The full commerce engine, ready to run
Products, inventory, orders, returns, customers, promotions, pricing, taxes. Built for serious operations, not toy stores.
Most ecommerce platforms get the catalog right and the operations wrong. They handle the sale and leave you to figure out returns. They support one warehouse and call it inventory. They give you customer profiles but no real way to price differently for different groups. They put the order through and then forget about it.
Mercemur ships a complete commerce engine. Products with variants and personalization. Inventory across multiple warehouses with cart-time reservations. Orders that move through real lifecycle states with returns, exchanges, and claims as first-class workflows. Customer groups with their own price lists. Region-aware pricing and per-region tax rules from the first sale. Made-to-order with per-option price modifiers built into the product catalog.
When the order arrives, the platform is not done. It is ready for the rest.
Products and catalog
Variants and options
Multiple variants per product. Multiple options per variant (size, color, material, finish, region availability). Stock counts per variant per location.
Images
Multiple images per product with order control. Per-variant images so the gallery updates when a customer selects a different color. Image optimization built in.
SEO meta
Per-product title, description, and OG image. Customize what shows up in search results and social shares for every product.
Hierarchical categories
Parent and child categories. A product can sit in multiple categories. Breadcrumb structured data renders on every product page so search engines understand the category tree.
Collections
Curated lists for merchandising. Best sellers, new arrivals, on sale, gift guides, seasonal, anything you want to feature. Collections are independent of categories, so the same product can appear in multiple collections.
Made-to-order personalization
Custom forms attach to any product. Per-option price modifiers mean engraving, monogram, photo upload, gift message, and any custom field can carry its own price. Total order price calculates from the customer's selections at the cart.
Multi-location inventory
Stock counts roll up across all your warehouses. Each location tracks its own stock per variant. Cart-time reservations prevent overselling during checkout. When a customer abandons the cart, reservations release automatically.
The order workflow picks the right location based on:
Available stock at each location
Customer's shipping address
Configurable routing rules
Real example flow:
Customer adds a product to cart
Mercemur reserves stock at the closest fulfilling warehouse
The cart shows the variant as reserved-for-checkout
If the customer abandons cart, the reservation releases on timeout
If the customer completes checkout, the reservation converts to a fulfillment
The fulfillment workflow generates a packing slip and (if connected) a carrier label
Orders, returns, exchanges, and claims
Orders start as drafts (for merchant-placed) or active (for customer-placed). They move through lifecycle states and end in completion, cancellation, or one of the post-sale workflows. Returns, exchanges, and claims are not afterthoughts. Each has its own model, its own items, its own reasons, and its own timeline.
Returns
Customer initiates a return through their account. Merchant reviews and approves. Refund issues automatically through the original payment provider. Inventory restocks at the configured location.
Exchanges
Customer returns one variant and receives another. Inventory adjusts on both sides. Price differences settle through a refund or an additional charge.
Claims
Damaged in transit, wrong item shipped, lost package, defective on arrival. Each claim type has its own resolution workflow with its own evidence requirements.
Cancellations
Cancel before fulfillment, refund automatically. Cancel after fulfillment, route to the return workflow.
Configurable return reasons
Return reasons support a parent-child hierarchy so you can group them logically:
Quality
- Defective on arrival
- Damaged in transit
- Wrong item shipped
- Quality below expectation
Fit
- Too small
- Too large
- Color or finish different from expected
Customer choice
- Changed mind
- Found a better price
- No longer needed
Other
- Catch-all for anything not categorized
Reports show returns by reason, so you can spot the actual issues with a product, supplier, or shipping route.
Draft orders
Place an order on a customer's behalf from the admin. Useful for:
The draft becomes a real order when the customer pays the invoice you send.
Customer groups
Group customers for targeted pricing, email campaigns, and access control:
Wholesale customers
Their own price list, their own promotions, their own minimum order quantities.
VIP buyers
Top revenue contributors get early access, special promotions, faster shipping defaults.
Trade professionals
Designers, architects, contractors. Their own pricing, their own catalog visibility.
Region-specific groups
Customers in a specific country get region-locked promotions or pricing.
Newsletter subscribers
First access to new product launches.
Returning customers
Auto-promotions for customers placing their second, fifth, or tenth order.
Each group can see different prices, receive different campaigns, and access different products.
Promotions
The promotion engine supports:
Stack promotions or limit them. Restrict promotions to customer groups, regions, currencies, or product categories.
Region-aware price lists
Price lists support per-region rules. Each region has its own currency and tax setup. Sell the same product at one price in India, another in the US, another in the EU, with no manual conversion at checkout. Customers see prices in their local currency.
Time-bound pricing
Sale windows
Customer-group rules
Wholesale tier pricing
Quantity breaks
Volume discounts
Multi-currency, multi-region
Sell in multiple regions from the same catalog. Each region has:
Customers see prices, taxes, and shipping options in their local context.
Taxes
Tax regions, tax rates, and per-product-type tax rules. Configure rules like:
Taxes calculate at checkout based on the customer's shipping address and the product's tax category.
How it all comes together
A complete order flow looks like this:
Customer browses, gets region-aware pricing
Adds a product with personalization to cart, custom price modifier applies
Cart reserves stock at the closest location
Customer logs in, sees their saved address and payment method
Customer applies a discount code, the promotion engine validates and applies
Customer checks out, tax calculates based on shipping address
Payment captures, the order moves to the active state
Fulfillment workflow picks the location, generates the packing slip
Carrier label generates (if integration is connected)
Customer gets the shipping confirmation email
Order completes on delivery
Every step is handled by the platform. No manual reconciliation, no spreadsheets.
Use cases
DTC clothing brand
Variants by size and color, multi-location inventory across two warehouses, region-aware pricing for India and US, custom return reasons that match your fit-and-fabric vocabulary, promotion engine for seasonal sales, customer groups for VIP buyers.
Wholesale electronics distributor
Customer groups for wholesale tiers (Tier 1 retailers, Tier 2 distributors, Tier 3 individual buyers), price lists with per-tier pricing, draft orders for sales call quotes, multi-location inventory matched to regional distribution.
Made-to-order furniture maker
Custom product forms for wood choice, finish, dimensions, hardware, each with its own price modifier. Long-form product descriptions, hero images, SEO meta per piece. Tax rules that handle the shipping-tax interaction correctly.
Multi-region beauty brand
Multi-currency, multi-language storefront, region-specific tax rules, region-specific catalog (some products only available in some markets because of cosmetic ingredient regulations).
B2B industrial supplier
Authenticated storefront, customer groups for verified business buyers, draft orders for quote workflows, custom product forms for spec'd parts with per-option pricing, promotion rules tied to customer group.
Subscription box business
Catalog of past boxes, recurring billing through subscription products, returns workflow for damaged boxes, customer accounts that show every box ever received.
Frequently asked questions
Best practices
Use customer groups from day one
Even if you do not sell wholesale, customer groups let you segment marketing campaigns and apply tiered promotions later. Set them up early so the data is there when you need it.
Configure return reasons before your first return
The default return reasons are generic. Customize them to match your product and your operation. The data you collect on returns is only as good as the categories you offer.
Multi-location inventory works for stores with one warehouse too
Treat the warehouse as a location. When you open a second warehouse later, the platform is ready. No retroactive migration.
Set up tax rules carefully
Wrong tax rates create accounting headaches later. Configure tax regions, rates, and product-type rules carefully at launch. A tax accountant's review is worth the fee.
Use price lists for currency, not just discounting
Each region has its own price list with its own currency. Customers see local prices without manual conversion. Set up the price lists per region before you open the storefront to that region.
Common pitfalls
Treating draft orders as a B2B-only feature
Draft orders work for phone orders, recovered carts, sales calls, and trade shows. Not just B2B quote workflows.
Setting reservations to expire too quickly
Cart abandonments take longer than people expect. A 15-minute reservation timeout creates more cart loss than it prevents.
Ignoring the promotion engine for auto-applied logic
Code-based discounts work for marketing campaigns. Auto-applied promotions work for evergreen rules (free shipping above X, automatic loyalty discount). Use both.
Hardcoding tax rates instead of using tax rules
Tax rates change. Hardcoding them in your accounting is a problem. Configuring them in Mercemur's tax module lets you update them in one place.
Letting bad variants pollute the catalog
Variant cleanup is harder than getting variants right the first time. Define options carefully before bulk-uploading variants.
Quick reference
Products with variants, options, images, SEO meta, custom forms. Multi-location inventory with cart-time reservations. Hierarchical categories and curated collections. Order workflow with draft, returns, exchanges, claims, cancellations. Customer groups, region-aware price lists, multi-currency, per-region tax. Promotion engine with codes, auto-apply, BOGO, free shipping. Configurable return reasons with parent-child hierarchy. Draft orders for phone, sales, and B2B quote workflows.
See the commerce engine in action.
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