(Enterprise)

Options for managing pricing

The Catalog Filter and Pricing tool in Management Center gives you a flexible, alternative way of managing pricing for the store. Before using this tool, you should be aware of the price management options available to you. Your options are:

• Option 1: Use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool to manage price lists, and use price rules for storefront pricing

• Option 2: Use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool to manage only price lists

• Option 3: Continue using existing price management methods

Option 1: Use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool to manage price lists, and use price rules for storefront pricing

The Catalog Filter and Pricing tool contains all the features you need to:

• Manage your price lists, including upload and export functions.

• Manage price rules. Price rules offer significantly more flexibility than using static price lists.

If we are not already using WebSphere Commerce for the store, choose Option 1. This way, we can take advantage of all the pricing features offered in the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool. If the store already uses WebSphere Commerce, moving to Option 1 makes managing pricing easier and more efficient, but some setup is required.

• Advantages of Option 1:

  • In the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool, we can use a user interface dedicated to price list management. For existing WebSphere Commerce customers this means we are no longer limited to using the Data Load utility to load price lists, and to using the Catalogs tool in Management Center to manage the default List Price and Offer Price lists for individual catalog entries. Both of these methods are still available to you, but the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool supports these tasks in a single user interface.

  • We can create as many different price lists as you need, and use them for storefront pricing without involving IT.

  • We can use price rules to manage customer-specific or store-specific pricing.

• Considerations for Option 1:

  • If you have an existing WebSphere Commerce store, moving to the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool, and to price rules, requires some initial setup. This setup can include an optional step to migrate your list price data to a new data model.

  • We must invest some time learning about price rules and price list management in the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool.

Option 2: Use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool to manage only price lists

To use the price list management tools in the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool, but you do not have a business need for price rules, choose this option.

• Advantages of Option 2:

  • In the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool, we can use a user interface dedicated to price list management. For existing WebSphere Commerce customers, this means we are no longer limited to using the Data Load utility to load price lists, and to using the Catalogs tool in Management Center to manage the default List Price and Offer Price lists for individual catalog entries. Both of these methods are still available to you, but the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool supports these tasks in a single user interface.

• Considerations for Option 2:

  • If you have an existing WebSphere Commerce store, moving to the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool requires some initial setup. This setup can include an optional step to migrate your list price data to a new data model.

  • We must invest some time learning about price list management in the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool.

Option 3: Continue using existing price management methods

If you have an existing WebSphere Commerce store and we are satisfied with the methods we are currently using to manage pricing, we are not required to use the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool. We can continue to:

• Use the Data Load utility to load price lists into the database.

• Use the Catalogs tool in Management Center to manage the default List Price and Offer Price lists for individual catalog entries.

• Use the Catalog Filter tool in WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to mark up or mark down prices for products or categories.

• Advantages of option 3:

  • You do not have to change how you currently manage pricing.

  • No additional setup, migration, or education is required.

• Considerations for option 3:

  • You might miss out on significant time savings and flexibility by not using the Catalog Filter and Pricing tool.

  • We must continue to use WebSphere Commerce Accelerator to manage store-specific and customer-specific pricing.

About account and contract management

We must continue to use WebSphere Commerce Accelerator for account and contract management. Management Center does not support these tasks.

Related concepts
Catalog Filter and Pricing tool