Introduction

The Sitecore Commerce platform delivers a core framework that uses the latest Microsoft technologies to provide rapid and agile delivery of commerce functionality to customers, either on-site or in the cloud. Sitecore Commerce uses the Sitecore Experience Platform for management and runtime, Sitecore Commerce Connect, and Sitecore Commerce Server.

The key features of the Sitecore Commerce platform include:

A simple, lean, extensible framework as a core, with all higher-level functionality implemented as plugins.
Lightweight hosting.
Using the existing Sitecore Connect pipelines for commerce runtime, with a new Service API for business user scenarios.
Using the Sitecore Experience Platform for runtime shopping experience and business users.
Provides opt-in complexity by allowing customers and partners to take dependencies on only the information model and behaviors that they need. This allows simple down-market hosted solutions to use complex global enterprise solutions without modifying the core architecture.
The existing subsystems remain in place for backwards compatibility, with opportunities for customers to migrate for newer capabilities and experiences.