New features and functionality

This section describes the new features and functionality available with WebSphere Commerce.

IBM WebSphere Commerce V8.0 enhancements include the capability to:

  • Let merchandisers and marketers deepen customer engagement, drive customer loyalty, increase revenues, and improve profitability with an improved business user environment.
  • Help deliver a better customer service and support experience.
  • Provide a software platform upgrade to the latest web application server, database, and integrated developer environment, and incorporate earlier WebSphere Commerce V7.0 feature pack capabilities.

IBM WebSphere Commerce V8.0 delivers a new approach to e-commerce with an improved business user experience to help merchandisers and marketers deepen customer engagement and greatly enhance business results. Version 8.0 also includes a new customer service capability that enables organizations to provide a seamless experience across digital and call center channels.

IBM Customer Service for WebSphere Commerce

Version 8.0 delivers enhancements to Customer Service for WebSphere Commerce that offers a better customer service and support experience. The customer service representative (CSR) can utilize the same buying experience that customers use to assist with site activities, for example, assist customers to manage their cart content and assist with the checkout process. As a part of the buying experience, the CSR can look up customer accounts and orders, and help customers with their account management.

Customer Service for WebSphere Commerce is a separately purchased solution for WebSphere Commerce V8.0 clients.

Entitlement to IBM Call Center for Commerce V9.4 is required for use of IBM Customer Service for WebSphere Commerce.

New informationLearn more...

IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce

In Version 8.0, the Management Center is updated to use Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and the open source Spring Framework. This update makes it easier for developers to customize and embed custom tools in the Management Center. With DHTML, Management Center is no longer dependent on Adobe Flash technology, and developers who customize the Management Center can now view their changes without first compiling their code. Additionally, the Management Center user interface now has a new look.

In addition to the enhancements for business users, Version 8.0:

  • Leverages a software platform upgrade to the latest versions of the web application server, database, and integrated developer environment.
  • Incorporates the capabilities of earlier WebSphere Commerce V7.0 feature packs.
  • Provides more streamlined packaging options.
  • Allows businesses to use the Gift Center capability in their physical stores, without the purchase of an additional license.

Like Version 7.0, Version 8.0 can be deployed on premises or in the cloud through IBM Commerce on Cloud. For details, visit http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/commerce-on-cloud

New informationLearn more...

IBM WebSphere Commerce V8.0 runs on supported versions of IBM AIX, Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise operating systems.

WebSphere Commerce Professional

WebSphere Commerce Professional

Provides a comprehensive business-to-consumer (B2C) cross-selling solution that midsized companies can use to deliver a personalized and consistent shopping experience. The capabilities of the Professional edition include precision marketing and merchandising, configurable business processes, A/B testing and multivariate testing, search engine optimization, and personalization. Businesses can use these capabilities to attract, motivate, transact, and understand their customers throughout the customer's journey. In Version 8.0, the Professional edition now enables limited use of the Extended Sites architecture, previously only available in WebSphere Commerce Enterprise.

WebSphere Commerce Enterprise

WebSphere Commerce Enterprise

An omni-channel, e-commerce platform that enables business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) sales to customers across all channels, which include web, mobile, social, store, and call center. The Enterprise edition allows brands to engage shoppers in a personalized and consistent way with merchandising tools, precision marketing, site search, customer experience management, catalog and content management, and social commerce capabilities. Organizations can go to market quickly and easily with an advanced starter store for B2C and B2B that is responsive to optimize content for various device types and formats, which include web, mobile, and tablet.

WebSphere Commerce Enterprise and WebSphere Commerce Professional help:

  • Drive sales and revenue with personalized experiences, content, offers, and merchandising to more effectively sell products and services.
  • Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty by strengthening relationships and delivering a rich and differentiated brand experience across all customer touch points.
  • Enlighten and empower marketers, merchandisers, and product managers with easy-to-use business user tooling and analytics to create, manage, and personalize marketing, promotions, and catalogs without relying on IT resources.
  • Create multiple branded sites and storefronts on a single platform in an efficient and cost effective manner by leveraging a common set of assets and infrastructure.
  • Maximize performance and minimize downtime with a flexible and extensible e-commerce foundation.

In addition to the capabilities included in WebSphere Commerce Professional, WebSphere Commerce Enterprise enables B2B business models with buyer administrator and approver administrative and operational functions. With WebSphere Commerce Enterprise, businesses can use multiple Extended Sites, compared to one Extended Site allowed in WebSphere Commerce Professional.

IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer

Get a quick start on developing your WebSphere Commerce store fronts with IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer Enterprise or IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer Professional. They include tools to:

  • Create, test, and deploy a WebSphere Commerce site under the test environment and workspaces that are provided by Rational Application Developer (RAD) for WebSphere.
  • Build and extend WebSphere Commerce functionality.
  • Customize IBM Management Center for WebSphere Commerce.

Compatibility

IBM WebSphere Commerce V8.0 supports migration from IBM WebSphere Commerce Enterprise V 7.0 and IBM WebSphere Commerce Professional V 7.0. WebSphere Commerce V6.0 users must first migrate to Version 7.0 before they can migrate to Version 8.0.

WebSphere Commerce V8.0 does not support the Oracle Solaris operating system.

IBM Sales Center for WebSphere Commerce V7.0 is not compatible with WebSphere Commerce V8.0.

Previously deprecated functionality in WebSphere Commerce V7.0 is removed in V8.0. Refer to the topic deprecated functionality in the IBM Knowledge Center for WebSphere Commerce 7.0.

Performance considerations

IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition 10.5 offers increased data protection, scalability, and performance for all its database intensive operations. Based on IBM DB2 technology, DB2 Enterprise Server Edition 10.5, it is designed to manage data more effectively and efficiently. Greater availability is delivered through enhancements such as online, automated database reorganization. In addition, the increased scalability and the ability to leverage the latest in server technology helps deliver increased performance of backup and recovery processes.

Packaging

The products described are available in both electronic software distribution (ESD) and packaged formats. Physical media is delivered on DVDs.

The following supporting programs are packaged and licensed for use with IBM WebSphere Commerce Professional V8.0 and IBM WebSphere Commerce Enterprise V8.0:

  • IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V8.5.5
  • IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition 10.5
  • IBM Directory Server V6.4

The following supporting programs are packaged and licensed for use with IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer Professional V8.0 and IBM WebSphere Commerce Developer Enterprise V8.0:

  • WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V8.5.5
  • DB2 Enterprise Server Edition 10.5
  • IBM Rational Application Developer V9.5

Store preview search enhancements

The changes within a workspace task group can be previewed by each business user through store preview function in CMC; their changes are queued and processed in sequence and the indexing status that is shown in the preview window header is respective to each user's preview launch request.