The Microsoft commerce server was designed to simplify and assist e-commerce (Electronic Commerce) solutions, which include buying and selling of products or services using electronic systems, over the internet or over a computer network. Since there are many businesses that conduct their businesses online as the Internet became a huge platform for reaching almost everyone, a good simple effective e-commerce solution became needed.

The target audience of such systems are either clients or businesses, so a solution that knows how to address those market transactions and enable the control, management, transaction tracking and administration was needed by the market, and the Microsoft commerce server provided the solution for that need.

What is the Microsoft commerce server? well, it is part of the Share-point package by Microsoft, which includes web parts that provide a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) for business people and web designers.

The tools included in a commerce server are Orders & inventory, Catalog, Marketing, Profile, Other components that assist the system.

Orders & Inventory: This system enables order tracking and can also open to connect to other inventory tracking systems, so you will be able to collect all of the Inventory changes and be updated at all times. The system can update you on low inventory according to the definition of minimal quantities and enable stock updates on time. The system also uses Microsoft SQL Server analytics to create proper reports and product sales statistics.

Catalog: Company that wants to sell products, usually creates a catalog of products to show the customers, so they can have a list of products to choose from. The Microsoft commerce server enables the creation of catalogs, divided into categories and a connection to other products that are being tracked by a commerce server. The system uses a configurable meta-data system that enables the server to address any transaction scenario that might occur.

Marketing: The hardest thing to do in sales, in my opinion, is the marketing part of the sale. How to reach the customers, how to appeal to their needs, and convince them to purchase your products, why should they purchase your products? The Microsoft commerce server enables the one of the most important tool needed by marketing people, which is to track the marketing tasks and it is using a promotion management tool for web marketing management that tracks online advertising and the commerce server manager can control all of the marketing ads and set the rules that set the proper conditions needed from each ad.

Profile: The profile system of the Microsoft commerce server enable shopper tracking, and tailor website designs and purposes according to shopper needs and the proper promotion presentation that fit the individual shopper.

Other components: The other components are tools included in the background and assist the commerce server to become what it is. The Microsoft commerce server includes data warehouse analytic, which creates reports, based on the Microsoft SQL server analytics module. It also includes CSS (Commerce server staging) system, which automates the deployment of dynamic active content across websites and some say the performance of the CSS feature is one of the best in the market today. The Biz-talk adapters also are included in this commerce server which integrates with the Microsoft BizTalk for organizational data manipulation.

Summarizing this article: When you consider including a full e-commerce system, you might want to check the Microsoft commerce server. Check it out it might be the solution you where looking for.