Central and Site-Specific Information Used by Country Sites

Imagine a multinational seller that does business in many parts of the world and needs to administer sites targeted at specific countries or regions. This seller might be a consumer retailer with global presence, such as IKEA, Staples, or Abercrombie & Fitch. Or it can also be a multinational company that deals mainly with business customers, such as IBM, Honeywell, or Avery Dennison.

For each country where this company sells its products, it needs to create a commerce site. This site must have all the products available in the country, with up-to-date prices and inventory. The company probably wants to create advertisements and run marketing campaigns for each site to maximize its sales. Each site will have customers registered to it, with their profiles, order history, and preferences. Finally, all the sites need to be configured for such country-specific information as languages and currency, and business rules such as acceptable payment instruments, shipping methods, and so on.