Drupal Commerce is a dedicated solution for your eCommerce needs. It is basically a set of modules for Drupal that enable the host of eCommerce features. Drupal Commerce being a framework itself, focuses on the solutions that can be built by using it. [1] In simpler words, Drupal Commerce brings to your website the basic functions like order, product details, cart item, and payment options.

There are many features of Drupal Commerce that are further extended with the help of modules. Here are a few of them:

• Modules like Commerce Stock and Commerce Inventory make inventory management easy.
• Commerce shipping is Drupal commerce contributed module that is used in cases where the shipping address and the billing address is different by making use of the customer profile.

Drupal also has a native ecommerce module that goes by the obvious name of Drupal Commerce. This module builds on Drupal’s existing architecture and adds a native ecommerce framework for site builders to use. Figure 1 shows the Drupal Commerce.

Framework is important here because your don’t get a pre-built store right away when you first install the module. There aren’t really any pre-built themes to choose from either. [2] Each Drupal Commerce store has to be setup, configured and themed basically from scratch. This isn’t ideal for businesses who need to get to market fast or who have a low budget, but, like Drupal, this is what makes Drupal Commerce powerful on it’s own. It allows for an ecommerce solution that is 100% tailored to the online store.

Figure 1: Drupal Commerce

Drupal Commerce also follows the same coding standards and API-first approach as Drupal, so you know that any developer who can work with Drupal can also worth with Drupal Commerce. You also know that Drupal Commerce’s own APIs are ready for whatever integration you can imagine. This is what allows for Drupal to integrate with BigCommerce and is also what makes Drupal Commerce a valuable option for many businesses. If you have legacy systems that are necessary for your business to operate, Drupal and Drupal Commerce can still integrate with it.

Ready-to-go — Drupal makes ambitious teams more productive as their projects grow. [3] Unique customer experiences, complex checkout flows, and deep integrations into payment and fulfilment vendors are all within reach for merchants of any size.

Build to suit — Perfectly model your content and product data model, including rich search interfaces and product pages.

Build to grow — Integrate the perfect marketing, payment, and fulfilment tools that help you attract and serve a wider audience.

Build to last — Conform to industry security standards and implement Drupal’s own best practices for safe, dependable releases.

Advanced Features

• Shipping: Drupal commerce has a contributed module called [4] Commerce Shipping using which you can make use of customer profiles to entertain cases where a customers’ billing address and shipping address is different.
• Inventory Management: Thanks to modules like Commerce Stock and Commerce Inventory, inventory management is made really easy on Drupal commerce.
• Commerce Rules: Buying a product online is subject to many variable costs like taxes, shipping costs etc. In order to implement these rules easily, Drupal commerce offers integration of 3rd party shipping sites like FedEx, UPS etc to implement these rules automatically.
• Tax: Ease of use is the name of the game when it comes to user accessibility for any website. Make it easier on your customers by displaying the total price with sales tax and VAT tax or any other tax included with your product’s price. This can again be done by using Commerce Rules.

Apart from contributed modules, Drupal commerce much like Drupal offers tons of hooks that can be implemented by developers in their own solutions to easily leverage various functionalities offered by Drupal Commerce.

References:

1. https://www.drupal.org/industries/ecommerce
2. https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/drupal-ecommerce/#what-are-my-options-for-building-an-ecommerce-site-with-drupal
3. https://opensenselabs.com/blog/articles/drupal-e-commerce-website
4. https://www.agiledrop.com/blog/introduction-drupal-commerce

Cite this article:

Vinotha D (2021), The E-commerce Technology: Drupal Commerce, AnaTechmaz, pp. 16