Microsoft Commerce Server - Misplaced Pages

Software product by Microsoft

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Microsoft Commerce Server

Developer(s)	Microsoft
Website	http://www.commerceserver.net

Microsoft Commerce Server is a Microsoft product for building e-commerce systems using Microsoft .NET technology.

History

In 1996, Microsoft purchased the core software that formed the basis for the Commerce Server product line from e-Shop. e-Shop was co-founded by Pierre Omidyar, one of the founders of eBay.

In 1997, the software was rebranded to Microsoft Merchant Server, then Microsoft Site Server, eventually being renamed to Microsoft Commerce Server in 2000.

Initially released in 2000, Commerce Server replaced Microsoft Site Server, expanding on the functionality and establishing a focus on e-commerce functionality (rather than concerning itself with document management or content metadata). It helped to create an e-commerce solution or web site with high-performance, familiar tools designed to simplify setup, management, and administration tasks.

The last version of the Microsoft-developed product is Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 R2. Microsoft continued to honor extended support of Commerce Server 2009 through 2019. Sitecore now takes responsibility for developing, selling, and supporting the Commerce Server product. The latest release is Sitecore Commerce Server 11, released in 2014.

History in the UK

Used extensively by a number of middle to large UK retailers, Commerce Server gained considerable traction in the early 2000s. Primarily implemented by Microsoft Partners, the following were sites that at one point were running on a Commerce Server foundation:

1990s:

2000 - 2010

Alba
Betterware
Blackburn Rovers F.C.
Blacks
Blooming Marvellous
Bravissomo
Carl Lewis
Cath Kidston
Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts
Choices
Clarks
Cross
Dobbies
Dreams
Eyestorm
French Connection
GAME
Graham and Green
Great Plains
Hawkin's Bazaar
Hawkshead
Lakeland
Leicester FC
Levi's
Links of London
Lipsy
Liverpool FC
LK Bennett
Long Tall Sally
MacCulloch & Wallis
Maclaren Pushchairs
Majestic
MFI
Millets
New Look
Newcastle FC
Nicole Farhi
Oddbins
Ordnance Survey
Oxfam
Pearson Publishing
Pets at Home
Punch Taverns
Racing Green
Rangers FC
Rohan
Route One
Scotts of Stow
Soletraders
St Andrews
Suit Direct
The White Company
TM Lewin
Toast
Toys R Us

2010 - onwards

Best Buy (UK)
Co-op Electrical
Co-op Pharmacy
Exp Workwear
WHSmith

UK Microsoft Commerce Server Implementors

The following companies were responsible for the vast majority of Microsoft Commerce led ecommerce implementation.

Conchango - Conchango was bought by EMC in 2008 and rebranded in 2009 to become EMC Consulting
e-in-business - The team behind eibDIGITAL moved over to Welcome Digital in 2014.
Maginus
Snowvalley - Snow Valley - now part of MICROS
Screen Pages
TCPL

Components

System components

Commerce Server 2009, which became available on Microsoft's price list on 1 April 2009, introduced multichannel awareness into the product, a new default site (running in Microsoft's SharePoint product), including 30 new web parts and controls, and WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editing experiences for business people and site designers.

These features were introduced through the new Commerce Foundation - an abstraction layer that unifies calling patterns of the core systems (see below) and allows for different presentation and business logic to be easily added and represented as 'selling channels'; and SharePoint Commerce Services which includes integration with Microsoft SharePoint - a new default site with 30 new web parts and controls pre-assembled. The default site can be skinned through the new page templating technology, allowing for individual pages to be easily changed by selecting a different template.

The product still retains its core systems of Catalog, Inventory, Orders, Profiles, and Marketing.

Other components

The server comes bundled with Data Warehouse Analytics, which offer sophisticated reporting functionality, dependent on the availability of Microsoft SQL Server Analytics module, in addition to the Commerce Server Staging (CSS) system. The Staging functionality automates the deployment of both dynamic and active content across a network infrastructure and can accommodate a wide variety of network configurations. (Some have remarked that the speed of CSS deployments is perhaps the most note-worthy aspect of this component.) Commerce Server also comes with BizTalk adaptors, which allow for integration with Microsoft BizTalk for enterprise data manipulation.

Related technologies

The product requires the presence of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or later. Commerce Server also can leverage a number of other Microsoft server products, including BizTalk Server 2006, R2, or 2009 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS).

.NET Framework 3.5 and Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) are also required, as the other components used by this product are dependent on these technologies. Recommended deployments are confined to Windows Server 2003 or higher.

Microsoft release history

2000 - Commerce Server 2000
2002 - Commerce Server 2002
- Service Pack 2 (2003)
- Service Pack 3 (2004)
2004 - Commerce Server 2002 FP1
- Service Pack 4 (2006)
2006 - Commerce Server 2007
- Service Pack 1 (2007)
- Service Pack 2 (2008)
2009 - Commerce Server 2009
2011 - Commerce Server 2009 R2
- 2013 - Service Pack 1

post-Microsoft Release History

July 2012 - Ascentium Commerce Server 2009
July 2012 - Ascentium Commerce Server 2009 R2
December 2012 - CommerceServer.net Commerce Server 10.0
May 2013 - CommerceServer.net Commerce Server 10.1
May 2013 - Ascentium Commerce Server 2009 R2 Service Pack 1
August 2014 - Sitecore Commerce Server 11.0
October 2014 - Sitecore Commerce Server 11.1

Future development

The Microsoft Commerce Server business was outsourced to Cactus Commerce (Gatineau, Quebec, Canada) in 2007. After Ascentium purchased Cactus Commerce along with the Microsoft Commerce Server business in 2011, they rebranded the software to Ascentium Commerce Server.

Ascentium later rebranded itself as SMITH and split off the Commerce Server product division into a subsidiary known as CommerceServer.net.

In November 2013, Sitecore acquired CommerceServer.net.

In August 2014, Sitecore released Sitecore Commerce Server 11.