Commerce Connect 15 overview

5 min

Optimizely Commerce Connect 15 is a composable ecommerce add-on to Optimizely CMS 13, built on .NET 10. It adds catalog management, order processing, and multi-market commerce capabilities to the CMS 13 editing and delivery platform. Commerce Connect 15 inherits CMS 13 platform features such as Visual BuilderVisual Builder, Content ManagerContent Manager, External ContentExternal Content, DAM integrationDAM integration, and Optimizely OpalOptimizely Opal. For the full CMS 13 platform overview, see CMS 13 overviewCMS 13 overview.

Architecture

Commerce Connect 15 extends the CMS 13 headless architecture with commerce-specific content types for catalogs, products, variants, bundles, and packages. Catalog content is authored in Commerce Connect and delivered through Optimizely Graph for storefront consumption.

Commerce Connect 15 requires .NET 10 and CMS 13.0.0 or later, which includes mandatory Opti IDOpti ID and Optimizely Graph components. Upgrading to Commerce Connect 15 requires upgrading to CMS 13 at the same time. For technical details, see New in Commerce Connect 15New in Commerce Connect 15.

Commerce-specific capabilities

Commerce Connect 15 provides the following capabilities on top of CMS 13:

Processor-based order workflow – The legacy workflow engine (Mediachase.Commerce.Workflow and ActivityFlow) is removed. All order processing uses IPaymentProcessor, IPurchaseOrderProcessor, and IShipmentProcessor.

Graph-powered catalog search – The Optimizely.Graph.Commerce package provides a commerce-specific search provider for the catalog panel, global search, and the order management Add Line Item dialog. This replaces Find Search & Navigation for commerce search. See Optimizely Graph for Commerce ConnectOptimizely Graph for Commerce Connect.

Bulk catalog translation – A commerce-specific translation service (Optimizely.Commerce.TranslationService) enables bulk translation of catalog content through Optimizely Opal with a Translation Jobs dashboard for tracking progress across languages and content types. See LanguagesLanguages.

Async order repository – Async versions of all IOrderRepository methods enable non-blocking I/O for order operations. See New in Commerce Connect 15New in Commerce Connect 15.

PCI DSS compliance – Credit card storage APIs (ICreditCardPayment, CreditCard) are removed. Implementations must use tokenized payment solutions through third-party providers.

System.Text.Json migration – Internal JSON serialization moves from Newtonsoft.Json to System.Text.Json, matching CMS 13.

CMS 13 platform features for commerce

Because Commerce Connect catalog entries are CMS content types, they inherit CMS 13 platform capabilities automatically:

Visual Builder – The default editing experience for catalog entries, replacing On-Page Editing. Merchandisers compose product content with drag-and-drop elements, real-time preview, and autosave.

Content Manager – Products, variants, and catalog entries are discoverable through Content Manager's search-first interface alongside CMS pages and blocks.

External Content – Connect external PIM, ERP, or DAM systems through Optimizely Connect Platform (OCP). External content syncs to Optimizely Graph and is available in CMS without duplicating data. This is particularly useful for organizations that manage product data across multiple external systems. See Integrate external content sources with CMSIntegrate external content sources with CMS.

DAM integration – Browse, search, and select DAM assets directly within the catalog editing interface.

Optimizely Opal – AI-powered product description creation and content generation within the catalog editor.

For the full list of inherited capabilities, see CMS 13 overviewCMS 13 overview.

For ecommerce managers

Ecommerce managers create, edit, and publish catalog content across languages and markets using Visual Builder. Key commerce workflows include catalog and product management (CatalogsCatalogs), bulk catalog translation (LanguagesLanguages), pricing across markets and customer groups (PricingPricing), promotions (MarketingMarketing), and order fulfillment (OrdersOrders).

To get started, see Get started with Commerce ConnectGet started with Commerce Connect.

For administrators

Administrators configure the commerce platform through the Settings interface, including marketsmarkets, warehouseswarehouses, inventories, paymentpayment, and shippingshipping providers. User access is managed through Opti IDOpti ID, inherited from CMS 13. Opal and translation features require administrator configuration before use. See Optimizely OpalOptimizely Opal for setup.

To get started, see SettingsSettings.

For developers and implementors

Developers extend Commerce Connect 15 using .NET APIs, Optimizely Graph, and the CMS REST API. Key commerce-specific APIs include the async IOrderRepository, the Optimizely.Graph.Commerce package for catalog data aggregation and GraphQL delivery, and the Graph C# SDKGraph C# SDK for typed content queries.

Commerce Connect 15 removes the legacy workflow engine, legacy discount classes, credit card storage APIs, and over 50 deprecated methods. Teams upgrading from Commerce Connect 14 should review Breaking changes in Commerce Connect 15Breaking changes in Commerce Connect 15 and Upgrade from Commerce Connect 14Upgrade from Commerce Connect 14.

To get started, see Get started developing with Commerce ConnectGet started developing with Commerce Connect.

New in Commerce Connect 15New in Commerce Connect 15 – New features and platform changes.

Breaking changes in Commerce Connect 15Breaking changes in Commerce Connect 15 – Breaking changes with migration code examples.

Upgrade from Commerce Connect 14Upgrade from Commerce Connect 14 – Step-by-step upgrade guide.

CMS 13 overviewCMS 13 overview – Full platform overview including inherited features.

Optimizely Academy – Training courses and certification exams.

Optimizely Support – Technical support and knowledge base articles.