Business models

Before starting to develop the site with WebSphere Commerce, you need to determine the business model supported by WebSphere Commerce that best represents the purpose of the site. Usually sites created with WebSphere Commerce will be implemented based on of one of these business models.

A business model provides a sample commerce solution which includes an organization structure, default user roles and access control policies, one or more starter stores, administration tools, and business processes that demonstrate best practices. A business model can be customized to support business requirements and scenarios. Direct sales supports commerce transactions involving products, services, or information directly between businesses and consumers or between two businesses or parties.

WebSphere Commerce supports the following types of direct sales business models:

• B2C

• B2B

B2C

A store that supports commerce transactions involving products, services, or information directly between businesses and consumers.

B2B

A store that supports commerce transactions involving products, services, between two businesses or parties.

(Enterprise) Hub

(Enterprise) A site that enables its customers or partners to access products or services available from one or more partners or clients of the hub owner, through the use of other stores on the site.

(Enterprise) Extended Site

(Enterprise) A site that allow your selling organization to provide unique storefronts for different enterprise customers or showcase a number of branded storefronts. Creation and management of the extended sites is through the hub in Commerce Accelerator. These extended sites may share much of the data, such as master catalog and list prices, and presentation information. An extended site store can be a B2B or B2C store.

WebSphere Commerce provides the architectural infrastructure to put online businesses that fit into one of the following business models:

• Consumer direct

  • (Enterprise) Extended Sites

• B2B

  • (Enterprise) Extended Sites

  • (Enterprise) B2B view of the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator

These particular stores are recommended for implementing the business models supported by WebSphere Commerce. We can also create our own types of stores using the store architecture.

• Customer-facing stores
  Customer-facing stores are stores that provide a Web storefront that customers can access directly. These stores are the main components of the site.

• Organization structure
  Assign all actors in your business scenario a position in the WebSphere Commerce organization structure. We must assign these positions so that all actors can access and perform actions on the site or store.

• B2C business model
  WebSphere Commerce supports commerce transactions involving products, services, or information between businesses and consumers. Consumers typically purchase goods or services directly from a business in this B2C scenario.

• B2B business model
  B2B supports commerce transactions that involve products, services, or information between two businesses or parties. Typical B2B transactions occur between buyers, suppliers, manufacturers, resellers, distributors, and trading partners.

Related concepts
B2C access control structure
Authorization
B2B business model
B2C business model
Customer-facing stores