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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).
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.
Working with catalogs
The Category Manager or Product Manager manages the catalog hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting catalogs for stores. There are two types of catalogs: master catalogs and sales catalogs.
Managing sales catalogs
The Category Manager manages the category hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting categories in sales catalogs.
Managing linked categories
If you are creating or updating a sales catalog, you might want to link a category from the master catalog to a sales catalog or from one sales catalog to another. For example, a Winter Coats category in the master catalog could be linked to the Coats category in the Winter Specials sales catalog. Linking helps to keep categories consistent. For example, when you add a product to the original category, the categories that are linked to the original category will also see the product that was added.
Viewing linked categories
Viewing subcategories or catalog entries inside a linked category requires a different set of steps than viewing the contents of a category that is not linked.

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.
      - Working with catalogs
        The Category Manager or Product Manager manages the catalog hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting catalogs for stores. There are two types of catalogs: master catalogs and sales catalogs.
        Master catalog
        The master catalog is the central location to manage your store merchandise. Everything that you need in your store is contained within the master catalog. It is the single catalog that contains all products, items, relationships, and standard prices for everything that is for sale in your store.
        Creating a globalized catalog
        You can update a catalog to support displaying catalog entries, categories, and sales catalogs in multiple languages and prices in multiple currencies. By creating such a globalized catalog, you need to assign catalog entries to a category or manage language-insensitive properties only once to have the changes apply for all languages.
        Create and preview attachments in the Catalogs tool
        Use the Catalogs tool to create an attachment. To associate a managed file with a catalog entry, create an attachment first.
        Managing sales catalogs
        The Category Manager manages the category hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting categories in sales catalogs.
        Sales catalogs
        A sales catalog is a subset of the merchandise and services that are found in the master catalog.
        Creating sales catalogs
        You might want to add a sales catalog to your store to promote a seasonal line, such as winter clothing.
        Creating sales categories
        If you are changing the display structure of your sales catalog, you might want to add a sales category.
        Viewing sales catalogs
        You might want to view a sales catalog that has already been added to your store.
        Changing sales catalog categories
        You might want to change information about your sales catalog category. For example, you might want to change the description if the summer sales catalog is now on clearance.
        Deleting sales catalogs
        You might want to delete a sales catalog if it was created for a one-time event. For example, you could create a sales catalog to sell merchandise for a store anniversary and then delete it once the event is over. Deleting a sales catalog does not delete the products. You can delete only the catalog if there are no categories below it.
        Copying sales categories
        You might want to make a copy of your sales category for reuse.
        Assigning catalog entries to a single sales category
        You can assign existing catalog entries to a sales category for your store. When you are assigning catalog entries to a sales category, you can choose to assign one or multiple catalog entries at a time to the category.
        Adding catalog entries to multiple sales categories
        As a Category Manager or Product Manager, you can use catalog entry assignments to add catalog entries to multiple sales categories at a time. By using catalog entry assignments, you can create sales categories quickly and efficiently.
        Creating extended sites store sales catalog categories
        You can extend the display structure of a sales catalog owned by the catalog asset store. To extend this display structure, you create an extended site store sales category inside the sales catalog. For example, if you want to add a winter clothing category to a seasonal clothing sales catalog in the asset store. If you do not want the category to be displayed in any other extended sites stores that use the same sales catalog, then you can create a sales category exclusive to the extended site store.
        Adding a child category to a parent category
        You can add a child category to a parent category within the same sales catalog. For example, in a seasonal clothing sales catalog, the hats category can be added to the summer clothing parent category.
        Adding multiple parent categories to a child category
        You can add more than one parent category to a child category within the same sales catalog. For example, in a seasonal clothing sales catalog, the hats category can belong to both the winter clothing and accessories parent categories.
        Moving sales categories
        You can move a child category to a new parent category in the same sales catalog. For example, if you find that a child category is better defined under a new parent category.
        Removing a parent category from a child category
        A sales category can have one or more parents. You can remove the relationship between a child category and one of the existing parent categories. When you remove the relationship, the child category still exists in the sales catalog. For example, in the seasonal sales catalog, you can remove the winter clothing parent category from the hats category but keep the hats category in the accessories parent category.
        Deleting a sales category
        You can delete a sales category from a sales catalog.
        Managing linked categories
        If you are creating or updating a sales catalog, you might want to link a category from the master catalog to a sales catalog or from one sales catalog to another. For example, a Winter Coats category in the master catalog could be linked to the Coats category in the Winter Specials sales catalog. Linking helps to keep categories consistent. For example, when you add a product to the original category, the categories that are linked to the original category will also see the product that was added.
        Linking categories between catalogs
        Linking a category creates a reference to that category in the catalog to which it was linked. All subcategories and catalog entries in the category are also linked.
        Viewing linked categories
        Viewing subcategories or catalog entries inside a linked category requires a different set of steps than viewing the contents of a category that is not linked.
        Deleting linked categories
        You might want to delete a linked category if the category is no longer needed in the sales catalog. For example, you might want to delete the Holiday category if you no longer want to sell seasonal Holiday items in your sales catalog. When you delete a link, the category still exists. Only the link is deleted.
        Managing rule-based sales categories
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can use the Catalogs tool to create, manage, and delete rule-based sales categories within a sales catalog.
        Default catalog
        A store has one master catalog and can have one or more sales catalogs. If your store has more than one catalog, you can specify a default catalog. Selecting a default catalog ensures that a shopper that visits your store without specifying a catalog in the URL, views the default catalog in the storefront.
      - Managing Catalog Upload
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can use the Catalog Upload feature in the Catalogs tool to upload sales catalogs, categories, catalog entries (products, SKUs, bundles, and kits), attributes, asset references, and more into Management Center.
      - Managing categories
        The Category Manager manages the category hierarchy by creating, modifying, and deleting categories. The category hierarchy organizes products or services offered by the store.
      - Managing catalog entries
        The Category Manager manages catalog entries in the store including, products, bundles, kits, and SKUs.
      - Managing products
        The Category Manager or Product Manager manages products, including adding or changing products in the catalog hierarchy.
      - Managing product variants
        The Category Manager manages product variants, including adding or changing attributes to variants.
      - Managing SKUs
        The Product Manager is responsible for determining the best way to display, price, and sell products in the online store.
      - Managing kits
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can organize kits in the catalog hierarchy, and create and change kits to determine the best way to sell them in the store.
      - Managing bundles
        The Category Manager or Product Manager can organize bundles in the catalog hierarchy, and create and change bundles to determine the best way to sell them in the store.
      - Managing attributes
        The Category Manager or Product Manager determine the best way to display, price, and sell products in the online store, including assigning or changing product attributes.
      - Managing facets
        Facets group similar items and attributes together in the left sidebar of your store to target meaningful product results. The facets are displayed with the number of products that are contained in each facet, and are clickable to filter search results. The Category Manager or Product Manager determine the best way to display facets in the online store, including assigning or changing product attribute and category facets.
      - Managing merchandising associations
        Product Managers, can find, list, create, and change merchandising associations (such as up-sells or cross-sells).
      - Managing catalog assets
        A catalog asset is a URL that is associated to a category or catalog entry. For example, the URL can be a link to a more detailed product image, or a PDF document that is related to the product. The usage type of the catalog asset determines the store page on which the asset is displayed, and the location on the page.
      - Managing search term associations
        The Product Manager is responsible for creating and managing search term associations. Search term associations include synonyms and search term replacements, and linking search terms with landing pages.
      - Managing site search statistics
        By reviewing site search statistics, you learn what customers are intending to find on your web site when they enter keywords in the search field. You can then make targeted improvements to optimize your site search, improve your site navigation, and ultimately increase conversions. Management Center provides site search statistics in two reports: the Top Search Hits report and the Top Search Misses report.
      - Managing content versioning
        Category Managers and Product Managers can manage versions of business objects to: rollback changes, make seasonal changes, or track the history of a business object.
      - Improving search results on your site
        HCL Commerce provides several tools that you can use to improve search results from search engines, and search results on your storefront.
      - Default and hidden fields
        Not all fields in the Catalogs tool views are displayed by default. This page lists all of the database fields that can be displayed in a properties view in the Catalogs tool, and if they are displayed by default.
      - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
        Find answers to some frequently asked questions about using certain features of the Catalogs tool and completing tasks.
      - Troubleshooting
        If you encounter issues while you are using the Catalogs tool, review this troubleshooting topic to solve common problems.
    - 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.
    - 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.

Viewing linked categories

Viewing subcategories or catalog entries inside a linked category requires a different set of steps than viewing the contents of a category that is not linked.

Procedure

Open the Catalogs tool.
From the explorer filter, select Sales Catalog Categories.
If the linked category you want to view is a top category, click the sales catalog that the linked category belongs to; otherwise click the category that the linked category belongs to, and then click Show Subcategories on the toolbar.
In the categories list view, right-click the linked category; then click Show Catalog Entries to view the catalog entries or click Show Subcategories to view the subcategories.