WebSphere Commerce Enterprise

Contract terms and conditions

Terms and conditions define how a contract is implemented for a customer organization. They define what is being sold under the contract; the price of the items being sold; how the items are shipped; how orders are paid for; how item returns are handled; how orders are approved; and where orders are shipped from.

Contract terms and conditions can also be referred to as contract terms or terms.

Many terms and conditions reference business policies because many aspects of a store's operation are defined by business policies. Terms and conditions provide some standard parameters for the business polices they reference. Providing parameters to the business policies allows you to modify the behavior of business policies for each contract. Terms and conditions that reference business policies are indicated on this page with an asterisk (*).

WebSphere Commerce supports the following contract terms and conditions:

Address book
This term allows you to specify the address books from which the customer can select the shipping and billing addresses for an order. When completing the checkout process for an order, the customer can select an address from the following address books: their personal address book, their parent organization's address book, or their business account organization's address book.
Fulfillment center
This optional term allows you to specify the list of fulfillment centers from which orders placed under the contract must be filled. This list must be a subset of the fulfillment centers defined for the store. Fulfillment center precedence is defined by the store and cannot be overridden by the terms and conditions of a contract.
Order approval
This term specifies if orders must be approved by the customer organization before filling the orders. You can specify an optional amount, that includes taxes and shipping, that allows orders with a value below the amount to be filled without approval from the customer organization. If an order total is over this amount, approval is required. If a buyer is placing an order with order items under multiple contracts and one item in the order has a contract specifying this term, the entire order is subject to the order approval term that applies to the item.
Payment method
This optional term specifies the payment methods that will be accepted for orders made under the contract. The payment method can be as general as a payment type, such as a credit card type, or as specific as a credit card number to be used for payment. If no payment method term is specified in a contract, payment in all methods accepted by the store will be accepted for orders made under the contract.
Pricing terms and conditions
Pricing terms and conditions define what products are available under a contract and what prices the customer will pay for the products. At least one pricing term is required in a contract. The following pricing terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce:
Customized price list
This term specifies that both the list of products for sale and their prices are customized for sale in a contract and their price is customized. Items are not limited to a section of the store catalog they can be from anywhere in the store catalog.
Entire catalog with adjustment
This term offers all of the products available in a store catalog for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the store catalog. If no adjustment is specified, items are sold at the base price.
Price list with adjustment *
This term offers all of the products available in a price list for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the store catalog. If no adjustment is specified, items are sold at the base price.
Price list with selective adjustment *
This term is similar to price list with adjustment except the adjustment is not applied to the entire price list. The adjustment is made on a subset of the price list. The subset of the price list can either be a product set business policy or a customized product set. For information about the differences between the types of product sets, see the related topics.
Catalog with filtering *
This term offers all of the products available in a store catalog for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the store catalog. This term also offers all of the products available in a category, or a list of specify products and items, for sale with a percentage adjustment (mark-up or discount) from the base price as defined in the price list referenced by this term. This term can also state which categories, products and items are for sale or are not for sale in a contract. Category product sets will behave as a product set business policy. Item product sets will be customized products sets.
Component price building block *
This term defines price adjustments which are only available or applicable to items purchased within a dynamic kit. That is, you can assign a price markdown, or markup, or even a completely different price if a particular item is included within a kit. Similarly, you can assign different prices to a single item depending on the kit in which it is included.
Product constraint terms and conditions
Product constraint terms and conditions control what products are included or excluded for sale under a contract. Product constraint terms are optional. If no product constraint terms and conditions are specified in a contract, all products specified in the contract's price terms and conditions are available for sale under the contract. The following product constraint terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce:
Customized product set exclusion
This term states the items in a customized product set are not for sale in a contract.
Customized product set inclusion
This term states that items in a customized product set are for sale in a contract.
Product set exclusion*
This term states the items in a product set business policy are not for sale in a contract.
Product set inclusion*
This term states that items in a product set business policy are for sale in a contract.
Exclusion terms have precedence over inclusion terms. This means that if a product appears both an inclusion term and an exclusion term in the contract, the product cannot be purchased under the contract. For information about the differences between a customized product set and product set business policy, see the related topics.
Returns terms and conditions
Returns terms and conditions specify how returns are handled under this contract. If no returns terms and conditions are specified then returns cannot be created. If returns terms and conditions are specified they should only be one set that applies to the entire contract. The following returns terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce:
Refund payment method*
This term specifies the payment method used to pay refunds to a customer. If a return charge term is specified, at least one refund payment method term must be specified as well. This term cannot be specified if returns are not allowed under the contract.
Return charge*
This term specifies how returns are automatically approved and any deductions from the refund made for handling the return, for example, restocking charges.
Right to buy amount
This term places a limit on the combined value of all orders, including taxes and shipping, placed under a contract. The value of all orders made under the contract must be less or equal to a specified amount. If this limit is exceeded when placing an order, payment authorization for the order will fail.
Shipping terms and conditions
Shipping terms and conditions specify how orders will be shipped, where they will be shipped to and who will pay for the shipping. The following shipping terms and conditions are available in WebSphere Commerce:
Shipping mode*
This optional term defines how orders created under a contract are shipped. If this term is not specified in a contract, orders can be shipped by any mode available in a store. A shipping mode is also known as a shipping provider. A shipping provider is the combination of a shipping carrier and its shipping service. For example, XYZ Courier, Overnight is a shipping provider.
Ship-to address
This optional term specifies where products purchased under a contract are shipped. Specifying this term and condition allows you to limit the locations where orders can be shipped. If the ship-to address term and condition is not specified, a ship-to address must be specified each time an order is made under a contract. If this term is specified, the buyer cannot specify a new ship-to address when placing an order, but must select a ship-to address from a list of ship-to addresses.
Shipping charge type*
This term defines who pays for shipping orders. You can adjust the shipping charge using the Accounts or Contracts notebook in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator. Shipping charge adjustments can be a discount or increase in charge, and can be a fixed price or percentage adjustment. The following types of shipping charges are supported:
  • Shipping charges are paid by the buyer to the seller. The seller calculates the shipping charges when the order is captured and the shipping costs become part of the order total.
  • Shipping charges are paid by the buyer to the shipping carrier. The carrier calculates the shipping cost and assumes the responsibility of collecting payment from the buyer. Shipping costs are not calculated when the order is captured.
Shipping charge adjustment *
This term contains specifies shipping discounts for the contract. These discounts specify an adjustment type (percent off or fixed cost), applicable shipping method, the adjustment amount, and the adjustment description.
Referral interface *
This term specifies the relationship between a store and a remote store. It defines the functions supported by the remote store and the parameters to be used in messages sent to the remote store.