Oracle iStore - a study [ PART ONE ]

I am planning to write about the module the most I loved to work on, I will try to provide more details about this module as much as I know.
First let us start with the very basics of iStore, i.e what exactly it means? What really it is? What does it do?

Here you go…

Introduction – Part 1

Oracle iStore is nothing but an ecommerce module in Oracle Applications (mainly under CRM). It is the simplest module to understand functionality wise. If you used any of the ecomm sites like ebay, amazon then you have almost studied what iStore is.
In Oracle Apps term, Oracle iStore is an Order capture module which has the ability to handle B2B, B2C and walk in users. To know more about this type of users please refer here.

But Why Oracle iStore?

Oracle iStore has its own framework and very well integrated with other modules in ERP system, hence a very minimal set up is required to go live on the ecomm. Also from technical point of view, iStore can be heavily customized.
Oracle iStore can be used to sell any type of items like PTO, ATO, CTO, Services.
Oracle iStore uses the Items and UOMs defined in the Inventory, Prices defined in the Advanced Pricing, Customer defined in TCA and Order types, rules defined in the OM.
In Oracle iStore, the end users or consumers can perform the following using Customer UI
 Share the cart with another B2B user.
 Save the cart.
 Save the cart as shopping list.
 Add promotion codes.
 Maintain the default ship to, default bill to, email address, Credit card numbers.
 Track the Orders.
 Initiate the Order returns.
 Convert the Cart in to Oracle Quote.
 See the history of Orders, Quotes and Invoices.
 Place Order.

The other UI we have not talked about here is iStore Admin UI,
iStore Admin UI is mainly used by Product managers or Product Administrators for a Business.

The following can be performed

 Creation and maintenance of Site.
 Associating Price list to the Site.
 Define Payment Terms.
 Define Shipping method.
 Adding items to sections.
 Mapping image to the product.
 Enable Multi language for the Site.

Above are just few tasks that can be performed. There are few more which are not listed here. Probably I will try to cover in the upcoming postings.
I will cover the iStore admin feature in my next posting…