection options for that Activity type. The menu to the right of the File menu will also change to reflect the current activity, and the main tool bar will show buttons specific to the activity.
When working in an activity, detail screens for a selected product or other record type (see image above) will contain multiple pages of information. You open these pages by clicking the corresponding tabs at the bottom or top of the items’ pane. In the case where more than one record is open – for example, you may have two or three products open at the same time – each will open in its own tab.
Remember, you must explicitly close each tab when you are done working with its contents as they do not close by default when you save changes.
Saving Changes
As you work in Commerce Manager client, be sure to click the Save buttons on the tool bar to ensure that your work is saved properly.
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Activities
The Commerce Manager client application is subdivided into six activity types. The following table describes the activities:
Activity
Customer Service
Catalog Management
Description
Allows CSRs to manage orders and customers.
Enables authorized users to create and manage categories and products.
Configuration
Price List Manager
Allows administrators and other authorized personnel to configure system and store settings. These items include payment gateways, shipping regions, users and user roles, tax-related settings, and profile attributes.
Allows authorized personnel to manage price lists and assign them based on conditions.
Allows users to generate and view various store reports. Reporting
Shipping/Receiving
Store Marketing
Enables users to manage warehouses and inventory, and to generate and packing slips. Orders, returns, and exchanges are also all completed in this Activity.
Enables authorized personnel to set store promotions and configure shipping services.
Change Sets Allows authorized personnel to create and delete Change Sets. (Note that this menu item is only enabled if the
COMMERCE/SYSTEM/CHANGESETS/enable setting is set to true.
You can choose an activity from the Activity menu.
When you choose an activity, the Commerce Manager client's menus and options change to reflect the selected activity and the job role of the user. Users only see menus and options that are relevant to their work.
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User Access and User Roles
In Elastic Path Commerce, Users are the individuals who use the Commerce Manager client and other back-end services, such as web services. Users are internal to your organization and should not be confused with storefront customers. User accounts are managed using the Elastic Path Commerce
Manager client.
Each Commerce Manager client user has certain access permissions, as defined by their User Role.
These permissions allow or restrict the user's access to activities within Commerce Manager client, such as viewing a customer's order or adding a new product to a catalog. These permissions allow you to ensure, for example, that the Catalog Management activity is not available to users who do not have Catalog Management related roles.
Three User Roles are provided by default with each Elastic Path Commerce installation. They are
Super User, Commerce Manager Client User and Web Services User. Most organizations will want to add user roles to provide their staff with permissions reflecting only the tasks they perform within
Commerce Manager client.
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Chapter 4: Application Configuration
Application configuration includes setting up user accounts, shipping regions, tax jurisdictions, payment gateways, and warehouses, and similar tasks that are not normally done by business users.
Most application configuration tasks are performed from the Commerce Manager’s Configuration activity.
System Configuration
Most of the Commerce Manager's application configuration information is stored in settings in the database. You can change these settings from within the Commerce Manager. Most setting changes do not require restarting the web applications because the changes either take effect immediately or based on their refresh strategy (described further in this section).
Setting Types
There are several types of settings in the Commerce Manager, all of which are configured through the
System Configuration option. Once selected, the System Configuration tab appears and displays a list of all the Settings in the system. Clicking on a setting displays its associated parameters and their values in the form on the right. You can set and modify those values using the fields and controls on each form.
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There are five types of settings:
System settings
Store-specific settings
Application-specific settings
Search settings
Cache settings.
System settings
System setting names begin with COMMERCE/SYSTEM . These settings have a global scope and only one value each. For example, the assets folder location is a system setting.
Store-specific settings
Store-specific setting names begin with
COMMERCE/STORE
. They can have a different value for each store in the system. For example, the theme setting is store-specific.
Application-specific settings
Application-specific setting names begin with COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/<appName> . These settings can be configured differently, depending on whether the context is a web service, one of the web applications (storefront, commerce server, search server), or the Commerce Manager.
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Search settings
Search setting names begin with COMMERCE/SEARCH . These settings are both store-specific and application specific, and can be configured differently for each index; in other words, a search setting can have a different value for each combination of store, application, and index. These settings are described in detail further in this section.
Cache settings
Cache setting names begin with COMMERCE/Cache . These three settings define the cache timeout values used for the interval-based refresh strategy. Refresh strategies are discussed in detail further in this section.
Setting name (path)
COMMERCE/Cache/Cache_1
COMMERCE/Cache/Cache_2
COMMERCE/Cache/Cache_3
Description
Settings mapped to this cache are refreshed after the defined interval of time (default:
300000 ms).
Settings mapped to this cache are refreshed after the defined interval of time (default:
60000 ms).
Settings mapped to this cache are refreshed after the defined interval of time (default:
100000 ms).
Setting Metadata
A setting may have metadata associated with it. Setting metadata consists of a set of key/value pairs.
In the Commerce Manager, there is one metadata key/value pair assigned to settings that use a refresh strategy. However, future releases may include additional metadata and customized deployments may also use setting metadata for their custom settings.
Refresh Strategies
Application administrators can change setting values at any time through the configuration activity in the Commerce Manager. Some changes take effect immediately. However, for some settings, applying the changes immediately would have a negative impact on user experience. These settings have a configurable refresh strategy, which can be used to minimize the impact of setting value changes.
Note: Only settings that have a noticeable effect on the end user experience have a refresh strategy, such as settings that affect the storefront display. Changes to other settings are applied immediately.
There are four refresh strategies:
Application
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Session
Interval
Immediate.
Application refresh strategy
Settings that use the application refresh strategy are only updated when the application is restarted.
In earlier versions of the software this was the strategy used by most settings, since many of them were stored in properties files and XML configuration files that were only read during the startup of the web applications.
Session refresh strategy
Settings that use the session refresh strategy do not change during the lifetime of the user's session. If an administrator changes the setting value, users will not see the change until their session cookie is removed or expires and a new session is created. This strategy is used for settings that need to remain consistent during the course of a user's session. For example, the
COMMERCE/STORE/CATALOG/catalogViewPagination
setting sets the number of rows to display in the storefront catalog view. If this setting is changed while a user was browsing the catalog, it could cause some rows to not appear, or the number of result pages might suddenly change. However, because this setting uses the session refresh strategy, these problems will not occur; the changes are only applied to sessions created after the setting value was changed.
Interval refresh strategy
Settings that use the interval refresh strategy are cached and are only refreshed after a specified period of time. Users do not see changes to these settings until the cache interval expires. When this strategy is used for a setting, the setting value must specify the name of one of the cache settings.
The value of the specified cache setting indicates the refresh interval.
Immediate refresh strategy
Settings that use the immediate refresh strategy are not cached. As soon as the administrator changes a setting, the change is applied. This behavior may be desirable in many situations, but it should be noted that since the values are not cached, the database must be queried every time they are required. This may cause some degradation in performance in high-traffic areas of the system, so this strategy should be used with caution.
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Note: There is a time delay between item creation and when it appears in the search results of the Commerce Manager or a storefront. This delay occurs because new records are indexed only at scheduled intervals. The intervals are configured during initial store setup by the administrator. This process can be expedited by restarting the server, which causes the new records to be indexed immediately.
You are unlikely to encounter this delay while working with the Trial version of the
Commerce Manager, but if you find that an item does not appear in a search shortly after creating or modifying it, try closing and restarting the Commerce Manager or the Elastic
Path Server.
Adding a Setting Value
1. Click the System Configuration link.
2. In the list of settings, select the setting for which you want to add a value.
3. In Defined Values, click New.
4. In the Edit Configuration Value dialog box, enter values as described in the following table.
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Context The value you specify depends on the type of setting:
For an application-specific setting, enter the name of the application. For example, for Commerce Manager client, enter
RCP .
For a store-specific setting, enter the store code.
For a store-specific search setting, the value must conform to this format:
STORE/<store_code>/<index_name>
For an application-specific search setting, the value must conform to this format:
APPSPECIFIC/<application_name>/<index_name>
Note that the Context box does not appear if you are configuring system or cache settings.
For more information on configuring search settings, see Editing a Setting
Value The value you want to set for the specified context.
5. Click Save. The setting change takes effect immediately. For a setting that affects user experience, its refresh strategy is applied.
Editing a Setting Value
1. Click the System Configuration link.
2. In the list of settings, select the setting for which you want to edit a value.
3. In the list of defined values, select the value you want to edit.
4. Click Edit.
5. Modify the setting value as required.
6. Click Save. The setting change takes effect immediately. For a setting that affects user experience, its refresh strategy is applied.
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Removing a Setting Value
1. Click the System Configuration link.
2. In the list of settings, select the setting you want to remove a value from.
3. In the list of defined values, select the value you want to remove.
4. Click Remove. The setting value is removed. If the setting has a default value, any context that relied on the value reverts to using the default value. The change takes effect immediately. For a setting that affects user experience, its refresh strategy is applied.
Configuring Metadata for a Setting
1. Click the System Configuration link.
2. In the list of settings, select the setting for which you want to edit the metadata.
3. In the list of setting definition metadata, select the value you want to edit.
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4. Click Edit.
5. Modify the metadata value as required:
environmentSpecific
Indicates the setting is specific to the environment on which the Commerce Manager and Commerce Server is deployed. This setting is for visual indication only. Its main purpose is to indicate the setting should be changed when you deploy to a different environment, such as a staging or a production environment.
TRUE means the setting is environment specific. FALSE means the setting is not environment specific.
sfRefreshStrategy
The sfRefreshStrategy metadata setting depends on the type of refresh strategy you want to use, as described in the following table.
Refresh strategy
Application
Interval
Value
application
The value must conform to this format: interval:timeout=<cache_setting_name>
For example, to use the timeout value configured for the
COMMERCE/Cache/Cache_2 setting (by default, 60000), enter the following: interval:timeout=COMMERCE/Cache/Cache_2
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Refresh strategy
Session
Immediate
6. Click Save.
Value
session immediate
Search Settings
The search settings control the behavior of searching and catalog browsing, both in the storefront and in the Commerce Manager. The following table describes these settings.
Setting name (path)
COMMERCE/SEARCH/accuracy
COMMERCE/SEARCH/boosts
COMMERCE/SEARCH/excludeAttributes
COMMERCE/SEARCH/indexOptimizationInte rval
COMMERCE/SEARCH/maximumResultsThresho ld
COMMERCE/SEARCH/maximumSuggestionsPer
Word
Description
Sets the accuracy of spelling suggestions. This value works the same as minimumSimilarity . Default is 0.75.
Optional. Specifies a comma-separated list of field name/value pairs that specify greater importance to values matched in specific fields.
For example: categoryCode=0.5,productCode=0.5, categoryName_en=2.0,description_en=
0.2
By default, all search fields are assigned a boost value of 1.0.
Optional. Specifies a comma-separated list of attribute keys that should be not be included when searching all fields. For example:
A00981,A01012
By default, all attributes are included.
Specifies how often the index is optimized.
Optimization is generally only needed when the index has had a large number of updates
(adds/deletes), so if the index is updated frequently, you may want to specify a higher frequency.
Used for the spell checker. Results that are above or equal to this number will trigger a spelling suggestion lookup. Default is 10000.
Used for the spell checker. The maximum number of spelling suggestions to return.
Default is 3.
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Setting name (path)
COMMERCE/SEARCH/maxReturnNumber
COMMERCE/SEARCH/minimumResultsThresho ld
COMMERCE/SEARCH/minimumSimilarity
COMMERCE/SEARCH/prefixLength
Description
The maximum number of matching items to include in search results. The default is 0, which specifies no limit.
Used for the spell checker. Results that are below or equal to this number will trigger a spelling suggestion lookup. Default is 10.
Used for fuzzy searching. This specifies how similar the matching terms must be to the query term. It must be set to a value between 0 and 1, not inclusive. (1 would mean it must be an exact match and 0 would mean the terms do not match need to match at all.) Default is
0.75.
Used for fuzzy searching. Specifies the number of characters at the start of the search term that must be the same in potential matches.
Default is 0.
Configuring Search Settings
The following indices are used to optimize searching and browsing:
category
cmuser
customer
product
promotion
shippingservicelevel
sku
Search settings can have different values for each of these indices, depending on the application (the
Commerce Manager or web services). Search settings also affect search behavior at the storefront level, so they can have a different value for each combination of index and store. As such, the context of a search setting value must specify the index to which it applies, as well as the appropriate application or store.
For example, the
COMMERCE/SEARCH/maxReturnNumber
setting lets you configure the maximum number of search results to return. To set the maximum number of results when searching for products in the Commerce Manager (identified by RCP ), the context must be set to the following:
APPSPECIFIC/RCP/product
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On the other hand, to set the maximum number of results when a customer searches for products in the Snap It Up store (identified by the store code
SNAPITUP
), the context must be set to the following:
STORE/SNAPITUP/product
Note: The context is case-sensitive.
Filtered Navigation URLs
The separatorToken and fieldSeparator used in your front end’s filtered navigation URLs are configurable. You can use the following System Configuration settings to configure your storefront
URLs.
Note: Changing URLs can harm your storefront. Any hardcoded URLs that link to your site will no longer work because the URLs are different. Making these changes should be done with care.
Change the URL Field Separator
You can change a URL’s fieldSeparator. The fieldSeparator token separates the product’s category, attributes, and page number. For example, the fieldSeparator – separates the category, c90000003, the attributes, atA00551_05-atA03190_02, and page number, p1.
To set the fieldSeparator, you must set the fieldSeparator and the urlRewriteConfig system settings.
Setting name (path)
commerce/system/urlrewrite/fieldSepar ator commerce/system/urlRewriteConfig
Description
This setting defines the field separator that is used in the urlrewrite to tokenize the file name part of the SEO urls. If you change this value, you must set the same value into the XML defined by property:
COMMERCE/SYSTEM/urlRewriteConfig
Default value: -
XML file.
You must uncomment the init-param element and define the <param-value> , which is what you set fieldSeparator. <init-param> is in three places in this XML file. You must set the all.
Example:
<--init-param>
<param-name>fieldSeparator</param-name>
<param-value>,</param-value>
</init-param-->
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Note: You don’t need to restart the server to make this change. The storefront’s web.xml’s confReloadCheckInterval
is not set to -1, as the change will not take effect.
Change the URL Token Separator
The filtered navigation’s separatorToken is configurable. The separatorToken separates the attribute code from the attribute ID in the URL. For example, the underscore separatorToken character in the following URL separates the attribute code, atA00551, from the attribute id, 05: http://demo.elasticpath.com/storefront/digital-cameras/3ccd/compactflash/c90000003-
atA00551_05-atA03190_02-p1.html
Once you update the System Configuration setting shown below, you must restart your storefront for this change to take effect.
Note: Do not change the separator to any of the following characters: +, $, or %. These characters will break your storefront.
Note: If you change the separatorToken to - , you must change the fieldSeparator token, shown above, to use a different character.
Setting name (path)
commerce/system/filterednavigation/se paratorInToken
Description
This setting defines the field separator that is used in the filtered navigation.
Default value is:_ (underscore)
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User Management and Permissions
The Commerce Manager supports hosting multiple stores within a single deployment. Individual stores may be owned and/or operated by different organizations, and different people within those organizations may need to use the Commerce Manager to access different features and data.
It is important to ensure that all these different users only have access to the functionality and data that is appropriate for their role and their organization. This section explains the different security considerations that affect the Commerce Manager and the steps you need to take to ensure that permissions are correctly configured for all users. Each Commerce Manager user has certain permissions, as defined by their user role. These permissions allow or restrict the user's access to activities within the Commerce Manager, such as viewing a customer's order or adding a new product to a catalog. These permissions allow you to ensure, for example, that the Catalog Management activity is not available to users who do not have Catalog Management related roles. For those users, the Catalog Management menu item would be disabled, as shown in the following image.
The following user roles are provided by default:
Super User – provides access to all activities within Commerce Manager
Commerce Manager User – provides only log on permissions for the Commerce Manager. To perform any other actions, additional roles must be assigned to the user.
Web Services User – provides permissions to allow integration with third party applications.
Most organizations will want to add user roles to provide their staff with permissions reflecting only the tasks they perform within the Commerce Manager.
All users who work with the Commerce Manager must be assigned the Commerce Manager User role; without that role, users cannot log on to the Commerce Manager.
Detailed descriptions of the user roles are provided in the User Roles section of this chapter.
Tip: For an online tutorial on this topic, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
This section is intended to assist Commerce Manager administrators with setting up proper permissions on application data and features. These individuals must at least be able to create Users and User Roles in the Commerce Manager, so they must have User Management permissions in the
Commerce Manager. This section also makes recommendations with regards to permissions at the file system level. In order to implement those recommendations, operating system level administrator privileges are required.
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Note: The security measures described in this document only apply to accessing data from within the Commerce Manager. These measures do not protect against unauthorized data access from outside the Commerce Manager, such as through the Import-Export tool or the
Elastic Path database. For securing your database and operating system, your organization should follow IT best practices.
Permissions
The Commerce Manager supports permissions on two levels:
Data permissions, which determine what data the user can access.
Functional permissions, which determine what actions the user can perform on that data.
Data permissions are controlled by assigning catalogs, warehouses, and stores to users. A user can only access data if the corresponding catalog, warehouse, or store has been assigned to him.
Functional permissions are controlled by assigning User Roles to users. A User Role is a collection of permissions. A User Role can be assigned to multiple users. Each user can have more than one assigned User Role.
Through the combination of data and functional permissions, you can ensure that Commerce
Manager users only have access to the information and features they need.
This model provides considerable flexibility, but in complex environments with multiple stores and catalogs, each with their own distinct sets of users, it is critical to establish best practices for managing permissions.
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Users
Users are the individuals who will be using the Commerce Manager and other backend services, such as web services. Users are internal to your organization and must not be confused with storefront customers. All individuals in your organization who need access to the Commerce Manager should have their own personal user accounts.
Each user has certain privileges, defined by their role, which are specified at the time of the user’s profile creation. These Commerce Manager users should be configured so that they only have access to the data they need to perform their jobs. See the User Roles section for more information.
Further permissions can be applied at the user level to restrict access to specific stores, catalogs and warehouses.
Administrator Users
After installation, there is one user in the system with Super User (administrator) privileges. Only administrator users have permission to manage users and user roles.
Note: It is strongly recommended that you create a second user with Super User privileges. If one of the administrator user accounts is locked, the other administrator user will be able to unlock it.
Creating a User
When you create a user, you must specify which catalogs, stores, and warehouses the user will be able to access. Unless that user is assigned to the Super User role, he will only be able to access the catalogs, stores, and warehouses that are assigned to them.
Important: It is strongly recommended that you avoid using the Assign All option when assigning catalogs, stores, and warehouses to users. This ensures that, as new catalogs, stores, and warehouses are added to your Elastic Path deployment, existing users don’t automatically get access to them.
When assigning catalogs, warehouses, and stores to a user, consider what that person’s User Roles are and whether they need access to that data. Not all users need each type of assignment. For example, a user working in the shipping and receiving department will likely need access to the
Shipping/Receiving activity and warehouse data. This person would need Shipping/Receiving permissions and would need to be assigned to one or more warehouses. He would not need Store
Marketing permissions and would not need to be assigned to any Stores.
The following table shows some examples of User Roles that an organization might need and the catalog/store/warehouse assignments that users assigned to those User Roles might have.
User Role Permission groups (Activities) Has catalog assignments
Has store assignments
Has warehouse assignments
Administrator Configuration No No No
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User Role Permission groups (Activities) Has catalog assignments
Has store assignments
Has warehouse assignments
Catalog
Manager
Customer
Service
Representative
Catalog Management
Customer Service
Marketer Store Marketing
Merchandiser Store Marketing
Catalog Management
Reporting
Receiver
Shipper
Shipping/Receiving
Shipping/Receiving
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
1. Open the Users tab. Click the icon on the toolbar, click Users on the Configuration tab, or select Configuration > Users.
2. Click Create User.
3. Enter values in the field as described below. Then click Next.
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Field Description
User Name
Status
First Name
Last Name
Email Address
The user name for the new user.
Specify whether the new user should be Active (the user can sign in and perform tasks) or Disabled (the user account is locked).
The first name of the user.
The last name of the user.
The user’s e-mail address.
Note:
When the user is created, a password is automatically generated and sent to the specified e-mail address. The user is able to log on with the random password only once and must change it immediately after logging on. If a user forgets his or her password, use the Change User Password button on the Users list to send them a new auto-generated one. When the user logs on, he or she will be prompted immediately to create a new permanent password.
4. In the Available Roles list, select the roles you want to assign to the user. Then click the > arrow button. Click Next.
5. Specify which catalogs the new user will have permissions to use (depending on their assigned roles). Then click Next.
Note:
By default, the user will have access to all catalogs. To restrict the user to specific catalogs, select Assign Specific Catalogs and move those catalogs to the Assigned Catalogs list.
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6. Specify which stores the new user will have permission to use (depending on their assigned roles). Then click Next.
Note:
By default, the user will have access to all stores. To restrict the user to specific stores, select Assign Specific Stores and move those stores to the
Assigned Stores list.
7. Specify which warehouses the new user will have permission to use (depending on their assigned roles). Then click Next.
Note:
By default, the user will have access to all warehouses. To restrict the user to specific warehouses, select Assign Specific Warehouses and move those stores to the Assigned Warehouses list.
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8. Specify which price lists the new user will have permission to use (depending on their assigned roles). Then click Next.
Note:
By default, the user will have access to all price lists. To restrict the user to specific warehouses, select Assign Specific Price Lists and move those stores to the Assigned Price Lists list.
9. Click Finish.
Note: If the system is unable to send an e-mail (for example, the mail server is not configured or the mail template assets could not be found), a warning will appear and the account will not be created.
Editing a User
1. Open the Users tab.
2. Select the user account you want to edit.
3. Click Edit User.
4. Make the required changes.
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5. Click Finish.
Disabling a User
1. Open the Users tab.
2. Select the user account you want to disable.
3. Click Disable User. Confirm that you want to disable the user.
4. Click OK.
Changing a User's Password
1. Open the Users tab.
2. Select the user account whose password you want to reset.
3. Click Change User Password. Confirm that you want to reset the user's password.
4. Click OK.
A new password is generated and sent to the user's e-mail address. The user is able to log on with the new password only once and must change it immediately after logging on.
Note: If the system is unable to send an e-mail (for example, the mail server is not configured or the mail template assets could not be found), a warning will appear and ask you to confirm the password change. If you choose to change the password, the user will be unable to log on. The password will need to be reset again after the e-mail problems have been resolved.
Unlocking a User Account
If a user fails to log on to the Commerce Manager after a certain number of attempts, the account will be locked automatically and the user will not be able to log on. To unlock the account, the user must contact a Commerce Manager administrator user (Super User). The administrator user can unlock the account by selecting it from the list of users and clicking Change User Password. A new password is generated and sent to the user's e-mail address. The user will be able to log on with the new password only once and must change it immediately after logging on.
Note: By default, an account is locked after six failed logon attempts. You can change this number by modifying the COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/RCP/accountLockoutThreshold setting. Before changing the setting, make sure the change is compatible with your
organization's PCI compliance policy. For more information, see Passwords and PCI
User Search
To search for users, choose Activity > Configuration. Then, click Users to display the User Search tab.
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The user search has been enhanced with new Sorting filters that allow you to sort your search results by Column (user name, first name, last name, status, or e-mail) and to display them in ascending or descending order.
Once your search results appear, you can click a column header to sort them by that column.
You can also use the Preferences > Pagination setting to increase or decrease the number of user records that appear on a single page of the search results list.
User Roles
In order to access features in the Commerce Manager, users must first be granted permissions. You can grant permissions to users indirectly by assigning User Roles to them in the Commerce Manager.
For security reasons, CSRs and other non-administrator users should have access to different subsets of the Commerce Manager as defined by their User Role. This ensures that only authorized users can perform administrative functions.
Users can be assigned multiple User Roles. The creation of a new User Role includes specifying which
Permissions it has. Permissions refer to the access rights of a user to a particular feature in the
Commerce Manager or a web service.
Built-in User Roles
The Commerce Manager includes the following User Roles:
Super User (also referred to as the administrator user role) - grants all permissions to all areas of the Commerce Manager. Do not assign this User Role unless you want the user to have full access to all areas and all application data.
Commerce Manager User - grants the ability to log on to the Commerce Manager. It does not give access to any areas of the application. All users who need access to the Commerce
Manager must have this User Role.
Web Services User - allows external applications to connect to the Commerce Manager via its web services (if web services are enabled). This role does not grant the ability to log on to the
Commerce Manager via the application.
These User Roles cannot be modified.
Note: The Web Services User role is used to access the Commerce Manager via a web service.
Granting the Commerce Manager User role to a user account that only interacts with the system via a web service is not recommended because the user must reset their password periodically. This can only be done via the Commerce Manager.
Default and Optional Permissions
When a user is assigned to a catalog, store or warehouse, that user has default permissions on that object. This usually means that the user can view that object and its related data. In order to perform additional actions on the object, such as modifying or deleting it, the user needs to be granted the appropriate optional permissions.
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For more details on these optional permissions, see Appendix F: Permissions.
Creating a User Role
When you create a User Role, you must specify the permissions and privileges that role will have.
For details on the different permissions available, see Appendix F: Permissions.
1. Open the User Roles tab. Click the icon on the toolbar, click User Roles on the Configuration tab, or select Configuration > User Roles.
2. Click Create Role.
3. Enter a name and optional description for the role.
4. Click Next.
5. Select the permissions and privileges the new role should have. Click the > button to add them.
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6. Click Finish.
Editing a Role
If you modify a User Role that currently has users assigned to it, your changes will affect those users as well as any users assigned to that role in the future. Make sure your changes are appropriate for all users currently assigned to the User Role.
1. Open the User Roles tab.
2. Select the user role you want to edit.
3. Click Edit Role.
4. Make the required changes.
5. Click Finish.
Assigning Multiple User Roles to a User
For users that perform multiple roles, the Commerce Manager allows you to assign multiple User
Roles to them.
Deleting a Role
1. Open the User Roles tab.
2. Select the user role you want to delete.
3. Click Delete Role. Confirm that you want to delete the role.
4. Click OK.
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Activities
Permissions determine which activities and functionality the user can access. The following sections discuss each activity, which permissions are required to access it, and what users are able to see and do based on the catalogs, stores, and warehouses that are assigned to them.
Note: If a user does not have any permissions within an activity, the user will not be able to access that activity in the Commerce Manager and the corresponding Activity menu item will be disabled.
Customer Service
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Customer Service permission.
Customer Service permissions determine which of the following content appear.
Order Search tab
The search results in the Order Search tab include orders in stores that are assigned to the user.
Customer Search tab
The search results in the Customer Search tab include customers in stores that are assigned to the user.
Customer Import Jobs
The Customer Import Jobs list contains import jobs for the stores that are assigned to the user. The store list in the Create Import Job wizard contains stores that are assigned to the user.
Create Order
When the user creates an order from the Commerce Manager, a list appears, containing stores that are assigned to the user.
Orders in the Customer Profile
The Orders area in the customer profile contains orders in stores that are assigned to the user. The list of stores next to the Create Order button contains stores that are assigned to the user.
Assign Customer Segments
The Add Segment and Remove Segment buttons are enabled on the Customer Segments tab in the
Customer account for customers in stores assigned to the user.
Catalog Management
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Catalog Management permission.
Catalog Management permissions determine which of the following content appear.
Master Catalogs and Virtual Catalogs
If a user has permissions on a virtual catalog but not the corresponding master catalog, the user can only make the following product changes:
Prices
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Product associations (including up-sells and cross-sells)
Category assignments.
Important: If you assign a master catalog to a user, that user can make changes that could affect virtual catalogs based on that master.
Catalog Browse tab
The catalog list in the Catalog Browse tab contains catalogs that are assigned to the user.
Catalog Search tab
The search results in the Catalog Search tab include products in catalogs that are assigned to the user.
Note: The brand filter in the Catalog Search tab contains brand names from all catalogs, including those not assigned to the user. If the user searches for a brand name that is not in an assigned catalog, no matches will be found.
Advanced Search tab
The Advanced Search tab is only displayed if the user has a User Role with at least one Query
Management permission.
Catalog Import Jobs
The Catalog Import Jobs list contains import jobs for the catalogs that are assigned to the user. The catalog list in the Create Import Job wizard contains catalogs that are assigned to the user.
Configuration
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Configuration permission.
Important: Users with access to the Configuration activity can perform actions that affect multiple stores, catalogs, and warehouses, even if they are only assigned to a subset of those objects.
Reporting
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Reporting permission. Users can run reports on the stores and warehouses that are assigned to them.
Shipping/Receiving
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Shipping/Receiving permission.
Shipping/Receiving permissions determine which of the following content appear.
Receive Inventory
Users can only perform operations on the currently selected warehouse (under Shipping/Receiving >
Switch Warehouse). Users can receive inventory for warehouses that are assigned to them.
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Complete Shipment
Users can only perform operations on the currently selected warehouse (under Shipping/Receiving >
Switch Warehouse). Users can complete shipments if the inventory is located in a warehouse assigned to them.
Warehouse Import Jobs
The Warehouse Import Jobs list contains import jobs for the warehouses that are assigned to the user. The warehouse list in the Create Import Job wizard contains warehouses that are assigned to the user.
Switch Warehouse
The list of available warehouses in the Shipping/Receiving > Switch Warehouse menu contains warehouses that are assigned to the user.
Inventory tab
Users can only perform operations on the currently selected warehouse (under Shipping/Receiving >
Switch Warehouse). Users can access inventory in warehouses that are assigned to them.
Returns and Exchanges tab
Users can only perform operations on the currently selected warehouse (under Shipping/Receiving >
Switch Warehouse). Users can access returns and exchanges for inventory in warehouses that are assigned to them.
Store Marketing
This activity is accessed if the user has a User Role with at least one Store Marketing permission. Store
Marketing permissions determine which of the following content appears.
Promotions tab
Users can only search for catalog promotions created in catalogs assigned to them. Users can only search for cart promotions in stores assigned to them.
Shipping Service Levels tab
Users can only search for shipping service levels in stores assigned to them.
Settings tab
Users can only view settings in stores assigned to them.
Dynamic Content Delivery tab
Users can search for and access all Dynamic Content Delivery regardless of which stores are assigned to them.
Create, Edit and Delete Dynamic Content
Users can view and modify all Dynamic Content Delivery, regardless of which stores are assigned to them. When creating Dynamic Content Delivery, they can select any active stores in the system.
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Controlling Access to File System Assets
There are several places in the Commerce Manager where the user is able to interact with resources in a file system.
In the Catalog Management activity, the user can select images from the assets directory
(Category Types, Product Types, and SKU Options, Brands).
In the Customer Service activity, the user can upload CSV files from their local file system to the assets directory.
In the Configuration activity, the user can indirectly select resources from the assets directory
(themes, gift certificates).
In the Shipping/Receiving activity, the user can upload CSV files from their local file system to the assets directory.
In the Store Marketing activity, the user can upload CSV files from their local file system. The user can select resources from the assets directory.
The Commerce Manager does not restrict access to file system resources. It is the responsibility of your organization’s system administrators to ensure that the appropriate permissions are configured at the file system level.
Do not use the file protocol for the Commerce Manager’s VFS settings in a production environment. Use either FTP or SFTP and configure the
COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/RCP/ASSETS/vfs settings appropriately.
If you want to control access to resources within the assets directory, you must configure permissions at the file system level.
Changing Your Password
Commerce Manager users must change their passwords in the following situations:
After first logon to Commerce Manager client
After the password expires.
Note: By default, passwords expire every 90 days. To change the password expiry period, modify the
COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/RCP/maximumPasswordAge
setting. Before changing the setting, make sure the change is compatible with your organization's PCI compliance
policy. For more information, see Passwords and PCI Compliance.
To change your password, do the following:
1. From the Preferences menu, choose Change Password.
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2. Enter your old password. Then enter and confirm your new password.
Note: By default, passwords must meet the following conditions:
Must contain both letters and numbers.
Must be at least 8 characters long. To change the minimum password length, modify the
COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/RCP/minimumPasswordLength
setting.
Must not be the same as any of the previous four passwords. To change the number of previous passwords that are checked against the new password, modify the
COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/RCP/passwordHistoryLength
setting.
Before changing these settings, make sure the changes are compatible with your
organization's PCI compliance policy. For more information, see Passwords and PCI
3. Click Save.
Passwords and PCI Compliance
The default values for password history size, password length, and password expiry period are compliant with the password security guidelines established by the Payment Card Industry Security
Standards Council (PCI SSC). Changing these values could result in your system becoming noncompliant.
For more information, see the PCI SSC web site
( https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pci_dss.shtml
).
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Note: To maintain PCI compliance, the system administration configuration
COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/RCP/accountLockoutThreshold
setting should be kept at the default value of “6”. Increasing the account lockout threshold will make your system non-PCI compliant.
Pagination Setting
The Pagination setting in the Commerce Manager allows users to change the number of results displayed on the search and filter results screen. For example, the following image shows a results screen when pagination is configured for 10 results per page:
Pagination setting changes apply only to the current user.
Changing the Pagination Setting
1. From the Preferences menu, choose Change Pagination Settings.
2. From the Results per Page drop-down list, choose the number of results to display per page.
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3. Click Save.
Session Idle Timeout
By default, users are automatically logged out of the Commerce Manager if the session is idle for more than 15 minutes. To change the timeout period, modify the
COMMERCE/APPSPECIFIC/RCP/idleTimeForLock setting.
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Chapter 5: eCommerce Configuration
The topics in this chapter describe activities performed in the initial configuration and maintenance of store operations in the Commerce Manager. These include configuring stores and warehouses, payment gateways, shipping regions, tax codes, and customer profile attributes.
Stores
A Store in the Commerce Manager represents the web page (frontend) that lets customers shop for products drawn from a particular catalog. A default storefront is provided with the Commerce
Manager. The store layout can be customized by editing the templates upon which the stores are based, but the most common elements of a store are configured through the Stores configuration settings. These settings include localization, associated catalogs and warehouses, themes for the look and feel, and search filtering for product display. Many of these settings are more appropriately controlled by your CMS.
When setting up or managing a store, you may need an administrator to set up or modify Shipping settings under the Configuration > Shipping activity. When creating a shipping service level, the administrator must specify the stores the service level applies to. Customers can only access the shipping service levels in the store they are shopping in.
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Store States
Every store has a state. The store's state determines who can access the store and what actions they can perform. Users with the appropriate permissions can change the state of a store.
The following three states can be assigned to a store:
Under Construction
Restricted Access
Open
The following table describes the store states:
Store State Description
Under
Construction
A store in the "Under Construction" state has the following characteristics:
It cannot be viewed in the Commerce Manager or a web browser.
It cannot be referenced by other objects in the system, including the Core API and Web Services.
It does not appear in any store lists in the Commerce Manager except the store list view.
It does not include store-related data when the search indexes are built.
It does not accept orders.
When the store is in the "Under Construction" state, it cannot be changed to another state until all required settings have been configured.
Restricted
Access
Note: Once all the settings have been configured, the store cannot be changed back to the "Under Construction" state.
The "Restricted Access" state is used to provide limited access to the store, usually for testing or demonstration purposes. It has the following characteristics:
It can be viewed in the Commerce Manager.
It can be viewed in a web browser, but only if a passcode is provided.
It can be referenced by most other objects in the system, including the Core
API, Client Manager API, and Web Services.
It appears in all store lists within the Commerce Manager.
It includes store-related data when the search indexes are built.
It accepts orders.
A store in the "Restricted Access" state can be changed to the "Open" state at any time using the Change State button in the store pane.
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Store State Description
Open
Note: The passcode for accessing a store in the "Restricted Access" state is automatically provided when viewing the store in the Commerce
Manager. To view the storefront from a web browser, you must append the passcode
parameter to the URL. For example: http://localhost:8080/storefront/index.ep?passcode=<pa ssCode> where
<passCode>
is the store's passcode. The passcode can be configured with the
COMMERCE/STORE/restrictedAccessPasscode setting.
Note: The DCAPI system is unable to reference a store that is in the “Restricted
Access” state.
A store in the "Open" state has the following characteristics:
It can be viewed in the Commerce Manager and a web browser.
It can be referenced by all other objects in the system, including the DCAPI and Web Services.
It appears in all store lists within the Commerce Manager.
It includes store-related data when the search indexes are built.
It accepts orders.
A store in the "Open" state can be changed to the "Restricted Access" state at any time using the Change State button in the store pane.
Store Tabs
The Stores pane has multiple tabs which you can use to configure store settings including currencies, appearance, applicable taxes, and filtered navigation. These settings are either required or optional.
The required settings are included in the steps in Creating a Store.
After making changes in these tabs, be sure to click Save.
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.
The Stores pane has the following buttons:
Change Store State: use this button to switch the store state from “Restricted Access” to
“Open”.
View Store: use this button to open the storefront in the Commerce Manager’s web browser.
Summary Tab
Use this tab to enter basic store information.
Field Description
Store Code
Store Name
Store Description
Store URL
The unique identifier for the store. The code cannot be changed once the store is created.
Note: Due to a limitation in the DCAPI system, the storefront code must consist of only alphanumeric characters. Special characters are incompatible.
The name of the store.
The description of the store. This field is optional and is not displayed to customers.
The URL that will be used by customers to access the storefront. If you are running Elastic Path on your local machine and you have modified your hosts file to map host names to local IP addresses, make sure the host name in the store URL matches the host name you mapped in the hosts file.
For example, if your hosts file has mapped mystore.example.com
to
127.0.0.1, enter the following: http://mystore.example.com
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Field
Store State
Description
Operational
Timezone
Store Country
Store Sub-
Country
The read-only field displaying the current state of the store. A store state can be “Under Construction”, “Restricted Access”, or “Open”. (For more
information, see Store States)
You can change the store state by clicking Change Store State.
The time zone used for setting timestamps.
The country where the store is located.
The sub-country (state or province) where the store is located. This is only displayed if the selected Store Country has sub-countries.
Localization Tab
Use this tab to specify the supported languages and currencies for the store.
The specific language that a shopper sees is determined by a number of factors. If the shopper has a language preference set in their customer account and logs on to the store, the system will show the store in the preferred language (if there is a version of the store localized in that language). Otherwise, the default language will be used.
The currency shown to shoppers is the default currency for the store. Alternate currencies appear to shoppers only if they have the alternate currency set as a preference in their customer profile and are logged on to the store.
To add languages and currencies to the store, select items in the Available Languages and Available
Currencies lists, then click > to add them to the Selected Languages and Selected Currencies lists, respectively.
Language Selection The list of languages supported by the store.
Currency Selection The list of currencies supported by the store.
Defaults
The default language and currency in the store.
Catalog Tab
Use this tab to view the assigned catalog for an existing store, or to assign a catalog to a new store.
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A store can only have one assigned catalog. To assign a different catalog to a store, you must delete and recreate the store.
Theme Tab
Use this tab to specify a theme that defines the look and feel of stores. Your organization can create custom themes for different stores. The Assigned Theme area shows the available themes.
Warehouse Tab
Use this tab to view the assigned warehouse for an existing store, or to assign a warehouse to a new store.
A store can have only one assigned warehouse. To assign a different warehouse to a store, you must delete and recreate the store. A warehouse may be shared by multiple stores.
Taxes Tab
Use this tab to specify the tax jurisdictions and tax codes for the store.
Tax jurisdictions, tax codes, and tax values are set up under Configuration > Taxes.
Payments Tab
Use this tab to configure payment options for the store.
Field Description
Credit Card
Payment
Gateway
The payment gateway that the store will use to process credit card, PayPal, and gift certificate payments. When you select a payment gateway from the dropdown list, all the card types supported by the gateway will be selected by default.
Note: The “DemoPaymentProcessor” is for testing purposes and does not process payments.
Paypal Express
Payment
Gateway
Gift Certificates
Payment
Gateway
Elastic Path Software Inc.
The drop-down list that enables or disables Paypal Express for the store.
The drop-down list that enables or disables gift certificates for the store.
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Field Description
Enable CC CVV
Code
Save full CC# with Orders
Supported Card
Types
The check box that enables or disables the Card Validation Value for the store.
CVV is a three or four digit number used by credit card companies to reduce online fraud. When this option is enabled, customers must enter the CVV code located on the back of their credit card when making a payment. For more information about CVV, see http://www.sti.nasa.gov/cvv.html.
The check box that specifies whether to save the customer's credit card number in the order. This is not recommended and is disabled by default.
Important: The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI
SSC) has established a set of security guidelines for credit card information retention. If this option is enabled, you need to assess the compliance of your system with those guidelines. Failure to comply can result in loss of the ability to process credit card payments, fines, or other measures.
For more information, see the PCI SSC web site
(https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/p ci_dss.shtml).
The list of credit card types supported by the store.
Shared Customer Accounts Tab
Use this tab to share registered customers’ profile information (for example, accounts or shipping addresses) with other stores. By default, customer profiles are not shared.
Account sharing is bi-directional: accounts created in one store can log on to another store and vice versa.
To share customer accounts between stores, select items in the Available Stores list, then click > to add them to the Linked Stores list.
Marketing Tab
Use this tab to configure marketing settings for a store.
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To change a setting, select it in the list and click Edit Value. Make your changes in the Edit Setting dialog box and click Save.
To remove a setting value, click Clear Value.
.
Field Description
COMMERCE/STORE/AUTOCOMPL
ETESEARCH/enable
COMMERCE/STORE/AUTOCOMPL
ETESEARCH/enablePrice
COMMERCE/STORE/AUTOCOMPL
ETESEARCH/enableThumbnai l
COMMERCE/STORE/AUTOCOMPL
ETESEARCH/numberOfResult s
COMMERCE/STORE/AUTOCOMPL
ETESEARCH/productDescrip tionMaxLength
COMMERCE/STORE/AUTOCOMPL
ETESEARCH/productNameMax
Length
COMMERCE/STORE/CATALOG/
CatalogSitemapPagination
COMMERCE/STORE/CATALOG/C atalogViewPagination
Specifies whether to enable autocomplete search for the store.
Specifies whether to display prices in the autocomplete search results.
Specifies whether to display product thumbnails in the autocomplete search results.
The number of product results to display in the autocomplete search results.
The maximum number of characters to display for the product description in the autocomplete search results.
The maximum number of characters to display for the product name in the autocomplete search results.
The maximum number of products listed on a page in the sitemap.
The maximum number of items to display per page when browsing the catalog in the store.
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Field Description
COMMERCE/STORE/CATALOG/f eaturedProductCountToDis play
COMMERCE/STORE/PRODUCTRE
COMMENDATIONS/number
OrderHistoryDays
The number of featured products to display when browsing a catalog with zero or one filter applied.
The number of days of historical order data to use when calculating product recommendations. For example, if the value is 3, product recommendations are calculated based on all orders created during the past three days.
The maximum number of product recommendations to display.
COMMERCE/STORE/PRODUCTRE
COMMENDATIONS/numberMaxR ecommendations
COMMERCE/STORE/SEARCH/ searchCategoriesFirst
COMMERCE/STORE/SEARCH/sh owBundlesFirst
COMMERCE/STORE/seoEnable d
Display Out Of Stock Products
Store Admin Email Address
Store From Email (Friendly
Name)
Store From Email (Sender
Address)
Specifies whether searches in the store will search categories before searching products. If a category match is found, the first matching category page will be displayed instead of the search results page.
Specifies whether to display product bundles before other products in search results.
Specifies whether to enable Search Engine Optimization for the store.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website from search engines without having to pay for advertising.
Corresponding metadata search terms are set up on the SEO tab for each product in a catalog.
Required setting. Specifies whether to display products with 0 items in inventory in the catalog and in catalog searches.
Required setting. The store administrator’s e-mail address.
Example: [email protected]
The sender name on all outgoing e-mails generated by the store.
Example: SnapItUp Sales & Service
Required setting. The e-mail account used to send out systemgenerated e-mails for the store.
Example: [email protected]
System Tab
Use this tab to change system-related settings for a store.
To change a setting, select it in the list and click Edit Value. Make your changes in the Edit Setting dialog box and click Save.
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To remove a setting value, click Clear Value.
Store HTML Encoding The character set encoding. The default encoding for various Elastic
Path components is UTF-8.
Filtered Navigation Tab
Use this tab to configure filtered navigation for the store. Filtered navigation is a set of links that allows customers to filter the list of products based on characteristics such as price and size.
The filtered navigation configuration is stored in an XML file. Click Open XML Editor to modify the settings document. You can also adjust the separator tokens used in storefront URLs by modifying the
System Settings shown in the Filtered Navigation section.
The document has the following three filters:
attribute: specifies the simple value filters for an attribute. The attributes and their keys are
defined in the catalog. To edit them, see Attributes Tab.
attributeRange: specifies the range values for an attribute.
price: specifies the price ranges.
To edit a filter value, expand a filter and click the value you wish to change under the Content column.
Click OK to save the changes and close the XML Editor.
Advanced Search Tab
Use this tab to configure the Advanced Search feature for a store. Advanced Search augments the basic storefront search and is available by clicking Advanced Search on the storefront. Advanced
Search allows a customer to perform and filter searches based on more complex criteria such as price ranges.
The Advanced Search configuration is stored in an XML file. Click Open XML Editor to modify the settings document.
The document has the following three filters:
attribute: specifies the simple value filters for an attribute. The attributes and their keys are defined in the catalog. To edit them, see
attributeRange: specifies the range values for an attribute.
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brands: specifies which brands to display.
To edit a filter value, expand a filter and click the value you wish to change under the Content column.
Click OK to save the changes and close the XML Editor.
Tip: For further details on configuring the Advanced Search options, see Advanced storefront
search in the Developer Guide.
Store Setup Overview
When you set up a store in Elastic Path, there are some eCommerce configuration tasks you must perform using the Commerce Manager. These are done through the Configuration activity and are described in this guide.
1. Configure Shipping Regions and options.
2. Set user roles and permissions.
3. Configure catalog attributes, data types, and brands.
5. Import or create a catalog.
6. Import or create products.
Creating a Store
Tip: For an online tutorial on this topic, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
1. Select Activity > Configuration.
2. On the Configuration tab, click Stores.
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3. Click Create Store.
4. In the Summary tab, enter values in the following fields:
Field Description
Store Code The unique identifier for the store. The code cannot be changed once the store is created.
Note: Due to a limitation in the DCAPI system, the storefront code must consist of only alphanumeric characters.
Special characters are incompatible.
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Field Description
Store Name The name of the store.
Store Description The description of the store. This field is optional and is not displayed to customers.
Store URL The URL that will be used to access the store. If you are testing locally, the host name must match the host name specified in the hosts file. For example, if your hosts file contains the mystore.example.com
host name, enter the following: http://mystore.example.com
Store Timezone The time zone used for setting timestamps.
Store Country The country where the store is located.
Store Sub-Country The sub-country (state or province) where the store is located. This is only displayed if the selected Store Country has sub-countries.
5. In the Localization tab, configure the following settings:
Field Description
Selected
Languages
Selected
Currencies
Default
Language
The list of languages supported by the store. Select and add at least one language from the Available Languages list.
The list of currencies supported by the store. Select and add at least one currency from the Available Currencies list.
The default language used to display content in the store.
Note: When selecting a language, make sure you also select the correct locale. Depending on the locale, your prices will be displayed differently.
For example: With US locale, your price will appear as $14.25. With
Finland as your locale, your price will appear as 14.25$, following the
European format.
Default
Currency
The default currency used to display pricing information in the store.
6. In the Catalog tab, select the catalog that the store will use.
Note: The store's catalog cannot be changed after the store is created.
7. In the Theme tab, select the theme you want to associate with the store. The theme name must match the name of a subdirectory in the themes directory. (The location of the themes directory is specified in the
COMMERCE/STORE/theme
setting.)
8. In the Warehouse tab, select the warehouse that the store will use.
9. In the Taxes tab, select the tax jurisdictions and tax codes to apply to the store.
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10. In the Payments tab, configure the payment options that the store will support. Enter values in the following fields:
Field Description
Credit Card
Payment
Gateway
The payment gateway that the store will use. Choose an item from the drop-down list to display a list of cards in the Supported Card Types table.
Paypal
Express
Payment
Gateway
Gift
Certificates
Payment
Gateway
Enable CC
CVV Code
Note: The null payment gateways are for testing purposes and do not process payments.
Specifies whether to enable Paypal Express for the store.
Specifies whether to enable Gift Certificates for the store.
Save full CC# with Orders
Specifies whether you want the Card Validation Value enabled for the store.
CVV is a three or four digit number used by credit card companies to reduce online fraud. When this option is enabled, locals must enter the CVV code located on the back of their credit card while making an order.
For more information about CVV, go to http://www.sti.nasa.gov/cvv.html.
Specifies whether to save the customer's credit card number in the order.
This is not recommended and is disabled by default.
Important:
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has established a set of security guidelines for credit card information retention. If this option is enabled, you need to assess the compliance of your system with those guidelines. Failure to comply can result in loss of the ability to process credit card payments, fines, or other measures.
For more information, see the PCI SSC web site
(https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pci_dss.sht
ml).
Supported
Card Types
The credit cards that the store supports.
Note: Changes to payment gateway settings do not take effect until the web applications are restarted.
11. In the Shared Customer Accounts tab, select the stores whose existing customers can log on to the new store with.
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Note: Customers of the store you are creating will not be allowed to log on with their accounts to any other stores, unless otherwise specified in the other stores’ configuration options.
12. In the Marketing tab, configure the following settings:
Field Description
Store From Email
(Friendly Name)
Store From Email
(Sender Address)
Store Admin Email
Address
Display Out Of Stock
Products
Specifies the sender name on all outgoing e-mails generated by the store.
Specifies which e-mail account will be used to send out systemgenerated e-mails.
Specifies the store administrator’s e-mail address.
Specifies whether you want the store to display out of stock products.
13. In the System tab, select Store HTML Encoding and click Edit Value. Enter UTF-8 and click
Save.
14. Save your changes.
15. Click Change Store State and choose one of the following:
Restricted Access The store cannot be accessed by customers.
Open The store can be accessed by customers.
16. In the Configuration tab, click System Configuration.
17. Set the secure storefront URL and passcode. This will enable users to access the storefront from the Commerce Manager.
18. Under Property Name, select COMMERCE/STORE/storefrontUrl and click New.
19. Enter the following:
Context The store code. For example, for the Snap It Up store, enter
SNAPITUP .
Value The secure (HTTPS) storefront URL. If the store URL is http://mystore.example.com:8080 , enter https://mystore.example.com:8080/storefront .
20. Click OK.
21. Under Property Name, select
COMMERCE/STORE/restrictedAccessPasscode
and click New.
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22. Enter the following:
Context The store code. For example, for the Snap It Up store, enter
SNAPITUP .
Value The passcode used to view the store in the Commerce Manager in the Restricted Access state.
23. Click OK.
Note: After a new store is created, the product search index must be rebuilt before any existing products become visible in the store. The index rebuild is scheduled automatically, but a manual rebuild can occur by following these steps:
1. Log on to Commerce Manager.
2. From the Activity menu, choose Configuration.
3. In the Configuration tab, click Search Indexes. The list of search indexes appears, indicating the name, last rebuild time, and status of each index.
4. Select the product index.
5. Click Rebuild Index.
Editing a Store
1. Select the store you want to edit.
2. Click Edit Store.
3. Make the required changes and save.
Deleting a Store
1. Select the store you want to delete.
2. Click Delete Store. A prompt appears to confirm the store deletion.
3. Click OK.
Note: If a store is in use, the system will not allow you to delete it.
Customer Profile Attributes
Customer profile attributes store information about a customer (such as name, address and email address) within the Elastic Path Commerce database. They are used by Customer Service
Representatives (CSRs) to record information about customers during the customer creation and maintenance processes.
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Tax Exemption Profile Attributes
Two attributes are available as Customer Profile Attributes which are used during tax exemption scenarios (see Tax Exemption). Values for these fields can be manually entered by CSRs. When integrating with a Tax Provider, these values are available to be passed along to the tax provider indicating taxes for the given order are not to be calculated. There are two scenarios as to how or where exemption is indicated.
In the first scenario, companies supporting tax exemption order processing are required to collect, validate, and store values for their customers. In this scenario, the following fields are available in the
Customer Profile to collect and store the information. Orders for these customers then pass the given customer information to the tax provider. Generally, these numbers, if visible to the customer at the time of checkout would be non-editable.
1. Business Number to record the customer’s business identification number.
2. Tax Exemption to record the number provided by the government for use by the given customers on orders where taxes are not to be charged or collected
In the second scenario, a tax exemption number is provided by the customer at the time of checkout.
This value must be manually entered with each transaction as there is no tie between a value provided at checkout and that stored within a Customer Profile. Similarly, values available in the
Customer Profile are not used to auto-populate any tax exemption fields presented at the time of checkout or purchase.
NOTE: T
HE
E
LASTIC
P
ATH TAX ENGINE CURRENTLY DOES NOT FACTOR IN EXEMPTION
.
I
F USING
E
LASTIC
P
ATH
T
AX
T
ABLES
,
TAXES WOULD BE CALCULATED REGARDLESS OF ENTERING EXEMPTION CODES
.
C
URRENTLY
, T
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XEMPTION FUNCTIONALITY ONLY APPLIES WHEN INTEGRATING WITH A
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.
Creating a Customer Profile Attribute
You can add customer profile attributes in the Commerce Manager. However, adding an attribute does not automatically cause it to appear during storefront customer account creation or editing. The storefront must be customized in order for additional fields to appear within it.
3. Click Profile Attributes to open the Profile Attributes tab.
4. Click Create Attribute. The Create Attribute dialog box appears.
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5. Enter values in the following fields:
Field
Description
Attribute Key The unique identifier for the attribute.
Attribute
Name
The display name of the attribute.
Attribute
Type
Required
6. Click Save.
The format of the attribute’s data (for example, Date, Text, Integer, or Decimal).
Specifies whether the new attribute is required or optional.
Editing a Customer Profile Attribute
1. Click Profile Attributes to open the Profile Attributes tab.
2. Select the profile attribute you want to edit.
Tip: To find attributes more quickly, click a column header to sort the column by that header.
3. Click Edit Attribute.
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4. Make the required changes to the attribute name, then click Save.
Deleting a Customer Profile Attribute
1. Click Profile Attributes to open the Profile Attributes tab.
2. Select the profile attribute you want to delete.
3. Click Delete Attribute.
4. Click OK to delete the attribute.
Note:
If data has already been entered for a profile attribute, then the Edit
Attribute and Delete Attribute buttons will be disabled. This prevents corruption and loss of data.
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Customer Segments
Customer Segments enable marketers to group customers together and create conditions for delivering price lists, dynamic content, and cart promotions. Customer Segment tags determine if the customer belongs to a segment and if they are entitled to different content, prices, and promotions for the storefront.
An example of a customer segment is where a store employee is assigned to an employee segment so they receive employee pricing when shopping.
Creating a Customer Segment
A default PUBLIC customer segment is available and applies to all customer accounts.
1. Click Activity > Configuration and then select Customer Segment to access the Customer
Segments tab.
2. Click Create Customer Segment.
3. In the New Customer Segment tab, enter the values for the following fields:
Field Description
*Customer Segment Name The customer segment’s unique identifier.
*Description The customer segment’s description.
Enabled Activates the segment.
If disabled, conditions using this tag or the customer segment are not triggered.
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4. Click Save on the tool bar.
Editing a Customer Segment
1. Click Activity > Configuration and then select Customer Segment to display the list of customer segments in the Customer Segment tab.
2. Select the customer segment to edit.
Tip: To find customer segments more quickly, click a column header to sort the column by that header.
3. Click Edit Customer Segment.
4. Make the required changes to the customer segment.
5. Click Save on the tool bar.
Deleting a Customer Segment
1. Click Activity > Configuration and then select Customer Segment to display the list of customer segments in the Customer Segment tab.
2. Select the customer segment to delete.
Note: The PUBLIC customer segment cannot be deleted.
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3. Click Delete Customer Segment and select OK to delete the customer segment.
Note:
If the customer segment has a customer association or is used as a condition, then a Customer Segment in Use message is displayed indicating the segment cannot be deleted. Either remove the associations or condition or disable the customer segment.
Payment Gateways
A payment gateway processes and authorizes payments made from a customer to a retailer. Payment gateways encrypt sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) and ensure that the information is transferred securely.
Some payment gateways issue a certificate file to the merchant and require the merchant to use the
Important: Changes to payment gateway settings do not take effect until you restart the web applications.
Creating a Payment Gateway
1. Click Payment Gateways on the Configurations tab to open the Payment Gateways tab.
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2. Click Create Gateway.
3. Enter a Gateway Name and a Gateway Type. The Gateway Type setting cannot be changed once the gateway has been created.
Note: The parameters in the Properties table vary depending on Gateway Type, and can be configured by developers.
4. Click Save.
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Editing a Payment Gateway
1. Select the payment gateway you want to edit.
2. Click Edit Payment Gateway.
3. Make your modifications and click Save.
Deleting a Payment Gateway
1. Select the payment gateway you want to delete.
2. Click Delete Payment Gateway.
3. Click Delete Attribute. You are prompted to confirm that you want to delete the payment gateway.
4. Click OK.
Setting a Payment Gateway Certificate
Some payment gateways provide the merchant with a certificate. Use the following System
Configuration setting to define the certificate’s location.
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COMMERCE/SYSTEM/PAYMENTG
ATEWAY/certificatesDirec tory
Defines the base directory where the payment gateway certificates are.
When setting the payment gateway, the path to the certificate should be relative to the base directory. For example, in the case of PayPal, if the key resides in /var/ep/payment/paypal/cert.p12, set the certificatesDirectory
setting to /var/ep/payment/, and set the certificateFile setting in the payment gateway to to paypal/cert.p12.
For information on changing system configuration settings, see System Configuration .
Shipping Regions and Service Levels
In the Commerce Manager, a shipping region is a geographical entity (for example, country, state, or province), while a shipping service level determines what shipping services are available to customers at each store.
Shipping Regions
A shipping region is a geographical entity (for example, country, state, province) that your store ships to. Shipping service levels are the delivery services available in a given shipping region (for example,
Ground Shipping, Overnight Shipping, etc.)
A customer’s shipping cost depends on the shipping region they reside in and which shipping level they choose. A shipping region should use a single set of shipping service levels and costs. Shipping
Regions must be configured before the store’s checkout process can work.
Note: If your shipping service levels and shipping costs are identical for all locations, you only need to create one shipping region. If you use non-global service levels (that is, they are available only in some parts of the world) or if shipping cost calculations vary between regions, you need to create multiple shipping regions.
Creating a Shipping Region
1. Click Shipping Regions on the Configurations tab to open the Shipping Regions tab.
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2. Click Create Shipping Region.
3. Enter a name for the region, and select countries or sub countries to include in the region.
4. Click > to add the countries or sub-countries.
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5. Click Save.
Editing a Shipping Region
1. Select the shipping region you want to edit.
2. Click Edit Shipping Region.
3. Make your changes.
4. Click Save.
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Deleting a Shipping Region
Note: If tax values have been configured for a region, you cannot delete it until the tax values have been removed.
1. Select the shipping region you want to delete.
2. Click Delete Shipping Region. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
3. Click OK.
Shipping Service Levels
Shipping service levels determine the shipping services available to customers at each store. For example, customers for a store selling high-value items may be offered overnight shipping at a reduced rate, while customers shopping at a discounted storefront may be offered slower surface delivery options.
Shipping service levels are configured under the Marketing Activity.
Searching for Service Levels
1. Click Activity > Store Marketing.
2. Select the Shipping Service Levels tab.
3. Set the Shipping Service Level State, Shipping Region, and Store filters.
4. Select a Sort by Column header and the Sort Order for the returned search results. (Optional.)
5. Click Search.
Sorting Search Results
The shipping service level search results can be sorted by clicking on a column header.
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Pagination of Search Results
By default, the search results show 10 items per page. You can change this by clicking Preferences >
Change Pagination Settings. Choose a Results Per Page value from the drop-down list, then click Save.
Creating a Service Level
1. On the Store Marketing Search tab, perform a shipping service level search with default values.
2. Click Create Service Level.
3. Set the values for your new shipping region. A Unique Code is required for data importing and exporting.
4. Click Save.
Editing a Service Level
1. On the Store Marketing Search tab, perform a shipping service level search with default values.
2. Select the service level you want to edit.
3. Click Edit Service Level.
4. Make your changes and click Save.
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Deleting a Service Level
1. On the Store Marketing Search tab, perform a shipping service level search with default values.
2. Select the service level you want to delete.
3. Click Delete Service Level. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
4. Click OK.
Tax Configuration
Store administrators need to configure taxes for jurisdictions that are "tax nexuses" (jurisdictions with the right to impose a tax on taxpayers).
To configure a tax system for their store, administrators must configure :
Tax Codes: Products are connected to taxes through tax codes. Tax codes define what type of tax is applicable to a product (for example, Shipping vs Goods vs Digital taxes), and are visible to customers.
Tax Categories: Tax Categories or Taxes determine the taxes are applicable for each Tax
Jurisdiction. For example, the “PST” (the Provincial Sales Tax) or “State Tax” (the state taxes) or “VAT” rates may be different from one region to the next.
Tax Jurisdictions: Tax Jurisdictions are hierarchical, so it is possible to have different Tax
Categories applied at various levels. These include country, sub-country (state or province), city, and zip code. Tax Jurisdictions are either Inclusive or Exclusive.
Tax Values: The tax rate applied to a Tax Category in a particular jurisdiction
The hierarchy in Tax Jurisdictions must be first defined at the country level, followed by sub-country
(for example, State or Province), city, and then zip or postal code.
Inclusive and Exclusive Tax Calculations
Inclusive and exclusive taxes refer to whether or not taxes are included in the shown or advertised price of an item. Inclusive taxes are included in the price, while exclusive taxes are not.
For example, the advertised price for gasoline in Canada is inclusive. It includes the GST (Goods and
Service Tax). However, most other goods sold in Canada are exclusive. The GST and other sales taxes are added to the advertised price of the item when the purchase is made. See Tax Exemption
Inclusive tax calculation example
The customer is buying 1 tennis racket which costs £75. The VAT tax rate is 15%. Shipping is £5 and is also subject to VAT.
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Line Item
Subtotal
Item tax
Shipping tax
Total tax
Total
Amount Calculation
£75.00 (sum of item prices)
£9.78
£0.65
£10.43
£80.00
(VAT/1 + VAT)*item price
(VAT/1 + VAT)*shipping price
(item tax + shipping tax)
(subtotal + shipping price)
Inclusive tax calculation example with cart discount
The customer is buying 1 tennis racket which costs £75. The VAT tax rate is 15%. Shipping is £5 and is also subject to VAT. There is a discount of 10% off the subtotal.
Line Item
Subtotal
Discount
Item tax
Shipping tax
Total tax
Total
Amount Calculation
£75.00 (sum of item prices)
£7.50
£8.80
£0.65
£9.45
£72.50
(subtotal * discount percentage)
(VAT/1 + VAT)*(item price - discount)
(VAT/1 + VAT)*shipping price
(item tax + shipping tax)
(subtotal + shipping price)
Exclusive tax calculation example
The customer is buying 1 tennis racket which costs $75. The GST is 5% and PST is 7%. Shipping is $5 and is also subject to GST and PST.
Line Item
Subtotal
Item tax
Shipping tax
Total tax
Total
Amount Calculation
$75.00 (sum of item prices)
$9.00 (item price * (GST + PST))
$0.60
$9.60
$89.60
(shipping price * (GST + PST)
(item tax + shipping tax)
(subtotal + shipping price + total tax)
Exclusive tax calculation example with cart discount
The customer is buying 1 tennis racket which costs $75. The GST is 5% and PST is 7%. Shipping is $5 and is also subject to GST and PST. There is a discount of 10% off the subtotal.
Line Item Amount Calculation
Subtotal
Discount
$75.00
$7.50
(sum of item prices)
(item price * discount percentage)
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Line Item
Item tax
Shipping tax
Total tax
Total
Amount Calculation
$8.10 (item price - discount) * (GST + PST)
$0.60
$8.70
$81.20
(shipping price * (GST + PST)
(item tax + shipping tax)
(subtotal - discount + shipping price + total tax)
Calculating Multiple Taxes
For multiple taxes, there is a different formula for calculating the tax depending on whether the prices are tax inclusive or tax exclusive. In the tax exclusive case, the system multiplies the taxes against the price of each item and sums the results. In the tax inclusive case, the calculation is more complex, as shown below:
Calculating multiple inclusive taxes, for example VAT and an environmental tax (ENV): vatTaxes = (VAT/(1 + VAT + ENV))*price, envTaxes = (ENV/(1 + VAT + ENV))*price
Taxes and Discounts
Subtotal discounts apply to the sum of the line item prices. If the discount is given as a dollar amount
(for example, $10 off your cart) then that dollar amount is removed from the price sum. If the discount is given as a percentage (for example, 25% off your cart subtotal), the system computes the dollar amount by taking the percentage of the sum of the prices.
In the tax exclusive case, the discount is taken from the pre-tax price.
In the tax inclusive case, the discount is taken from the tax inclusive price.
Taxes and Order Returns
If the customer is returning the entire order, the system refunds all the taxes paid. If they are returning only a portion of the order, the Commerce Manager returns only a portion of the taxes. This is determined by looking at the total item taxes paid on the line item they are returning and then multiplying those taxes by the portion they are returning.
For example, a customer buys three tennis rackets having total item taxes of $29.34. They then return one tennis racket. The system will return (1/3)*29.34=9.78 in taxes. If they are returning two tennis rackets they will get (2/3)*29.34=19.56 in taxes. The line item amounts are summed to give the total taxes to return. By default, shipping costs and taxes are not refunded.
Tax Codes
Creating a Tax Code
1. Open the Tax Codes tab by clicking Tax Codes on the Configuration tab or by selecting
Configuration > Tax Codes.
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1.
2. Click Create Tax Code.
3. Enter the Tax Code value and click Save.
Editing a Tax Code
1. Select the tax code you want to edit.
2. Click Edit Tax Code.
3. Make your changes and click Save.
Deleting a Tax Code
1. Select the tax code you want to delete.
2. Click Delete Tax Code. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
3. Click OK.
Tax Jurisdictions
Creating a Tax Jurisdiction
1. Open the Tax Jurisdictions tab by clicking Tax Jurisdictions on the Configuration tab or by selecting Configuration > Tax Jurisdictions.
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2. Click Create Tax Jurisdiction.
3. Enter values in the following fields:
Field Description
Jurisdiction
Country
Tax Calculation
Method
Configure Taxes
The country to which this tax applies.
Specify whether the prices in this jurisdiction include taxes
(inclusive), or whether they exclude taxes (exclusive).
Specify the taxes that apply to this jurisdiction. In the Create Tax dialog box, specify the Tax Name and Address Field.
4. Click Save.
Editing a Tax Jurisdiction
1. Select the tax jurisdiction you want to edit.
2. Click Edit Tax Jurisdiction.
3. Make your changes and click Save.
Deleting a Tax Jurisdiction
1. Select the tax jurisdiction you want to delete.
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2. Click Delete Tax Jurisdiction. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
3. Click OK.
Tax Values
Creating a Tax Value
1. Open the Manage Tax Values dialog box by clicking Manage Tax Values on the Configuration tab or by selecting Configuration > Manage Tax Values.
2. Configure the filter settings and click
Filter to retrieve the tax values.
3. Click Add.
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4. Enter values in the fields, then click Save.
Editing a Tax Value
5. Open the Manage Tax Values dialog box by clicking Manage Tax Values on the Configuration tab or by selecting Configuration > Manage Tax Values.
6. Configure the filter settings and click Filter to retrieve the tax values.
7. Select the tax value you want to edit, then click Edit.
8. Make your changes in the Edit Tax Rate dialog box, then click Save.
Deleting a Tax Value
1. Open the Manage Tax Values dialog box by clicking Manage Tax Values on the Configuration tab or by selecting Configuration > Manage Tax Values.
2. Configure the filter settings and click Filter to retrieve the tax values.
3. Select the tax value you want to delete.
4. Click Remove. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
5. Click OK.
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Tax Exemption
Companies who sell in B2B type scenarios or who have non-profit, charity, or government customers often require the processing of sales where taxes are not calculated or collected. In these scenarios, a tax exemption code, and possibly a business identification number, is collected and stored along with the order for audit purposes. The selling company must be able to prove their due diligence in the non-collection of taxes for a given order. The selling company may need to enable the tax exemption code and/or the business identification number to be either provided by the customer at the time of the sale or recorded in their Customer Profile (see Customer Profile Attributes -> Tax Exemption
Profile Attributes).
When an exemption number is provided, the information can be passed along to any integrated Tax
Provider service so the request can be recorded and taxes are not calculated.
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Warehouses
The Warehouse configuration settings in the Commerce Manager let you set up a warehouse entity that you can then associate with a store. Once a warehouse has been associated with a store, you can track inventory for shipped and received products.
Creating a Warehouse
1. Open the Warehouses tab by clicking Warehouses on the Configuration tab or by selecting
Configuration > Warehouses.
2. Click Create Warehouse.
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3. Enter values for your new warehouse as described in the following table. Click Save when you are done.
Field Description
Warehouse Code The unique identifier for the warehouse. The code cannot be changed once the warehouse is created.
Warehouse Name
The name of the warehouse.
Address Line 1
Country
The address of the warehouse.
Address Line 2
Zip/Postal Code
If necessary, the remaining address information of the warehouse.
City
The city the warehouse is located in.
State/Province/Region
The state, province, or region the warehouse is located in, if applicable.
The postal code of the warehouse.
The country the warehouse is located in.
Editing a Warehouse
1. Open the Warehouses tab by clicking Warehouses on the Configuration tab or by selecting
Configuration > Warehouses.
2. Select the warehouse you want to edit.
3. Click Edit Warehouse.
4. Make your changes and click Save.
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Deleting a Warehouse
1. Open the Warehouses tab by clicking Warehouses on the Configuration tab or by selecting
Configuration > Warehouses.
2. Select the warehouse you want to delete.
3. Click Delete Warehouse. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
4. Click OK.
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Chapter 6: Catalog Management
The Catalog Management Activity provides users with the ability to import, create, and manage catalogs, product categories, and products. You open it from the Activity menu.
The Catalog Management Activity displays any existing Catalogs on the Catalog Browse tab. Expand a catalog to show categories and sub-categories within the catalog.
You can add a catalog by selecting Catalog Management > Create Catalog. Right-click on a category to add sub-categories or products to a category.
Catalogs and Virtual Catalogs
Catalogs are collections of products. They are independent from one another, and you may have as many catalogs as required.
Virtual catalogs are conceptual creations that make the management of store catalogs easier. The products in a virtual catalog are inherited from regular catalogs; virtual catalogs may be constructed from any combination of catalogs and catalog products.
For example, a clothing retailer may build a virtual catalog for the Fall shopping season that consists of specific products from a number of different regular catalogs (for example, warm jackets from
Coats or gloves from Accessories).
Catalogs
Each catalog has a unique name and is independent from the other catalogs. Besides choosing a name, the store administrator must also decide the languages the new catalog supports.
Catalogs should be used in the following situations:
A manufacturer may operate a number of different brands or product lines. Each brand or product line should have its own catalog of all the offerings for that category.
A retailer may have a number of different suppliers. Each supplier will have their own catalog, populated with the goods they offer.
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Note: If you have recurring charge products in your Elastic Path deployment you may only have them in one (master) catalog.
Virtual Catalogs
A virtual catalog must have a unique name that differentiates it from other virtual catalogs and regular (master) catalogs. Virtual catalogs are built with products and categories from master catalogs. However, one cannot add products from one virtual catalog to another.
A virtual catalog may have unique categories not found in the master catalog it is inheriting its products from. This allows more flexibility in structuring a virtual catalog's categorical hierarchy.
However, the products in a virtual category must already exist in a master catalog. Virtual catalogs can inherit any subset of a master catalog.
Note that virtual catalogs provide you only with a view of the products from the master catalogs. You cannot modify the actual product data (other than its price) in a virtual catalog. Instead, you must modify the product's details from its master catalog. This also means that if a change is made to a product in a master catalog, any virtual catalogs that inherited that product will also be changed.
(Note that this does not include Merchandising Associations or Category Assignments, as those attributes are separate from the master catalog and are not inherited from it.)
Whether a virtual catalog is required or not depends on the requirements of your stores. Typically virtual catalogs may be required in the following cases:
To support secondary or tertiary stores that sell a subset of the main store’s catalog. For example, a company may operate a general-purpose electronics store, www.electronics.com
, as well as two niche stores, www.digitalcameras.com
and www.camcorders.com
. The two niche stores only sell a subset of the products sold in www.electronics.com
, and may have different pricing structures. In this case, a master catalog will support the main store, and two virtual catalogs would support each of the niche stores.
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To support geographical stores where individual operating countries may sell a subset of the product range and pricing may differ between countries. In this case, a master catalog would reflect the company’s worldwide catalog, and a virtual catalog would be used for each geographical store. If geographical stores are similar (for example, two countries in the
European Union), they may both use the same virtual catalog.
To allow suppliers to manage their own catalogs. In this case each supplier can have their own master catalog. As the store operator you can have a single virtual catalog that consumes the categories and products you want to sell in your store from each of the supplier master catalogs.
Catalog Assets
An asset is a catalog image or a digital asset (for example, MP3 audio file or PDF document). The Asset
Manager allows store administrators to manage these objects. For example, you can use the Asset
Manager to upload an image file and assign it to a product.
There are three types of assets:
Asset Description
Images
Digital Assets
Files
Images of the products in the store's catalog. A thumbnail of the graphic will be displayed in both the storefront and the Commerce Manager.
The digital goods that are being sold in the store. These can be downloadable.
All other files.
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Creating, Editing, and Deleting a Catalog
Catalogs can be created, edited, and deleted using the toolbar icons highlighted in the diagram below.
Note: A catalog can only be deleted if it does not contain any categories or products.
When creating a catalog, you will see the following dialog box:
Field Description
Catalog Code The unique identifier for the catalog. The code cannot be changed once the catalog is created.
The name of the catalog being created. Catalog Name
Selected Languages The languages supported by the catalog. You must add at least one language to this list.
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Default Language The default display language for the product and category information. This drop-down list is populated from languages in the Selected Languages list.
Note: After the catalog is created, you can add languages to the Selected Languages list box.
After a language is added, it cannot be removed.
Creating, Editing, and Deleting a Virtual Catalog
Like a regular catalog, you can access the main controls for managing virtual catalogs from the main toolbar and the Catalog Browse tab toolbar.
When creating a virtual catalog, the following dialog box appears:
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Catalog Tabs
When editing a catalog, you will see a screen similar to the one below. Click the tabs at the bottom of the screen to view and modify the attributes within each group:
Summary Tab
Use this tab to set the Catalog Name as well as the languages in which catalog text can be displayed.
Field
Catalog Code
Catalog Name
Description
A unique identifier for the catalog. The code cannot be changed once the catalog is created.
The name of the catalog.
Default Language The default display language for product and category information.
Available/Selected
Languages
Languages supported by the catalog. At least one language must appear in the Selected Languages list.
Attributes Tab
Use this tab to add, change or delete attributes for the selected catalog. (Note: If you want to set attributes that apply to all catalogs, you must create global attributes using the Catalog Management
> Edit Global Attributes feature.)
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Catalog attributes are descriptive aspects of a product or category in a catalog. For example, if your storefront sells luggage, you could add an attribute called Material. The possible values for this attribute are vinyl, leather, and canvas.
Note that adding an attribute allows you to set values for that attribute in the catalog from within the Commerce Manager, but the attribute will not be visible in the frontend unless it is used by the CMS template controlling the frontend .
For more information, refer to the Elastic Path
Commerce Developer Guide.
Field
Attribute Key
Attribute Name
Attribute Usage
Description
The Attribute Key should follow the Attribute Key naming convention used by your organization. For example, a six character alpha-numeric string beginning with an “A”.
The Attribute Name is a short text entry.
The Attribute Usage specifies which item in the catalog hierarchy the attribute is associated. For example, the “Material” attribute would apply to
Products, but not to SKUs. The possible usage types are:
Category
Product
SKU
Customer Profile
Attribute Type
Multi-Language
The Attribute Type tells the system what types of characters are valid for the attribute (for example, string or integer).
Specifies whether you can enter multi-language text for the attribute when setting up a product. For example, in a store configured for English and
French, you would be able to enter text descriptions for a product in both languages.
Required Attribute Specifies whether a value must be entered for this attribute when a user is setting up a product.
Multiple Values
Allowed
Specifies whether a long or short text attribute can accept multiple values shown in a drop-down list. For example, an attribute describing 35 mm camera film speed would be easier to use if the film speed values were presented in a drop-down list.
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Cart Item Modifier Groups Tab
Use this tab to add, change or delete groupings of fields used when collecting data from your customer for a given product when adding it to the cart. That is, these fields are associated with products making them ‘configurable’ by the customer when purchasing.
Configurable products are useful when you need to collect information from the customer regarding the specific product in order to complete the purchase. For example, when purchasing a personalized t-shirt, the customer must provide the name they want to be imprinted on the shirt. Or, when purchasing a gift certificate, the customer must provide the name and email address to send the gift certificate code to. Or, when purchasing carpet cleaning services, the customer must provide the date and address they are requesting the service.
You are not required to create Cart Item Modifier Groups; however, if you have products requiring input from the customer before purchase, these groupings allow you to create different groupings of product metadata to be collected.
Field Description
Group Code The Group Code should follow the naming convention used by your organization.
Group Name The Group Name is name assigned or the working name for this grouping of fields. Note, this field value can be provided the languages supported by this catalog so this value could be displayed to the customer
You are able to add as many fields as are appropriate to a group and the fields may be of various types.
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Field
Code
Display Name
Field Type
Required
Description
The Code should follow the naming convention used by your organization for configurable fields.
The Display Name is name displayed to the customer.
Select the type of value to be provided. Selection of a given type may provide additional configuration fields. For example, selection of “shorttext” requires a maximum field size value to be configured.
Indicates whether or not the field will require a value before it can be added to the cart
Cart Item Modifier Groups cannot be shared between master catalogs. If you have the same groupings in multiple maser catalogs you will need to create each independently.
Similarly, Cart Item Modifier fields cannot be shared between groups. If you have the same field to be used in multiple groups, you will need to add the field independently to each group.
Category Types Tab
A category type defines the set of attributes for a category. Use this tab to add, modify, and delete category types in a catalog.
In a relatively simple catalog, you may only need one category type. More complex catalogs may require several category types. For example, if your business offers electronics and kitchen supplies, you may want to have two category types: electronics attributes and kitchen-related category attributes.
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Field Description
Name The name for the category type
Default Template This field is no longer used with removal of support for velocity storefronts.
However, it has yet to be removed from the configuration settings. The
“categoryTemplate” is provided as the default category. Select this option from the list.
Available Attributes and Assigned
Attributes
Assigned attributes become available on the Attributes tab for a selected category when a user creates or edits a category of that category type.
Click > to add available attributes to this category type.
Product Types Tab
A Product Type defines the set of attributes for a product and the template used to display that product in the frontend. Use the Product Types tab to add, modify, and delete Product Types in a catalog.
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Once you have created a Product Type, you can associate it with the necessary product attributes that describe that type of product.
Field Description
Name
Template
Default Tax Code
Available Attributes and Assigned
Attributes
Available / Assigned
Cart Item Modifier
Groups
The name of the product type.
This field is no longer used with removal of support for velocity storefronts.
However, it has yet to be removed from the configuration settings. Select an option from the list provided.
The applicable tax code for this Product Type.
Tax Codes are added to the Commerce Manager by your store administrator via the Configuration activity.
The list of system attributes is on the left. The attributes in the Assigned
Attributes list appear as fields to be completed when creating or modifying a product of this product type.
Click > to add available attributes to this Product Type.
The list of Cart Item Modifier Groups is on the left. The groups in the Assigned
Cart Item Modifier Groups list appear as fields to be completed when adding the product of this product type to the cart.
Click > to add available Cart Item Modifier Groups to this Product Type.
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Product type has multiple SKUs
Specifies whether the product type requires SKU Options or is a recurring charge product. SKU Options allow multiple attribute values for a product, so that the shopper can select a combination of those attributes for a single product. The attribute combinations for the product are recorded as separate
SKUs. For a recurring charge Product Type, you must select Frequency as one of the SKU options. For more information, see SKU Options Tab.
For example, a women’s winter jacket might be offered in blue, black and beige, with four sizes offered for each color. A different SKU based on the main product SKU exists for each color/size combination.
Product type is discountable
Specifies whether the Product Type can be discounted.
SKU Options Tab
Use this tab to add, edit or remove SKU options for multi-SKU and recurring charge products. For example, if your store sells a camera bag with product code “123” that comes in large, medium and small, as well as blue, black and green, you would set up the size and color attributes on this tab so that the product size and color combinations can be accessible from the bag’s product SKU.
Field Description
SKU Option/Value The options for multi-SKU products in the category, and the values that can be selected for each option.
If the catalog contains gift certificates, you must add the following two SKU options:
GC_Theme
GC_Denomination
The image of GC_Theme specifies a design theme that customers can choose when purchasing a gift certificate.
GC_Denomination specifies a gift certificate amount that customers can choose when purchasing a gift certificate.
If the catalog contains recurring charge products, you must add the following SKU option:
Frequency
Enter Frequency in the Code field and the billing frequency term in the
Display Name field (for example, “Billing Cycle”). The payment frequencies would be SKU options under Frequency . For example, an option with SEC
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Display Name
Image
Code for the code and per second for the display name would have per second billing frequency. A one-time charge SKU option must have the code NA.
(Required.) The name of the option that appears to shoppers in the frontend.
The image associated with the SKU option.
(Required.) The shortened version of the option and value. For example, the code for the option Bag Size with a value of medium could be “BSM”.
This field cannot be modified in the Edit SKU Option Value dialog box.
The buttons on this tab allow you to manage both the attributes and the attribute values.
Brands Tab
Use this tab to add, edit or remove Brands from a catalog.
To add a brand to the catalog, click Add Brand and complete the fields in the following table.
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Field
Brand Code
Brand Name
Brand Image
Description
The identifier for this brand.
The Brand name.
The path and image file for this brand.
Click Select Image, then browse for and select the image file for the brand logo. If the file is not in the Asset Manager, click
Upload to add it.
Importing Categories and Products
Store administrators usually import product and category data via the import manager tool. The data is imported from comma-separated value (CSV) files. This is an alternative to manually creating them, especially for large amounts of catalog data.
Note: CSV files may use characters other than commas to separate values. You can create CSV files from an Excel spreadsheet or a text editor.
Note: A new record (customer, order, category, product, or SKU) does not appear right away in search results. This occurs because new records are indexed only at scheduled intervals.
The intervals are configured during the initial store setup by the administrator. This process can be expedited by restarting the server, which causes the new records to be indexed immediately.
Before you can import catalog data, you must create a catalog import job. The import job describes the column structure of the import data files and how the columns are mapped to the data fields.
Tip: For online tutorials on this topic, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
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Creating a Catalog Import Job
1. Create a CSV template file that describes the structure of the data you want to import. This file must contain one line of comma-separated values, and each value should be the column name or a description of column data. For example, the CSV files that you need to import are structured as follows:
<category code>,<parent category code>,<display name>
The line should look similar to the following:
Category Code,Parent Category Code,Display Name
2. Click View Catalog Import Jobs.
3. Click Create Import Job.
4. Configure the following settings:
Field Description
Catalog
Data Type
The catalog which the data will be imported into.
The type of data you are importing. The data type depends on the selected catalog, the type of object (category, product, product SKU, product association), and the Product Type (for products).
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Field Description
Import Type
Insert & Replace: inserts objects from the data file. If there is a conflict between an existing object and an object being imported, the existing object is overwritten with the object being imported.
Update: only updates existing objects based on data in the data file. New objects are not imported.
Insert: inserts data from the data file. If there is a conflict between an existing object and an object being imported, the existing object remains unchanged and the object in the data file is ignored.
Delete: deletes objects specified in the data file.
Import Name
CSV Import File
Text Delimiter
Column Delimiter
Max errors during import (default)
The name of the list of catalog import jobs.
The path of the CSV template file created in Step 1.
The character that separates each value in a line. All text values must begin and end with the text delimiter character.
The character that surrounds text values in a line.
The number of non-fatal errors that can occur before an import of this type is terminated. If the import is aborted, it does not rollback the import already completed to that point.
5. Click Next. The Commerce Manager will verify that the CSV file contains valid data and report any errors. If there are any errors, correct them and click Back to repeat this step.
6. In the Map Data Fields screen, specify how the data in the CSV file is mapped to fields in the database. For each data field to be mapped, select the field in the Data Fields list. Then select the appropriate column in the CSV Columns list and click Map.
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Note: It is not necessary to map all data fields to all CSV columns. Only the fields marked by an asterisk (*) in the Data Fields list must be mapped.
7. Click Finish.
Executing a Catalog Import Job
1. Click View Catalog Import Jobs.
2. Select the job you want to run.
3. Click Run Import Job.
4. Click the browse button next to the CSV Import File field and locate the CSV file that contains the inventory data you want to import.
5. Click Next. The Commerce Manager client verifies that the CSV file contains valid data and reports any errors. If there are any errors, correct them and click Back to repeat this step.
6. Click Finish. The import may take a few minutes, depending on the amount of data in the file.
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Global Attributes
A global attribute can be shared across multiple catalogs. Administrators do not have to recreate the same attribute for every new catalog.
Creating a Global Attribute
1. Click Edit Global Attributes.
2. Click Add Attribute.
3. Set the attributes and values for your new global attribute. Click Add when you are done.
4. In the Edit Global Attributes dialog box, click Save.
Editing a Global Attribute
1. Click Edit Global Attributes.
2. Select the global attribute you want to edit.
3. Click Edit Attribute.
4. Make your changes and click OK.
5. In the Edit Global Attributes dialog box, click Save.
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Deleting a Global Attribute
1. Click Edit Global Attributes.
2. Select the global attribute you want to delete.
3. Click Remove Attribute. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
4. Click OK.
5. In the Edit Global Attributes dialog box, click the Save button.
Categories
Categories are used to organize the contents of catalogs. They can contain products and other categories.
Note: New categories appear in the store immediately. Only top level categories will not appear until the server is restarted.
Browsing Categories and Products
1. Select Activity > Catalog Management to open the Catalog Browse tab.
2. Categories are arranged in a tree structure and can be expanded and collapsed.
3. To view the products in a category, double-click its entry in the Catalog Browse tab. The products will be displayed in the Product Listing tab.
Creating a Category
1. Select a catalog entry in the Catalog Browse tab.
2. Click Create Category.
Note: If Create Category is unavailable, your
Elastic Path Commerce system may be using the Change Set feature. You must select a Change Set before creating a category. For more
information, see Chapter 11: Change
3. Enter values in the following fields:
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Category
Code
Category
Name
Category Type
(Required.) The unique identifier for the category.
(Required.) The category name that appears in the store.
(Required.) The attributes associated with the category.
Enable
Date/Time
Disable
Date/Time
Store Visible
(Required.) Specifies when the category becomes Store Visible. This is useful for seasonal catalogs.
Specifies when the category no longer appears in the store.
Specifies whether the category appears in the store. It is recommended that a newly created category does not appear until products are added to it.
4. Click Finish.
Creating a Sub-Category
1. Select the category that you want to contain the sub-category.
2. Click Create Sub-Category.
3. Enter values in the required fields. The dialog box is identical to creating a category.
4. Click Finish.
Adding a Linked Category
A linked category is a category in a virtual catalog that is inherited from a master catalog. The inherited category contains links to all of the products from the source category in the master catalog.
All product attributes are inherited with each product, except for Merchandising Associations and
Category Assignments.
1. Select a virtual catalog in the Catalog Browse tab.
2. Click Add Linked Category.
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3. Enter search terms into the Category Name or Category Code fields and click Search.
4. Click on the category you wish to link to, and then click OK.
The category in the master catalog is added as a link to the virtual catalog.
Deleting a Category
Note: Categories can only be deleted if they do not contain products or sub-categories.
1. Select the category you want to delete.
2. Click Delete. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
3. Click OK.
Organizing Categories
To change the order of a category, select it and click the corresponding buttons in the toolbar.
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Alternatively, right-click the category:
Featured Products
Featured Products appear in the fronted when shoppers view product pages by category.
Featured Products are controlled at the Category level in the Commerce Manager. To set up and manage Featured Products, use the Featured Products tab within a catalog category.
Note: The Data Sync Tool does not sync Featured Product information.
Adding Featured Products
1. Select Activity > Catalog Management.
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2. In the Catalog Browse tab, expand the catalog to show the category containing the product you want to feature.
3. Right-click the category and select Open.
The Summary tab appears.
4. Click the Featured Products tab.
5. Click Add.
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6. Use the Search fields to find the product you want to feature for this category.
7. Click OK.
The selected product is added to the Featured Products list.
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Once you have added the Featured Product, you can use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to set the order in which the products appear on your store’s category page.
Removing Featured Products
1. Click Activity > Catalog Management.
2. In the Catalog Browse tab, expand the catalog to show the category containing the product you want to feature.
3. Right-click the category and click Open.
The Summary tab appears.
4. Click the Featured Products tab.
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5. Click on the product that you want to remove as a Featured Product.
6. Click Remove. A confirmation dialog box appears.
7. Review the confirmation text, then click OK. The product is removed from the Featured
Products list.
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Products
A Product in the Commerce Manager corresponds to a real-life product. Each product has characteristics, can be sold, and belongs to a product type group.
Every Product is assigned to a Product Type. A product type defines how a particular set of products is displayed, the Tax Codes that apply to it and the attributes and SKU options that are available for products to that type.
Browsing for and Viewing a Product
You view Products by doing a Catalog Search, or by browsing the catalog and double-clicking a category to display a list of all the products within it. The Product Listing tab displays the products.
To display details for a listed product, double-click it. The Summary tab appears.
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Single and Multi-SKU Products
Every product in a Commerce Manager catalog has at least one SKU (Stock Keeping Unit number). An
SKU identifies a specific version of a product. A product can have multiple SKUs, with each SKU corresponding to a particular offering of the product.
For example, a portable MP3 audio player product is configured with multiple SKUs representing different combinations of color and storage capacity.
The Product Type assigned to a Product defines whether the Product has one or more SKUs. If you are setting up a multi-SKU product, you must assign it to a Product Type that allows multiple SKUs. In the example shown here, any product assigned the
“Pod Pouch {Multi SKU}” Product Type has been configured for multiple SKUs.
A multiple SKU product assigned to the
“Pod Pouch” Product Type is shown here. Multiple SKU products are identified with a colored icon in the
Product Listings tab, while single SKU products do not have a colored icon.
When you open a multiple SKU product you can view the parent SKU and the child SKUs beneath it on the SKU Details tab as shown below. The child SKU is identified by a multi-color dot icon on the tab.
For information on setting up products, refer to Creating a Product in this chapter.
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Using Catalog Search
You can search for products and SKUs using the Catalog Search and Advanced Search tabs.
Searching for Products
1. Click the Catalog Search tab.
2. In the Products & Bundles tab, enter a Product Name, Product Code or SKU Code into the
Search Term fields. You must enter a value in at least one of these boxes.
3. Under Filters, select a brand and catalog to search within.
4. Under Sorting, choose the column to sort the search results and whether to sort in ascending or descending order.
You can also sort the results of your search by clicking a column header in the results list.
5. Click Search.
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Searching for SKUs
1. Click the Catalog Search tab.
2. Click the SKUs tab.
3. Enter a SKU Code, Product Name, or Product Code into the Search Term fields. If you do not specify any SKU option filters, you must enter a value in at least one of these fields.
4. Under Filters, select a brand and catalog to search within.
5. Under SKU Option Filters, select a SKU option and the SKU option values you want to search for.
6. To configure additional SKU options filters, click Add Another Filter and repeat Step 5.
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7. Click Search. The matching SKUs are displayed in the SKU Search Results tab.
To view the details for a SKU, double-click it or select it and press Enter.
Pagination
By default, search results lists show only 10 items per page. You can change this to show a more items by using the pagination setting. Click Preferences > Change Pagination Settings, select a Results Per
Page value from the drop-down list, then click Save.
Advanced Search (Product)
The advanced search feature allows you to perform more complex product searches. You can create search queries and save them for execution at a later time. Click Activity > Catalog Management, and click the Advanced Search tab.
The Advanced Search tab has two tabs:
The Query Builder tab allows you to create queries using the query language. For more
information, see Appendix D: Query Language.
The Saved Queries tab contains a list of previously saved queries, including public queries created by other users. Use this tab to edit, delete, and run previously created queries.
Creating a Product Query
1. In the Advanced Search tab, click the Query
Builder tab.
2. In the Query box, enter the query you want to execute. For example, to search for all products that have the name
Canon - Camera accessory kit
, enter the following:
ProductName[en] = 'Canon - Camera accessory kit'
3. Click Validate Query. An error message is displayed if there are any errors in the query.
Correct the errors if necessary.
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4. Click Run Query. The products that match the query are displayed in the Advanced Search
Results tab.
Saving a Product Query
1. In the Advanced Search tab, click the Query Builder tab.
2. Create and validate a query.
3. Click Save As.
4. Enter a name and description for the query.
5. Choose Public if you want other users to be able to run the query. Otherwise, choose Private.
6. Click Save. The query can now be run from the Saved Queries tab.
Editing a Saved Product Query
Note: If you are not an administrator in the Commerce Manager, you can only edit queries that you created. Administrators can edit all public and private queries.
1. In the Advanced Search tab, click the Saved Queries tab.
2. Select the query you want to edit.
3. Click Edit Query. The Query Builder tab is displayed and the Query field contains the query text.
4. Make the necessary changes to the query.
5. Click Save to save the changes, or click Save As to save it as a different query.
Deleting a Product Query
1. In the Advanced Search tab, click the Saved Queries tab.
2. Select the query you want to delete.
3. Click Delete Query. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
4. Click OK.
Creating (Adding) a Product
Tip: For an online tutorial on this topic, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
1. Right-click the category that will contain the new product and click Create Product. The Create
Product wizard appears.
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Note: If Create Category is unavailable, your Elastic Path Commerce system may be using the Change Set feature. You must select a Change Set before creating a
category. For more information, see Chapter 11: Change Sets.
Enter a Product Code for the new product. The code should follow your organization’s convention for product codes.
2. Type a descriptive Product Name for the product.
3. Select a Product Type from the drop-down list.
4. Select a Tax Code from the drop-down list.
5. Select a Brand from the drop-down list.
6. In the Store Rules section, select Not Sold Separately if the product is only to be sold as part of a bundle.
7. Select the Store Visible check box if you want the product to appear in the store. (Note that a product’s visibility is superseded by the settings of its parent category.)
8. Set an Enable Date/Time for the product. This is the date and time that the product will become visible in the store. Set a Disable Date/Time if you want.
9. Enter a Minimum Order Quantity value. Customers must order at least this many products.
10. Select an Availability Rule for the product.
11. Enter the Expected Release Date if applicable.
12. Click Next when you are done.
Step 2 of the wizard appears. You can bypass this step as images will be controlled by your
CMS.
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13. Click Select Image and select a display image for the product. This image will appear as the main image for the product, but you can add more images for any other SKUs associated with the product. For example, the image selected here may be the black version of a camera bag available in black, blue and red colors. You would include images showing the blue and red bags when you set up their individual SKUs.
14. Click Next.
Use this page to enter values for attributes associated with this Product Type. A typical example is a long or short text description of the item. If an attribute you want is not listed you will need to add it to the Product Type.
15. Click Edit Attribute Value, and enter a value for the attribute. Click OK.
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16. Click Next.
17. Enter a SKU Code for the product.
18. Select the Shippable option if the product will be shipped to customers. If selected, the
Shipping and Inventory Details section becomes active. Enter weight and dimension information that can be used to calculate shipping charges in the available fields.
Select the Digital Asset option if the product is a digital asset. Also, select the Downloadable
check box if the asset is a file that the customer must download. If selected, the Digital Asset
Details section becomes active. Click Select File to choose the digital file that the customer
must download.
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In the Download Limit field, select a value for the number of times that the customer can download the digital asset. In the Download Expiry field, select the number of days after the order was placed that the customer will have to download the digital asset.
19. Click Next.
Add base prices to each of the applicable price lists.
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Note: This page will only be visible if you have been assigned the Manage Price Lists permission and at least one price list associated with the product’s master catalog.
20. Click Finish.
Creating a Multi-SKU Product
1. Right-click the category that will contain the new product and click Create Product.
The Create Product wizard appears.
2. Enter a Product Code for the new product. The code should follow your company’s convention for product codes.
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3. Type a descriptive Product Name for the product.
4. Select a Product Type that is configured for multi-SKU products from the drop-down list. The multi-SKU attribute that permits products to have more than one SKU is set at the Product
Type level. If the Product Type you want to associate with this product does not accept multiple SKUs you will need to either select a different Product Type or modify the selected
Product Type to accept multiple SKUs. (For more information on modifying a Product Type, see
5. In the Store Rules section, select Not Sold Separately if the product is only sold as part of a bundle. Select the Store Visible check box if you want the product to appear in the store. (Note that a product’s visibility is superseded by the settings of its parent category.)
6. Set an Enable Date/Time for the product. This is the date and time that the product will become visible in the store. Set a Disable Date/Time if you want.
7. Enter a Minimum Order Quantity value. Customers must order at least this many products.
8. Select an Availability Rule for the product.
9. Click Next.
10. Click Select Image to select a display image for the product. This image will appear as the main image for the product, but you can add more images for any other SKUs associated with the product. For example, the image selected here may be of the black version of a camera bag available in black, blue and red colors. You would include images showing the blue and red bags when you set up their individual SKUs (see below).
11. Click Next.
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Use this page to enter values for attributes associated with this Product Type. If an attribute you want is not listed, you will need to add it to the Product Type. Attributes entered for a
Product Type apply to all products associated with that type. If the attribute you are seeking is specific to the product rather than to the Product Type, you can add it later as a SKU option.
For example, color and size information for a T-shirt that is available in different colors and sizes should be entered as SKU Options.
12. Click Edit Attribute Value and enter a value. Click OK and then enter values for any other listed attributes. Click Next when you are done.
Note: In this section of the Create Product wizard you configure the SKU entries for each variant of a multi-SKU product. For example, if you are selling a T-Shirt that is available in multiple sizes and colors, you create an entry for each size/color combination using the Add SKU pages. In addition, you can add more SKUs to the product later using the SKU Details tab in the product’s record.
13. Click Add SKU to display the Add SKU wizard.
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Field/Column/Butt on
14. Specify the following in the Add SKU wizard
Description
SKU Code
The SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) code represents the exact variant of an item being sold in the store. It is linked to available inventory.
Enable Data
Specify when the SKU should be available in the store.
Disable Date
SKU Options
Specify when the SKU is not available in the store.
Select a value for each option from the drop-down lists. If the value you want is not available, click Add Value .
Shippable Type
Define whether the product is a shippable product or a Digital Asset
Shipping Details
If the product is shippable, define the shipping details: Weight, Width,
Length, and Height.
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Field/Column/Butt on
Digital Assets
Description
Available when the product Shippable Type is Digital Asset and
Downloadable is selected.
Field
File
Download Limit
Download Expiry
Description
The file (digital asset) the product represents.
The maximum number of times a customer can download the asset.
The time frame when the user is allowed to download the asset, defined as the number of days after the order was placed.
15. Enter SKU attribute values. Click on a listed attribute and then click Edit Attribute Value. Type in a value, and click OK.
Note: SKU attributes listed as “Required” must have values.
16. Click Finish.
17. If you want, click Add SKU to add more child SKUs for this product. Click Next when you are done.
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18. Add base prices to each of the applicable price lists.
Note: This page will only be visible if you have been assigned the Manage Price Lists permission and at least one price list associated with the product’s master catalog.
19. Click Finish.
Creating a Recurring Charge Product
Before you can create a recurring charge product, you must configure the Frequency SKU option and SKU option values and create multi-SKU Product Types with the Frequency SKU option. For
SKU
Options Tab and Product Types Tab.
Note: You may only have recurring charge products in one master catalog.
1. Right-click the category that will contain the new recurring charge product and click Create
Product.
2. Enter a Product Code for the new product. The code should follow your company’s convention for product codes.
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3. Type a descriptive Product Name for the product.
4. Select a Product Type that is configured for multi-SKU products from the drop-down list. The
Multi SKU attribute that permits products to have more than one SKU is set at the Product
Type level. If the Product Type you want to associate with this product does not accept multiple SKUs you will need to either select a different Product Type or modify the selected
Product Type to accept multiple SKUs. (For more information, see Product Types Tab.)
5. In the Store Rules section, select Not Sold Separately if the product is only to be sold as part of a bundle. Select the Store Visible check box if you want the product to appear in the store.
(Note that a product’s visibility is superseded by the settings of its parent category.)
6. Set an Enable Date/Time for the product. This is the date and time that the product will become visible in the store. Set a Disable Date/Time if you want.
7. Enter a Minimum Order Quantity value. Customers must order at least this many products.
8. Select an Availability Rule for the product.
9. Click Next.
10. Click Select Image to select a display image for the product. This image will appear as the main image for the product, but you can add more images for any other SKUs associated with the product. For example, the image selected here may be of the black version of a camera bag available in black, blue and red colors. You would include images showing the blue and red bags when you set up their individual SKUs.
11. Click Next.
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On Step 3 of the wizard, enter values for attributes associated with this Product Type. If an attribute you want is not listed, you will need to add it to the Product Type. Attributes entered for a Product Type apply to all products associated with that type. If the attribute you are seeking is specific to the product rather than to the Product Type, you can add it later as a SKU option. For example, color and size information for a T-shirt that is available in different colors and sizes should be entered as SKU Options.
12. Click Edit Attribute Value and enter a value. Click OK and then enter values for any other listed attributes. Click Next when you are done.
Note: In this section of the Create Product wizard you configure the SKU entries for each variant of a multi-SKU product. For example, if you are selling a T-Shirt that is available in multiple sizes and colors, you create an entry for each size/color combination using the Add SKU pages. In addition, you can add more SKUs to the product later using the SKU Details tab in the product’s record.
13. Click Add SKU.
14. In the Add SKU dialog box, enter a SKU Code for one variant of the product, then click the
Enable Date calendar to specify when the SKU should be available in the store. Select a Disable
Date if you want.
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15. In the SKU Options section, select a value for each option from the drop-down lists. To add more values, click Add Value. Click Save when you have finished adding the new value.
The frequency with code “NA” is used to provide a one-time charge payment option to your recurring charge products. For instance, if you are selling a camera for $1200, use “NA” for the lump sum payment option of $1200 while using “per month” for monthly payments of $100 for the next 12 months. The “NA” code therefore makes it unnecessary to create a separate single-SKU Product Type with a one-time charge payment option for your recurring charge products.
16. Click Next.
17. Enter SKU attribute values. Click on a listed attribute and then click Edit Attribute Value. Type in a value, and click OK.
Note: SKU attributes listed as “Required” must have values.
18. Click Finish.
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19. If you want, click Add SKU to add more child SKUs for this product. Click Next when you are done.
20. Click Finish.
Note: Do not add any base prices at this step. Prices for recurring charge products must be defined at the SKU level. Any base prices added at the product level will be ignored.
Setting Up a Recurring Charge Product
After creating a recurring charge product, you must complete additional steps:
1. Change the Shippable type setting in the SKU Details tab of each SKU to Digital Asset as shippable recurring charge products are not currently supported.
2. Set prices for each SKU. Product-level prices of recurring charge products are always ignored.
Therefore, product-level pricing will not be used if SKU-level pricing is left undefined. For more
information on setting SKU prices, see Chapter 7: Price List Manager.
Label Text Sources for Recurring Charge Products
It is important to note the sources of certain text labels in a recurring charge product description page. Consider the following recurring charge product shown in the fictional frontend below:
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The payment frequency label next to the monthly charge is from the productTemplate.properties
file, while the payment frequency label in the drop-down list is from the Display Name entered when creating the SKU option value in the Commerce Manager client.
This allows for different text labels for the two areas if needed. Moreover, the
Frequency
SKU option Display Name is the source of “Billed” in the figure above.
Creating a Configurable Product
Configurable products are those products where the customer must provide data regarding that product in order to make the purchase. For example, if you are selling carpet cleaning services, you need the customer to indicate the date and address they want these services to occur. Similarly, if you are selling monogramed t-shirts, you need the customer to provide the name to be embroidered on the t-shirt.
Before you can create a configurable product, you must create Cart Item Modifier Groups in your master catalog and assign them to the desired Product Type. The Cart Item Modifier
Group defines the configurable fields associated with the product when purchasing. Any product assigned to a product type with associated Cart Item Modifier Groups will present the associated fields for input.
Creating a Cart Item Modifier Group
When creating a Configurable Product you must first ensure you have the appropriate Cart Item
Modifier Group.
It is this step that determines what fields the configurable product contains.
1. Right-click the master catalog and click on the Cart Item Modifier tab.
2. Click the Add Group button.
In the Add Cart Item Modifier Group window, enter the Group Code, and Group Name values.
Note: you are able to enter localized values for the Group Name as you may opt to display this information to the customer in the frontend.
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3. Select the Add Field button.
4. Enter values for Code and Display Name.
Note: you are able to enter localized values for the Group Name as you may opt to display this information to the customer in the frontend.
5. Select the Field Type from the list provided.
6. Check or uncheck the Required field. If this field is checked, the customer must provide a value before the product can be added to the cart.
7. Select the Add button.
8. Click the Add Field button again to add additional fields to the Cart Item Modifier
Group .
9. Once all the fields have been added for this Cart Item Modifier Group , click the Add button to save the group
Adding a Cart Item Modifier Group to a Product Type
Once you have your Cart Item Modifier Group (s), you need to add them to the appropriate
Product Type (s). It is the act of adding the group to the product type which makes the fields available for any product assigned a given product type. The steps below outline adding a Cart Item
Modifier Group to an existing Product Type ; however, it is the same process for adding it to a new product type.
1. Right-click the master catalog and click on the Product Type tab.
2. Find the desired type in the Product Type table and click the Edit Product Type button.
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3. In the Edit Product Type wizard, note the
Cart Item Modifier Groups
listed in the
Assigned Cart Item Modifier Groups list.
4. Select the desired Cart Item Modifier Group from the Available Cart Item Modifier
Groups list and select the > button to assign the group to the Product type.
Note: Use the same steps using the < button to remove or unassign the group from the Product
Type.
5. Continue configuring the Product Type and click the Finish button to save your group assignment.
Note: Any product assigned the given Product Type is considered a Configurable Product and will have the fields in the corresponding Cart Item Modifier Group (s) available to the customer in the frontend to complete when adding the item to their cart.
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Edit a Cart Item Modifier Group
To edit an existing Cart Item Modifier Group:
1. Right-click the master catalog and click on the Cart Item Modifier tab.
2. Select the corresponding group from the Cart item Modifier Groups table and click the Edit
Group button.
3. The configurable fields are listed in the table.
Note: the Display Name, the type of data to be provided, and whether or not a field value must be provided are listed in the table.
4. Select the Add Field button to add a new field to the group; or, a. Select the Edit Field button to change an existing field in the group.
5. Click the Add or Ok button to save your additions or changes.
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6. Click the Ok button to close the edit window.
Change Configurable Product Field Label
The fields added to the Cart Item Modifier Group are made available to the customer in the front end so they can provide the corresponding values. You will need to determine how you want these fields displayed through your CMS. Cortex provides these fields to the CMS as ‘dynamic fields’, which can be validated using Coretx Studio.
This screen shot shows the Cart item Modifier Group associated with the product via its Product Type assignment and that same group fields displayed in Studio when selecting the addtoCart resource for a product assigned to that Product Type.
When configuring the fields associated with a Cart Item Modifier Group, you are able to provide the
Display Name value in the languages supported by the master catalog. By using these configuration setting, you are able to communicate with the CMS what the name of the field displayed to customer should be. That is, the customer will see the values indicated in the Display Name column rather than the code value which is what Studio is displaying. For example ‘Recipient Email’ instead of
‘giftCertificate.recipientEmail’.
To change the field Display Name:
1. Right-click the master catalog and click on the Cart Item Modifier tab.
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2. Select the corresponding group from the Cart item Modifier Groups table and click the Edit
Group button.
3. The configurable fields are listed in the table.
4. Select the desired field from the list and click the Edit Field button
5. Select the language from the Display Name list.
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6. Enter or edit the Display Name value.
7. Select the Ok button.
Additional configuration setting allow you to control other display features:
1.
Field Ordering - By using the
Up
and
Down
arrow buttons, you are able to control the order in which these fields are displayed.
Creating a Configurable Product
Once the Cart Item Modifier Group has been added to a Product Type, creation of a
Configurable product is no different than creation of any other product and assigning it to that product type. Products assigned to a Product Type which have Cart Item Modifier Group(s ) assigned to them will have the corresponding fields displayed to the customer for completion when adding the item to their cart.
Editing a Product
1. Double-click the product you want to edit. The product details appear in a tab at the bottom.
2. Make your changes.
3. Click Save.
Deleting a Product
You can delete a product by following these instructions. Note that deleting a product also removes prices for that product from all price lists containing that product.
1. Select the product you want to delete.
2. Click Delete Product. A prompt appears to confirm deletion.
3. Click OK.
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Product Bundles
A bundle is a product that contains one or more items, and is sold as a single product. An item can be a product or another bundle. Like a regular product, they can be searched for in the Commerce
Manager and stores, and have associated Search Engine Optimization terms and merchandising associations assigned to them. Inventory is tracked either by bundle or by the items within a bundle, according to the business policy of your organization.
Fixed and Dynamic Bundles
Fixed bundles must be purchased with all bundle items. Dynamic bundles allow the customer to choose a subset of bundle items to purchase. For example, if your company is selling cable television subscriptions, you can use a dynamic bundle at a fixed price to offer the customer any combination of
20 channels offered from a selection of 100 channels.
A bundle can contain single or multi-SKU items. Multi-SKU items allow a shopper to configure a bundle, by selecting, for example colors, sizes, and other attributes for an item within the bundle.
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The bundle shown above consists of a colored camera, a camera case, and a battery. In this example, the camera is a multi-SKU item. The shopper must select a color for the camera.
A bundle appears in the store as a single item just like any other product. A bundle description and detailed information appear for each item within the bundle.
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As shown below, a bundle appears in the customer’s shopping cart as a main line item. Beneath this main line item is an “Includes” section that displays the details of each item in the bundle. The order of bundle items can be set when configuring the bundle in the Commerce Manager.
There is a single price set for the entire bundle. The prices of the individual items in a bundle are not shown.
Similarly, the prices of each item within a bundle do not appear in the shopping cart or the customer’s order. Instead, the customer can be shown the total price savings gained by purchasing the items within a bundle rather than individually. These “You Saved” prices are calculated by subtracting the sale price of the bundle from the total of the sale prices for each item within the bundle.
Inventory Availability for Bundles
The Availability Rule field sets the product’s available for purchase in the store depending on its inventory levels. For product bundles, this field is not active. This is because bundles have the same availability as their least available bundle item. For example, you have a bundle that contains the following:
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Bundle Item Availability Rule
always available camera camera lens camera case available for backorder available for pre-order
The least available inventory condition for these items is “available for pre-order”. As a result, the entire bundle will appear in the store as “available for pre-order”.
The possible availability conditions and their ranking from least to most available are shown in the following diagram:
Taxes, Shipping and Bundle Item Price Apportioning
Taxes are calculated against the price for the entire bundle, not against the prices of the bundle items.
Shipping is calculated as a single fee per shipment.
For refunds, returns and exchanges, taxes are apportioned to each item within a bundle, according to the proportional base price value of each bundle item. In the case of bundles that are shipped in partial shipments (split-shipped), shipping costs are applied as flat fees, based on the normal shipping costs that would be charged for the item if purchased and shipped individually.
Nesting Bundles
Bundles can contain other bundles. This allows you to include smaller bundles, for example a camera case and extra battery bundle, within other bundles, such as one comprised of a camera and an additional lens.
By using different combinations of Selection Rules, you can also create dynamic bundles where customers can choose which products they want to include in the bundle they are purchasing.
Nesting bundles can lead to very complex product configurations and related problems. For example, you may attempt to add an item to a bundle, only to find that the item you are adding already contains another item from the parent bundle. The Commerce Manager will not allow you to save bundles containing circular references to products.
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Bundles in Orders
When viewing an order containing a bundle using the Customer Service activity, each bundle item is shown as a line item. The name of the bundle containing the item appears in the Bundle Name column. The apportioned price of each item within the bundle appears in the Invoice Price column.
This value represents the price that would be credited back to the customer if the item was returned.
Creating a Product Bundle
There are two types of bundles you can create:
Assigned price bundle
Calculated price bundle
An assigned price bundle gets its price set (assigned) by the store marketer. It can be fixed or dynamic.
A calculated price bundle gets its price by adding up the prices of all its bundled items. It can also be fixed or dynamic.
1. Click Activity > Catalog Management.
2. On the Catalog Browse tab, double-click the category you are adding the product bundle into.
The Product Listing tab appears.
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3. Click Create Bundle. The Create Bundle wizard appears.
4. Enter a product code, name, type, and brand. Also, choose the type of Bundle Pricing you want to use. Select Assigned to create an assigned price bundle or Calculated to create a calculated price bundle.
Note: If you are including recurring charge products in your bundle, you must select
Calculated since recurring charge products cannot be added to assigned price bundles.
5. In the Store Rules section, select Not Sold Separately if the bundle is only to be sold as a bundle nested within another bundle.
6. Select the Store Visible check box if you want the bundle to be displayed in the store.
7. Click the calendar icon to set Enable Date/Time for the bundle and enter a Disable Date/Time if you want. Click Next.
8. This page allows you to add items to the bundle. Click Add Item.
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9. In the Add Item dialog box, choose PRODUCT or SKU for the Type.
10. Use the Code selector to search for a product or SKU. Select the item and click OK.
11. Enter the quantity of the item and click OK. The selected product is added to the list of bundled items.
12. Repeat steps 8 to 11 to add more items to the bundle.
Note: Bundles should only be nested within bundles of the same pricing type (that is, calculated price bundles in calculated price bundles and assigned price bundles in assigned price bundles).
13. When you are done adding products to the bundle, you can adjust the order in which they appear in the list, since it is the same order that they will be displayed in the store. Select an item and click Move Up or Move Down.
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14. Use the Allow the Shopper to drop-down list to set the minimum number of items that the customer must select in order to purchase the bundle (the selection rule). For example, you can create a bundle consisting of three similarly-priced camera bags. For that bundle, you would set the selection rule to Select 1. You could then use that bundle within a camera
Starter Kit bundle, consisting of a camera, a camera lens and the camera bags sub-bundle. You would set the Starter Kit bundle's selection rule to Select All. When the shopper selects the
Starter Kit bundle in the store, they would need to choose 1 of the 3 available camera bags. If you choose Select n, enter the value of n in the Where n is field. Click Next when you are done.
15. Select an image to represent the bundle. Click Next.
16. Configure the bundle attribute values. To modify an attribute value, select it in the list and click Edit Attribute Value. Click Next when you are done.
17. Enter a SKU Code for the bundle. If you are creating an assigned price bundle, click Next to add base prices. Otherwise, click Finish.
Note: Do not assign a price to a calculated price bundle, since it will be ignored. You must ensure that each bundle item has a price defined in the relevant price lists, unless the item is also a calculated price bundle. If a calculated price bundle contains an item without a defined price, the price of the whole bundle becomes undefined and shows up as a blank in the store. Moreover, filtered navigation and sorting may function incorrectly if there is not at least one price list containing prices for all of the items in the calculated price bundle.
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18. Enter pricing information for the bundle. You should configure at least one base price for each catalog. To add a base price, click Add Base Price.
19. Click Finish.
The new bundle is added to the catalog.
Modifying a Bundle
1. Click Activity > Catalog Management.
2. Use either the Catalog Browse or Catalog Search tab to locate the bundle you want to edit.
Double-click the bundle in the Product List or Product Search Results tab. Note that when editing a bundle, there are two tabs that do not appear when editing a product: Bundle Items and Price Adjustment. If you are editing a calculated price bundle, the Pricing tab will not appear since prices cannot be assigned to such a bundle.
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3. Select the Bundle Items tab.
To view and edit an item’s details, such as description, availability or SKU details, select the item and click Open Product.
To add items to the bundle, click Add Item. In the dialog box, click the product selector button to choose the product you want to add. Click OK to close the product selector after you have made a selection and click OK to add the new item to the bundle.
To change an item to a different product or to change the quantity of the item included in the bundle, select the item and click Edit Item. Click OK when you are done to save your changes to the bundle.
To remove an item from the bundle, select it and click Remove Item. A confirmation dialog box will appear. Click OK to confirm removal. The product is removed from the bundle and no longer appears in the bundle item list.
To change the order of a bundle item, select it and click Move Up or Move Down. By default, bundle items appear in the store in the same order that they appear in the
Commerce Manager. When you add a new product to a bundle, it is added to the end of the list.
Note: It is not recommended to modify the structure of a bundle while it is visible to a customer.
4. Click the Save button to save your changes.
Adjusting a Bundle Price
When you create a dynamic assigned price bundle (that it, you are using either Select 1 or Select n as the selection rule), shoppers can choose one or more items from a list of products. You may want to allow them to choose from a set of similar items with different prices. Also, you may want to adjust the bundle price depending on the item or items the shopper has chosen.
For example, you have created a bundle containing a camera, a case and a sub-bundle containing three memory cards with storage capacities of 1GB, 2GB and 4GB. This sub-bundle uses the Select 1 selection rule, which allows the shopper to choose any one of the three memory cards. The 4GB card is considerably more expensive than the 1GB card, so you want the overall price of the bundle to be higher when a shopper selects it.
For calculated price bundles, price adjustments can be made to both dynamic and fixed bundle types.
A price adjustment applied to a calculated price bundle item can only be negative but the magnitude of the adjustment should never exceed the value of the item. Such a price adjustment will decrease the price of the item used in calculating the overall cost of the bundle. Consider a calculated price bundle containing an item priced at $20 with a price adjustment of -$5 applied to it. As far as the calculation of the bundle price is concerned, the item has a price of $15. Worth noting is the fact that price adjustments in calculated price bundles apply to the individual items, whereas they apply to the overall price in assigned price bundles.
To make this type of adjustment, use the Price Adjustment tab of the product editor.
1. Choose Activity > Catalog Management.
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2. Use either the Catalog Browse or the Catalog Search tab to locate the bundle you want to modify.
3. Double-click the bundle in the Product List or Product Search Results tab.
4. Open the Price Adjustment tab.
5. In the Price List drop-down list, select the price list that contains the price you want to modify.
In the list of bundle items, the Item Prices column is automatically updated to display the individual item prices for those items in that price list.
6. In the list of bundle items, select the item whose price you want to modify. If you are making price adjustments to an assigned price bundle you will also see the following information beneath the list:
the selected item's list price
the bundle's list price
the amount that the shopper will save by purchasing the item as part of the bundle instead of on its own.
7. Click the Price Adjustments cell next to the item price you want to adjust.
8. In the Price Adjustment column, enter the amount of the price adjustment. For example, to increase the bundle price by 9 dollars when the item is selected by the shopper, enter “9”.
Note: Only positive price adjustments (that is, adjustments that increase the bundle price) are permitted on assigned price bundle items, whereas only negative price adjustments (that is, adjustments that decrease the bundle price) are permitted on calculated price bundle items.
Note: You can only edit the price adjustment amount for items that display the Edit icon.
9. On the Commerce Manager toolbar, click Save.
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Price Adjustments and Nested Bundles
When modifying a bundle that contains other bundles, you cannot adjust prices of items within these nested bundles. You can only adjust the prices of items one level into the bundle. Additionally, any calculated price bundle contained within another calculated price bundle may not have any price adjustments applied to it. Only the non-bundle items within calculated price bundles may have their prices adjusted.
Deleting a Bundle
Important: You cannot delete a bundle if it has been included in incomplete orders. (After the orders’ statuses have been changed to Complete, the bundle can be deleted.)
1. Click Activity > Catalog Management.
2. Use either the Catalog Browse or the Catalog Search tab to locate the product bundle you want to delete. Select the bundle and click Delete Product.
3. A confirmation message asks you to confirm the deletion. Click OK to confirm deletion. The bundle is removed from the catalog.
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Including or Excluding a Product in a Virtual Catalog
1. Select the Virtual Catalog containing the product you want to include or exclude.
2. Select the product you want to include/exclude.
3. Click Include Product or Exclude Product:
Note: Only one of the two buttons will be active for a given product. A product can be included in the virtual catalog only if it is not already part of that same virtual catalog, while exclusion is only enabled when the product is included in a virtual catalog.
Product Tabs
Product information is represented in the following tabs.
Summary Tab
The Summary tab contains the following fields:
Field
Product Code
Product Name
Product Type
Tax Code
Brand
Description
(Required.) A unique, internal identifier for a product. It is not displayed to customers.
(Required.) The name of the product. This will see displayed in the store.
Specifies how the product will be displayed and taxed, and what attributes and SKU options are available to it.
Specifies the tax codes that apply to the product.
(Required.) The product's brand.
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Field
Not Sold Separately
Store Visible
Enable Date/Time
Disable Date/Time
Minimum Order
Quantity
Availability Rule
Description
Specifies whether the product can only be added to a shopping cart as a bundle item. Such a product can still be visible in the store, but may not be added to a cart on its own.
(Required.) Specifies whether shoppers can view the product in the store. Note that a product’s visibility is superseded by the settings of its parent category. For example, if a digital camera is visible but the camera category is not visible in the store, then the digital camera will not be visible in the store.
(Required.) Specifies when the product will be visible in the store
(assuming the “Store Visible” attribute is activated.)
Specifies when the product will no longer be visible in the store.
Specifies how many items of the product a customer must order before the transaction is allowed.
Specifies whether the product appears in the store when it is currently not in stock.
Customers can pre-order a product if the item is not yet available for sale; they commit to buying the product when it becomes available.
Back orders are used when customers wish to buy out-of-stock products; buyers can reserve the product and commit to purchasing the item once new shipments arrive.
Products can be created with the following availability rules:
Available only if in stock (default)
Available on pre order
Available on back order
Always Available – Assumes this is a digital product, like a software or a game, where tracking the product’s inventory is not applicable.
If "Available on pre order" is selected, the following field is required:
Expected Availability Date (the date that the item is expected to be available)
Pricing Tab
Use this tab to view and edit price list information for a product. The tab shows all entries for the product in the selected price list.
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The Pricing tab contains the following fields, columns, and buttons:
Field/Column/Button Description
Price List
Product Code
The price list that the currently displayed pricing information is from.
A unique, internal identifier for a product. It is not displayed to customers.
SKU Code
The SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) code represents the exact variant of an item being sold in the store. It is linked to available inventory.
SKU Configuration
The names of the different SKU options if applicable (for example, different color variants of a product).
Quantity
(Required.) The minimum quantity a customer is required to order before the given price tier applies. This value implies a range. For example, if price tiers have been defined for the two quantities “1” and
“3,” the first tier would apply to quantities from 1 to 2 while the second tier would apply to quantities of 3 or more.
List Price
(Required.) The regular price of a product or SKU.
Sale Price
The sale price of a product or SKU.
Payment Schedule
The payment frequency (for example, per month) of a recurring charge.
For non-recurring charge items, either a blank or NA would be displayed in this column.
Add Tier
Create a price tier that applies different prices to different quantities being purchased (for example, volume purchasing discounts).
Edit Tier
Edit an existing price tier.
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Field/Column/Button Description
Remove Tier
Delete an existing price tier.
Open Item
Opens a tab for the selected item.
You can define price tiers for the product. Tiered pricing allows you to establish volume discounts for a product. This is particularly useful in promoting larger volume purchases, for example a wholesale or e-procurement/B2B situation. Multiple price tiers can be defined for a product, as long as the item ranges do not conflict with one another.
For example, a clothing retailer may offer T-shirts at different prices depending on the quantity being purchased. The following price tiers could be established: 1-5 T-shirts at $20 each, 6-10 T-shirts at $17 each, and 11 or more T-shirts at $15 each. This encourages customers to buy more products to get the lower unit pricing.
Price List Manager and the Catalog Product Pricing Tab
Changes to a product price or SKU price can be made in a price list or on the product’s Pricing tab. If you change the price in one, the other is updated automatically.
Image Tab
The Image tab lets you specify the default image for the product. This image is optional.
The selected image will be displayed on both the product's details page and as its thumbnail image in search results. Additional images can be specified in the Attributes tab, depending on the template layout.
The system will automatically adjust the dimensions of submitted images for display within the store.
The image is uploaded using the Asset Manager tool. For more information, see the Assets section.
Attributes Tab
The Attributes tab lets you assign values to attributes for the product.
Attributes specific to the Product Type that the product belongs to will be displayed here. An attribute is any descriptive feature of the product that factors into a customer’s purchase decision.
SKU Details Tab
Product SKUs identify specific versions of a product. Every product can have multiple SKUs, with each
SKU corresponding to a particular offering of the product.
For example, a portable mp3 audio player product could be configured using multiple SKUs, representing different combinations of color and storage capacity.
Whether a product can have single or multiple SKUs is determined by its associated Product Type. You cannot change a product from a single SKU product to a multi-SKU product. Instead, you must create a new product with the same information as the single SKU product, and assign it to a multi-SKU
Product Type.
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Field Description
SKU Code
Shippable
(Required.) A unique identifier for a product, visible to the store and other external systems.
Specifies whether the product is physically shippable or not. This should be enabled for all products (except digital goods and recurring charge products). The information specified below can be used by integrated shipping systems (for example, UPS) to calculate real-time shipping rates.
The Add SKU dialog box for multi-SKU products has the following fields:
Field Description
Enable Date
Disable Date
SKU Pricing
SKU Attributes
The date when the SKU becomes visible in the store.
The date when the SKU is not visible in the store.
Specifies the price tiers for a product SKU. Multi-SKU products may have a different price tier for each SKU.
The attributes specific to the SKU option.
Shipping and Inventory Details (for single SKU products only)
The following fields appear in the Shipping and Inventory Details section:
Shipping Weight (kg)
Shipping Width (cm)
Shipping Length (cm)
Shipping Height (cm)
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Inventory Tracking Details
Specifies whether the system should track this product's inventory or not. This should be activated unless the product has “infinite stock” (for example, a digital good.)
Field Description
On Hand The total quantity of inventory in a warehouse. This is synchronized with the company’s warehouse or ERP system so the quantity stays up to date.
Available
The quantity available in a warehouse that can be purchased. For example, if On Hand was 100 and Reserved was 10, Available would be
90.
Allocated
Reserved
Quantity allocated to fulfill current (pending) orders.
Quantity of goods unavailable for sale in the store.
Re-Order Minimum
Specifies when an item should be included in the Low Stock report (when
the On Hand is less than the Re-order Quantity.)
Re-Order Quantity
This field is intended as a visual reminder to the warehouse person to order this amount of stock when the stock On Hand gets low.
Expected Re-Order Date
The date when stock is expected to come in.
Digital Asset Details
Digital goods are products in digital format. For example, e-books, digital photos, MP3 files, PDF reports, and software downloads are digital assets. These types of goods are assumed to have unlimited inventory.
Products that have been defined as digital goods can be optionally downloaded. Security is automatically set to prevent unauthorized users from retrieving the content.
Field
Description
File
Download Limit
Download Expiry
The file (digital asset) the product represents.
The maximum number of times a customer can download the asset.
The time frame when the user is allowed to download the asset, defined as the number of days after the order was placed.
Category Assignment Tab
Categories are groupings of products that are used when filtering products in the fronted.
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Different categories can be assigned for each master and virtual catalog.
Select a Primary Category for the product. Add secondary categories by clicking Add Category and selecting another category.
While a product may belong to more than one category, it must have a “default” primary category.
SEO Tab
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website from search engines without having to pay for advertising. Not only does a search engine optimized website appear higher on the lists of search results, but it will also be returned by a wider variety of searches. The benefits are increased site traffic, cost savings (from less advertising), more customers, and higher revenue.
Use this tab to configure the SEO metadata associated with the product. The data entered in this tab is added to the meta HTML elements in the page that displays product details.
Merchandising Associations Tab
Tip: For online tutorials on this topic, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
Use this tab to add types of associations with other products, such as cross sells, up sells, warranties, and accessories.
Merchandising refers to the practice of displaying related items on product pages. The store's administrators must define what a “related” product means and specify the nature of the association here. See the Merchandising Associations section for more information.
Merchandising associations are extremely effective at increasing the average order size for ecommerce sites. They allow store administrators to promote related products on the same page that the customer is currently viewing. The goal is to increase the size of the customer's shopping cart, or to encourage the purchase of a higher profit item.
There are five types of merchandising associations you can create:
Cross Sells promote alternative purchasing options that are similar to the product the customer is currently viewing. Store merchandisers often use this feature to increase sales of higher profit or overstocked items. For example, a customer viewing a Canon camera could be recommended an overstocked Sony camera by the cross selling feature.
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Up Sells promote more expensive versions of the currently viewed product. It encourages customers to purchase more higher-end models, which could be from any manufacturer. For instance, a customer who is looking at the iPod Nano product page could be recommended the iPod Classic and iPod Touch, two products that are more expensive than the iPod Nano.
However, the iPod Shuffle should not be included in these recommendations, since it is a cheaper product.
Warranties promote “add-on” products (for example, extended service plans.) As warranty products are usually sold with a product, recommendations on the product page are the most sensible way to sell this type of product.
Accessories promote complementary goods to the currently viewed product. This method encourages buyers to purchase more items and increases the average transaction per order.
For example, a customer who adds a camera to their cart should be encouraged to purchase a
1 gigabyte memory card, a carrying case, and a second set of batteries.
Replacements recommend substitute goods when a product has been discontinued or is out of stock. This increases your store's conversion rate, as a customer who may have purchased nothing instead purchases a similar product. For instance, the iPod mini was replaced by the iPod. Although the store no longer has iPod minis, leave the product page visible to prevent dead links and to maximize the value of a high search engine ranking. When customers looking for an iPod mini come to the store, they will see that it is discontinued; they will notice the iPod being recommended to them, which may create a successful conversion.
The Merchandising Associations tab displays sub-tabs for the master and virtual catalogs in your system. The associations can be configured differently for each catalog.
Each merchandising association has the following fields:
Field Description
Product Code
Merchandising Type
Default Quantity
Enable Date
Disable Date
The code for the product to be recommended: cross sell, up sell, warranty, accessories, and replacement.
The type of merchandising association to be created.
(Required.) The quantity of the product to be recommended. For example, if a camera requires four AA batteries, then the Default
Quantity of the associated product (batteries) should be set to 4.
Note: Only applies to accessories.
(Required.) Specifies when the association should become active.
Specifies when the association should end. If no disable date is entered, the association will exist until it (or one of the products it is linking) is deleted.
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Gift Certificates
A gift certificate is a code associated with an amount already collected. This code can be entered to redeem the paid amount, either in full or partial, as payment when placing an order. Any unused amount is carried forward to the customer's next purchase.
Gift certificates are configured as multi-SKU Configurable Products. The amount of the certificate must be predefined when created in the catalog where each SKU represents a different gift certificate denomination. Gift Certificates are a unique product type and require specific configuration in order to work properly.
Some of the key things to note when configuring a gift certificate are:
Product Type must have the following name must start with ‘Gift Certificate’…
Cart Item Modifier Group associated with Gift Certificate product type must have the following text type field codes: giftCertificate.recipientEmail – for recipient email giftCertificate.recipientName – for recipient name in email giftCertificate.senderName – for senders name in email giftCertificate.message – for optional email message
Note: Cart Item Modifier Group fields must be unique throughout the environment; meaning, the above field codes can only be used once. Consequently, only one master catalog can be configured to enable Gift Certificate products.
Use virtual catalogs if your gift certificate products are to be available in different catalogs.
Gift Certificates are considered digital goods requiring no shipping information at the time of purchase. The information needed to deliver and manage a gift certificate is collected as part of the
Cart Item Modifier Group fields.
Multiple gift certificates may be purchased in the same order. If different field information is to be used, add the gift certificate to the cart multiple times, completing the field information for each unique instance.
Customer Service Representatives have the ability to resend gift certificates. This capability is useful for situations when customers accidentally delete the e-mail containing the code or when their e-mail provider rejects the incoming mail.
Note: Gift certificates do not expire and are tax-exempt, but must be redeemed within the store they are purchased.
Creating a Gift Certificate
If Gift Certificates can be purchased in various, but designated, denominations, these can be configured as a multi-SKU Configurable product, where the SKU option specifies the gift certificate amount (the “denomination”). Or, each denomination can be configured as a single SKU product.
Also, the Cart Item Modifier Group defines the information collected and used in processing the gift certificate.
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For gift certificates where each each SKU of a single product is a different denomination you may want to set up SKU Options such as:
GC_Theme
– determines picture associated with the gift certificate (such as birthday, anniversary, etc.). The image specifies the design theme image file sent to the recipient in the gift certificate email.
GC_Denomination
– display name determines the gift certificate amount or monetary value. Ensure the display name and the actual price configured in the Price List for that SKU are the same.
When configuring a master catalog for Gift Certificates:
1. Create a giftCertificate Cart Item Modifier Group (see Cart Item Modifier Groups Tab).
2. Add the following Cart Item Modifier Group fields with the indicated configuration settings:
Field Code Configuration
giftCertificate.recipientEmail
Field Type: Short Text
Max Size: 255
Required: checked giftCertificate.recipientName
Field Type: Short Text
Max Size: 255
Required: checked giftCertificate.senderName
Field Type: Short Text
Max Size: 255
Required: checked giftCertificate.message
Field Type: Short Text
Max Size: 255
Required: unchecked
3. Click the Save button.
4. Create a Gift Certificate Product Type with the following configuration settings:
Field Configuration
Name
Assigned Cart Item Modifier
Group
Gift Certificate
giftCertificate
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5. Click the Save button.
6. Right click on the desired category and select the Create Product button.
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7. Select the Gift Certificate Product Type.
8. Configure the remaining fields and attributes accordingly (see Creating (Adding) a Product or
Creating a Multi-SKU Product).
9. Click the Finish button.
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Chapter 7: Price List Manager
The Price List Manager activity allows authorized users to work with:
Price Lists
Price List Assignments.
Price Lists
In the Commerce Manager, a Price List is a set of pricing details that can be associated with products.
Before Elastic Path Commerce 6.2, prices for each supported currency were stored in each catalog item. Now, prices are stored in a price list, which is associated with a catalog and a currency. The product code or SKU code links the price in a price list to the product or SKU in a catalog. Note that you can still configure prices for an item in the catalog product view. You can now also configure prices using the Price List Manager activity.
When a shopper views an item in the frontend, the system looks at the applicable price list assignments to determine which price list should be used to retrieve the product price.
Product price is retrieved from a Price
List
Product attributes and other information comes from the
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Price List Manager
You create price lists and add products and SKUs to price lists using the Price List Manager. The Price
List Manager contains a Summary and Base Price tabs.
In the Base Price tab, you can add list and sale prices for products and SKUs. A single price entry for a product forms the default price for a certain quantity of the product. The required minimum quantity is “1”. Subsequent price entries for the same product apply to higher quantities, creating price tiers.
For example, the base price for one t-shirt is entered on a price list as $7. A second price list entry for the t-shirt is listed at $5 with a Quantity of “3”. This means that a customer will pay $7 per t-shirt if she buys one or two t-shirts. However, if she buys three t-shirts, she will pay only $5 per item.
Price List Manager and the Product Pricing Tab
Changes to a product price or SKU price can be made either in a Price List or on the product’s Pricing tab. If you change the price in one, the other is updated automatically.
Change Sets and Price Lists
If the Change Set feature is enabled in your Elastic Path Commerce deployment, you must select a
Change Set before adding or removing prices in a Price List. For more information, see Chapter 11:
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Viewing a Price List
1. Choose Activity >Price List Manager.
2. On the Price List Search tab, click Search. Your search results appear in the Price Lists tab to the right.
3. Double-click the price list you want to view. The selected price list opens in the lower pane.
From this view you can add, edit and delete items on the price list using the corresponding buttons on the right.
Creating a Price List
1. Choose Activity >Price List Manager.
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2. On the tool bar, click the Create Price List button.
The New Price List pane appears with the Price List Summary tab active.
3. Enter a name, description, and currency code for the new price list. Be sure that the code is an
ISO 4217 currency code, for example, USD for US dollars or GPB for Great British pounds.
4. Click Save on the tool bar.
5. Click the Base Price tab.
6. Click Add Base Price. The Base Price Editor dialog box appears.
7. Complete the fields as described in the following table:
Type
Code
From the drop-down list, select whether the base price is for a SKU or a
product.
Enter the SKU or product code for the item if known. You can click the
Product/SKU Selector button to search for the product or SKU you want.
Quantity This value specifies the minimum quantity of the item that must be ordered for the List or Sale price to take effect. Typically, every catalog item should have at least one price list entry with a quantity of “1” to provide a default price.
Note that you can create additional Base Price entries for the same
SKU/Product using different Quantity and Price values. Doing this creates volume-discount (tiered) pricing for an item based on the quantity bought by a customer.
List Price Often this is MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price). If this is the only price list entry for the product, this price will be the default price.
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Sale Price
Optional. In a typical store, this amount would be the “our price” selling price as opposed to the MSRP specified in the List Price field.
8. Click OK.
The new price entry appears in the Price List.
Adding Products/SKUs to a Price List
Note: If the Add Base Price button is not active, your Elastic Path Commerce system may be using the Change Set feature. In that case you must select a Change Set before adding a
product/SKU. (For more information, see Chapter 11: Change Sets.)
1. Choose Activity >Price List Manager.
2. On the Price List Search tab, click Search. The search results appear in the Price Lists tab.
3. Locate the price list you want to modify and double-click it, then select the Base Price tab.
4. Click Add Base Price. The Base Price Editor dialog box appears.
5. Complete the fields as described in the following table:
Type
Code
From the drop-down list, select whether the base price is for a SKU or a product.
Type the SKU or product code for the item. You can click the Product/SKU
Selector button to search for the product or SKU you want.
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Quantity This value specifies the minimum quantity of the item that must be ordered for the List or Sale price to take effect. Typically, every catalog item should have at least one price list entry with a quantity of “1” to provide a default price.
Note that you can create additional Base Price entries for the same
SKU/Product using different Quantity and Price values. Doing this creates volume-discount (tiered) pricing for an item based on the quantity bought by a customer.
List
Price
Often this is MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price). If this is the only price list entry for the product, this price will be the default price.
Sale
Price
Optional. In a typical store, this amount would be the “our price” selling price as opposed to the MSRP specified in the List Price field.
6. Click OK.
The Base Price Editor closes and the new price entry appears in the Price List.
Editing Prices in a Price List
1. Choose Activity >Price List Manager.
2. In the Price List Search tab, click Search.
3. In the Price Lists tab, find the price list you want to edit and double-click it.
4. Click the Base Price tab.
5. Locate the price you want to edit.
You can use the search boxes to find prices that match a specific tier, price range, or
SKU/product code.
You can use the filter boxes to further the matches.
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6. Select the product/SKU whose price you want to edit, and then click Edit Base Price.
7. In the Base Price Editor, make changes as required.
Note: Some fields are not editable after the price is created. Type and code are not editable. You cannot change the quantity either, because it would effectively change the price tier. (You can delete the price and recreate it with a different quantity.)
8. Click OK.
The price list is updated with your changes.
Deleting a Price from a Price List
You can delete a price from a price list using the Price List Manager.
Note: You can also delete a price from the price list from the Catalog > Product >Pricing tab. If you delete a product/SKU from a catalog, all price list entries for that product/SKU are automatically removed from the corresponding price list.
1. Choose Activity >Price List Manager.
2. On the Price List Search tab, click Search. The search results appear in the Price Lists tab.
3. Locate the price list that contains the base price you want to delete and double-click it.
4. Click the Base Price tab.
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5. Select the product/SKU whose price you want to delete and then click Delete Base Price. A confirmation message appears.
6. Click OK. The base price is deleted from the price list.
Deleting a Price List
1. Choose Activity >Price List Manager.
2. On the Price List Search tab, click Search. The search results appear in the Price Lists tab.
3. Select the price list you want to remove, and then click Delete Price List.
4. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box to delete the price list.
Note: You cannot delete a price list that is being used by a Price List Assignment. To delete a price list that is associated with a Price List Assignment, you must either delete the Price
List Assignment or associate it with a different price list.
Importing a Price List
Many organizations create and maintain price lists in external applications. Elastic Path Commerce can import price list data from files in CSV (comma separated value) format, which is supported by most popular spreadsheet applications, including Excel.
Note: Before you can import price list data, the destination price list must already exist in Elastic
Path. For a new price list, simply create a price list without adding any base amounts and then perform the import.
CSV Import File Format
The CSV Import file must contain column headings as well as the price data that you want to import.
The structure of the CSV import file must meet the following requirements:
The first row must contain column headings.
The headings for columns 7 and 8 must be suffixed with the target price list name and currency in the following format:
_<priceListName>_<currencyCode>
For example, if the name of the price list in Elastic Path Commerce is "My Price List" and the currency is GBP, then the heading for column 7 would be the following: listPrice_My Price List_GBP
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Column 1 is either product (if it's a product) or SKU (if it's a SKU) and is mandatory.
Column 2 is the product name and is optional.
Column 3 is the product code and is mandatory for single-SKU products.
Column 4 is the SKU code and is mandatory for multi-SKU products.
Column 5 is the SKU configuration and is optional.
Column 6 is the quantity (maximum price tier quantity) and is mandatory.
Column 7 is the list price and is mandatory.
Column 8 is the sale price (if any) and is optional.
Running a Price List Import Job
Important: You may experience problems importing and exporting price list data if your product codes or SKU codes are numeric values. Before importing or exporting a
CSV file with numeric product/SKU codes, open the CSV file in a text editor and make sure that all product and SKU codes are enclosed in the text delimiter character (by default, the double quote).
1. Choose Activity > Price List Manager.
2. Select Price List Manager > Run a CSV import for price list.
3. Complete the fields on this page of the wizard as described in the following table.
Field
CSV Template
File
Description
Click the select a file button and locate the CSV file containing the price list data you want to import.
Important: Make sure the file meets the format
requirements described in CSV Import File Format on page 176.
Column Delimiter Select the column delimiter that was used in the CSV Import file.
(Default is the comma.)
Text Delimiter Select the text delimiter that was used in the CSV Import file. (Default is the double-quote.)
Preview data Select this option if you want to see a preview of the data before it is imported. (This can be useful for detecting subtle errors in the data, such as data appearing in the incorrect column due to misplaced delimiters.)
4. Click Next. The price list file data is validated to ensure there are no errors. If you selected the
Preview Data option, the price list data is displayed in spreadsheet format. Otherwise, a message appears indicating the validation results.
5. If validation was not successful, you will need to correct the errors in the CSV file. Then click back and select the file again. If it was successful, click Finish.
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The price list import job runs. When it is finished, verify that the new price data was imported successfully. To do this, open the target price list and check that the prices were added or updated.
Exporting a Price List
From within the Commerce Manager client, you can export Price Lists to comma-delimited (CSV) files, which can be opened in Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet application.
1. Choose Activity > Price List Manager.
2. In the Price List Search tab, click Search.
3. In the Price Lists tab, select the Price List you want to export.
4. Click the Export to CSV button located above the list.
The Price List data is exported to a CSV file, which is then downloaded to your computer and saved in your home directory. The name of the file is the name of the price list.
Your computer will attempt to open the file automatically using the default associated application.
For example, if Microsoft Excel is installed and you haven't changed the CSV file association, the Price
List will open in Excel.
Important: You may experience problems importing and exporting price list data if your product codes or SKU codes are numeric values. Before importing or exporting a
CSV file with numeric product/SKU codes, open the CSV file in a text editor and make sure that all product and SKU codes are enclosed in the text delimiter character (by default, the double quote).
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Price List Assignments
Price List Assignments link price lists to products for a specific catalog. They determine the price list from which a product price is retrieved for shoppers. However, price list assignments can do much more than simply provide default list and sale prices for products. This feature allows you to provide custom prices to targeted shoppers, based on shopper characteristics such as age, gender, geographic location and searched terms.
For example, a used car reseller can create two different price list assignments. Each assignment would provide different prices to customers based on the customer’s attributes, such as age. For example, customers who match a “college student” profile might receive deeper price discounts on economical vehicles, while customers matching “55 years of age and older” profiles would get preferred pricing on small luxury vehicles.
Price List Stack
The price list stack is the set of price lists assigned to a shopper. For example, Price List A has prices for all products in a catalog and is assigned to all shoppers. Price List B has different prices for certain products and is only assigned to shoppers who meet specific conditions (as configured in the price list assignment). Price List B is configured with a higher priority that Price List A. When a shopper accesses the frontend, the system builds the shopper's price list stack by evaluating the price list assignment conditions of all price lists. Some shoppers have a price list stack containing only Price List A. Other shoppers have both Price List A and B. When the shopper views a product, the system examines the price lists in the stack and retrieves the price from the price list with the highest priority. If the price list does not contain a price for that product, then the system will descend the price list stack until it locates a price list that contains a price for the product.
Considerations
Working with price list assignments is very similar to working with dynamic content deliveries. You assign price lists to shoppers based on a set of conditions. To determine the conditions under which a particular price list will be shown, you need to ask the following questions:
Who should have access to the price list? (based on shopper information such as age, gender, and geo-location)
When is the price list available? (the period of time that the price list is active)
Where is the price list available? (in which store or stores)
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Once you’ve decided which price list to show a set of shoppers and you’ve decided on the conditions you want the content to display, you’re ready to set up a price list assignment.
Creating a Price List Assignment
You can create a price list assignment from the Price List Manager activity.
1. Choose Activity > Price List Manager.
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2. Select Price List Manager > Create Price List Assignment. The Create Price List Assignment wizard appears.
3. Enter a Name and Description for the new price list assignment.
4. Click and drag the Priority slider to determine whether this price list assignment will take precedence over other applicable price list assignments. Click Next.
5. In Step 2 of the wizard, select the price list that will be used to retrieve prices when the conditions are met for this price list assignment. Click Next.
6. In Step 3 of the wizard, select the catalog that will be used for the selected price list. Click
Next.
7. In Step 4 of the wizard, set the conditions that will determine whether or not the selected price list is used to a group of shoppers.
Select All Shoppers if this price list assignment should apply to all shoppers.
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Select Only Shoppers who match the following conditions to set up a specific shopper segment who will see the price list.
8. In the Shopper who section that appears after you select Only Shoppers who..., click age”).
and select a condition from the pop-up menu (for example “are of
9. Select an operator and a value for the condition (example “is greater than” and “45”).
10. Repeat steps 8 to 9 to add more condition statements. Click Next when you are done.
11. In Step 5 of the wizard, set the time period during which the price list assignment will be active. Select either All the time, which makes the assignment immediately active, or Only
within the following specific date range. If you select the date range option, click the pop-up calendars to set the Start and End dates.
Click Next.
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12. In Step 6 of the wizard, select the stores where you want to use the price list. To select specific stores, select the Available Stores option. Next, click the store(s) you want to use from those listed in the Available Stores list, and click Add to add them the Assigned Stores list.
13. Click Finish.
The new Price List Assignment appears in the list panel.
Modifying a Price List Assignment
You can change a price list assignment by opening it from a search results list and then updating the pages in the Price List Assignment wizard.
1. Choose Activity > Price List Manager.
2. In the Price List Search panel, select the Price List Assignments tab and click Search to return a list of all price list assignments in the system.
3. Double-click the price list assignment you want to change.
4. Make your changes. Click Finish when you are done.
Deleting a Price List Assignment
You can delete a price list assignments, even if it is currently being used.
1. Choose Activity > Price List Manager.
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2. In the Price List Search panel, select the Price List Assignments tab and click Search to return a list of all price list assignments in the system.
3. Double-click the price list assignment you want to delete.
4. Click Delete Price List Assignment. A confirmation message appears. This message tells you if the price list assignment is being used currently.
5. Click OK to confirm deletion of the price list assignment.
Searching for a Price List Assignment
1. Choose Activity > Price List Manager.
2. In the Price List Search panel, select the Price List Assignments tab
3. Enter the Name of the price list assignment you want to view and select a Catalog from the drop-down list (optional).
4. Click Search to return a list of matching price list assignments.
Note: To return a list of all price list assignments in the system, leave the Price List Name field blank and click Search.
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Chapter 8: Customer Service
The Customer Service Activity is intended for the use of customer service representatives (CSRs). It enables users to manage all aspects of orders and customer profiles. It can be accessed from the
Activity menu:
Every processed customer order is assigned to the store in which it was created. Administrators and
CSRs can only access orders from stores that they have permission to view or manage.
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Order Workflow Process
Searching for an Order
1. Enter values in the search term fields.
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Note: When searching on customer information (first and last name, email, postal code, etc.), values are compared against each order's billing address.
2. Select a field name from the Sort By drop-down list, and set the Sort Order
(ascending/descending). (optional)
3. Click Search. The results of your search appear in the Orders List.
Sorting Order Search Results
By default, orders are listed by Order ID. You can sort the results by clicking a column header. The results will be sorted according to the column header selected.
You can sort by the following column headers:
Customer Name
Date/Time
Order #
Order Status
Store
Total
Viewing and Editing an Order
Tip: For an online tutorial on this topic, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
1. After conducting a search and opening the Order Search Results tab, double-click the order you want to view.
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2. Assuming you have the appropriate privileges, you will be able to edit the order after bringing it up for viewing.
3. Note the tabs at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on these will open up the corresponding page, allowing you to view and edit according to your needs.
4. Depending on the state of the order and your privileges, you may edit an order’s details as required:
Tab
Summary
Order Information and Functions
Cancel the order, place the order on hold, remove the order hold, edit the customer profile, edit the customer’s address.
Details
Payments
Returns and
Exchanges
Modify contents of the order (if shipment has not been released yet), edit shipping address(es) (if shipment has not been released yet), cancel the shipment, create return, create exchange, and viewing the products in the order.
If there is personalization information attached to order items, you can access it from this tab by selecting the item and clicking Item
Detail. Note that personalization information cannot be edited from within the Commerce Manager.
View payment history and summary.
View and manage returns and exchanges.
Notes
View order notes in detail.
5. When you're done making changes to the order, click Save, or if you didn't make any changes, close the dialog.
Order Auditing
Information about the various events that occur in an order's lifetime is tracked for auditing purposes.
This includes details about returns, exchanges, and refunds.
Events are recorded regardless of who initiated the action or how it occurred. Everything from order creation in the store to a CSR's modifications is tracked. CSRs may add their own comments to orders, and these comments will also be included in the auditing information.
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Any user with the appropriate authorization may view the entire audit history of an order. The system will provide a reverse chronological display of events, detailing the date-time, event creator, and event action. This allows CSRs to quickly scan the entire history of an order.
Call Center Functionality
An authorized CSR may create orders for both new and existing customers. This functionality may be accessed at both the “View existing customers” and “View existing order” screens. If the order is for a new customer, the CSR must first create a customer account before the order can be placed.
Depending on the CSR's permissions, he may modify the item prices in the order. Shipping costs and the total price may also be determined and specified by the CSR. The system records the CSR's name and attaches it to the order.
Only CSRs with the proper role may create orders on behalf of customers. The privilege to create orders comes in two variants:
Basic (the CSR may create an order, but cannot override prices)
Manager (the CSR can both create orders and override prices)
Creating an Order
1. Click Create Order.
2. Select the store where you want to create the order and click OK.
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Order Locking
The idea behind “locking” orders is to prevent multiple CSRs from modifying the same data simultaneously. This could cause unexpected behavior and result in corrupted data. When a CSR opts to edit an order, it is automatically locked; until the order is unlocked, no one else is allowed to edit it.
For example, Bob and Ann are CSRs. They both want to modify the same order, Order ABC. Ann is the first to begin editing, so the order is locked. When Bob attempts to enter the edit screen for Order
ABC, he will be denied by the system; an error dialog box will explain that someone else is modifying that order, and that he can only view it in read-only mode. Once Ann performs an action that causes the order to be unlocked, Bob will then be able to modify Order ABC.
There is another scenario to consider. Let us assume Bob opens Order ABC for viewing while it is locked by Ann. Ann makes changes to the order and saves, causing the order to become unlocked.
Bob will then see an error dialog box that relays the following: "Order ABC cannot be edited as another user has made changes." The dialog box will allow Bob to either “Reload” (which will refresh the product page and allow Bob to make modifications to the order) or “Cancel” (which will close the dialog box.) This ensures that Bob will not be modifying outdated data.
An order is unlocked under the following circumstances:
CSR Action
CSR saves order
CSR closes order editor (saves changes on prompt)
CSR closes order editor (abandons changes on prompt)
System Action
System will automatically unlock the given order, on completion of the save transaction.
System will automatically unlock the given order, on completion of the save transaction.
System will automatically unlock the given order.
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CSR Action System Action
CSR closes Commerce Manager client (with open orders and saves changes on prompt)
System will automatically unlock each order, on completion of the save transaction.
CSR closes Commerce Manager client (with open orders and abandons changes on prompt)
System will automatically unlock each order.
Order Lock Indicator
A locked order’s status will be indicated on-screen by a closed padlock icon and the name of the CSR who caused the lock. An unlocked order will be accompanied by an open padlock icon on the order page. If changes are made, the order automatically locks and the padlock icon will change to its closed form. The name of the CSR will also then be displayed next to the padlock.
Unlock Orders Privilege and Special Situations
Occasionally, special situations arise that call for the manual unlocking of an order. For example, a CSR may be in the middle of editing an order when she falls ill and leaves the office; however, she leaves the editor open, so the order remains in a locked state.
In these and other special situations, a supervisor with the correct role – one that grants him the
Unlock Orders privilege – may forcefully unlock the order. More specifically, supervisors who open a locked order will see an "Unlock Order" button. If this is clicked, the lock on the order will be removed. The “Unlock Order” button is not visible to users without the correct credentials.
Let’s presume the supervisor makes changes to the now unlocked order. When the original CSR returns to work the following morning and tries to commit her changes, she will see an error dialog box alerting her to the fact that the order has been modified since the page was loaded; this prevents her from overwriting changes that someone else may have made to that order. She now has to reload the order, which will give her the opportunity to note any updates and take them into consideration before (and if) she makes any modifications.
If a CSR’s computer crashes while he is in the middle of editing an order, it is possible for him to resolve the issue without having to ask a supervisor to use her “Unlock Order” privilege. He simply has to restart the Commerce Manager client application, search for the order he was modifying, open it, and finish modifying and saving the order.
Unlocking an Order
Search for the order you want to unlock and double-click it for viewing. Assuming you have the proper credentials, click the Unlock Order button in the top right hand corner of the tab.
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Splitting a Shipment
Shipments can be “split” to improve customer satisfaction. Splitting a shipment refers to the formation of multiple shipments based on the components of a single, original order. These new shipments can then be shipped to either a single address, or to multiple addresses This feature is particularly useful for orders that include pre-ordered or back-ordered items; in-stock items can be shipped immediately, while preordered or/and backordered items can be delivered at a later date.
Customers cannot split shipments themselves. Only CSRs and other authorized personnel may perform this action for them, so customers must call in to request this feature.
1. Double-click the order whose shipment you want to split.
2. Open the Details tab.
3. Select the components you want to split from the original order and click Move Item.
4. In the Move Item dialog box, select the address the new split shipment should be delivered to, and which shipment method should be used. If the address you want to input is not in the dropdown box, this can be configured in the next step. Click OK.
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There will now be a separate Shipping Information section for each split shipment you create. You may edit the shipping address of any of the split shipments as required, allowing you to add new delivery addresses.
Returns, Exchanges and Refunds
CSRs and warehouse staff may perform and accept returns, respectively. Returns and exchanges maximize user satisfaction and increase buyer confidence and sales.
Only authorized CSRs can create a return or exchange. The system automatically creates a unique code, called the Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) code, for all such transactions. Typically, the RMA number is recorded on the physical return to assist warehouse employees in matching the receipt of the return to the correct customer account.
The process for completing a ‘Shippable’ vs a ‘Digital Asset’ SKU is slightly different as for digital assets there is no requirement to receive the returned good prior to completing the return.
Regardless of the nature of the SKU, for each item being returned, the CSR must enter the following details:
Quantity being returned: The number of items being returned.
Reason for return: Users may select from a list of both system defined and custom reasons (for example, Damaged, Defective, Unwanted Gift, Wrong Size.)
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Comments: CSR comments about the return item (for example, "Customer no longer has the original packaging".)
For shippable items, the CSR must specify whether the returned products must be physically received back into the warehouse or not before finishing processing the return. For digital assets there is nothing to physically receive and so the return is processed immediately.
For shippable SKU, the customer may want a refund or they may want to exchange what was received for something else. Depending upon their selection, the CSR has additional steps to execute:
Refund: The CSR must enter a refund amount to be credited to the customer. The system will suggest a figure based on the purchase price, the promotions at the time of order, and taxes.
Exchange: The CSR must select a SKU to exchange the incoming product for. By default, the system will suggest the same SKU as the one being returned.
For digital assets, only refunds are issued as part of a return.
Usually refunds are credited to the purchase medium used in the original purchase. However, in special situations, CSRs may issue a refund to another payment source. For example, if the buyer used a now-expired credit card for the purchase, a CSR may issue the refund to another credit card.
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Shippable Good Returns and Exchanges Workflow
The following diagram shows the workflow for returns and exchanges of shippable items.
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Searching for a Return or Exchange Order
When performing a return or exchange for a shippable item, the item originally received by the customer may be required to be received back into the warehouse before the return can complete processing. In order to process the item received back into the warehouse the corresponding RMA must be found.
1. Choose Activity > Shipping/Receiving.
2. On the Warehouse panel, select the Returns and Exchanges tab.
3. Enter terms in the search fields and click Search. (Entering more search terms will narrow your search results.)
The search results will appear in the list panel to the right.
Digital Asset Return
To create a return for a digital asset.
1. Select the Create Return button available in the E-shipment.
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2. In the, Create Return wizard, enter the return quantity value for the item to be returned and select the corresponding reason in the given fields. The wizard will calculate the Total Return
Amount based on the items marked for return.
NOTE: If desired, notes or additional information can be entered in the Notes field.
3. Click Next, and select the payment source to which the Refund should be issued.
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NOTE: The Manual Refund option would be used if some other mechanism was to be used for the refund; such as, issuing a check.
4. Clicking Next, the return and corresponding refund will be processed and a confirmation is displayed.
NOTE: The refund is now listed on the Returns and Exchanges tab for the order.
5. Click Finish to close the Create Return wizard.
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Creating a Refund
At times, a refund may need to be issued outside of a return being performed. For example, a customer is very unhappy with service and so as an act of good will as CSR may want to make amends to the customer by giving them some funds back. Only CSRs who have been granted ‘Can Create
Refund’ permissions would be able to perform this function. This kind of refund can be created as any time for an order and is not dependent upon shipment status, etc.
1. Open the order against which you want to issue a refund.
2. Select the Details tab for the order.
3. Click Create Refund. The Create Refund wizard appears.
4. In the Refund Amount field, enter the currency amount you are refunding to the customer.
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5. Under Refund Options, select the payment source to which you will credit the refund. You can use the original payment source or enter another credit card number, as provided by the customer.
6. Click Next. A confirmation message appears. This message includes a confirmation number for the transaction.
7. Click Finish to close the Create Refund wizard.
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Customers
Customers must register before their purchases can be completed, even if the registration is anonymous (i.e., their personal information is not added to the retailer's customer data, meaning they will have to reenter the information for their next purchase.) Registered accounts are stored in the system, and may be accessed and modified by authorized users.
One of the customer attributes users may modify is Customer Status. It can be set to one of the following:
Active - The customer will be able to log on to the store and purchase products.
Disabled - The customer will not be able to log on to the store purchase products.
Disabling a Customer account
Customer accounts cannot be deleted from the system. This is to ensure complete audits and informational integrity (for example, a customer’s orders cannot be orphaned.)
Disabling a customer is, from the shopper's perspective, equivalent to deleting their account from the system, but with the benefit of being able to easily change the status back to Active.
Only authorized CSRs may disable customers.
Searching for a Customer account
1. Select the Customers tab.
2. Enter search terms in the fields to narrow your search.
3. Select a sort by heading from the Sort By drop-down list, and set a Sort Order
(ascending/descending).
4. Click Search.
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Sorting Customer Search Results
By default, customers are listed in the search results by Customer ID. You can resort the results by clicking a column header. The results will be sorted according to the column header selected.
You can sort Customer search results by the following column headers:
Customer ID
Default Billing Address
Email Address
First Name
Last Name
Telephone #
Editing a Customer account
1. Search for the customer you want to edit. Then double-click the entry in the Customer Search
Results tab.
2. Note the tabs at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on these will open up the corresponding page, allowing you to view and edit according to your needs.
3. Depending on your privileges, you may edit a customer’s information as required:
Tab
Customer Profile
Customer Information and Functions
Addresses
Manage a customer’s attributes (except address-related information), their preferred locale and other registration information.
Note: When selecting a preferred language, make sure you also select the correct locale. Depending on the locale, your prices will be displayed differently.
For example: With US locale, your price will appear as $14.25. With
Finland as your locale, your price will appear as 14.25$, following the
European format.
Manage a customer’s address(es), and set the customer’s default billing and shipping addresses.
Credit Cards
Orders
Manage a customer’s credit cards and set his default credit card.
View the details of a customer’s order(s) and create an order for the customer.
4. Click Save on the tool bar.
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Resetting a Customer’s Password
1. Search for the customer for whom you want to reset the password.
2. In the Customer Search Results tab, double-click the customer.
3. Click Reset Customer Password.
4. You are prompted to confirm that you want to reset the customer’s password. Click OK. An email containing a new, system-generated password is automatically sent to the customer.
Managing a Customer’s Segment Groups
By default, all customers are assigned the PUBLIC customer segment. You can add and remove new customer segments to a customer, but you cannot remove the PUBLIC customer segment.
Adding a Customer to a Customer Segment
1. Search for the customer for whom you want to add a customer segment.
2. In the Customer Search Results tab, double-click the customer.
3. Click the customer’s Customer Segment tab
4. Select the Add Segment button.
5. Select the customer segment and click Save to add the segment to the customer.
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Removing a Customer from a Customer Segment
1. Search for the customer to remove the customer segment from.
2. In the Customer Search Results tab, double-click the customer.
3. Click the customer’s Customer Segment tab.
Select the customer segment to remove and click Remove Segment.
4. Select OK in the confirmation message.
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Chapter 9: Marketing Activities
The Store Marketing Activity enables e-commerce store managers to configure store-related aspects of the Commerce Manager client, including promotions and shipping service levels. It can be accessed from the Activity menu:
Promotions
A promotion is a marketing tool used to increase sales. Promotions are store-specific. To create a promotion for a store, you must have the Manage Promotions permission and you must be assigned to that store. Promotions cannot be shared across multiple stores. (To apply a promotion to multiple stores, it must be manually re-created in each applicable store.)
Elastic Path Commerce supports two types of promotions:
catalog promotions
shopping cart promotions.
Catalog Promotions
Catalog promotions are used to make specific products and categories of products more attractive to shoppers through incentives, such as lowered pricing on a particular brand. A catalog promotion grants all shoppers a discount on a specific product or set of products. Catalog promotions are always visible to shoppers, so the price they see while browsing the site is the price they pay at checkout time (minus taxes and any shopping cart promotions that may apply).
Shopping Cart Promotions
Shopping cart promotions are used to encourage shoppers to increase their order size by providing incentives, such as free shipping on orders over a certain dollar value. A shopping cart promotion grants a discount on a specific product or set of products to shoppers who meet certain conditions.
Shopping cart promotions are only applied after all conditions are met. Thus, a shopper only sees the price she will pay for a promoted item when she views her shopping cart or when she checks out
(assuming all the promotion's conditions are met).
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For example, a product has a list price of $200.00. Currently, there is a shopping cart promotion that grants a 10% discount on all orders over $50.00. When browsing the catalog, all shoppers see the product's $200.00 list price. If a shopper adds the product to her shopping cart and then views the cart's contents, the price in the cart is $180.00 (due to the 10% discount). If the same shopper goes back to browsing the frontend, the catalog still shows the list price of $200.
Promotion Rules
Promotion rules define the behavior and effects of promotions. There are two types of promotion rules:
conditions
actions.
Conditions
Conditions are the set of criteria that determine, based on the current state of the shopping cart, whether a shopper is eligible for a promotion. Examples of conditions are:
the cart must contain a particular number of a certain product or SKU
the cart subtotal is greater than a specific amount.
Actions
Actions specify what benefits are granted by a promotion. They are the incentives used to encourage shoppers to purchase more or to purchase specific items. Examples of actions are:
free shipping
discounts on specific products
free items
coupons for discounts on future purchases.
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The types of conditions and actions available depend on the promotion type.
Note: Prior to Elastic Path Commerce 6.2.1, there was an additional promotion rule type called
eligibility. This rule type was only available when creating shopping cart promotions. It allowed the merchant to define criteria based on certain information about the shopper.
The eligibility rule type has been replaced by the shopper segment.
There are many options available when configuring promotion rules. For detailed descriptions of the
available options, see Appendix E: Promotion Shopper Segment Conditions and Rules.
Shopper Segment
Note: The shopper segment corresponds to the eligibility promotion rule that existed in Elastic
Path Commerce versions prior to 6.2.1. It expands on the capabilities of eligibilities by providing many more options, including geo-location and browsing behavior. The shopper segment is a component of Elastic Path's targeted selling framework, which is also used to deliver dynamic content and price lists. For more information on targeted selling, see the
Developer Guide on the Elastic Path documentation site ( http://docs.elasticpath.com
).
The shopper segment is similar to promotion rules. It specifies criteria that determine, based on information that has been collected about the shopper, whether that shopper is eligible to receive a promotion. There are many options available when configuring the shopper segment. For detailed
descriptions of the available options, see Appendix E: Promotion Shopper Segment Conditions and
Activation Rules
Activation rules determine how eligible shoppers apply promotions to their purchases. In the simplest case, a promotion is applied automatically. This means that, if the shopper meets all conditions, she receives the promotion action automatically, whether it's a discount on an item, free shipping, a coupon, etc.
Some promotions need to be "activated" by a coupon code (also referred to as a promotion code).
For example, to receive a discount on an item in the shopping cart, the shopper must enter a coupon code at checkout time. If your organization uses coupon codes, you will need to configure certain rules to control how they can be used with each promotion.
When you create a promotion, you need to specify whether it's activated automatically or by a coupon. There are two types of coupons:
public coupons
private coupons.
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Public Coupons
Public coupons can be used by any eligible shopper. This means that any shopper who qualifies for a promotion can use any unredeemed coupon code associated with that promotion. Shoppers may or may not be able to re-use a previously redeemed coupon code, depending on how its usage options are configured.
There are three usage options for public coupon codes:
unlimited: each coupon code can be used an unlimited number of times by all qualifying shoppers.
limit per coupon code: each coupon code can be used a limited number of times. This limit applies to the total number of uses, but within that limit, any individual shopper could use the coupon any number of times. For example, if PROMO1CODE1 has a limit of 10, then Shopper A could use it 2 times, Shopper B could use it 6 times, and Shoppers C and D could each use it once.
limit per shopper: each coupon code can be used by an unlimited number of shoppers, but each shopper can only use it a limited number of times. For example, PROMO2CODE1 has a limit of 5 uses per shopper, which means it can be used five times by Shopper A, five times by
Shopper B, and so on. Note that the usage count is tracked by the shopper's email address. As such, a shopper can apply the same coupon code many times beyond the limit by using different email addresses. If limiting overall exposure is a concern, select the Limited Usage
Promotion option in the first step of the wizard when creating the promotion and specify a maximum number of times the coupon code can be used.
Private Coupons
Private coupons can only be used by registered customers. This means that in order to use a private coupon code, the shopper must have already created an account in the frontend. Customers who placed orders but did not register (they created an order with only their email address) are not registered customers and cannot use private coupons.
Private coupons can be configured for single, multiple, or unlimited use. They can also be configured to expire after a specified number of days from the date the customer qualified for the coupon.
Note: If you set an expiry date for the coupon codes and you have set a date range for the promotion, the date range always takes precedence in determining whether the promotion will be applied to a purchase. For example, a customer obtains a coupon on the final date in the promotion's date range. The coupon code is set to expire in 60 days. If the customer attempts to use the coupon on the following day, it will not be accepted because the promotion has ended and is no longer active.
Coupon Codes
A promotion can have multiple coupon codes associated with it. You can manually add individual coupon codes when you create a promotion. You can also import coupon codes in bulk from CSV files after a promotion has been created.
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Unless you have special tracking requirements, it is not necessary to create a unique coupon code for each shopper who is eligible for a promotion. The frontend automatically determines if a coupon has already been used by a particular shopper and, based on the usage options, it will determine whether the coupon code can be used again.
Promotions Best Practices and Tips
Having many active promotions can have a negative impact on store performance. Try to minimize the number of active promotions and disable all expired promotions.
Do not use the promotions to create permanent discounts. Instead, create sale prices in the appropriate price lists.
Promotion rules are cached to improve performance in the frontend. As a result, there is a delay between when a promotion is created and when it applies in the store. The length of the delay depends on the store’s configuration. By default, it may take up to an hour for the change to be applied.
Unless you have special tracking and reporting requirements (particularly for public coupons), it is not necessary to create a unique coupon code for each shopper you want to target with a promotion. The system automatically determines if a coupon has already been used by a particular shopper and, based on the coupon usage options, whether it can be used again.
For promotions activated by public coupons, if you limit coupon usage to a specific number of times per shopper, be aware that the usage count is tracked by the shopper's email address. As such, a shopper can apply the same coupon code many times beyond the limit by using different email addresses. If limiting overall exposure is a concern, select the Limited Usage
Promotion option in the first step of the wizard when creating the promotion and specify a maximum number of times the coupon code can be used.
Searching for a Promotion
1. From the Activity menu, choose Store Marketing.
2. In the Promotions tab, select filters for Promotion State, Promotion Type, Catalog, and Store.
(Optional.)
3. Enter a Promotion Name. (Optional.)
4. Set sorting rules to sort the search results by column name, and in ascending or descending order. (Optional.)
Note: You can sort search results after the search has run by clicking the appropriate column header in the results list.
5. Click Search.
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Sorting Promotion Search Results
You can set sorting criteria when you run a search that will display the search results by the column head selected, and in ascending or descending order.
In addition, you can sort your search results by simply clicking on a column header to sort by that header.
In the example below, the search results are sorted by the Type column, as indicated by the grey triangle to the right of the column label. Clicking a column headed that is already selected for the sort order, toggles the sort order from ascending to descending order.
Search Results Pagination
By default, search results display a list of 10 items per page. You can adjust this to show more than 10 items by changing the pagination setting:
1. From the Preferences menu, choose Change Pagination Settings.
2. In the Results Per Page list, select the number of results you want to display per page.
3. Click Save.
Creating a Shopping Cart Promotion
Tip: For an online tutorial on this topic, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
1. From the Activity menu, choose Store Marketing.
2. Click the Promotions tab.
3. Click Create Shopping Cart Promotion.
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Note: If the Create Shopping Cart Promotion button is not active, it may be because the Change Set feature is enabled. In this case, you must select a
Change Set before adding the promotion. For more information, see Chapter
4. Configure the promotion details. Then click Next.
Field
Store
Description
The store to which the new promotion applies.
Promotion Name
The name of the promotion. This is used within the Commerce
Manager client. It will not be visible to customers.
Promotion
Display Name
Description
The localized, public name of the promotion. This is the name that is displayed in the frontend. Select each supported language and enter the locale-specific promotion display name.
A description of the promotion. This is for your organization's internal use only and is not displayed in the frontend.
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Field
Enable in Store
Description
Whether the promotion will be enabled immediately in the store
(subject to the expiration date/time).
Limited Usage
Promotion
Enable this option if you want to limit the number of times the promotion can be used. This is useful if you want to create a “door crasher”-style special. For example, only the first 100 customers who buy the product will receive the promotion at checkout.
Allowed Limit
This box is only displayed when Limited Usage Promotion is enabled.
Sets the maximum number of times a promotion can be used.
5. Configure the target shopper segment for the new promotion. Then click Next.
Note:
The shopper segment is conceptually similar to promotion eligibilities. In versions of Elastic Path Commerce prior to 6.2.1, eligibilities were used in conjunction with conditions to determine which shoppers would be able to receive the promotion. Shopper segments server a similar purpose, but provides many additional options. For detailed descriptions of the available
shopper segment options, see Appendix E: Promotion Shopper Segment
6. Specify the time period during which the promotion is in effect. Then click Next.
If All the time is selected and the Enable in Store option was selected in step 2, the promotion is effective immediately and remains effective until disabled.
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If Only within the following specific date range is selected, you must set a start date/time for the promotion. If an end date/time is not set, the promotion remains effective until disabled.
7. Set the promotion rules (conditions and actions) for the promotion. Then click Next.
To add a condition, click the appropriate
icon.
To delete a condition, click the
icon to the left of the condition.
For detailed descriptions of the different promotion rules, see Appendix E: Promotion
Shopper Segment Conditions and Rules.
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8. Configure the activation rules for the promotion.
If you want the promotion to be applied automatically (as soon as the shopper qualifies for it), select This promotion is not activated by coupons.
If you want the promotion to be applied when the shopper enters a public coupon code, select This promotion is activated by public coupons. Then configure the usage options and the coupon codes.
If you want the promotion to be applied when the shopper enters a private coupon code, select This promotion is activated by private coupons. Then configure the usage options and the coupon codes.
Note: If you set an expiry date for the coupon codes and you have set a date range for the promotion, the date range always takes precedence in determining whether the promotion still applies. For example, a customer obtains a coupon on the final date in the promotion's date range. The coupon code is set to expire in 60 days. If the customer attempts to use the coupon on the following day, it will not be accepted since the promotion is no longer active.
9. Click Finish to complete the creation of your new promotion.
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Creating a Catalog Promotion
Tip: For an online tutorial on this topic, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
1. From the Activity menu, choose Store Marketing.
2. Click the Promotions tab.
3. Click the Create Catalog Promotion button.
Note: If the Create Catalog Promotion button is not active, your Elastic Path
Commerce system may be using the Change Set feature. In that case you must select a Change Set before adding the promotion. For more
information, see Chapter 11: Change Sets.
4. Configure the settings and click Next.
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Field
Catalog
Description
The catalog in which the new promotion will work in. This is a required field.
Note: Only catalogs that have price lists associated with them are displayed in this list.
Promotion Name
The name of the promotion. This is used within the Commerce
Manager client. It will not be visible to customers. This is a required field.
Promotion Display
Name
The localized, public name of the promotion. This is the name that is displayed in the frontend. Select each supported language and enter the locale-specific promotion display name.
Description
A description of what the promotion is used for, what it does, and other details as the creator deems fit. This is for internal use only; customers will not be able to view this in the frontend. This is a required field.
Enable Date/Time When the promotion should become active. This is a required field.
Expiration
Date/Time
When the promotion should be deactivated. This field may be left blank if the promotion should be ongoing indefinitely.
5. Set the promotional rules and click Next.
6. Click Finish.
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Editing a Promotion
1. From the Activity menu, choose Store Marketing.
2. Click the Promotions tab.
3. Search for the promotion you want to edit and double-click it in the Promotion Search Results tab.
4. Make your modifications in the required tab(s).
Note: You cannot change coupon types after the promotion is created:
5. Click the Save button.
Importing Coupon Codes
Note: To import coupon codes, you must have the Manage Coupons permission.
1. Create a CSV file containing the coupon codes you want to import.
For a public promotion, the file must consist of one column containing the coupon codes.
The first row must only contain the following text: couponCode
For a private promotion, the file must consist of two columns, the first containing the coupon codes and the second containing the email addresses of the customers mapped to those codes. Multiple customers can be mapped to the same code. The email addresses must match the email addresses specified in the corresponding customer accounts. The first row must only contain the following text: couponCode,emailAddress
2. From the Commerce Manager client's Activity menu, choose Store Marketing.
3. Click the Promotions tab.
4. Search for the promotion you want to edit and double-click it in the Promotion Search Results tab.
5. In the Coupon Codes tab, click Import codes from a CSV file.
6. Click the browse button and locate your CSV file. Then click Next.
7. Click Finish.
The coupon codes are imported and added to the list. By default, the status of imported coupons is set to In Use.
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Enabling and Disabling Coupon Codes
At some point, you may want to disable a coupon code, either temporarily or permanently, for example, if there was a data entry error in a code or if fraud was committed. Or you may want to reenable a previously disabled code.
Note: To enable or disable coupon codes, you must have the Manage Coupons permission.
1. From the Commerce Manager client's Activity menu, choose Store Marketing.
2. In the Promotions tab, search for the promotion you want to edit and double-click it in the
Promotion Search Results tab.
3. In the Coupon Codes tab, select the coupon(s) that you want to modify. (Use the Shift and Ctrl keys to select multiple contiguous or non-contiguous coupon codes.)
4. Click Edit.
5. Change the status.
To enable the selected coupon code(s), set the status to In Use.
To disable the selected coupon code(s), set the status to Suspended.
6. Click OK.
7. Save your changes.
The status of the selected coupon code(s) is changed.
Note: Completed orders are not affected by changes in coupon code status. If a customer redeems a coupon code and that code is disabled before checkout is complete, the promotion still applies.
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Dynamic Content
Dynamic Content enables marketers to create a personalized shopping experience for each customer.
Using this feature, you can deliver elements of a shopping experience based on a set of conditions or context. Generally, this functionality would be provided by you CMS; however, if your CMS does not offer this you may want to consider using this functionality.
To determine the conditions under which Dynamic Content displays for shoppers, you need to consider:
Who should see the content
When should the content display
Where should the content display
An example of Dynamic Content is the display of a pair of men’s shoes, targeting shoppers who arrived at your frontend from a Google search for “Shoes”, and are male, aged more than 40 years. In this example, Dynamic Content retrieves the image of the shoes, along with the product price from the catalog database and displays it only to the shoppers that match the target conditions.
Dynamic Content is configured using the Commerce Manager so that marketing personnel and other business users can set up Dynamic Content without relying on web developers, server administrators, and Cortex client developers. For images and Flash animations, you may need a graphic designer to create the file and upload it to the Dynamic Content directory on the file server. However, once that's done, the marketer can configure rules for displaying it without any assistance.
Dynamic Content is not necessarily visual. For example, Dynamic Content can also be audio data or some other format. However, since visual content is the most common, we generally use words like
"display" and "see" when referring to Dynamic Content rendering.
Tip: For online tutorials regarding Dynamic Content, see the Elastic Path Documentation page http://docs.elasticpath.com
.
Concepts and Workflow
Traditionally, Marketing relies on a web designer or a Cortex API client developer to create the layouts for frontend site pages. The web developer and client developer position frames, links, promotions, etc in a specific arrangement. Dynamic Content empowers marketing to change the content within that layout dynamically, without involving the web developer or the Cortex API client developer. Web developer sets up placeholders, known as Content Spaces , on their web pages and the Cortex API client set up placeholders, known as slots , on their client app. The Dynamic Content can then display in those placeholders.
There are four interdependent components in Dynamic Content:
Dynamic Content
Dynamic Content Delivery
Content Wrapper
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Content Space (slots)
The first of two components, Dynamic Content and Dynamic Content Delivery, are set up through the
Commerce Manager client by a marketer or other business user. The Dynamic Content provides a name for and a description of the type of content to be displayed. The Dynamic Content Delivery object tells the system when, under what conditions, and in which content space the dynamic content displays.
The remaining components, Content Wrappers and Content Spaces, are created outside of Elastic
Path Commerce, by developers and web designers respectively. Elastic Path Commerce comes with several content wrappers and content spaces to meet the needs of most common types of dynamic content. If your company requires other wrappers or spaces, your developers can create them based upon those provided. Once a web developer has added a Content Space to a template, the developer or another user with appropriate permissions must register it in Commerce Manager.
A banner (Dynamic Content) is displayed in this area
(Content Space) of the storefront.
A static promotion is displayed in this area.
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The following illustration shows the players who will normally be involved in creating and implementing new Dynamic Content. In most cases, you will use the out-of-the-box Content Spaces and Content Wrappers provided with Elastic Path Commerce. As a result, the personnel involved will usually be restricted to the Graphic Designer who creates the actual content asset (image, etc.), and the Marketer, who configures the Dynamic Content and Dynamic Content Delivery.
Content Wrappers (Dynamic Content Types)
A Content Wrapper is a template used to define a Dynamic Content Type. It describes how a particular content type is displayed and what information is required to display it. Elastic Path commerce includes several Content Wrappers for the most common types of Dynamic Content. For example, there is a Content Wrapper to display banner images with links and another to display product data
(image, product name, and price).
Content Wrappers are created by developers as XML files with a .cwt extension. They are stored in the web server’s Assets directory. In Commerce Manager, a Content Wrapper is referred to as
Dynamic Content Type.
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The following Dynamic Content Types are shipped with Commerce Manager. Each requires one or more parameter values to specify things such as, what image file should display or what target web page should display when clicked.
Content type
Category with image
Cortex API:
Category with
Image
Cortex API:
Image
Cortex API:
Product with
Image
Flash
HTML
Description
Displays a linked image for a category within the catalog.
Parameters
Category Code – click the browse button to search for and select the category you want to display.
Displays a linked image for a category within the catalog for a Cortex
API client application.
Category Code – click the browse button to search for and select the category you want to display.
Path to Image File - use the browse button to select and/or upload the image file to display.
Path to Image File - use the browse button to select and/or upload the image file to display.
Displays an image for a
Cortex API client application. For example, could be a product image.
Displays the image and product name detail for an item in your catalog.
Displays an animated
Flash file that cycles through three images.
This Flash animation shows each of three images in succession, each having a clickable link that shows the shopper a different promotion. You will need to specify the
URLs for each link within the Flash file.
Path to Image File - use the browse button to select and/or upload the image file to display.
Product Code – click the browse button to open the Product Selector to select a product to display.
Path to Flash File – click the browse button to select and/or upload the .swf file to display.
URL for Link 1, URL for Link 2, URL for Link 3 – enter the complete URL to the target page (product, promotion, etc.).
Displays HTML content, such as an image map
(single image with clickable links applied to different areas of the image).
HTML (raw) – click in the Value field and then click
Edit Parameter Value and enter the HTML you want displayed in the target Content Space.
Note that the image reference should be relative to the assets.../dynamiccontent/images directory.
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Content type Description
Image clickable Displays an image that
Image nonclickable
Product with image and price can be clicked by the shopper to perform some action. For example, redirect to another page, product or promotion.
Displays an image. For example, you can use this to type to alert shoppers to a shopping cart promotion that will give them a discount on checkout.
Parameters
Path to Image File – use the browse button to select and/or upload the image file to be displayed.
Alternative Text – enter alternative text to display if the image cannot be displayed.
On Click URL or JavaScript – enter the URL for the product or other page you want the shopper to view. The URL used here must be relative to the store. (Example: optics/binoculars/pentax-ucf-xbinoculars-8-x-25/prod10010226.html )
Path to Image File – use the browse button to select and/or upload the image file to be displayed. File formats supported are JPG, GIF and PNG.
Alternative Text – enter alternative text to display if the image cannot be displayed.
Displays the image, price and product name detail for an item in your catalog.
Product Code – click the browse button to open the
Product Selector to select a product to display.
Note: The product wrapper ignores all store visibility rules. Thus, it is possible to select a product that would not be visible in the frontend under normal circumstances (for example, if Store Visible is deselected or the Availability Rule is Available only if in
stock when inventory is 0).
Note: For multilingual dynamic content parameters, you must specify values for each supported language. Otherwise, Dynamic Content will only be displayed for the languages that have been configured.
Note: Cortex API Dynamic Content types are used exclusively for display in a Cortex API client.
Content Spaces
A Content Space is a location within a frontend HTML page that can display Dynamic Content. You can think of it as the physical space on the frontend page where the Dynamic Content specified by the
Content Wrapper appears.
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Below we use a fictional store, Snap it Up, to demonstrate Content Spaces:
Top_banner
HomepageHero HomePageOfferTopRight
HomePageOfferTopLeft
HomePageOfferTopMiddle
HomePageOfferBottomRight
HomepageOfferBottomLeft
Content Spaces are created by web developers in the CMS templates. Once they have been created, a user with Content Spaces permissions (normally Systems Administrator) must register the Content
Space in Commerce Manager, using the same name as the Content Space in the CMS template. It is this registered entry that is selected as a target Content Space by a Marketer when he configures a
Dynamic Content.
Slots
Slots are a location on a Cortex API Client app where dynamic content can appear. Slots are basically content spaces, but unlike content spaces in the store where they are just a placeholder with a name, in the Cortex API a slot contains a name and dynamic content.
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Tags
Dynamic Content shows specific content to targeted shoppers, but how does it determine who those shoppers are? The answer is through Tags. Elastic Path Commerce incorporates a tagging framework that is used to set and evaluate tags that you can use to segment Shoppers, and to decide when
(Time) and where (Store) to display content. The tagging data about a shopper is captured in a variety of ways, including:
Information provided in a registered user’s customer account
Information entered by a CSR about a customer during a customer service call
Target and Referring URLs and search terms captured when the user clicks a link to bring them to a store.
Information captured by the tags is stored in the user’s session while he shops in an Elastic Path
Commerce store. The information can then be used to evaluate whether the shopper meets conditions set for displaying Dynamic Content. Tag information is captured only when the shopper first visits a store during a browser session. For example, if a shopper visits your store from a Google link, and then goes to a different site that refers him back to your store, the Referring URL tag would only contain the original referring URL for Google.
A Marketer or other Commerce Manager user with Dynamic Content user permissions, uses the tags when creating conditions that determine whether or not a shopper will see a piece of Dynamic
Content.
Elastic Path Commerce is shipped with the most commonly used tags. More tags will become available in the future and organizations can develop their own custom tags as required. The following tags are included with Elastic Path Commerce:
Shopper tags are presented in Commerce Manager client in sub-groups for easy selection. The subgroups include:
Browse Behavior
Customer Profile
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Geo Location (GEO IP)
Shopping Cart
Browse Behavior Tags
Tag name
have searched in the
store for phrase
(string) have viewed category
(string)
landed on a store page with URL
(string)
Description
This tag looks for search terms that the shopper has entered into the storefront Search field. For the search terms to be recorded the shopper must actually press the Search button.
Note that the saved tag value is overwritten each time the shopper performs a new search.
This tag has a limit of 50 characters.
This tag evaluates the selected category value against those that the shopper has visited in the storefront during his current session.
This tag cannot be used to evaluate a shopper’s navigation where the shopper has directly navigated to a product without passing through a category or a sub-category.
Example use: If a shopper has visited the “camera cases” product categories during their visit to the storefront, you could display a banner offering a price savings on camera cases.
The Target URL tag captures the URL link that brought a shopper to a particular page in your storefront.
For example, if the complete URL is:
http://snapitup.elasticpath.com:8080/storefront/br owse.ep?cID=100009&filters=c90000003&sorter=pricedesc
The value stored in the TARGET_URL tag is:
http://snapitup.elasticpath.com:8080/storefront/br owse.ep?cID=100009&filters=c90000003&sorter=pricedesc
This tag has a limit of 50 characters.
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Tag name searched on the
internet for phrase
(string) were referred from a
URL
(string)
Description
The Search Terms tag is used to look for specific search terms a shopper entered into a search engine that resulted in them arriving at your Elastic
Path Commerce storefront. Currently, this tag is designed to work with the
Google, Yahoo and MSN Live search engines.
Each search engine uses a different syntax for their searches. When it encounters this tag, Elastic Path Commerce looks for search terms within the originating URL. The tag can extract those search terms from URLs generated by Google, Yahoo and MSN Live.
This tag has a limit of 50 characters.
This tag captures the all or part of the URL of the referring site. For example: http://www.google.ca/aclk?sa=l&ai=Cu3BuHnDnSebAJ56wsAPcq-
GAC6WN_nvZ5pr_A8nYoP4ECAAQAVCyrdOV-_____8BYP3A-
4DMA6ABp8Cv_gPIAQGqBBtP0GD2nmBaPAvT5Q8HWz_UpVlyLbZk9rI0Peg&sig=AGiWq tzbc0FN-Ac8TwPg1073g_yo6E_aNg&q=http://www.elasticpath.com
When setting up a Dynamic Content Delivery rule, specifying a referring URL will display Dynamic Content to any shoppers who have linked to your storefront from that URL. For example, you might want to display a 20% discount banner to shoppers who arrive at your electronics storefront by clicking a paid advertising link on an online computer magazine. In the
Dynamic Content Delivery rule you would enter the URL of the ad page in the online magazine as the Referring URL.
This tag has a limit of 50 characters.
Customer ProfileTags
Tag name
are of age (years)
(integer) are of gender
(string)
Description
This tag retrieves the shopper’s age, as computed from their birth date, if that information is stored in their customer profile.
The information from this tag is only retained while the shopper is logged into their customer account in the storefront.
This tag references the shoppers' Gender tag (M/F) if stored in their customer profile. Note that this tag is case-sensitive and must be entered in upper case.
The information from this tag is only retained while the shopper is logged into their customer account in the storefront.
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Geo Location (GEO IP) Tags
To use Geo-Location tags, the
COMMERCE/SYSTEM/ GEOIP/enable
configuration setting must be set to true. If using the QUOVA® GEOIP service, the following settings must also be configured:
COMMERCE/SYSTEM/GEOIP/QUOVA/Password
COMMERCE/SYSTEM/GEOIP/QUOVA/Username
COMMERCE/SYSTEM/GEOIP/QUOVA/ onDemandEndpointUrl
See your system administrator for further information.
Tag name Description
are browsing from a
time zone +/- offset
from GMT
(string)
The shopper’s time zone value is retrieved for this tag using a third party
GEO IP service. The time zone is determined based relative to GMT
(Greenwich Mean Time).
*See Proxy note below.
are browsing from an internet connection of
type
(string)
This tag identifies the type of connection that the shopper is using to access the storefront. It uses a third-party GEO IP service to determine connection type. Examples of connection types include:
Dial up
Cable
*See Proxy note below.
are browsing from an internet IP routing of
type
(integer) are browsing from an
ISP with second level
domain
(string)
This tag identifies the IP Routing Type of a shopper’s connection to the storefront. Typical values returned for this could be regional proxy,
superproxy or mobile gateway.It is useful in determining the shopper’s actual location relative to the IP address returned for them. are browsing from an
ISP with top level
domain
(string)
This tag retrieves the second level domain name from the shopper’s connection to the storefront. The second level domain name is the portion of the internet domain name directly above a top level domain name. It is usually the name of the organization who the domain name represents.
Examples of a second level domain are “google” and “wikipedia”.
This tag has a limit of 50 characters.
*See Proxy note below.
This tag retrieves the top level domain name from the shopper’s connection to the storefront. The top level domain name is the portion of the internet domain name following the dot. Examples of a top level domain are “.com”,
“.ca”, “.org”.
This tag has a limit of 50 characters.
*See Proxy note below.
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Tag name
are browsing from
continent
(string) are browsing from
country code
(string)
Description
are browsing from city
(string)
This tag retrieves the shopper’s city value based on their IP address using a third-party GEO IP service.
*See Proxy note below.
This tag identifies the continent from where the shopper has connected.
The identification is performed using a third-party GEO IP service, and is based on the shopper’s IP address.
*See Proxy note below.
This tag identifies the country from where the shopper is connected to the storefront. The identification is performed using a third-party GEO IP service, and is based on the shopper’s IP address.
This tag has a limit of 2 characters.
*See Proxy note below.
are browsing from
state or province
(string)
This tag uses a third party GEO IP service to retrieve the shopper’s state or province.
This tag has a limit of 50 characters.
*See Proxy note below.
are browsing from
zip/postal code
(string)
The shoppers zip/postal code is retrieved using a third party GEO IP service.
This tag has a limit of 8 characters.
*See Proxy note below.
Note: Some shoppers may be browsing the web behind a proxy. In such cases, the values stored in the shopper's geo-location tags will reflect the location of the proxy server, which may be different from the location of the shopper.
Shopping Cart Tags
Tag name
have a cart subtotal
(decimal)
Description
The value assigned to this tag is evaluated against the current sub-total of the customer’s shopping cart.
Example use: You could use this tag in a condition that displays one of two banner ads offering free shipping to shoppers spending over $50. The conditions set would result in the following:
If the customer’s shopping cart sub-total is $0, no banner appears.
If the sub-total is greater than $0, but less than $50 a banner promoting the $50 minimum sale amount will appear.
If the cart sub-total value is greater than $50, a “You qualify for free shipping” banner appears.
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Condition Operators
By default, condition statements within a statement block are inclusive. They are considered to be joined by an AND clause unless explicitly joined by a different operator.
Tag operators for Dynamic Content conditions are either string or integer.
matching
implies that the characters in the value for the tag must match those returned by the tag in order for the condition to be true. (Note that this match is NOT case-sensitive.)
contains
operator is true if the value set for the condition is found anywhere within the returned string.
matching (case sensitive)
and
contains (case sensitive)
perform their expected match or includes operations but will only evaluate to true if the values sought match the upper and lower case characteristics of those found.
Working with Dynamic Content
As a Commerce Manager user, your role in working with Dynamic Content will normally involve two main tasks: managing Dynamic Content and managing Dynamic Content Delivery. In this role, you might create a Dynamic Content and then a Dynamic Content Delivery or you might set up numerous
Dynamic Content Deliveries that reuse an existing Dynamic Content.
Creating a Dynamic Content in Commerce Manager specifies what the content will be (image, flash,
HTML) and its parameters (URL links, alternative text, etc.), and then adds that configured content to
Elastic Path Commerce. Creating a Dynamic Content Delivery describes the conditions under which the Dynamic Content will display. What is important to remember is that Dynamic Content will not display until it is assigned to a Dynamic Content Delivery.
Creating Dynamic Content
Creating Dynamic Content in Commerce Manager requires that you provide a name for the Dynamic
Content, select a Content Wrapper and provide values for the wrapper’s parameters.
1. Log on to Commerce Manager and choose Activity > Store Marketing.
2. From the Store Marketing menu, select Create Dynamic Content. The Create Dynamic
Content dialog box appears.
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3. Type a name for the new Dynamic Content in the Name field. Choose a meaningful name to ensure that you can easily locate this Dynamic Content if you want to reuse it.
4. Select the type of Dynamic Content from the Content Type drop-down list.
The Type of Dynamic Content determines how Dynamic Content displays. The appropriate content type must be selected in order for the content to display correctly. For example, if you selected the Clickable Image type to use with a Flash file, the Flash file would not display correctly. To correctly display a Flash file, you would need to specify the Flash Content Type.
For descriptions of the types included with Elastic Path Commerce, see the section titled
Content Wrappers (Dynamic Content Types) earlier in this chapter.
5. Click Next when you have selected the appropriate Content Type.
Step 2 of the Create Dynamic Content wizard appears. Depending on the Content Type you selected on the previous screen, different parameters (image files, alternative display text,
URL links, etc.) will be presented on this screen.
In the example chosen for these instructions, we selected the Image Clickable Dynamic
Content Type. The parameters for that particular type are Alternative Text, Path to Image and
On Click URL or JavaScript, as shown below.
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6. Click the blank cell in the Value column for the parameter you complete.
If the parameter value is one that you can select, such as an file, clicking in the Value cell will cause a browse button to as shown here.
7. Click the browse button to open the Asset Manager dialog box. want to image appear,
This dialog box opens to the Assets/Dynamic Content subdirectory by default. Double-click a displayed folder to open it, or click the Up button on the toolbar to change sub-directories and locate the asset (image file, flash file, etc.) that you want to use.
Tip: If the file you are seeking has not yet been added to the dynamiccontent\images or flash directory, you can add it now by clicking the Upload button on the toolbar, browsing for and selecting the file, and then clicking Open.
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The uploaded file will be added to the current directory.
Tip: Your list of assets can get very long. To find items more quickly, click the
Name, Size or Date column headings to sort the list of items in ascending or descending order.
8. Click OK when you have selected the file you want.
9. Continue with the next parameter. In the example below it is an Alternative Text parameter.
The value entered for this parameter will be displayed if the shopper’s browser is unable to display the intended image.
Click the cell for the Alternative Text parameter in the Value column. You’ll notice that the
Edit Parameter Value button becomes active. Click that button.
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The Edit Short Text Value dialog box appears.
10. Type text (in this case, instructions to the shopper) in the open text field. Click OK when you are done.
11. Add the value for the remaining parameter, in this case, a URL for the On Click URL or
JavaScript parameter.
In this example, when a shopper clicks on the Dynamic Content image, she will be shown the page corresponding to the URL entered here.
12. Click in the empty cell for the On Click parameter, and then click Edit Parameter Value. Type the URL for the On Click target page, and then click Finish.
The Create Dynamic Content wizard closes and the new Dynamic Content appears in the Dynamic
Content Search Results list.
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This completes the steps for creating Dynamic Content. Remember that to put the Dynamic Content to use you will need to set up a Dynamic Content Delivery as described in this guide.
Editing Dynamic Content
1. Choose Activity > Store Marketing.
2. In the Store Marketing Search tab, click the show hidden tab button >> and select Dynamic
Content.
3. On the resulting Dynamic Content search tab, click Search.
The Dynamic Content Search Results list appears.
4. Click the Dynamic Content you want to change, and then click Edit Dynamic Content.
5. The Edit Dynamic Content wizard appears. Make changes as required on the first screen, and then click Next to make any changes to the information on the second screen. Click Finish to save your changes when you are done.
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Note: While you can change most aspects of a Dynamic Content, you cannot change the Dynamic Content Type. This is because all of the parameters that you have specified are dependent upon the selected type. Changing that type would remove all of the parameters and the values you have specified for them. If you want to use a different Content Type it is best to simply create a new Dynamic Content and select the Content Type you want.
Deleting Dynamic Content
1. Choose Activity > Store Marketing.
2. In the Store Marketing Search tab, click the show hidden tab button >> and select Dynamic
Content.
3. On the resulting Dynamic Content search tab, click Search.
The Dynamic Content Search Results list appears.
4. Click the Dynamic Content you want to delete, and then click Delete Dynamic Content.
If the Dynamic Content is not in use in the system it is deleted and removed from the Search
Results list.
If the Dynamic Content is being used by a Dynamic Content Delivery, an error message is displayed and it is not deleted. In order to delete it, you must first un-assign it in the associated
Dynamic Content Delivery or delete the associated Dynamic Content Delivery altogether.
Creating Dynamic Content Delivery
Remember that before you can set up a Dynamic Content Delivery, you must ensure that the target
Content Space (the space where the Dynamic Content will be displayed on the storefront) has been registered in Commerce Manager. If it has not been registered, you will not be able to select it when
creating the Delivery. (see Registering Content Spaces)
1. Choose Activity > Store Marketing.
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2. Select Store Marketing > Create Dynamic Content Delivery. The Create Dynamic Content dialog box appears.
3. Type a Name for the new Dynamic Content Delivery. It is best to use a meaningful name so that you can easily find this item in the future. For example, use a name such as “Spring 20% off coats promotion”, rather than “DynamicContentDelivery4”.
4. Type a Description for the Dynamic Content Delivery.
5. Use the Priority slider control to specify whether the Dynamic Content should take priority over another Dynamic Content that would also display in the same Content Space.
For example, you might have a Winter promotion banner set to display in November through
January in the same Content Space as a Christmas sale banner that displays only from
December 1 through December 24. In this case, you would want to give the Christmas banner a priority of 1 to ensure that the takes priority over the Winter banner.
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6. Click Next. Step 2 of the wizard appears.
7. Select the Dynamic Content that you want to show with this Dynamic Content Delivery. Click
Next.
8. In the Available Content Space(s) list, select the Content Space(s) where you want the Dynamic
Content to appear and click Add to move the selected items to the Assigned Content Space(s) list.
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9. Click Next. Step 4 of the wizard appears. You use this screen to specify which set of shoppers will see the Dynamic Content. By default, this is set to All Shoppers, meaning that the Dynamic
Content will be shown to all shoppers who view the storefront.
10. To ensure that only a subset of shoppers sees this Dynamic Content, you must add some conditions. Select Only shoppers who match the following conditions.
11. Click add statement.
A condition line appears, showing fields for Tag, Operator and Value. Use these to build condition statements as shown below.
12. Select a Tag you want the system to look for when deciding whether or not to display the
Dynamic Content. Depending on the tag you select different operators will become available for selection in the Operator drop-down field. Select the appropriate operator, and then enter a Value that will be evaluated for this condition.
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In the example shown, our target shoppers are people aged 60 years or older. We selected the
“ are of age
” tag, the
>=
(greater than or equal to) operator and a value of
60
.
13. To add a second condition, click add statement again, and select a Tag, Operator and Value.
Notice that if you add another statement block AND pre-fixes the second statement. By default, statements within statement blocks are inclusive. If you wish to create an OR statement, you must first add a new statement block, select OR as the operator between the two blocks, and then add the new statement to the new block.
14. Click Next when you are done adding conditions. Step 5 of the wizard appears. Use this screen to set a Time period for the Dynamic Content. You have three options for setting the time dimension of the Dynamic Content Delivery:
If you want the Dynamic Content to be active immediately and without an end date, select
All the time.
If you wish to use a previously saved Time type Saved Condition, select it from the dropdown list.
If you want the Dynamic Content to start and stop displaying on particular dates, select
Only within the following specific date range. Click the calendar buttons beside the Start and End date fields to pick start and end dates.
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15. Click Next. Step 6 of the wizard appears. On this screen you select the Store(s) in which you want the Dynamic Content to display.
16. Select one of the following:
If you want the Dynamic Content to display in all the selling channels in your Elastic Path
Commerce system, select All currently active Selling Channels.
If you want to reuse a previously created Stores Saved Condition, select it from the dropdown list.
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To display the content in only select stores, click Only the following specific Selling
Channels. Next, click on a store in the Available Selling Channels list, and then click Add to add it to the Assigned Selling Channels list. You can assign the Dynamic Content to as many selling channels as you want. The content will display in all assigned selling channels.
17. Click Finish when you are done.
The Create Dynamic Content Delivery wizard closes and the new Dynamic Content Delivery appears in the Dynamic Content Delivery Search list.
Editing Dynamic Content Delivery
1. Choose Activity > Store Marketing.
2. On the Store Marketing Search tab, click the show hidden tabs button [>>] and select Dynamic
Content Delivery.
3. Leave the search fields empty and click Search. A list of all Dynamic Content Delivery items appears in the Search Results pane.
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4. Select the Dynamic Content Delivery you want to change, and then click Edit Dynamic Content
Delivery.
5. Make changes as required and click Finish when you are done.
Deleting Dynamic Content Delivery
1. Choose Activity > Store Marketing.
2. On the Store Marketing Search tab, click the show hidden tabs button [>>] and select Dynamic
Content Delivery.
3. Leave the search fields empty and click Search.
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4. Select the Dynamic Content Delivery you want to Delete, and then click Delete Dynamic
Content Delivery.
5. Review the information on the Dynamic Content Delivery to be sure you have selected the correct one. Click OK to delete the item.
The Dynamic Content Delivery is deleted from the system and removed from the Search Results list.
Saved Conditions
A Saved Condition is a condition (or set of conditions) that you can name and store in the system for reuse at a later time. The Saved condition can then be selected when setting up a Dynamic Content
Delivery. This saves you the time of recreating the condition each time you need it.
When you create a Saved Condition you must specify a condition Type. This type corresponds to one of the three dimensions of the selling context you define when you configure a Dynamic Content
Delivery: Shopper, Time or Stores. Each Saved Condition can be of only one type. For example, you can save a Shopper or a Time condition, but not a condition that contains Shopper and Time dimensions.
In practice, this does not cause a problem, because the Dynamic Content Delivery wizard allows you to select Saved Conditions for each of the three dimensions of a delivery if you wish. For example, on the Select Shopper step of the wizard, you could choose a Saved Condition named “Men 40 yrs and older from Texas”. Then, on the Select Time page, you could select a Saved Condition named “Father’s
Day promo June 01 to June 26”. Finally, on the Store page, you could select a Saved Condition named
“Mens stores only”.
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Creating a Saved Condition
1. Choose Activity > Store Marketing.
2. On the Store Marketing menu, select Create Saved Condition.
The Create Saved Condition dialog box appears.
3. Select the Type of condition you want to create and then click OK.
The basic types are:
Shopper The condition describes the type of shopper who should see the dynamic content. Attributes of the target shopper might describe:
personal traits: age, gender
shopping behavior traits: cart subtotal, search terms, catalog items viewed
geographic traits: city, postal code, country
Time The condition specifies a time period during which the dynamic content will be active for the target shopper.
Store The condition specifies in which online store(s) the dynamic content will display.
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The Create Saved Condition dialog box closes and a tab of the same name appears in the right pane.
4. Provide a Name and a Description for the new Saved Condition.
5. Click the Condition Builder tab.
6. Begin building a condition. Click the add statement button within the first condition block and select a condition tag from the pop-up list.
7. Select an operator for the selected tag (matches, contains, =>, etc) and enter a value in the adjacent field.
8. Click Add Statement to add another statement to the same statement block, or click Add
Statement Block to build another block of statements for evaluation in conjunction with the first block.
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Notice that if you add another statement block AND pre-fixes the second statement. By default, statements within statement blocks are inclusive. If you wish to create an OR statement, you must first add a new statement block, select OR as the operator between the two blocks, and then add the new statement to the new block.
9. Click Save on the Commerce Manager client tool bar to save your new Saved Condition.
Your Saved Condition is now available for selection when setting up a Dynamic Content Delivery.
Editing a Saved Condition
1. Click Activity > Store Marketing.
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2. On the Store Marketing Search tab, select Saved Conditions, then click Search to return a list of all Saved Conditions.
3. Click the saved condition you want to modify, and then click Edit Saved Condition.
4. The condition opens in a tab below the search results. Make your changes on the Summary and the Condition Builder tabs, and then click Save.
Deleting a Saved Condition
1. Click Activity > Store Marketing.
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2. On the Store Marketing Search tab, select Saved Conditions, then click Search to return a list of all Saved Conditions.
The Condition Search Results dialog box appears in the right pane.
3. Click the saved condition you want to delete, and then click Delete Saved Condition.
4. A confirmation message appears. Click OK to delete the Saved Condition.
Registering Content Spaces
Content Spaces must be registered in Commerce Manager before Dynamic Content can be delivered within them. By default, the Content Spaces provided with Elastic Path Commerce are already registered. However, if you add new or rename existing Content Spaces, you will need to register them following the steps below. Remember, you only need to register a Content Space once. Once registered, the Content Space becomes available for assignment to multiple pieces of Dynamic
Content.
Note: Your user account must have the Manage Content Spaces user role to perform these tasks in Commerce Manager.
1. Log on to Commerce Manager and choose Activity > Configuration.
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2. On the Configuration tab, select Targeted Selling > Content Spaces.
3. On the Content Spaces tab in the right pane, click Create Content Space. The Create Content
Space dialog box appears.
4. In the Name field, enter the exact name given to the Content Space in the CMS template by your web developer. If you are not sure what this name is, verify it with your web developer.
5. Type a meaningful Description for the Content Space. The Description can be used to provide guidelines for users who want to assign Dynamic Content to the Content Space. For example, it may indicate if there are width/height restrictions based on the overall page layout.
6. Click Save.
The Create Content Space dialog box closes and the new Content Space registration appears in the
Content Spaces list.
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The Content Space is now ready to be used in a Dynamic Content Delivery.
Editing Content Spaces
1. Log on to Commerce Manager and choose Activity > Configuration.
2. On the Configuration tab, select Targeted Selling > Content Spaces. All Content Spaces in the system appear in the Content Spaces list in the right pane.
3. Click on the one you want to change, and then click Edit Content Space. The Edit Content
Space dialog box appears.
4. Change the text in the Name and Description fields if you want, then click Save. The Edit
Content Space dialog box closes.
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Deleting Content Spaces
Content Space registrations can be easily deleted. Keep in mind however, that when you delete a
Content Space in Commerce Manager, you are only deleting the registration of that space in the
Elastic Path Commerce database.
The Content Space reference will remain in the template where the web developer originally created it until that reference is explicitly removed from the file. This can be handy if you decide to reuse the deleted Content Space at a later date; you need only re-register the Content Space in Commerce
Manager to take advantage of it.
1. Log on to Commerce Manager and choose Activity > Configuration.
2. On the Configuration tab, select Targeted Selling > Content Spaces.
All Content Spaces in the system appear in the Content Spaces list in the right pane.
3. Click on the Content Space you want to delete, and then click Delete Content Space.
4. A confirmation message appears. Click OK to confirm the deletion.
The Content Space is removed from the Content Spaces list.
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Chapter 10: Shipping/Receiving
The Shipping/Receiving activity allows warehouse users to complete shipments. It can be accessed from the Activity menu:
The image on the following page shows the shipment workflow in Elastic Path Commerce.
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Shipment Workflow Process
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Receiving Inventory
When shipments of existing products arrive, warehouse staff may update the system to reflect the new inventory. Receiving inventory is a feature of the Commerce Manager client that allows authorized users to increase the stock of existing products.
1. Click the Receive Inventory button.
2. Enter the incoming inventory row by row as shown in the following screen.
Note:
When you enter the SKU Code value for a row and click Enter or mouse out of the field, the Product Name and SKU Options values will be automatically filled in. If they are not, and a red X is displayed as in the screenshot below, this indicates that the SKU code you entered is not valid.
3. Click Save.
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Importing Inventory
Authorized users can increase the stock of existing products by importing inventory data from comma-separated value (CSV) files. This is an alternative to manually updating inventory levels for multiple products, especially if you have an external system to manage your inventory and you need to be able to import a large number of inventory changes in a batch.
Note: CSV files may use characters other than commas to separate values.
Before you can import inventory, you must create a warehouse import job. The import job describes the column structure of the import data files and how those columns are mapped to the data fields.
Creating a Warehouse Import Job
1. Create a CSV template file that describes the structure of the data you want to import. This file must contain one line of comma-separated values. Each value should be either the column name or a description of the data in the column. For example, the CSV files that you need to import are structured as follows:
<product sku>,<quantity on hand>,<reorder quantity>, <reorder minimum>
The line might look similar to the following:
Product SKU,Qty on Hand,Reorder Qty,Reorder Minimum
2. Click the View Warehouse Import Jobs button.
3. Click Create Import Job.
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4. Configure the settings as follows:
Warehouse
The warehouse whose inventory needs to be updated.
Data Type
Import Type
This must be set to Inventory.
Select one of the following options:
Insert & Replace: inserts inventory data for the product SKUs specified in the data file. If there is already inventory data for a SKU, it is overwritten with the data that is being imported.
Update: updates all inventory data for the product SKUs specified in the data file.
Insert: inserts inventory data for the product SKUs specified in the data file. If there is already inventory data for a SKU, the data is not imported.
Delete: deletes all inventory data for the product SKUs specified in the data file.
Import Name
The name to display in the list of warehouse import jobs.
CSV Template File
The CSV template file that was created in step 1.
Column Delimiter
The character that separates each value in a line. All text values must begin and end with the text delimiter character.
Text Delimiter
The character that surrounds each text value in a line.
Max errors during import (default)
The number of non-fatal errors that can occur before an import of this type is terminated.
5. Click Next. The Commerce Manager client will verify that the CSV file contains valid data and report any errors. If there are any errors, correct them and click Back to repeat this step.
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6. In the Map Data Fields screen, you must specify how the data in the CSV file is mapped to inventory fields. For each data field to be mapped, select the field in the Data Fields list, select the appropriate column in the CSV Columns list, and click Map.
Note: It is not necessary to map all data fields to all CSV columns. Only the
productSku field must be mapped.
7. Click Finish.
Executing a Warehouse Import Job
Click the View Warehouse Import Jobs button.
1. In the list of jobs, select the job you want to run.
2. Click Run Import Job.
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3. Click the browse button next to the CSV Import File box and locate the CSV file that contains the inventory data you want to import.
4. Click Next. The Commerce Manager client verifies that the CSV file contains valid data and reports any errors. Verification may take a few minutes, depending on the amount of data in the file. If there are any errors, correct them and click Back to repeat this step.
5. Click Finish. The import may take a few minutes, depending on the amount of data in the file.
Completing a Shipment
After the package has shipped, shipping personnel must complete the shipment in the Commerce
Manager client. Retailers will not receive payment for the transaction until the shipment has been completed (unless the store has been configured for collection of payment at the time of purchase.)
1. Click the Complete Shipment button.
2. Enter the Shipment ID of the order you want to complete,
3. Click Validate. If it is a valid shipment ID, you can complete the order.
4. Click Complete.
Switching Warehouses
Click the Switch Warehouse icon and select the warehouse you want to switch to.
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Retrieving SKU Inventory Numbers
1. Open the Inventory tab.
2. Either enter a SKU Code or click the icon next to the field to display a dialog box for selecting valid SKU Code.
3. Click Retrieve. The results will be returned in a new tab.
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Chapter 11: Change Sets
Let’s assume you need to change prices for 200 different products in your storefront on a specific date. You could change each price on your production server on that date, but that would be very time-consuming. Also, any errors you make would immediately display to shoppers, which could negatively impact your business.
A better practice is to apply your changes in a staging environment, validate the changes, and then move the changes in bulk to the production environment. However, managing changes across environments can be complicated and time-consuming. How do you know which objects are ready to move to production? Once you've applied changes to your staging environment, how do you prevent modified objects from being changed again before they are moved to the production environment?
Change Sets allow you to group objects and control who can modify them. After making changes to objects in a Change Set, you can lock the Change Set to prevent any further changes. Then, using the
Data Sync Tool, you can move the changed objects to your production environment. Once the changes are applied to your production environment, you can unlock the Change Set and make the objects available again for editing.
When an object is assigned to a Change Set, the Change Set's status determines if the object can be modified. There are three Change Set states:
State Icon Description
OPEN The Change Set is open.
Users with appropriate permissions can add and edit objects in the Change
Set. When an object is added to the Change Set, it cannot be added to any other Change Set until it is finalized.
LOCKED
FINALIZED
The Change Set is locked.
Objects cannot be added to the Change Set. Objects in the Change Set cannot be modified until the Change Set is finalized.
The Change Set has been finalized and all objects have been synchronized the production server.
Once a Change Set is finalized, its objects can be added to other Change Sets and edited.
Note: If Change Sets are enabled, users must select a Change Set before they can create certain types of business objects, including Products, Categories and Promotions.
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Change Set Workflow
The Change Set workflow is as follows: you create a Change Set within Elastic Path Commerce’s
Commerce Manager, name the Change Set, and add items to Change Set that you want to move to the production environment.
Change Sets are used with Elastic Path Commerce’s Data Sync Tool—a tool for synchronizing changes between Elastic Path Commerce deployments. The typical workflow for this process is illustrated below. As shown, once you created a Change Set, made your changes, and locked the Change Set, you use the Data Sync Tool to export the modified objects from the source system and import them to a target system. During import, the Data Sync Tool merges the changes for each object in the Change
Set with the object in the target system.
The Data Sync Tool can export and import Change Sets in one step or, if the source and target systems cannot communicate directly (due to firewall rules, for example), in two steps. In the case of a twostep export/import, run the Data Sync Tool from a location that has access to the source’s database.
The Change Set data exports to the Data Sync Tool file system. Then you can move the exported package to another machine where the Data Sync Tool has access to the target's database.
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When you synchronize a Change Set, the items belonging to the Change Set on the source system normally change from a Locked to a Finalized state. However, the use of the Change Set status workflow is particular to your organization. For example, while one retailer may want the items in a
Change Set to be “Finalized” immediately after the Change Set has been successfully moved, another retailer might want the Change Set to stay in a Locked state on the source system awaiting further verification.
User Permissions
To perform Change Sets tasks, a user needs "Change Set" permissions. See User Roles for more
information. To view a Change Set, a Commerce Manager client user must be associated with that
Change Set. On creating a Change Set, the user is automatically associated with that Change Set and is able to associate additional users to the Change Set. Users cannot see Change Sets that they have no association with (either as a creator or through assignment to the Change Set by the creator). For
information on adding other users to the Change Set, see the Change Set Users tab .
Supported Change Set Objects
An up-to-date list of the supported Change Set Objects is available in the Import Export Tool Guide: https://docs.elasticpath.com/display/EP641IMPEX/Supported+Object+Types
Elastic Path Commerce can be extended to support other objects types in Change Sets. For more information, see the Data Sync Tool Guide at the Elastic Path documentation site
(http://docs.elasticpath.com).
Object Dependencies
When adding and moving objects in Change Sets, it's important to be aware of the relationships between different objects. Some objects have dependencies on other objects. When the Data Sync
Tool is used to move objects from one deployment to another, all dependencies of that object must exist on the target deployment. If not, the operation will fail. For example, you want to move a new
Product from a staging environment to a production environment. The Category that contains that
Product is also new and does not exist on the production environment yet. If you attempt to move the Product to production before moving the Category, the operation will fail.
You configure which dependent objects are included when using the Data Sync Tool. For more information, see the latest version of the Staging to Production Guide on the Elastic Path documentation site (http://docs.elasticpath.com).
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Enabling Change Sets
The Change Sets feature must be enabled before it can be used. Change Sets are enabled through the
Commerce Manager client’s system configuration settings.
1. Log on to Commerce Manager as a user with administration permissions.
2. Choose Activity > Configuration.
3. Click System Configuration.
4. In the list of settings, select
COMMERCE/SYSTEM/CHANGESETS/enable
.
5. Click New and enter
true
. Click Save.
6. Restart all instances of the Commerce Manager client.
Note: Users must have the Change Set permissions in order to work with Changes Sets. For
information on changing user roles and permissions, see User Roles on page 42.
Creating a Change Set
1. Choose Activity >Change Set.
2. In the Search tab, click Search.
3. Click Create Change Set at the top of the Change Set Search Results tab.
The New Change Set dialog box appears.
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4. Enter a name and description for the Change Set and click Finish.
The new Change Set appears in the Change Set Search Results list.
You can now view and add items to the Change Set.
Viewing a Change Set
1. Choose Activity > Change Sets.
2. In the Change Sets search tab, set Change Set State to All States (or a specific state to narrow the search results) and click Search. The Changes Set Search Results appears.
3. Double-click the Change Set you want to view, and the Change Set details appear.
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The table below describes the Change Set Tab properties.
Selected
Check box for selecting a Change Set object. Selected objects can be moved to other Change Sets using the Move Selected Objects button.
Change Type
Displays icons describing the Change Set object’s type.
- Edit icon –Edited object.
- Remove icon – Deleted object.
Object Code
- Add icon – New object.
Lists the Change Set object’s code, which is a unique identifier in the Commerce Manager.
Object Name
Object Type
Date Added
Added By
Lists the name of the object.
Lists the object’s type.
Lists the day the object was added to the Change Set.
Lists the User Role of the person that added the object to the
Change Set.
This button moves the selected Change Set objects to a different
Change Set.
This button opens the Change Set object for editing.
Adding Objects to a Change Set
You can add a variety of objects to a Change Set. Once an object is added to a Change Set, the object
Note: The steps below assume you have Change Set permissions (see User Roles on page 42), you
enabled Change Sets (see Enabling Change Sets ), and you created a Change Set (see
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Adding a New Object to a Change Set
The steps for creating a new object (product, catalog, price list, category type, etc) for a Change Set are the same steps you normally follow for creating the object, except for the first step you select the
Change Set to create the object for. See the other sections in this manual for steps on creating products, catalogs, price lists, etc. The steps below are a guideline for creating new objects for Change
Sets.
1. Select the Change Set from the Change Set drop-down list.
2. Create the object. See the appropriate section in this manual for steps on creating your object.
Once you create the object, the new object is added to the selected Change Set. For
information on viewing the object in the Change Set, see Viewing a Change Set .
Note: Objects in the Commerce Manager with the Lock icon show that the object part of a
Change Set.
Adding an Existing Object to a Change Set
3. Select the Change Set from the Change Set drop-down list.
4. In the Commerce Manager, navigate to the object you want to add to the Change Set and select it.
5. Click Add to Change Set button.
The object is added to the selected Change Set. For information on viewing the object in the
Change Set, see Viewing a Change Set .
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Example: Adding and Existing Object to a Change Set
The following example describes how an existing Product is added to a Change Set.
1. In the Commerce Manager Client, select Activity > Catalog Management.
2. Expand the Catalog and double-click the Category that contains the Product. The Product
Listing tab appears.
3. Click the Select Change Set drop-down menu and select the Change Set that you want to add the Product to.
4. Select the Product in the Product Listing tab. The Add to Change Set button on the tool bar becomes active.
5. Click Add to Change Set. The selected Product is added to the Change Set and the Add to
Change Set button becomes inactive.
6. Double-click the product in the Product Listing tab. The product details are displayed. Click the
Assigned Change Set tab.
7. The Change Set information appears. It tells you which Change Set the product is assigned to, the state of the Change Set, who added the product to the Change Set and the date the product was assigned to the Change Set.
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Deleting Objects Using a Change Set
You can delete objects from your production server using Change Sets. To delete an object, add the object to a Change Set, delete the object in the Commerce Manager, and then use the Data Sync Tool to remove the object from the production server.
Note: The steps below assume you have Change Set permissions (see User Roles on page 42), you
enabled Change Sets (see Enabling Change Sets ), and you created a Change Set (see
1. Use the Change Set drop-down list to select the Change Set.
2. In the Commerce Manager, navigate to the object and select it.
3. Click the Add to Change Set button to add the object to the Change Set and to enable the object’s delete button.
4. Click the object’s delete button.
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The object is now set for deletion in the selected Change Set. A remove icon will display by the object in the Change Set. This icon indicates the object is removed from the production
server during synchronization. See Viewing a Change Set for steps on viewing Change Set
objects.
Note: If you are deleting a Brand and the Brand is part of a Promotion or a Product, the Data
Sync tool will not remove the Brand from the production server. You must remove all
Brand dependencies before the Brand.
Editing Change Sets
You can make changes to Change Sets that are in the Open state. While the Change Set is in the Open state, you can move objects to other Change Sets, edit objects, resolve conflicts, and assign users to the Change Set.
Note: You cannot modify a Change Set that is Locked or Finalized .
1. Choose Activity > Change Sets.
2. On the Change Sets Search tab, click Search.
The Change Set Search Results list appears.
3. Select the Change Set you want to modify, and then click Edit Change Set.
The Change Set panel appears. The panel has four tabs: Summary, Objects, Conflicts, and
Users. The Objects tab shows the objects in the Change Set. You can double-click any object to edit it. You can also move objects to other Change Sets. The Conflicts tab displays objects that may be in conflict with objects in other Change Sets, giving you the opportunity to resolve issues before attempting to sync data to another deployment. The Users tab allows you to add and remove user permissions for the Change Set.
4. In the Change Set panel tabs, you can make the following changes:
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Tab Actions
Summary
Modify the Change Set Name entry.
Change the Description entry.
Objects
Edit an object included in the Change Set:
Edit parameter values for objects in the Change Set. For example, there are
20 products whose prices are increasing in two weeks. You added the products to a Change Set, but have not yet changed their prices. Click
Open Object Editor to open each product’s detail window and change the product price. Be sure to save your changes when you are done editing each product.
Move the object(s) in a Change Set to another Change Set:
You may need to reassign an object from the current Change Set to another Change Set. To do this, select the check box for the object(s) you want to reassign, and then click Move Selected Objects.
Conflicts
In the Move Objects dialog box, select the target Change Set, then click
Move. (Note that only Change Sets with a status of Open are available.)
Use this tab to ensure that the objects in this Change Set are not in conflict with objects in other Change Sets. (Currently, only conflicts between catalog objects are checked.)
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Tab
Users
Actions
Use this tab to assign users to this Change Set. Assigned users can view and modify the open Change Set.
To assign a user, click a user name in the Available Users list, then click the forward arrow (Add).
To un-assign a user, click a user name in the Assigned Users list, then click the back arrow (Remove).
5. Click Save on the tool bar to save the changes to the Change Set.
Deleting a Change Set
Change Sets can only be deleted if they do not have any objects assigned to them. (You can delete a
Change Set if there are users assigned to it.)
1. Choose Activity > Change Sets.
2. In the Change Set search tab, click Search.
The Change Set Search Results list appears.
3. Select the Change Set you want to delete and click Delete Change Set.
The deleted Change Set is removed from the Change Set Search Results list.
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Moving Objects to another Change Set
You may need to move an object from one Change Set to another. This might occur if the object is inadvertently assigned to the wrong Change Set.
Note: Both Change Sets must be in the Open state.
1. Choose Activity > Change Sets.
2. In the Change Set search tab, set Change Set State to All States, and then click Search.
3. In the Change Set Search Results list, double-click the Change Set containing the object(s) you want to move. The selected Change Set opens.
4. Click the Objects tab.
5. Select the check box(es) for the object(s) you want to reassign, and then click Move Selected
Objects.
6. In the Move Objects dialog box, select the target Change Set and click Move. (Note that only
Change Sets in the Open state are available.)
The moved object is removed from the current Change Set and reassigned to the target Change Set.
Checking for Conflicts
When you're done making changes to the objects in a Change Set and you want to move those changes to another deployment, verify that there are no conflicts. Conflicts occur if an object in one
Change Set depends on an object in another Change Set.
1. Choose Activity > Change Sets.
2. In the Change Sets search tab, enter the Change Set name and click Search.
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3. In the Change Sets Search Results list, double-click the Change Set you want to check for conflicts.
4. Click the Conflicts tab. A list of conflicts is generated. (This may take a while if there are many
Change Sets containing many objects.)
The first column in the list indicates the name of the object in this Change Set with the conflict. The third column indicates the object that it depends on and that is currently in another open or locked
Change Set. If you have the appropriate permissions, you can click the name to display the object's details. The fifth column contains the name of the conflicting Change Set. If you have the appropriate permissions, you can click the name to display the Change Set's details.
How you resolve Change Set conflicts depends on your organization's policies. A large organization may have many Change Sets with different owners and you may need to communicate with other
Change Set owners to decide how to resolve conflicts.
Locking a Change Set
When you're done making changes to the objects in a Change Set, you can lock it to prevent further changes.
Note: Before locking a Change Set, it is recommended that you check for conflicts, especially if you are planning to use the Data Sync Tool to move those changes to another deployment.
Conflicts may cause the sync operations to fail.
1. Choose Activity > Change Sets.
2. On the Change Sets search tab, enter the Change Set name and then click Search.
3. In the Change Sets Search Results list, select the Change Set you want to lock.
4. Click the Lock button ( ).
The Change Set is now locked and no further changes can be made until it is either unlocked or finalized.
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Unlocking a Change Set
If you've locked a Change Set, but you need to make changes to it again, you can unlock it. This moves it back to the Open state.
1. Choose Activity > Change Sets.
2. On the Change Sets search tab, enter the Change Set name and then click Search.
3. In the Change Sets Search Results list, select the Change Set you want to unlock.
4. Click the Unlock button ( ).
The Change Set is now in the Open state and changes can be made to it.
Finalizing a Change Set
When you're ready to release the objects in a Change Set (usually after the changes have been applied to the target environment), you finalize it.
1. Choose Activity > Change Sets.
2. On the Change Sets search tab, set Change Set State to Locked and then click Search.
3. In the Change Sets Search Results list, select the Change Set you want to finalize.
4. Click the Finalize button ( ).
The Change Set is now finalized and its objects are released. After it is finalized, the Change Set can no longer be modified. Note that, for auditing purposes, the objects will continue to be part of this
Change Set, but they can now be added to another Change Set and modified.
File System Assets and Change Sets
Some Change Set objects have dependencies that reside in the file system (in the assets directory).
For example, Product Types and Category Types have associated templates. Products and Categories have associated images. Dynamic Content and Dynamic Content Delivery objects can have a variety of associated resources (content wrapper XML files, templates, images, Flash files, etc.). It is important to note that these file system resources are not synced by the Data Sync Tool. If you are moving these objects from one deployment to another, you must copy these resources to the target deployment.
This can be done manually or through some automated process.
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Data Sync Tool
The Data Sync Tool is a utility designed to move Change Set objects from one Elastic Path Commerce instance to another. The typical usage scenario for the Data Sync Tool is for syncing changes between staging and production systems.
For information on running the Data Sync Tool, see the Data Sync Tool Guide on the Elastic Path documentation site ( http://docs.elasticpath.com
).
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Chapter 12: Reporting
Various reports can be generated in the Commerce Manager client. Reports can improve the decisions of both management and front-line personnel. Reports can be generated in the Reporting
Activity, accessible from the Activity menu.
The Commerce Manager client uses BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) technology to produce reports in a variety of formats, including HTML, CSV, and PDF. Custom reports can be created and integrated to fit your specific needs. For more information, see the Developer Guide at the Elastic
Path documentation site ( http://docs.elasticpath.com
).
Customer Registration Report
The Customer Registration report is a summary of a store’s customer registrations during a particular time frame. It is useful for gauging the effectiveness of promotions targeting new customers.
Note: Anonymous registrations may also be included in the summary.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Customer Registration.
3. Choose the store for which you want to generate the report.
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4. Specify the date range. From Date/Time is optional, but To Date/Time is required.
5. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right.
6. (Optional) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
Gift Certificate Details Report
This report shows details about the gift certificates sold by a store in a given currency during a particular time frame.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Gift Certificate Details.
3. In the Store list, select the store for which you want to generate the report.
4. In the Currency list, select the currency for which you want to generate the report.
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5. Specify the purchase date range. Purchased From Date/Time is optional, but To Date/Time is required.
6. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right.
7. (Optional) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
Gift Certificate Summary Report
The Gift Certificate Summary report is a summary of the gift certificates in a given currency that were sold by a store (or all stores) during a specific period of time. It can useful for calculating outstanding liabilities.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Gift Certificate Summary.
3. In the Store list, select the store for which you want to generate the report, or select All to generate a report for all stores.
4. In the Currency list, select the currency for which you want to generate the report, or select All to generate a report for all currencies.
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5. Specify the purchase date range. Purchased From Date/Time is optional, but To Date/Time is required.
6. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right.
7. (Optional) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
Low Stock Report
This report helps determine the products to restock. If a certain product’s Quantity on Hand is less than its Re-Order Minimum amount, it is included in this report.
The user must specify which warehouse the report is for. A brand may also be specified for further filtering; this is useful when a warehouse has to submit an order proposal to a supplier.
If a user has a specific product in mind that he wants to check for low stock levels, he may enter its
SKU number at the input screen.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Low Stock.
3. Choose the warehouse you want the report for from the drop-down list.
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4. If required, you can select a SKU Code and/or a brand to filter the results. Click the button next to the SKU Code box to display the SKU code selector dialog box.
5. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right.
6. (Optional) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
Order Details Report
This report includes the same set of report parameters as the Order Summary Report and finer details on the individual orders that make up the totals.
Specify store you want the report generated for and for which subset of orders.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Order Details.
3. Enter values in the fields to specify what data the report should be generated on. Use the calendar icon to select the report’s date range.
4. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right. Note that you may need to increase the size of the Commerce Manager window to see this button.
5. (Optional.) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
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Order Summary Report
This report provides an overview of a store's performance (in sales) over a particular time frame.
Users may specify a range of dates for the report to summarize. By default, the report will encapsulate the sales data for just the current day.
The user may also specify different currencies for the report to be generated in, the source of the payments, and which subsets of orders (as grouped by their status) to include in the report.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Order Summary.
3. Enter values in the fields to specify what data the report should be generated on. Again, you may click the calendar icon next to the Date fields to bring up a utility to help in selecting the range of dates for the report.
4. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right. Note that you may need to increase the size of the Commerce Manager window to see this button.
5. (Optional) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
Orders Awaiting Stock Allocation Report
This report provides a list of all products that have been pre-ordered or back-ordered. It can be used for a variety of purposes; for example, identifying which products to order.
The user must specify the store the report is generated for. Results may be filtered by product status
(preorder, backorder, or both.)
If a user has a specific product that he wants to check for pre-order or back-order status, she may enter the corresponding SKU number at the input screen.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Orders Awaiting Stock Allocation.
3. Specify which store you want the report to be generated for.
4. If required, you may also specify a SKU code to further filter the results in the report.
5. Select which Product Availability Rules you want the report generated for from the drop-down list.
6. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right. Note that you may need to increase the size of the Commerce Manager window to see this button.
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7. (Optional) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
Returns and Exchanges Report
This report provides a summary of all returns and exchanges during a particular time frame. This could be used to monitor the volume of exchanges/refunds and the reasons for returns/exchanges.
The user must specify which warehouse the report is generated for. The results may be filtered by time frame, the RMA type (return, exchange, or both), or by the status of the refund/exchange (for example, completed, awaiting stock return.)
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Returns and Exchanges.
3. Enter values in the fields to specify what data the report should be generated on. Again, you may click the calendar icon next to the Date fields to bring up a utility to help in selecting the range of dates for the report.
4. Click the Run Report button to view your Returns and Exchanges Report. You may need to increase the size of the window before you can view this button.
5. (Optional.) To export the report as a CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF file, click the appropriate button.
Shopping Cart Promotion Details Report
The Shopping Cart Promotion Details Report contains information about orders where a specific shopping cart promotion was applied, including the order number, coupon code, order total, and customer email. This can be useful for determining the effectiveness of specific promotions.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Shopping Cart Promotion Details.
3. In the Store list, select the store for which you want to generate the report.
4. In the Currency list, select the currency for which you want to generate the report, or select All to generate a report for all currencies.
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5. Specify the date range that contains orders you want to include in the report. Purchased From
Date/Time is optional, but To Date/Time is required.
6. In the Promotion list, select the promotion for which you want to generate the report.
7. If you want to filter the results to include a specific coupon code, enter the code in the Coupon
Code box.
8. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right.
9. (Optional.) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
Shopping Cart Promotion Usage Report
The Shopping Cart Promotion Usage Report contains information about shopping cart promotions, including the number of orders that benefited from promotions, the total generated revenue, and the percentage of total orders. This can be useful for determining the overall effectiveness of promotions.
1. Choose Activity > Reporting.
2. In the Report Type list, select Shopping Cart Promotion Usage.
3. In the Store list, select the store for which you want to generate the report, or select All to generate a report for all stores.
4. In the Currency list, select the currency for which you want to generate the report, or select All to generate a report for all currencies.
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5. Specify the purchase date range. Purchased From Date/Time is optional, but To Date/Time is required.
6. To exclude non-coupon promotions, select the Include only Promotions with Coupon Codes option.
7. Click Run Report. A new pane containing the report appears on the right.
8. (Optional.) To export the report to CSV, Microsoft Excel, or PDF format, click the appropriate button.
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Appendix A: Workflow Diagrams
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Order Workflow Process
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Shipment Workflow Process
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Returns and Exchanges Workflow Process
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Appendix B: Keyboard Shortcuts
Shortcut
Alt+Shift+1
Activity
Alt+Shift+2
Alt+Shift+C
Alt+Shift+M
Alt+Shift+D
Alt+Shift+P
Alt+Shift+R
All
Alt+Shift+S
Ctrl+L
Ctrl+R
Ctrl+S
Ctrl+Shift+S
Ctrl+Shift+C
Ctrl+Shift+L
Ctrl+Shift+O Catalog
Management
Ctrl+Shift+P
Ctrl+Shift+R
Action Notes
Preferences - Change Password
Preferences - Set Pagination
Preferences
Switch to Customer Service activity
Switch to Catalog Management activity
Switch to Configuration activity
Switch to Reporting activity
Switch to Shipping/Receiving activity
Switch to Store Marketing activity
Add the selected object to the change set.
Refresh
Save
Save All
Active only when Change
Sets are enabled
Active only when an editor is active
Active only when an editor is active
Active only when an editor is active
Create Category/Sub-Category
Add Linked Category
Open Item
Create Product
Add Existing Product
Active only when a (virtual) catalog is selected in the
Catalog Browse View tree
Active only when a virtual catalog is selected in the
Catalog Browse View tree
Active only when an item is selected in the Catalog
Browse View tree
Active only when a category within a catalog is selected in the Catalog Browse View tree
Active only when a non-linked category within a virtual catalog is selected in the
Catalog Browse View tree
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Ctrl+Shift+D
Ctrl+Shift+U
Move Category Down
Move Category Up
Ctrl+Shift+I
Alt+C
Alt+S
View Import Jobs
Clear (in Search tab)
Search (in Search tab)
Ctrl+Shift+O Create Order
Ctrl+Shift+I
Alt+C
Customer Service
View Import Jobs
Clear (in Search view)
Alt+S
Ctrl+Shift+P
Ctrl+Shift+A
Ctrl+Shift+I
Search (in Search view)
Create Price List
Price List Manager Create Price List Assignment
Run Price List Import Job
Ctrl+Shift+I View Import Jobs
Ctrl+Shift+C Shipping/Receiving Complete Shipment
Ctrl+Shift+V
Ctrl+Shift+G
Ctrl+Shift+T
Ctrl+Shift+D
Ctrl+Shift+A
Store Marketing
Ctrl+Shift+C
Alt+S
Receive Inventory
Create Catalog Promotion
Create Shopping Cart Promotion
Create Dynamic Content
Create Dynamic Content
Delivery
Create Saved Condition
Search (in Search view)
Active if a category or linked category that can be moved is selected in the Catalog
Browse View tree
Active if a category or linked category that can be moved is selected in the Catalog
Browse View tree
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Appendix C: State Tables
Automatic Order Unlocking
CSR Action
CSR saves order
System Action
System will automatically unlock the given order, on completion of the save transaction.
CSR closes order editor (saves changes on prompt)
CSR closes order editor (abandons changes on prompt)
System will automatically unlock the given order, on completion of the save transaction.
System will automatically unlock the given order.
CSR closes Commerce Manager client (with open orders and saves changes on prompt)
System will automatically unlock each order, on completion of the save transaction.
CSR closes Commerce Manager client (with open orders and abandons changes on prompt)
System will automatically unlock each order.
Inventory Auditing
Event Description Action
New order for shippable SKU with "In-Stock" inventory
A new order is created in the store, the Commerce Manager client, or via a Web Service
"Allocated" quantity is increased
A shipment is edited in the
Commerce Manager client
Change in shipment SKU quantity before shipment is packed
Remove of a shipment SKU before shipment is packed
Addition of a new SKU to a shipment before shipment is packed
Order Cancellation
A shipment is edited in the
Commerce Manager client
A shipment is edited in the
Commerce Manager client
"Allocated" quantity may be reduced or increased accordingly
"Allocated" quantity is decreased
"Allocated" quantity is increased
An order is canceled in the store, the
Commerce Manager client, or via a
Web Service
"Allocated" quantity is decreased
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Event
Manual "On Hand" stock adjustment
Stock upload (with no affected back-order or preorder SKUs)
Stock upload (with affected back-order or pre-order
SKUs)
Shipment is completed
(shipped)
Description
Stock is adjusted in the Commerce
Manager warehouse
Stock is uploaded / received in the
Commerce Manager warehouse
Action
"On Hand" quantity may be reduced or increased
"On hand" quantity is increased
Stock is uploaded / received in the
Commerce Manager warehouse
"Allocated" quantity is increased "On hand" quantity is increased
Shipment is completed in Commerce
Manager client or via a Web Service.
"On Hand" quantity is decreased "Allocated" quantity is decreased
Order Confirmation E-mail
Inventory Status (at time of receipt creation)
Unallocated (Always Available)
Allocated
Awaiting Allocation (Back Order)
Awaiting Allocation (Pre Order)
Sample SKU / Line item availability message
Usually ships in 1-2 days.
Usually ships in 1-2 days.
On Backorder. Expected shipment date: 12th March
2008
On Preorder. Expected shipment date: 12th March
2008
Order History
Inventory Status (at time of receipt creation)
SKU / Line item Availability
Message (if shipment has shipped)
Unallocated (Always
Available)
Allocated
None
None
Awaiting Allocation (Back
Order)
None
Sample SKU / Line item Availability
Message (if shipment has not shipped)
Usually ships in 1-2 days.
Usually ships in 1-2 days.
On Backorder. Expected shipment date: 12th March 2008
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Inventory Status (at time of receipt creation)
SKU / Line item Availability
Message (if shipment has shipped)
Awaiting Allocation (Pre
Order)
None
Sample SKU / Line item Availability
Message (if shipment has not shipped)
On Preorder. Expected shipment date:
12th March 2008
Order Receipt
Inventory Status (at time of receipt creation)
Sample SKU / Line item Availability Message
Unallocated (Always Available) Usually ships in 1-2 days.
Allocated Usually ships in 1-2 days.
Awaiting Allocation (Back Order) On Backorder. Expected shipment date: 12th March 2008
Awaiting Allocation (Pre Order) On Preorder. Expected shipment date: 12th March 2008
Product Availability Rules
An Always Available product cannot be changed to a different Availability Rule; conversely, other
Availability Rules cannot be changed to the Always Available rule.
Availability Rules for Available only if in Stock, Available on Pre Order, and Available on Back Order can change amongst each other.
Note: If you need to change a product’s availability to Always Available from the other rules, we recommend you create a new product and assign it the Always Available rule. Then delete or discontinue using the previous product.
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Product Display Page Messages
State # Availability Rule Stock
Status
1
2
Available only if in stock
Out of stock
Available only if in stock
Out of stock
Availability
Date
null
27th Mar
2007
3
Displayed Message
Out of stock
Out of stock (estimated back in stock date: March
27, 2007)
In Stock, x available
4
5
Available only if in stock
In Stock null
Available on Pre
Order
Out of stock
27th Mar
2007
Available for pre order
(estimated release date:
March 27, 2007)
In Stock, x available
6
Available on Pre
Order
Available on Back
Order
In Stock 27th Mar
2007
Out of stock
27th Mar
2007
7
8
Available on Back
Order
Out of stock null
Available on Back
Order
In Stock 27th Mar
2007
Available for back order
(estimated shipping date:
March 27, 2007)
Available for back order
(will ship when available)
In Stock, x available
Add to Cart
Button
Disabled
Disabled
Enabled
Replaced with
Preorder button -
Enabled
Enabled
Enabled
Enabled
Enabled
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Returns and Exchanges
Action Physical
Return
Refund Yes
Refund No
Action on return creation Action on return of ALL SKUs in RMA
Exchange Yes
Exchange No
None CSR is notified that refund can be given
CSR can refund via original payment method or new
CC
None
None
New "exchange" order is created
CSR is notified that new "exchange" order can be created.
None
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Appendix D: Query Language
The advanced search feature in Elastic Path relies on a special query language to perform sophisticated product searches. This appendix describes the query language, including supported search fields and operators.
Query Format
A simple query consists of a single expression. An expression has the following form:
<field> <operator> <value> where
<field> is the field that contains the values you want to compare. A field represents a common characteristic of the object. For example, if you want to look for products of a specific brand, you would include the
BrandCode
field in your query. The supported fields are described in
Supported Fields further in this appendix.
<operator> is the operator you are using to perform the comparison.
<value> is the literal value you want to compare to the field values.
For example, the following query matches the product whose code is 10030205 :
ProductCode = '10030205'
In addition to searching for field values, you can also search for attribute values. To search for a value in an attribute, the expression has the following form:
AttributeName{<attribute_name>} <operator> <value> where <attribute_name> is the name of a product attribute or product SKU attribute.
For example, the following query matches all products that have the Header / Model attribute set to
MX
:
AttributeName{Header / Model} = 'MX'
To search for a value in a product SKU attribute, use
SkuAttributeName
. For example, the following query matches all products that have the Header / Model SKU attribute set to
MX
:
SkuAttributeName{Header / Model} = 'MX'
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Case Sensitivity
The following are case-sensitive:
Keywords, such as
AND
,
START
, and
AttributeName
Field names
Attribute names
Currency codes (must be in upper case letters)
The following are not case-sensitive:
Literal string values (on the right side of the comparison)
Language codes (when querying on localized fields)
Data Types and Supported Operators
Every field and attribute has a data type. The data type determines what kind of data the field or attribute can contain. The following table shows the data types and the operators supported for each one.
Data type
Supported operators
Notes Examples
DateTime = , != , < , =< , > , >= The DateTime format is
'2008-08-30T17:19:00'
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss
.
'2009-12-21T07:06:00'
Double = , != , < , =< , > , >= The decimal point is optional.
100.00
20199
Integer = , != , < , =< , > , >=
String = , !=
1
Strings must be surrounded by single quotes ( ' ). If a string contains a single quote, it
'StringValue'
'Canon - Kit d\'accessoires pour appareil photo' must be preceded by a backslash.
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Supported Fields
The following table shows the fields that can be used in product queries.
Field name
BrandCode
BrandName
CatalogCode
CategoryCode
CategoryName
ProductStartDate
LastModifiedDate
ProductActive
ProductCode
ProductName
SkuCode
StoreCode
Description
Brand code
Brand name
Catalog code
Category code
Category name
Product availability start date
Product last modified date
Product active
Product code
Product name
Product SKU code
Store code
Data type
String
String
String
String
String
Datetime
Datetime
String
String
String
String
String
No
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
No
No
No
Localized
No
Yes
No
Localized Fields and Attributes
Some fields contain localized values. To include a localized field in your query, you must specify the language that you want to search. For example, the following query matches the product whose
French name is
Canon - Kit d'accessoires pour appareil photo
.
ProductName[fr] = 'Canon - Kit d\'accessoires pour appareil photo'
The value between the square brackets indicates the language. You can use either the two-letter language code or the full language name.
Note: The apostrophe in d'accessoires
must be preceded by a backslash. Whenever a string contains this character, it must be escaped with a backslash, otherwise it will be interpreted as the end of the string and cause a parsing error when the query is validated.
Attributes may also contain localized values. For example, the following query matches all products that have the English value of the Lens System / Type attribute set to
Zoom lens
.
AttributeName{Lens System / Type}[en] = 'Zoom lens'
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Combining Expressions
You can use
AND
or
OR
to combine multiple expressions.
For example, the following query uses AND to match all Kodak zoom lens items (based on the value of the Lens System / Type attribute).
AttributeName{Lens System / Type}[en] = 'Zoom lens' AND BrandName[en] =
'Kodak'
The following query uses OR to match all Pentax and Kodak products.
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' OR BrandName[en] = 'Kodak'
You can use parentheses (the ( and ) characters) to set the order in which expressions are evaluated.
Expressions in parentheses are evaluated first. You can nest expression groups.
Limiting the Result Set Size
You can limit the number of results returned by adding
LIMIT
<number>, where <number> specifies the maximum number of items to include in the results. For example, to return the first ten Pentax products, execute the following:
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' LIMIT 10
Specifying the First Match
You can specify the position of the first match to return within the results by adding
START
<number>, where <number> is the position of the first match you want to return. For example, the following query returns the first ten matches starting at the twentieth match.
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' LIMIT 10 START 20
Note: Currently, it is not possible to sort results. This is primarily used in search queries executed by the Import-Export tool to split result sets into more manageable "chunks". For example, the following query returns 274 matches for the Snap It Up master catalog:
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax'
You can split those matches into three separate result sets by executing the following three queries:
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' LIMIT 100
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' START 101 LIMIT 100
BrandName[en] = 'Pentax' START 201
The first query returns matches 1 to 100. The second returns 101 to 200. The third returns from 201 to the last match (274).
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Appendix E: Promotion Shopper Segment
Conditions and Rules
The following tables describe the different shopper segment conditions and promotion rules that can be used when configuring promotions.
Shopper Segment
Shopper segment information can be used to determine who is eligible for a given shopping cart promotion.
Browse Behavior
Browse behavior information is collected as the shopper navigates the storefront.
Tag name
have searched in the
store for phrase
(string)
have viewed category
(string)
landed on a store page with URL
(string)
Description
The search terms that the shopper has entered into the storefront Search field. For the search terms to be recorded, the shopper must actually click the Search button.
Note that the search terms are overwritten each time the shopper performs a new search.
The categories that the shopper has viewed in the storefront during the current session. Note that a category is not tracked if the shopper navigates to a product without viewing the parent category.
The URL that brought the shopper to the storefront.
For example:
http://snapitup.elasticpath.com:8080/storefront/br owse.ep?cID=100009&filters=c90000003&sorter=pricedesc
searched on the
internet for phrase
(string)
The search terms entered by the shopper into a search engine that brought them to the storefront. Currently, this tag is designed to work with the
Google, Yahoo and MSN Live search engines.
Each search engine uses a different syntax for their searches. When it encounters this tag, Elastic Path Commerce looks for search terms within the originating URL. The tag can extract those search terms from URLs generated by Google, Yahoo and MSN Live.
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Tag name
were referred from a
URL
(string)
Description
The URL of the referring site. For example: http://www.google.ca/aclk?sa=l&ai=Cu3BuHnDnSebAJ56wsAPcq-
GAC6WN_nvZ5pr_A8nYoP4ECAAQAVCyrdOV-_____8BYP3A-
4DMA6ABp8Cv_gPIAQGqBBtP0GD2nmBaPAvT5Q8HWz_UpVlyLbZk9rI0Peg&sig=AGiWq tzbc0FN-Ac8TwPg1073g_yo6E_aNg&q=http://www.elasticpath.com
Customer Profile
Shoppers who create an account can optionally provide certain personal information, such as their age and gender. If those shoppers are currently logged in, their profile information will be available for use in evaluating the shopper segment.
Tag name
are of age (years)
(integer)
are of gender
(string)
Description
The shopper’s age, as computed from their birth date, if stored in their customer profile.
The information from this tag is only retained while the shopper is logged in to their customer account in the storefront.
The shopper's gender (M/F), if stored in their customer profile. Note that this value is case-sensitive and must be entered in upper case.
The information from this tag is only retained while the shopper is logged in to their customer account in the storefront.
The shopper’s status as a first time buyer.
are first time buyers
(boolean)
are registered customers
(boolean)
The shopper’s status as a registered customer.
The information from this tag is only retained while the shopper is logged in to their customer account in the storefront.
are customer segment members
The shopper’s association to the customer segment.
(string)
The information from this tag is determined as to whether or not their customer account is included as a customer segment member.
Geo Location
Geo location information is based on the shopper’s IP address. It is only available if a third-party Geo
IP service has been configured. For more information, contact your Elastic Path Commerce server administrator.
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Tag name
are browsing from a
time zone +/- offset
from GMT
(string)
Description
The shopper’s time zone, relative to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). are browsing from an internet connection of
type
(string) are browsing from an internet IP routing of
type
(integer)
The type of connection that the shopper is using to access the storefront.
Examples of connection types include:
Dial up
Cable
The IP Routing Type of a shopper’s connection to the storefront. Typical values returned for this could be regional proxy, superproxy or mobile
gateway. It is useful in determining the shopper’s actual location relative to the IP address returned for them. are browsing from an
ISP with second level
domain
(string) are browsing from
continent
(string)
The second level domain name from the shopper’s connection to the storefront. The second level domain name is the portion of the Internet domain name directly above a top level domain name. It is usually the name of the organization who the domain name represents. Examples of second level domains are “google” and “wikipedia”. are browsing from an
ISP with top level
domain
(string) are browsing from city
(string)
The top level domain name from the shopper’s connection to the storefront. The top level domain name is the portion of the internet domain name following the dot. Examples of a top level domain are “.com”, “.ca”,
“.org”.
The shopper’s city.
The continent from where the shopper has connected.
The two-letter code of the country from where the shopper is connected to the storefront. are browsing from
country code
(string) are browsing from
state or province
(string) are browsing from
zip/postal code
(string)
The shopper’s state or province.
The shopper's zip/postal code.
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Conditions
When setting up conditions for a promotion, keep the following points in mind:
“Exactly” – The shopping cart must contain exactly the specified number of items. If the cart contains less or more than the specified number of items, the shopper will not meet the condition and be eligible for the promotion.
“At least” – In order to meet the condition and be eligible for the promotion, the shopping cart must contain the specified number of items or more.
Catalog Promotions
Value
Category is []
Brand is []
Product is []
Description
Specifies a Category whose Products are included in the promotion.
You can specify individual Products and Categories to be excluded from the promotion if required.
Specifies a Brand whose Products are included in the promotion.
Specifies a Product to be included in the promotion.
Shopping Cart Promotions
Value
[] [] items are in the shopping cart
Description
Specifies how many items must be in the shopping cart.
You can specify individual Products, Categories or SKUs to be ignored when calculating the number of cart items. For example, in a promotion that gives a shopper a free camera bag when 3 or more items are purchased, you could set an exclusion condition to not include items from the “Camera Bags” categories when calculating the number of cart items.
[] [] items of
Category [] are in the shopping cart
Specifies how many items from a particular category must be in the shopping cart.
You can specify individual Products, Categories or SKUs to be ignored when calculating the number of cart items.
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Value
[] [] items of
Product [] are in the shopping cart
Description
Specifies how many of a particular product must be in the shopping cart.
You can specify individual SKUs to be ignored when calculating the number of cart items.
Specifies how many items of a particular SKU must be in the shopping cart. [] [] items of
SKU [] are in the shopping cart
Cart subtotal is at least $[]
Specifies a minimum total value that must be in the shopping cart.
You can specify individual Products, Categories or SKUs to be ignored when calculating the subtotal.
Currency is [] Specifies the currency of the shopping cart.
Actions
When evaluating actions, the system considers items found in the cart in the order in which they are added. For example, if the condition states that a 100% discount will be applied to an item in the cart when the shopper adds “exactly” 3 items of Category B to the cart, the 100% discount would apply to the third item added.
Catalog Promotions
Catalog Discount
Value Description
Applies a percentage discount for items in the specified currency. Get []% off when currency is []
Get []$ off when currency is []
Applies a fixed currency value discount for items in the specified currency.
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Shopping Cart Promotions
Cart Item Discount
Value Description
Get []% off [] items
Applies a percentage discount to the specified number of items added to the shopping cart.
Get $[] off [] items
Get []% off [] items in category []
Get $[] off [] items in category []
You can specify individual Products, Categories or SKUs to be excluded from the promotion.
Applies a fixed currency discount to the specified number of items added to the shopping cart.
You can specify individual Products, Categories or SKUs to be excluded from the promotion.
Applies a percentage discount to the specified number of items added to the shopping cart from the specified category.
You can specify individual Products, Categories or SKUs to be excluded from the promotion.
Applies a fixed currency value discount to the specified number of items added to the shopping cart from the specified category.
Get []% off [] items of product []
Get $[] off [] items of product []
Get []% off [] items of SKU
[]
Get $[] off [] items of SKU
[]
You can specify individual Products, Categories or SKUs to be excluded from the promotion.
Applies a percentage discount to the specified number of items with the specified product code added to the shopping cart.
You can specify individual SKUs to be excluded from the promotion.
Applies a fixed currency value discount to the specified number of items with the specified product code added to the shopping cart.
You can specify individual SKUs to be excluded from the promotion.
Applies a percentage discount to the specified number of items with the specified
SKU added to the shopping cart.
Applies a fixed currency value discount to the specified number of items with the specified SKU added to the shopping cart.
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Value
Get [] free items of SKU
[]
Description
The shopper receives the specified number of items with the specified SKU number for free.
Get []% off item number
[] of product []
The shopper will receive a percentage discount on the specified product if a minimum number of those have been added to the cart.
You can specify individual SKUs to be excluded from the promotion.
Note that this discount is only applied to a single item of that product in the cart. If that minimum number is reached multiple times, the discount is applied on the last occurrence.
For example, the promotion has the action Get 100% off item number 3 of product
TSHIRT. If a shopper adds 3 TSHIRT products with SKU M and 3 TSHIRT products with SKU XXL, the discount is only applied to the third TSHIRT product with SKU
XXL.
Cart Subtotal Discount
Value
Get []% off cart subtotal
Description
Applies a percentage discount amount off the sub total value of the shopping cart.
The subtotal value is the amount of the cart prior to shipping and taxes.
Get $[] off cart subtotal
Applies a fixed currency value discount to the sub total value of the shopping cart.
The subtotal value is the amount of the cart before shipping and taxes.
Shipping Discount
Value Description
Get []% off shipping service level []
Applies a percentage discount to only the shipping portion of the shopping cart total. The discounts apply to the shipping levels defined for the storefront.
Get $[] off shipping service level []
Applies a fixed currency value discount to only the shipping portion of the shopping cart total. The discounts apply to the shipping levels defined for the storefront.
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Coupon
Value
Eligibility for promotio n []
Description
Grants a coupon that the customer can apply to a future purchase. (The coupon code cannot be applied to the current order.) Each time a customer qualifies for the promotion, she is assigned a unique, automatically generated coupon code.
The list contains all of the store's shopping cart promotions that are activated by private coupons.
You must specify a coupon code prefix, which will be added to each generated coupon code. The prefix may contain a maximum of 16 alphanumeric characters.
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Appendix F: Permissions
The following table describes the permissions that can be assigned to User Roles in the Commerce
Manager client.
Catalog Management
Edit Global Attributes
Include/Exclude Linked Categories
Include/Exclude Products
Manage Catalog Import Jobs
Manage Catalogs
Manage Categories
Manage Product Merchandising Associations
Manage Products and SKUs
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete attributes in the catalog’s Attributes tab.
Grants permission to include and exclude linked categories in virtual catalogs assigned to the user.
Grants permission to include and exclude products in virtual catalogs assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete catalog import jobs in catalogs assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create catalogs, and to edit and delete catalogs assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete categories in catalogs assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete product associations in catalogs assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete products in catalogs assigned to the user.
Manage Virtual Catalogs and Linked Categories Grants permission to create virtual catalogs and to create, edit, and delete linked categories in virtual catalogs assigned to the user.
Run Catalog Import Jobs Grants permission to run catalog import jobs in catalogs assigned to the user.
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Change Sets
Manage All Change Sets
Work with Change Sets
Grants permission to access/modify/delete any user’s change set. Implicitly grants all permissions granted by “Work with Change
Sets.”
Enables the ‘Change Set’ Activity and grants permission to access/modify/delete change sets created by or assigned to the user.
Configuration
Manage Content Spaces
Manage Customer Profiles
Manage Gift Certificate Themes
Manage Payment Gateways
Manage Shipping Regions
Manage Stores
Manage System Configuration
Manage Taxes
Manage Users
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Grants permission to register and unregister
Content Spaces in the Commerce Manager client.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete customer profile attributes.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete gift certificate themes.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete payment gateways.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete shipping regions.
Grants permission to create stores and to edit and delete stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete setting definitions and values. Note a user with this permission can override store-specific setting values, even if the user is not assigned to the store.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete tax codes, tax jurisdictions, and tax values.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete
Commerce Manager users. Note that a user with this permission can assign other users to any catalogs, stores, or warehouses, even if the user is not assigned to those objects.
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
Manage Warehouses Grants permission to create warehouses and to edit and delete warehouses assigned to the user.
Customer Service
Create Refunds
Create/Edit Exchanges
Create/Edit Orders
Create/Edit Returns
Edit Customers
Edit Gift Certificate Recipient
Manage Customer Import Jobs
Run Customer Import Jobs
Grants permission to create refunds on orders created in stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create and edit exchanges for items in orders created in stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete orders in stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create and edit returns on orders created in stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete customers in stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to edit the gift certificate recipient on orders in stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete customer import jobs in stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run customer import jobs in stores assigned to the user.
Unlock Orders Grants permission to unlock orders in stores assigned to the user.
View Full Credit Card/Gift Certificate Numbers Grants permission to view the complete credit card numbers and gift certificate numbers on orders in stores assigned to the user.
Assign Customer Segments Grants permission to manage (add/remove) the customer segment groups from customer accounts.
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Manage Product Pricing
Export Price Lists
Import Price Lists
Manage Price Lists
Manage Product Pricing
Grants permission to export a price list to a CSV file.
Grants permission to import a price list from a
CSV file.
Enables the ‘Price List Manager’ Activity.
Grants permission to add/modify/delete product prices.
Query Management
Create Queries
Manage Queries
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete
Advanced Search queries in catalogs assigned to the user. After a query is created, it can be accessed from the Saved Queries tab. This does not grant permission to delete queries created by other users.
Grants permission to create Advanced Search queries and to edit and delete Advanced Search queries created by the user or by others in all catalogs assigned to the user.
Reporting
Run Customer Registration Report
Run Gift Certificate Details Report
Run Gift Certificate Summary Report
Run Low Stock Report
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Grants permission to run the Customer
Registration report for stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run the Gift Certificate
Details report for stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run the Gift Certificate
Summary report for stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run the Low Stock report for warehouses assigned to the user.
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
Run Order Summary Report
Run Orders Awaiting Stock Allocation Report
Run Order by Status Report
Run Returns and Exchanges Report
Run Shopping Cart Promotion Details Report
Run Shopping Cart Promotion Usage Report
Grants permission to run the Order Summary report for stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run the Orders Awaiting
Stock Allocation report for stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run the Order by Status report for stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run the Returns and
Exchanges report for warehouses assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run the Shopping Cart
Promotion Details report for stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to run the Shopping Cart
Promotion Usage report for stores assigned to the user.
Shipping/Receiving
Complete Shipments
Edit Returns and Exchanges
Force Shipment Completion
Manage Inventory
Grants permission to complete shipments for orders where the inventory is in a warehouse assigned to the user.
Grants permission to edit returns and exchanges for orders where the inventory is in a warehouse assigned to the user.
Grants permission to force shipment completion for orders where the inventory is in a warehouse assigned to the user.
Grants permission to modify inventory information in warehouses assigned to the user.
Manage and Run Shipping/Receiving Import Jobs Grants permission to create, edit, and delete warehouse import jobs in warehouses assigned to the user.
Receive Inventory Grants permission to receive inventory in warehouses assigned to the user.
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Store Marketing
Manage Coupons
Manage Dynamic Content
Manage Dynamic Content Delivery
Manage Saved Conditions
Manage Promotions
Manage Shipping Service Levels
Manage Store Settings
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete
Coupon codes.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete in
Dynamic Content.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete in
Dynamic Content Delivery.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete in
Saved Conditions.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete promotions in Promotions in stores and catalogs assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete shipping service levels in stores assigned to the user.
Grants permission to create, edit, and delete setting values in stores assigned to the user.
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Index
Accessories, 157
Account locking, 19 accountLockoutThreshold
PCI Compliance, 51
Accounts users, 37
Actions, 196
Activation rules, 197
Activities, 21
Marketing, 195
Activity
Customer Service, 175
Activity types, 21 admin login default, 15
Administrator users, 37
Advanced Product search, 121
Assets, 94 and Change Sets, 267
Attributes customer profile, 68
Global (catalog), 107 product, 153
Auditing orders, 178
Availability rules, 151
Backorders, 151
Bundles adjusting prices, 147
Fixed vs Dynamic, 138 nested bundles and price adjustments, 149 products, 138
Call-Center functionality, 179
Catalog Assets, 94
Elastic Path Software Inc. 316
Catalog import job running, 106
Catalog Management, 92
Catalog Promotion creating, 205
Catalog promotions, 195
Catalog Search, 119, 120
Catalogs
Attributes tab, 98
Brands tab, 103
Category Types tab, 99 creating, editing, deleting, 95 import job, 104 importing categories and products, 104
Product Types tab, 100
Summary tab, 97 virtual, 92, 93
Categories organizing, 111
Categories and Products browsing, 109
Category creating, 109 deleting, 111
Linked adding, 110 sub-category, 110
Change Sets and Assets, 267 assigning objects to other Change Sets, 263, 265 assigning users, 264 checking for conflicts, 265 creating, 256
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
Data Sync Tool, 268 deleting, 264 editing objects, 263 enabling, 256 exporting, 268 finalizing, 267 locking, 266 merging, 268 modifying, 262 moving objects, 263, 265
Objects tab, 263 permissions, 255 releasing objects in, 267 searching, 257
System setting
COMMERCE/SYSTEM/CHANGESETS/enable, 256 unlocking, 267 user permissions, 264
Users tab, 264 viewing, 257 workflow, 254
Change Sets, 253
Commerce Manager
Introduction, 14
Commerce Manager Server, 14
Conditions promotion rules, 196
Content Spaces, 214
Content spaces deleting, 243 editing, 242 registering, 240
Coupon codes disabling, 207 enabling, 207 importing, 207
Coupons, 197
Elastic Path Software Inc. 317
Cross-Sell, 156
Customer searching, 191
Customer account deleting, 191 disabling, 191 editing, 192 password reset, 193, 194
Customer account status, 191
Customer Order creating, 179
Customer profile deleting, 71 editing, 70
Customer Profile Attributes, 68
Customer Registration Report exporting, 269 viewing, 269
Customer Service activity, 175
Customers, 191 sharing profiles between stores, 59 cwt content wrapper file, 211
Data Sync Tool, 268
Deleting a query, 122
Dynamic Content, 209 concepts, 209 content spaces, 214 content wrappers, 212 creating, 221 deleting, 227 editing, 226 how to create, 221 tags, 215 tasks, 221 types, 212
Dynamic Content Delivery
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
creating, 227 deleting, 234 editing, 233
Elastic Path Commerce
Introduction, 12
EPQL, 289
Exchange order searching, 186
Exchanges, 183
Featured Products, 112 adding, 112 display order, 115 removing, 115
File type
.cwt, 211
Filter
Shipping Service Level, 80
GEOIP tags, 218
Gift certificate creating, 158
Gift Certificate Details Report exporting, 270 viewing, 270
Gift Certificate Summary Report exporting, 271 viewing, 271
Gift Certificates, 158
Global attributes deleting, 108 editing, 108
Images product, 94
Import categories and products, 104
Import job catalog, 104
Elastic Path Software Inc. 318
Import jobs price list data, 167, 168
Importing Inventory, 247
Inventory creating an import job, 247 executing a Warehouse import job, 249 importing, 247 receiving, 246
Keyboard Shortcuts, 282
Locking Orders, 180 indicator, 181
Lockout
Account, 19 login admin default username and password, 15
Login
Commerce Manager client, 15
Low Stock Report, 272 exporting, 272 viewing, 272
Marketing activities, 195
Merchandising Associations, 156
Metadata, 25
How to configure for a setting, 29
Operators
Dynamic Content tags, 221
Order auditing, 178 creating, 179 editing, 177 locking, 180 viewing, 177
Order Summary Report, 274 exporting, 274 viewing, 274
Order Workflow Process diagram, 279
Orders
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
searching for, 176 sorting search results, 177, 192 split shipment, 182 unlocking, 181
Orders Awaiting Stock Allocation Report, 274 exporting, 274 viewing, 274
Orders by Status report, 273 exporting, 273 viewing, 273
Padlock icon
Locked order indicator, 181
Pagination changing, 51
Promotions search results, 200 search results, 121
Pagination Setting, 51
Password changing, 42 changing Commerce Manager client, 49
Passwords resetting for Customer, 193, 194
Passwords and PCI Compliance, 50
Payment Gateways, 74 creating, 74 deleting, 76 editing, 76
PCI Compliance accountLockoutThreshold, 51
PCI Compliance and Passwords, 50
Permissions
Catalog Management, 16, 18, 46
Configuration, 16, 18, 47
Customer Service, 15, 18, 46
Reporting, 17, 18, 47
Elastic Path Software Inc. 319
Shipping/Receiving, 17, 18, 47
Store Marketing, 17, 18, 48 user, 22
Personalization, 178
Pre-Orders, 151
Price adjustments nested bundles, 149
Price List Assignment creating, 170 deleting, 173 modifying, 173 searching, 174 price list stack, 169
Price Lists, 159 adding products, 163
CSV import file format, 166 deleting, 166 deleting a Base Price, 165 editing, 164 exporting to CSV, 168 importing, 166 importing data into, 167, 168 price list assignments, 169
Price List Manager vs Pricing tab in Catalog > Product view, 153, 160 viewing, 161
Product attributes, 153
Attributes tab, 153 bundles, 138
Category Assignment tab, 156 creating, 122, 127, 133 deleting, 138 image, 94
Image tab, 153
Merchandising Associations tab, 156
Pricing tab, 151
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
searching for, 119, 120
SEO tab, 156
SKU, 153
SKU Details tab, 154
Summary tab, 150 tabs, 150
Product Attributes, 153
Product Bundles
Add item, 147
Availability rules, 140 calculated, 143 creating, 142 deleting, 149
Edit item, 147 in orders, 142 modifying, 146
Move Up/Move Down, 147 nesting, 141
Open Product, 147 price apportioning, 141
Remove item, 147 selection rule for dynamic bundles, 145 shipping fees, 141 tax calculations, 141
Product Display Page Messages, 287
Product Personalization, 178
Product Search
Advanced, 121
Creating a query, 121 saving a query, 122
Products availability rules, 151 backorders, 151 browse, 117 including/excluding in catalog, 150
Multi-SKU, 118 overview, 117
Elastic Path Software Inc. 320 pre-orders, 151
SKUs, 118
Promotion creating Shopping Cart, 201 rules, 196 shopper segment, 197
Promotions, 195 best practices, 199 catalog, 195 creating catlog promotions, 205 creating shopping cart promotions, 200 editing, 206 permissions, 195 search, 199
Search Results pagination, 200 sorting, 200 shopping cart, 196
Query case sensitivity, 290 combining expressons, 292 creating search, 121 deleting, 122 editing, 122 limiting result set size, 292 localized fields and attributes, 291 saving, 122 specifying first match, 292
Query format, 289
Query Language, 289
Data Types, 290
Supported Fields, 291
Supported Operators, 290
Receiving inventory, 246
Refresh application, 26 immediate, 26
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
interval, 26 session, 26
Refresh strategies, 25
Refunds, 183
Registering content spaces, 240
Replacements, 157
Reporting, 269
Reports, 269
Customer Registration, 269
Gift Certificate Summary, 271
Low Stock, 272
Order Awaiting Stock Allocation, 274
Order Summary, 274
Orders by Status, 273
Returns and Exchanges, 275
Shopping Cart Promotion Details, 275
Shopping Cart Promotion Usage, 276
Returns, 183 searching, 186
Returns and Exchanges state table, 288
Returns and Exchanges Report, 275 exporting, 275 viewing, 275
Returns and Exchanges Workflow, 185
Returns and Exchanges Workflow Process diagram, 281
Returns, Exchanges and Refunds, 183
Role creating, 44 deleting, 45 editing, 45
Roles user, 43
Rules activation, 197 promotion, 196
Saved conditions, 235
Elastic Path Software Inc. 321 creating, 236 deleting, 239 editing, 238
Saving your work, 20
Screen
Commerce Manager client user interface, 19
Search customer, 191
Exchange Order, 186 orders, 176 promotions, 199
Returns, 186 settings, 31
Search Results pagination, 121
Search Settings
How to configure, 32
Searching for products, 119
Session Idle Timeout, 52
Setting types, 23
Settings application, 24 cache, 25
How to add, 27
How to configure metadata, 29
How to edit, 28
How to remove setting values, 29 metadata, 25 search, 25, 31 store, 24 system, 24
Shipment splitting, 182
Shipment completing, 250
Shipment workflow, 245
Shipment Workflow Process diagram, 281
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
Shipping Levels, 77
Shipping Region creating, 77 editing, 79
Shipping Regions, 77
Shipping Service Level creating, 81, 82 editing, 81 filtering, 80
Shipping Service Levels, 80
Shipping/Receiving, 244
Shopping Cart Promotion creating, 201
Shopping Cart Promotion Details Report exporting, 275 viewing, 275
Shopping Cart Promotion Usage Report exporting, 276 viewing, 276
Shopping Cart promotions, 196
SKU product, 153
Split shipment, 182, 186
State Tables
Automatic Order Unlocking, 284
Inventory Auditing, 284
Order Confirmation E-mail, 285
Order History, 285
Order Receipt, 286
Status customer account, 191
Store
Catalog tab, 57 creating, 64 credit card payment gateway, 58 editing, 68
Filtered Navigation tab, 62
Elastic Path Software Inc. 322
HTML encoding, 62
Localization tab, 57
Marketing tab, 59
Payments tab, 58
Shared Customer Accounts tab, 59
Summary tab, 56
System tab, 61
Theme tab, 58 time zone, 57
URL, 56
Store code, 56, 64
Store states restricted access, 54 under construction, 54
Stores customers, 59 introduction, 53 orders, 175 promotions, 195 setup overview, 63 shipping, 53 states, 54
Taxes tab, 58
Sub-category creating, 110
System Administration activities, 23
System Components, 12
System Requirements
Commerce Manager client, 14
Tags
Cart Sub-total, 220
Categories Visited, 217
City, 219
Connection Type, 219
Continent, 219
Country, 220
Dynamic Content, 215
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
Customer Age, 218
Gender, 218
In-Store Search, 216 operators, 221
Referring URL, 218
Search Terms, 217
Target URL, 217
GEOIP, 218
Geo-location, 218
IP Routing, 219
Second Level Domain, 219
State/Province, 220
Time Zone, 219
Top Level Domain, 219
Zip/Postal Code, 220
Tax
Exclusive, 82
Tax calculations, 82
Tax categories, 82
Tax code creating, 85 deleting, 85 editing, 85
Tax jurisdiction creating, 86 deleting, 87 editing, 87
Tax jurisdictions, 82
Tax values, 82 creating, 87 deleting, 88 editing, 85, 86, 88
Taxes discounts, 84 order returns, 84
Tiered pricing, 153
Unlock Order privilege, 181
Elastic Path Software Inc. 323
Unlock user account, 42
Unlocking an Order, 181
Up-Sell, 157
User create, 38 edit account, 41 roles, 43 unlock account, 42
User accounts and user roles, 22
User interface
Commerce Manager client, 19
User Management, 37
User Role creating, 44
Users
Admin, 37
View Store button, 56
Virtual catalogs, 92, 93
Virtual Catalog create, edit, delete, 96 including/excluding products, 150
Volume pricing, 153
Warehouse
SKU search, 251 switching, 250
Warehouse import job creating, 247 running, 249 warehouses, 58 creating, 89, 90 deleting, 91 editing, 90
Warranties, 157
Workflow shipments, 245
Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
Elastic Path Software Inc. 324 Commerce Manager Client 6.17 User Guide
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