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HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
Operating
Topics in the Operating category highlight tasks that are typically performed by business users, customer support representatives, to complete their day-to-day tasks in the operation of the HCL Commerce site.
Management Center for HCL Commerce
The Management Center for HCL Commerce, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, and others).
Marketing tool
Use the Marketing tool in Management Center to create and manage marketing campaigns and other store content, excluding catalog content. You can use the extensive precision marketing features in the tool to deliver targeted marketing messages to customers.
Managing web and dialog activities
Web and dialog activities are used to deliver brand or promotional messages to customers through a variety of methods.
Activity building blocks: triggers, targets, and actions
When you build a marketing activity by using the Activity Builder, your building blocks are triggers, targets, and actions. These building blocks are represented as icons, or elements, in the palette. You select elements from the palette and place them in a precise order along a flow that represents the marketing activity.
Triggers in dialog activities
Triggers define the event that causes your dialog activity to start or continue. Use triggers to wait for a customer to do something, for an event to occur, or for time to elapse. To include a trigger in a dialog activity, drag the trigger from the palette into the activity flow in the Activity Builder.
Trigger: Customer Places Order
Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity as soon as a customer submits an order with your store. Targeting these customers with marketing materials or promotional offers can encourage them to return to your store and continue shopping.

Documentation
HCL Commerce is a high-availability, highly scalable and customizable e-commerce platform. Able to support hundreds of thousands of transactions per day, HCL Commerce allows you to do business with consumers (B2C) or directly with businesses (B2B). HCL Commerce uses cloud friendly technology to make deployment and operation both easy and efficient. It provides easy-to-use tools for business users to centrally manage a cross-channel strategy. Business users can create and manage precision marketing campaigns, promotions, catalog, and merchandising across all sales channels. Business users can also use AI enabled content management capabilities.
- Getting started
  HCL Commerce has different advantages for business users, administrators and developers. HCL Commerce targets each of these roles with a tailored set of offerings so that each of your users can get maximum benefit.
- Installing and deploying
  Learn how to install and deploy HCL Commerce development environments and HCL Commerce production environments.
- Migrating
  Before you migrate to HCL Commerce Version 9, review this information to help plan and execute your migration.
- Operating
  Topics in the Operating category highlight tasks that are typically performed by business users, customer support representatives, to complete their day-to-day tasks in the operation of the HCL Commerce site.
  - Management Center for HCL Commerce
    The Management Center for HCL Commerce, is a suite of tools to support store management, merchandising, and marketing tasks for business users (Sellers, Marketing Managers, Product Managers, Catalog Managers, and others).
    - Management Center keyboard shortcuts
      Use the Management Center keyboard shortcuts to access user interface functions or complete tasks, using a single key or combination of keys.
    - Working in extended site stores in Management Center
      If your company operates an extended site, you can perform certain tasks directly from your extended site store within Management Center.
    - Manage content externally for use in Management Center
      If content management capabilities other than the functionality that is provided by default with HCL Commerce is required, HCL Commerce can be integrated with IBM Web Content Manager. If HCL Commerce is integrated with IBM Web Content Manager, you can use content from IBM Web Content Manager content libraries with Management Center objects.
    - Management Center user interface
      The Management Center user interface provides a usable, intuitive, and efficient way to complete your business tasks.
    - Using the Management Center
      The starting point for all Management Center tasks is to open the tooling. Afterward, you can use several methods to complete a task: by selecting menu options, by clicking toolbar buttons, by right-clicking and selecting menus, or by keyboard shortcuts.
    - Catalogs tool
      Use the Catalogs tool in Management Center to manage catalogs, categories, catalog entries, merchandising associations, product attributes, and attachments in your store. The Catalogs tool lets business users create, and manage online catalogs. Catalogs provide a way of organizing the products that you want to sell. You define catalog data in groups of categories and products. Catalog data contains descriptions and pricing information for products and services.
    - Marketing tool
      Use the Marketing tool in Management Center to create and manage marketing campaigns and other store content, excluding catalog content. You can use the extensive precision marketing features in the tool to deliver targeted marketing messages to customers.
      - Managing web and dialog activities
        Web and dialog activities are used to deliver brand or promotional messages to customers through a variety of methods.
        Web activities
        Create web activities to schedule and control the information that displays in e-Marketing Spots or Commerce Composer widgets on your store pages. When a customer views a store page, the web activity determines what to show the customer. You can target specific sets of customers with personalized and relevant content.
        Dialog activities
        Create dialog activities when you want to automate marketing actions based on the specific behavior of your customers. Think of a dialog activity as an interactive dialog with a customer: you wait for the customer to do something, and then you respond with an email or a coupon, or some other planned marketing action. This dialog can be ongoing as the customer's behavior on your site changes over time.
        Creating a web activity
        Create a web activity to display marketing information in an e-Marketing Spot on a store page. You can also define targets in web activities to personalize the marketing information. Creating web activities ensures that brand and promotional messages are seen by the right customers.
        Creating a web activity that displays catalog entries
        You can create a web activity that displays one or more catalog entries (products, SKUs, bundles, or kits) in an e-Marketing Spot on a store page. For example, you can display featured products, cross-sells, up-sells, best-selling or top-browsed products, or a list of a customer's recently viewed products.
        Creating a web activity that displays categories
        You can create a web activity that displays one or more categories in an e-Marketing Spot on a store page. For example, you can display featured categories or a list of a customer's recently viewed categories.
        Creating a web activity that displays content
        You can create a web activity that displays images, text, or static HTML in an e-Marketing Spot on a store page. For example, you can display an ad for a store promotion, or some information about an upcoming store event.
        Creating a web activity that displays IBM Product Recommendations
        If your company subscribes to , you can create a web activity that displays the product recommendations that are generated by IBM Product Recommendations.
        Creating a dialog activity
        Create dialog activities to market to customers when they do something specific or when an event occurs. First, you define a trigger for the dialog activity, for example, when a customer registers or places an order. You then define the action to take, for example, sending an email to the customer or adding the customer to a customer segment. You can also define targets in dialog activities to limit the marketing actions to specific customers.
        Activity building blocks: triggers, targets, and actions
        When you build a marketing activity by using the Activity Builder, your building blocks are triggers, targets, and actions. These building blocks are represented as icons, or elements, in the palette. You select elements from the palette and place them in a precise order along a flow that represents the marketing activity.
        Triggers in dialog activities
        Triggers define the event that causes your dialog activity to start or continue. Use triggers to wait for a customer to do something, for an event to occur, or for time to elapse. To include a trigger in a dialog activity, drag the trigger from the palette into the activity flow in the Activity Builder.
        Trigger: Wait
        Use this trigger in dialog activities to specify a waiting period in the activity. When the waiting period ends, the activity continues and the customer proceeds to the next element in the activity flow. This trigger offers an effective way to automate follow-up marketing actions.
        Trigger: Customer Registers
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity as soon as a customer successfully registers with a B2C store. Note that this trigger is only applicable to B2C stores.
        Trigger: Customer Places Order
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity as soon as a customer submits an order with your store. Targeting these customers with marketing materials or promotional offers can encourage them to return to your store and continue shopping.
        Trigger: Customer Participates in Social Commerce
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity as soon as a customer participates in social commerce activities on your site a specified number of times.
        Trigger: Customer Abandons Shopping Cart
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity for customers who abandon their shopping cart for a specified number of days.
        Trigger: Customer Is In Segment
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity for each customer who belongs to one or more customer segments that you specify.
        Trigger: Customer Celebrates Birthday
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity when a customer's birthday is coming up or has arrived.
        Trigger: Wait for Event
        This trigger is a make your own trigger. You can trigger a dialog activity when a specific event occurs that the existing triggers in the Marketing tool do not support. For example, you might want to trigger a dialog activity when a customer clicks a custom link on a store page or adds an item to a wish list. The existing triggers do not support these events, so you can set up the Wait for Event trigger to detect these events or others. Store developers must provide you with technical information to set up this trigger, and some customization might be required.
        Defining the event and parameters for the Wait for Event trigger
        Marketing managers require technical information from store developers to set up the Wait for Event trigger in a Dialog activity. This information includes the event name and the parameters that the marketing services use to detect that the event occurred. To gather this information, you must determine the type of event to match and then complete some steps to define the event and its parameters. Depending on the type of event, you might need to implement a service call with a custom URL or by using Java code.
        Trigger: Customer Searches
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity based on the searching behavior of your customers. For example, you can send an email message about a promotion to a customer who searches multiple times for a certain product.
        Trigger: Recurring Order Event
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity as soon as a recurring order event occurs.
        Trigger: Subscription Event
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity as soon as a subscription event occurs.
        Trigger: Customer Checks Out With Promotion
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity when a customer checks out and a specific promotion is applied to the order. With this trigger, you can provide relevant incentives to customers who use store promotions. These incentives can build loyalty and encourage customers to make additional purchases.
        Trigger: Customer Checks In
        Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity as soon as a shopper checks into a point of interest or a region by using their mobile device. With this trigger, you can provide relevant incentives to customers who use store promotions. These incentives can build loyalty and encourage customers to make additional purchases.
        Targets in marketing activities
        Use a target to personalize a web or dialog activity so that the activity applies only to certain customers. To include a target in an activity, drag the target from the palette into the activity flow in the Activity Builder. Place the target to the left of the action element that you want to target.
        Actions in marketing activities
        Actions define what to do, based on the previous sequence of triggers and, optionally, targets in the activity flow. To include an action in a marketing activity, drag the action from the palette into the work area of the Activity Builder.
        Using the branch element in web and dialog activities
        Add the branch element to a web or dialog activity if you want to split a single path in the activity into multiple paths. Each path can then contain different triggers, targets, and actions within the same activity. You can also add more paths, delete branch elements, and nest branch elements within existing branch elements.
        Activating or deactivating an activity
        Activities can exist in the store in two states; active or inactive. You must activate an activity to make it perform its function for your store. For example, you must activate a web activity to make it display content in e-Marketing Spots on your store pages. You can edit inactive activities only.
        Testing web and dialog activities
        Test web and dialog activities on a testing server to ensure they produce the right result before moving the activities to the production environment.
        Browsing for activities using lists and calendars
        You can browse for activities in the Management Center using several methods.
        Changing a web activity
        You can update your Web activities to correct errors, raise or lower the priority relative to other activities, or to realign dates.
        Changing the priority of a Web activity
        You can change the priority of a Web activity relative to other Web activities. When multiple activities are scheduled for the same e-Marketing Spot, the Web activity with the higher priority is displayed first.
        Viewing the web activities scheduled for an e-Marketing Spot
        You can view all of the web activities currently scheduled to display in a selected e-Marketing Spot in a list or calendar view. Use these views to resolve conflicts when multiple activities are scheduled to an e-Marketing Spot concurrently.
        Changing a dialog activity
        Change your dialog activities to correct errors, change the priority relative to other activities, or to realign dates.
        Deleting activities
        Deleting your activities removes completed or inactive activities from the Management Center.
        Comparison of web activities and dialog activities
        You can use the Activity Builder in the Marketing tool to build both web activities and dialog activities. To decide which type of activity you need, consider the purpose of your activity.
        Activity Builder
        The Activity Builder presents a graphical interface where you can create web and dialog activities.
        Branches in marketing activities
        A branch element is an element you can add to a web or dialog activity to split a single path into two or more paths. When a customer experiencing the activity reaches the branch element, the customer proceeds down one or more of those paths based on criteria that you define. As a result, a single activity can have multiple outcomes, and you can target each outcome to a different set of customers.
        Differences between the branch element and the experiment element
        The palette in the Activity Builder contains two elements in the Branching section: the branch element and the experiment element. These two elements are similar in that you can add them to marketing activities to split a single path into multiple paths; however, these two elements have different uses and they offer different features.
        Best practices for web and dialog activities
        Review these best practices for creating web and dialog activities so that you can learn ways to manage activities more easily and reduce storefront performance impacts.
      - Managing email activities
        Email activities are managed by Marketing Managers to keep a site's targeted marketing efforts organized.
      - Managing marketing experiments
        Marketing experiments are managed by Marketing Managers. They are used to test the effectiveness of brand or promotional messages on the web.
      - Managing custom activity templates
        To save time, create custom activity templates to use as a starting point for creating web and dialog activities.
      - Managing activity statistics
        The Marketing tool gathers and displays various types of statistical data about your web, dialog, and email activities.
      - Managing marketing content
        Marketing content is managed by marketing managers. It is used to deliver marketing messages to customers, as part of campaign activities.
      - Managing customer segments
        Marketing Managers create customer segments to use as targets for marketing campaigns and promotions.
      - Managing e-Marketing Spots
        Marketing Managers create and manage e-Marketing Spots, to ensure that store pages are filled with relevant and compelling images and information.
      - Managing feeds for e-Marketing Spots
        For e-Marketing Spots, feeds provide a means to syndicate marketing information for display in feed readers.
      - Managing email templates
        Email templates, managed by Marketing Managers, are the basis of email activities delivered to customers.
      - Working with campaigns
        Campaigns are managed by Marketing Managers, in order to keep a store's marketing activities organized.
      - Managing search rules
        Search rules provide a means to deliver customized search results and ordering when customers search the storefront.
      - Managing search rule experiments
        Search rule experiments are managed by Marketing Managers. They are used to test the effectiveness of search rules.
      - Organizing marketing objects with folders
        You can use the Management Center Marketing tool to create and manage folders for organizing your marketing content, customer segments, activities, and e-Marketing Spots. By using marketing folders to group and organize your marketing objects you can simplify browsing for and managing your marketing objects.
      - Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
        Find answers to some frequently asked questions about using key features of the Marketing tool and completing tasks.
      - Troubleshooting
        If you encounter issues while you are using the Marketing tool, review troubleshooting information to solve common problems.
    - Promotions tool
      Use the Promotions tool in Management Center to create and manage promotions that support the marketing campaigns for your site.
    - Attachments tool
      As a Product Manager, Marketing Manager, or Category Manager, you can use the Attachments tool to manage URLs that point to marketing image files, catalog image files, PDF documents, and multimedia files that you use in marketing campaigns.
    - Catalog Filter and Pricing tool
      Use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool in Management Center to create and manage catalog filters, price lists, and price rules. Sellers, Sales Managers, and Account Representatives can use the tool's flexible features to implement catalog filtering and pricing strategies that meet the site's business needs over time.
    - Installments tool
      Use the Installments tool in Management Center to create and manage installment rules that support the payment methods for your site.
    - Commerce Composer tool
      Create pages and build layouts for your store directly in Management Center without involving IT by using the Commerce Composer tool. Take advantage of the tool's page design and management functions to improve your productivity and give you more control over the customer experience.
    - Store Management tool
      As a Seller, Site Administrator, or Channel Manager, you can use the Store Management tool in Management Center to manage your stores. The Store Management tool in Management Center replaces all of the store management features in HCL Commerce Accelerator, except store creation and the ability to suspend and resume stores.
    - Workspace Management tool
      The Workspace Management tool is a graphical user interface tool that is used to manage workspaces and workspace-related activities. It provides a single view across all workspaces and all tasks in the workspaces where managers can see how work is progressing.
    - Previewing a store
      Preview your store to ensure that changes made in Management Center show up in your store as expected. You can use store preview in production, authoring, and staging environments.You can use store preview within the authoring instances for any of your environments. Do not use store preview within the live instance of your HCL Commerce on Cloud environments.
    - Management Center frequently asked questions (FAQ)
      Find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the Management Center.
    - Management Center Troubleshooting
      If you encounter issues with the Management Center that are not related to any specific tool, review this troubleshooting topic to solve common problems.
  - HCL Commerce Accelerator
    Use the HCL Commerce Accelerator to maintain online stores.
  - HCL Customer Service for HCL Commerce JSP stores
    HCL Customer Service for HCL Commerce provides customer service enhancements that enable a customer service representative (CSR) to resolve common issues and capture orders. These capabilities are built into the HCL Commerce Aurora storefront and enable a CSR to complete key tasks on behalf of a guest and registered customers for both B2B and B2C stores. Customer Service for HCL Commerce is offered for both Professional and Enterprise editions.
- Integrating
  Topics in the Integrating category highlight the tasks that are commonly performed for using HCL Commerce in combination with other products.
- Administering
  Topics in the Administering category highlight tasks that are typically performed by the Site Administrator, to support daily operations of the HCL Commerce site.
- Customizing
  The topics in the Customizing section describe tasks performed by an application developer to customize HCL Commerce.
- Tutorials
  HCL Commerce provides many tutorials to help you customize and understand your HCL Commerce instance and stores.
- Samples
  Topics in the Samples category highlight the various samples that are provided with HCL Commerce.
- Compliance
  The following section describes how you can leverage HCL Commerce features and functionality to help your site be compliant with different privacy and security standards.
- Securing
  These topics describe the security features of HCL Commerce and how to configure these features.
- Performance
  Topics in the Performance section describe the means by which to plan, implement, test, and re-visit the optimization of HCL Commerce site performance.
- Troubleshooting
  Topics in the Troubleshooting section highlight common issues that are encountered with HCL Commerce, and how they can be addressed or mitigated.
- Reference
  Topics in the Reference section contain all of the HCL Commerce reference documentation.

Trigger: Customer Places Order

Use this trigger in a dialog activity to begin or continue the activity as soon as a customer submits an order with your store. Targeting these customers with marketing materials or promotional offers can encourage them to return to your store and continue shopping.

Example 1

Here is an example of a dialog activity that uses this trigger effectively:

When a customer places an order, issue the customer a coupon for 20% off the next order. To inform the customer of the coupon, send a thank-you email message.

Example of Customer Places Order trigger

Example 2

When a customer places an order, check whether the customer's purchase history contains catalog entries from the Boys or Girls categories. If so, add the customer to the Customers who buy children's clothing customer segment.

Example of Customer Places Order trigger

You can then target customers in the Customers who buy children's clothing customer segment with relevant promotions and marketing activities.

Note: The previous example dynamically updates a customer segment. When you create the customer segment, you must select the check box labeled Use marketing activities to add or remove customers on the General Properties tab. This check box must be selected for these dynamic updates to take place. For more information, see Action: Add To or Remove From Customer Segment.

Prerequisite for using this trigger

Make sure that your site is configured to support the Management Center marketing features.