The questions B2B buyers, CFOs, and CIOs actually ask, 12 topics, 75+ answers, with cross-links to 533+ deeper page-level FAQs.

The Clarity eCommerce Framework (CEF) is an enterprise-class, API-first B2B eCommerce platform with a built-in CMS, native SEO architecture, and bi-directional ERP integration through Clarity Connect. It is the platform Clarity has used to deploy storefronts ranging from a few hundred SKUs to 50 million SKUs, transacting hundreds of millions of dollars per client.

CEF includes a Storefront for buyers and an Admin Portal for your team, both sitting on top of thousands of API endpoints that let you run fully headless, decoupled, or hybrid when the use case calls for it. Browse the 27-feature library →

Clarity Ventures is an Austin, Texas-based B2B eCommerce platform company that has been building integrated eCommerce solutions for more than 20 years. The team has launched 1,600+ B2B clients including Disney, Merck Animal Health, San Diego International Airport, Fujitsu, PNY Technologies, the City of San Antonio, Acon, Prince, and Leon County, processing more than $11 billion in commerce along the way.

The US-based engineering and services team is headquartered in Austin: 16238 Ranch Road 620 N, Suite E-395, Austin, TX 78717. You can also reach them directly at +1 (800) 928-8160.

CEF is built primarily for B2B. The platform ships out of the box with the capabilities most B2C-focused platforms either don't have or treat as expensive add-ons. Those include Multi-Tiered customer-specific pricing, Account Hierarchy with shared address books and role-based permissions, Quote / RFQ workflows, Invoice Payments with NET terms, PunchOut catalogs for buyer-side procurement (Ariba / Coupa / cXML), and Sales-Group lifecycle traceability across quote to order to sub-orders to invoice.

The same platform also handles B2C, D2C, and B2B / B2C hybrid on the same installation, with channel-aware pricing and presentation per user role. Most production CEF clients run a mix of all three. Read the B2B vs. B2C guide →

CEF runs the full range from larger SMB to enterprise. Phase 1 base installations are typically live within the first week of receiving sandbox credentials. Production-grade enterprise deployments with deep ERP integration typically take 60–90 days. The platform scales to 50-million-SKU catalogs, multi-plant manufacturers with 4–12 facilities, hundreds of thousands of customer accounts, and B2B marketplaces with hundreds to thousands of sellers.

Typical fit profile: $5M–$5B revenue with an existing ERP and real B2B commercial complexity (contracted pricing, multi-user buying teams, integrated AR / AP, and one or more compliance regimes such as PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, or Section 508). Smaller pure-D2C consumer brands are usually better served by Shopify or BigCommerce (Clarity handles integrating both of those with your ERP if needed). Pure-enterprise customers with strict on-prem requirements typically pair CEF's one-time license with their own infrastructure team.

More than 1,600 active B2B clients across 15 industries: manufacturing (tier 1 / 2 / 3 suppliers, contract manufacturers, OEM-component makers), distribution and wholesale, healthcare (medical-device and med-surg distributors, GPO / IDN networks), government (GSA Schedule holders, federal contractors), education, agriculture, food and beverage, energy, chemicals, construction, fashion and apparel, industrial, retail, technology, and automotive.

Collectively those clients have processed over $11 billion in commerce. Browse the 15-industry library →

Three structural differences.

First, the API surface. CEF was built API-first from the start, with thousands of endpoints exposed today versus the few hundred typical of Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce. That gap is what makes fully headless, decoupled, or hybrid deployments practical on CEF and impractical (or expensive bolt-ons) on the others.

Second, the B2B feature set is in-the-box, not add-ons. Multi-Tiered customer-specific pricing with quantity breaks, Account Hierarchy with hundreds of role-based permissions, Quote / RFQ workflow with admin review and convert-to-order, Invoice Payments with NET terms and ACH, PunchOut Catalogs for buyer procurement systems, and a Marketplace Module for multi-vendor commerce all ship out of the box. On Shopify B2B / BigCommerce B2B / Adobe Commerce, the equivalent capability mix typically requires multiple third-party apps that fragment the data model.

Third, the integration platform. Clarity Connect is a commerce-native integration hub with a Common Model, Multi-Protocol Connectors, External Key Database (EKDB), Priority Queue, Hangfire Dashboard, and Swagger UI, bi-directionally synced with 25+ ERPs. Not generic iPaaS, not file-based imports, not point-to-point custom code. Read the Platform Selection guide →

Both options are available. SaaS pricing is a monthly subscription with Clarity-hosted base infrastructure, Help Center access, and ongoing updates included. You get full Admin UI access but not file-level or source-code access. One-time pricing transfers the source code and file-level access to you, lets you host on your own infrastructure or any provider you prefer (Azure, AWS, GCP, on-prem), and engages Clarity services as needed.

Larger or more regulated organizations (HIPAA, government, defense) typically pick one-time for the hosting and code control. Mid-market clients more often choose SaaS to stay out of the infrastructure business. Both pricing models support the same feature set.

Yes. CEF has been deployed at scale up to 50 million SKUs. Elastic Search-backed catalog search keeps queries fast at that volume. Multi-Warehouse Inventory (PILS) tracks stock across many facilities, and Clarity Connect's bulk ERP-sync handles the import / refresh cadence.

The catalog supports unlimited categories (up to 7 tiers deep), unlimited attributes per product, kits and bundles, three variant patterns (Grid / Swatches / Drop-Down), and Configurable Attributes that drive filters, comparison, and product tabs without custom code. Read more about the Product Catalog →

Yes. A single CEF installation can power multiple storefronts. That is useful for multi-brand commerce, multi-region commerce (separate catalogs / languages / currencies per country), distributor / dealer / franchise networks with per-store branding, and full multi-vendor marketplaces via the Marketplace Module with automated cart splitting per seller.

Each storefront can have its own branding, catalog, pricing rules, payment configuration, and shipping providers while still sharing the underlying Account, User, Order, and Invoice data model. Read more about Multi-Storefront →

Public references include Disney, Merck Animal Health (an ordering portal for veterinary medicines), San Diego International Airport (serving nearly 20 million annual travelers), Fujitsu, PNY Technologies, the City of San Antonio, Leon County, Acon, CyberAB, Prince, and GoAfrica, a B2B marketplace enabling cross-border trade with multi-currency and multi-language support across the African continent.

The broader 1,600+ client base spans manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, government, and every other industry covered in our industry library. See the full project portfolio → for case studies.

Two pricing models, and the right answer depends on which fits your operating model better. SaaS pricing is a monthly subscription that includes base Clarity-hosted infrastructure, ongoing updates, and Help Center access. It is best for mid-market clients who would rather not run infrastructure. One-time pricing transfers the source code and file-level access to you, lets you host wherever you want, and engages Clarity services on demand. That model fits larger organizations, regulated industries (HIPAA, government, defense), and clients who want full infrastructure control.

Within each pricing model, the actual quote depends on the modules you turn on (Marketplace Module, HIPAA Module, AI Content Generation, Multi-Currency, Multi-Lingual, CORS / Headless upgrade), and the depth of ERP / payment / shipping integrations via Clarity Connect. For a quote tailored to your situation, book a scoping call →

Four factors usually drive the decision:

Infrastructure control. If you need to host on your own datacenter, your own Azure tenant, or on-prem (common for government, defense, HIPAA, and financial-services clients), pick one-time so you have the source code and file-level access.

OpEx vs. CapEx. SaaS is a monthly OpEx subscription. One-time is a CapEx purchase with lower ongoing OpEx. Finance teams typically have a preference based on their balance-sheet strategy.

Source-code requirement. If your security team requires source-code-level audits, or if your in-house engineering team plans to extend the platform directly, pick one-time.

Team capacity. If you do not have (or do not want) an infrastructure / DevOps team to operate the platform, SaaS removes that burden entirely.

As a rule of thumb, most mid-market clients ($5M–$200M revenue) pick SaaS. Most large enterprise and regulated clients pick one-time. Both pricing models support the same feature set. The difference is hosting and source-code access, not capability.

The base CEF license includes the Storefront and Admin Portal, customer-specific pricing engines (Flat / Pricing Rules / Multi-Tiered Price Points), Account Hierarchy with role-based permissions, Quote / RFQ Workflow, Invoice Payments with NET-terms support, Order Management with Sales Groups, Multi-Warehouse Inventory (PILS), built-in shipping (USPS / UPS / FedEx + flat rate), Avalara tax integration, the Customer Portal with eight OOTB reorder paths, mobile-responsive storefront, PCI-compliant Wallet, Discounts and Promotions module, Configurable Attributes, Product Reviews, native SEO architecture, productsitemap.xml auto-generation, Help Center access, and the thousands of API endpoints exposed via Swagger UI.

Add-on modules include Clarity Connect (the integration platform for bi-directional sync to 25+ ERPs / CRMs / 3PLs / payment gateways). Marketplace Module (multi-vendor with seller dashboards, auto cart-splitting, commission tracking). HIPAA Module (for PHI-bearing flows), Multi-Currency Module, Multi-Lingual Module. AI Content Generation Module, CORS / Headless upgrade, Memberships and Subscriptions, Appointments & Scheduling, and Multi-Factor Authentication. See the full 27-feature library →

Implementation cost is almost entirely about depth of customization and integration, with some adjustments to the platform license depending on any add-on modules purchased. The three biggest drivers:

ERP / CRM / 3PL integration complexity. How many systems, which ERPs (SAP S/4HANA, Oracle EBS, and SAP ECC take longer than NetSuite, Dynamics 365 Business Central, or QuickBooks Enterprise), how much custom workflow logic is needed beyond the Common Model defaults, and what data cleanup the legacy systems require.

Custom design and UX. Templates and stock skins go fast. Bespoke design with custom product-detail pages, custom checkout flows, custom admin dashboards, and fully designed mobile or headless front-ends takes meaningful additional time.

Data migration and onboarding. Number of legacy customer accounts to import, the complexity of contracted pricing carrying forward, product attribute mapping from legacy systems, and order / invoice history carry-forward.

Other meaningful drivers: PunchOut integrations per buyer (Ariba, Coupa, SciQuest, Unimarket, Oracle PunchOut each have their own quirks), EDI flows (830, 850, 856, 862 each take work to certify with each OEM customer), custom workflows for industry-specific patterns (PPAP / FAI qualification for manufacturers, GHX EDI for healthcare distributors, FedRAMP / Section 508 for government suppliers), marketplace seller onboarding, and Subscriptions billing setup.

Typical mid-market implementation runs 60–90 days. Complex enterprise rollouts with deep EDI and multiple OEM-customer integrations run 90–180 days.

Build the model across these line items:

Year-1 capital costs: license (depends on one-time CapEx or annualized SaaS licensing), implementation services, data migration, internal-team training. Projects can run from $25K for one-time license, or $10K of setup, design, configuration and $599/month for SaaS pricing (simple B2B eCommerce projects) to any size budget (for Enterprise, multi-integration projects). An average one-time cost for an integrated B2B eCommerce solution typically runs $40K–$80K for one-time license, or $20K–$50K of customizations and a $999/month SaaS license.

Year-1 operating costs: base hosting (SaaS-included or your-hosted), payment-gateway processing fees, shipping-API fees, Clarity Connect license, compliance audits (PCI DSS, HIPAA BAA, SOC 2 if applicable).

Years 2–5 operating costs: SaaS subscription renewals or one-time maintenance / SLA fees, ongoing change requests and customizations, additional integrations as your business grows, internal-team retraining and upskilling.

Cost offsets (the ROI side of the model): reduced order-processing labor ($12–$15 per manual order → $2–$4 per automated order), DSO improvement of 1–15 days, Level II / III interchange savings of up to ~1% on B2B card volume, ~10–20 hours/week of AR labor recovered from manual reconciliation, and customer-retention lift from self-service.

For a CFO-grade ROI model with specific levers and a worked example, read the ROI of ERP-Integrated B2B eCommerce guide →

ROI varies by starting state, but the most-cited levers across our 1,600+ B2B clients are:

DSO improvement of 1–15 days when AR is automated end-to-end: self-service invoice payment, automated reminders, ACH option, and Sales-Group lifecycle traceability that surfaces disputes faster.

Order-cost reduction from $12–$15 to $2–$4 per order when manual phone / email / fax order entry is replaced with self-service.

AR labor savings of 10–20 hours per week recovered from manual reconciliation, dispute handling, and address-error patching.

Up to ~1% in payment-processing savings through Level II / III interchange capture on commercial-card B2B transactions. Meaningful for any company processing significant volume on Visa Purchasing, Mastercard Corporate, or AmEx Corporate cards.

Customer-retention lift measured against pre-portal cohorts. Self-service portal usage correlates with higher renewal and repeat-purchase rates because the friction of placing the next order drops to near zero.

For a $50M B2B distributor, the typical 5-year NPV lands in the $2.5M–$5M+ range against $1.2M–$1.8M TCO, with payback inside year 2. Read the full ROI model →

Three time horizons to know:

The base install (Phase 1) is typically live within the first week of receiving sandbox credentials: a working storefront with your branding, your products (depending on availability for import), and one payment / shipping provider configured.

A typical mid-market production rollout (Phase 1 + Phase 2 with normal customizations and one ERP integration) runs 60–90 days.

A complex enterprise rollout with deep EDI integration to multiple OEM customers, PunchOut to several procurement systems, and significant custom workflow runs 90–180 days.

Implementation length is almost entirely a function of integration depth and customization scope, not the platform itself.

Phase 1 is “Base Install & Discovery” and it ships a fully functional storefront before any custom work begins. Deliverables include:

A B2C or B2B Storefront, the complete Admin UI / PIM, credit-card payment processing, integrated shipping (one provider in Phase 1), the CMS with a mobile-responsive skin, your base branding package (logo, color preferences, contact information), and access to the Help Center with training resources.

Phase 2 is “Customizations” and typically runs 60–90 days, in parallel with Phase 1 (not after it). While you're loading products and validating the base storefront, Clarity is building:

Custom store and website design, custom UI / UX and workflows, multi-store / multi-lingual / multi-currency setup, ERP / CRM / 3PL integrations via Clarity Connect, dynamic marketing (advanced upsell, analytics), SEO product and website optimization, and Marketplace Module configuration if you're running a multi-vendor model.

Phase 3 is “Launch & Maintenance.” It covers Client Acceptance, Push to Production, Validate & Secure, then ongoing Support, Updates, Enhancements, and proactive Audits / Reviews (performance, SEO, security). Clarity offers SLA options including 24 × 7 × 365 access with guaranteed response times for clients with critical-support requirements.

Six things, in rough order:

1. Provide ERP sandbox credentials early. The Phase 1 clock starts when Clarity has access. Start this conversation with your IT team the day you sign.

2. Provide branding assets: logo, color palette, fonts, any required compliance / accessibility constraints.

3. Configure products and catalog in the Admin Portal, or hand off your legacy data for bulk import.

4. Map customer accounts and contracted pricing to the Account Hierarchy and Multi-Tiered Price Points engine.

5. Identify and prioritize integrations: ERPs, CRMs, 3PLs, payment gateways, shipping carriers, PunchOut buyers.

6. Run UAT and train your teams: CSR, sales, and AR staff on the Admin Portal and Customer Portal flows.

Typical time commitment for a mid-market client: 4–6 hours/week from a single point-of-contact. Larger rollouts dedicate a project manager plus a subject-matter expert per integration.

Six things, in rough order of frequency:

1. ERP credential delays. Clients consistently underestimate how long their IT team takes to provision sandbox access. This is the single biggest preventable delay.

2. Data quality in the legacy system. Dirty customer records, inconsistent product attributes, missing SKU images, ambiguous pricing rules. All of it surfaces during migration.

3. Internal decision delays, especially around custom design approval and workflow sign-off.

4. Scope creep mid-project. Useful change-control discipline avoids it.

5. Compliance audit timelines. PCI DSS, HIPAA BAA, SOC 2 attestations have fixed durations that can't be compressed.

6. Custom integration discovery when legacy ERPs have undocumented APIs, proprietary data formats, or limited middleware options.

Start the ERP credential conversation with your IT team the day you sign. That alone prevents the most common source of slippage.

Yes. Phased and cohort rollouts are the recommended approach for any migration off a legacy platform, and for larger enterprise rollouts where a hard cutover would carry too much risk.

Typical pattern: start with a pilot of 5–10 strategic accounts. Validate pricing, ordering, integration flows, and customer-portal experience end-to-end. Then scale to the next cohort, often by industry vertical, geographic region, or account tier.

The new platform runs in parallel with the legacy one during transition. Clarity Connect keeps both systems in sync through the parallel-run period. URL preservation and SEO redirects are handled at cutover so search rankings don't reset.

This phased pattern is how most clients migrating from Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, or WooCommerce reach production without taking the cutover risk in one big bang. Read the ERP / Platform Migration use case →

Yes, all three.

API-first by construction. Thousands of endpoints are exposed via Swagger UI today, vs. the few hundred typical of Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce. That difference is what makes fully headless, decoupled, or hybrid deployments practical here.

Headless and decoupled are optional. You can use the out-of-the-box storefront, embed individual UI components into your own site (decoupled / hybrid), or run a fully headless setup with your own front-end framework.

Composable comes from Clarity Connect's Common Model, Multi-Protocol Connectors, persistence layer, and External Key Database (EKDB). You compose your integration architecture rather than locking into a monolithic stack. Read the Composable Commerce guide →

Headless means “a fully functioning rolling chassis that could go down the assembly line and have any combination of body and interior installed.” You build and maintain the entire front-end yourself, consuming the commerce engine via APIs.

Decoupled means the display of UI is de-coupled from the application that runs the feature. You embed individual UI elements (cart, wallet, dashboard, checkout, favorites, product details, order history, invoice payment) into your existing CMS or site, much like embedding Google Maps or a YouTube video. Decoupled also means that Clarity has already built a front-end UI you can use out of the box, so you don't have to build anything unless you want.

Hybrid mixes the two: some pages fully headless, some embedded, the rest using the out-of-the-box storefront.

The advantage of decoupled or hybrid is that the OOTB storefront keeps selling while you design and build out the custom UIs. No long “no commerce” window during the rebuild. Read more about Headless Commerce →

Backend: Microsoft .NET / C# stack.

Database: SQL Server by default. Clarity Connect's persistence layer also supports PostgreSQL and can be set up against another SQL database in custom hosting environments.

Front-end: Remix application (React 18 + TypeScript) with Tailwind CSS, server-rendered through Remix's Node runtime. The same REST API that drives the built-in UI is available to any modern front-end framework (Next.js, Vue, Angular, Svelte) or native client for custom or embedded integrations.

Built-in CMS: Clarity ships with a full CMS (pages, templates, themes, content versioning, authors, CTAs, and a media library), edited in-browser via an inline WYSIWYG page editor (TipTap / EditorJS) and extended through a module-token system () that injects dynamic content into any page. SEO and sitemap tooling are included out of the box.

Hosting: Windows Server, typically Microsoft Azure, especially for HIPAA-compliant deployments where Azure provides the Business Associates Agreement (BAA). Any cloud provider or on-prem deployment is supported.

API documentation: Swagger UI is auto-generated for endpoint discovery, testing, and partner-developer onboarding.

Yes, that is exactly what API-first enables.

Build your front-end in any framework that can make HTTP / REST calls: React, Vue, Angular, Next.js, Svelte, Flutter, native iOS / Android, or a hand-rolled custom stack. Consume the thousands of endpoints. The CORS upgrade additionally enables embedding CEF UI components into an existing CMS like WordPress, DotNetNuke, Sitefinity, or Drupal.

Headless lets you run your own UX vision while CEF handles the commerce engine, ERP sync, customer-specific pricing, account hierarchy, quote workflows, invoice payments, and everything else commerce-specific underneath. Read more about API-First →

Anything the out-of-the-box storefront and Admin Portal do, you can do programmatically. Typical use cases:

Build a custom B2B mobile app for route-truck drivers, sales reps, or field technicians. Sync products to marketplaces (eBay, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, industry-specific marketplaces). Build custom dashboards for CFO-grade aggregations or real-time order monitoring, power AI agents and LLM-driven order intake or customer-service bots that can place orders. Embed commerce into a third-party CMS. Drive partner, dealer, or channel-rep portals on your own UI. Provide programmatic access to large enterprise customers building internal procurement tools.

The endpoint-count gap between CEF (Thousands) and platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce (a few hundred) is what makes API-first deployments practical here and impractical or expensive bolt-ons there.

Yes, in two complementary senses.

Clarity Connect is a Single-Installation, Multi-Tenant-capable Integration Hub. One Connect installation can host integration logic for multiple distinct stores or clients, which is relevant for agencies, group-purchasing organizations (GPOs), and multi-brand parent companies.

CEF storefronts can run as multi-storefront within one installation. Multi-brand, multi-region, distributor / dealer / franchise networks, or full multi-vendor marketplaces. Account, User, and Order data is segmented per storefront while the underlying infrastructure runs shared.

This pattern matters for: agencies hosting multiple clients, parent companies with multiple brands, GPOs running member-specific catalogs, franchise networks where each franchise needs its own storefront with shared back-office, and marketplace operators with hundreds of sellers. Read more about Multi-Storefront →

25+ ERPs supported out of the box, across three tiers:

Enterprise: SAP S/4HANA, SAP ECC, SAP Business One. Oracle NetSuite, Oracle Cloud ERP, Oracle EBS, Oracle JD Edwards.

Mid-market: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, Dynamics GP. Sage Intacct, Sage X3, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 50, Acumatica, QuickBooks Enterprise.

Manufacturing-specialist: Epicor Kinetic, Epicor Prophet 21. Plex (Rockwell-owned smart manufacturing). Infor CloudSuite Industrial, Infor M3, Infor SyteLine. SYSPRO, Visibility, Global Shop.

Beyond the 25+ supported ERPs, Connect can integrate with any custom or proprietary system via Custom Entities, Custom Workflows, and Custom Mappings. Read the ERP-eCommerce Integration guide →

The Common Model is a shared schema covering the most common entities exchanged between eCommerce and back-office systems: Accounts, Users, Addresses, Products, Categories, Orders, Sub-Orders, Invoices, Payments, Inventory, Pricing, Quotes, and Sales Groups.

Once any system is mapped to the Common Model, it can integrate with any other Common-Model-mapped system without point-to-point custom code per pair. That structural advantage is why switching ERPs or adding a CRM does not require rewriting the storefront's integration logic. You map the new system to the Common Model and the rest of the architecture is unchanged.

The companion EKDB (External Key Database) preserves entity identity across systems. An order originating in CEF and updating in the ERP is recognized as the same order without duplicates. Generic iPaaS platforms typically lack this kind of commerce-specific cross-system identity layer.

Two complementary flows.

ERP → Storefront: master products with attributes, categories, customer accounts and users, customer-specific / contracted pricing, multi-warehouse inventory and capacity, open invoices (for NET-terms customers to view and pay online), credit limits and account balances, and inbound EDI orders / planning schedules.

Storefront → ERP: new customer accounts and users (when created in CEF), storefront orders posted as ERP sales orders, quote requests, payments captured online posted against invoices, PunchOut orders received via cXML, and ASNs returning to OEM customers.

The ERP remains the system of truth for AR, production planning, and BOM structure. The storefront is the buyer-facing capture and self-service layer. Read more about Inventory Sync →

Full EDI coverage across the tier-supply set:

Order transactions: 850 (PO inbound), 855 (PO acknowledgement outbound), 856 (ASN outbound), 810 (invoice outbound), 820 (payment inbound).

Planning + JIT transactions (the ones most B2C platforms cannot handle): 830 (planning schedule / forecast inbound from auto / aero OEM customers), 862 (shipping schedule release inbound, drives JIT replenishment), 866 (production sequence inbound for sequence-of-build).

Supporting transactions: 824 (application advice both directions), 753 / 754 (routing).

Multi-Protocol Connectors handle file-based EDI (X.12, EDIFACT), API-based EDI, and web-services EDI. The standard tier-supply EDI flow works end-to-end for automotive, aerospace, medical device, retail, and healthcare integrations. See the Manufacturing industry page for the full tier-supply flow →

Five mechanisms work together:

Job Queue. Queues integrations when a target system is offline. When it comes back online, queued jobs replay automatically.

Failed Queue. Captures jobs that fail. Your ops team reviews, mitigates, and re-queues them via the Hangfire Dashboard.

Priority Queue. High-priority jobs (live order placement, payment posting) run first when the system recovers.

Persistence layer. Caches data being synced so nothing is lost during an outage.

Automated email notifications. Go out to your ops team when errors occur, including the Error Code and Stack Trace plus any custom diagnostic information your team needs.

This is the difference between commerce-native integration and generic iPaaS: Connect is built to handle ERP downtime gracefully, not to break the storefront when the ERP hiccups.

Three extension mechanisms handle it:

Custom Entities: if your ERP exposes records or fields not covered by the Common Model and the ERP has an endpoint, Connect can build a new Endpoint Connector to access them.

Custom Workflows: data transformation and business-logic tasks specific to your operation.

Custom Mappings: additional field mappings beyond the Common Model defaults, identified during Discovery.

Connectivity options include Clarity's turn-key Wireguard VPN, customer-managed VPN, point-to-point, VM, and standard internet. Time-to-build varies with the ERP's API maturity, number of mappings, business-logic complexity, and connectivity requirements.

For analytics workloads, Custom Reporting via PowerBI or Tableau against the Connect persistence layer is available for clients persisting integration data.

Three pricing-provider models, mutually exclusive (one active at a time):

Flat Pricing (the “Costco model”): static prices per product (List, Sales). Used for D2C and simple B2C.

Pricing Rules: discount-and-promotion rules tied to Products, Accounts, Categories, Manufacturers, Stores, Vendors, Account Types, User Roles, or Countries. Used for B2C promotional campaigns: Black Friday, back-to-school, seasonal tire sales.

Multi-Tiered Price Points (the default for B2B): pricing profiles assigned per tier or price point with quantity-break ranges, e.g., $10 for 1–10 units, $9 for 11–100, $8 for 101+. A fourth option is an external-pricing-engine hook that calls out to your own engine and returns the price.

The active provider determines which prices apply when a User on an Account logs in. Contracted prices typically flow from the ERP customer master through Clarity Connect, so pricing in CEF stays in lock-step with the contract. Read more about Customer-Specific Pricing →

Account Hierarchy connects companies (Accounts) to the people who buy on their behalf (Users). One Account represents the company (with Tax Exemption Number, Tax Entity Use Code, contract terms). Each User is an individual contact with their own login. Multiple Users can be associated with a single Account, but each User belongs to exactly one Account.

Generic shopping carts assume one shopper, one cart, one credit card. That pattern breaks the moment a procurement team tries to use it. Account Hierarchy fixes that with:

A shared Address Book (every User picks from the same approved Ship-To locations), hundreds of role-based access permissions (buyer, viewer, manager, finance, super-admin), account-level pricing, credit, and balances that apply to every User, and Sales Groups that thread quote → order → sub-orders → invoice across the Account so a CFO can enter at any stage and see the entire lifecycle. Read more about Account Hierarchy →

Quote Cart is parallel to the Shopping Cart, but it stages products for a custom-quote request instead of for checkout.

Buyer side: add SKUs at the desired quantities to the Quote Cart, submit a Quote Request.

Admin side: the Quotes module in the Admin Portal lets your Sales or CSR team review the request, modify prices or fees, add or remove items, and approve or reject.

Back to the buyer: an automated email notification fires. The customer navigates to the Quote Details view in their User Dashboard and Approves (which prompts payment and converts the quote to a real Order), Rejects (sends it back), or Cancels (voids).

On approval, the quote becomes an ERP Sales Order with the negotiated pricing, and any tooling / NRE billing captured as separate line items. Sales Groups thread the quote through order to invoice for full lifecycle traceability. Common pattern in tier-supply manufacturing (PPAP / FAI quotes), specialty distribution, and healthcare GPO contracting. Read more about Quoting & RFQ →

PunchOut is a way for a buyer's eProcurement system to “punch out” of their portal into your catalog, browse and select products at their contracted prices, and return the assembled cart back via cXML.

The standards are cXML (originally Ariba's protocol, now the dominant standard via cxml.org) and OCI (Oracle's protocol).

Supported procurement systems out of the box: SAP Ariba, Coupa, Oracle PunchOut (Oracle iProcurement), SciQuest, Unimarket.

Per-buyer contracted pricing applies at session start. Per-buyer authorized-product lists keep only allowed SKUs visible. UNSPSC and NAICS code mapping is required by institutional buyers. The cXML PunchOutOrderMessage returns the cart to the buyer's procurement system. PunchOut readiness is what gets you onto GSA / IDN / large-enterprise approved-vendor lists. Read more about Punchout Catalog →

NET terms are core B2B functionality. The Invoices module on the User Dashboard surfaces all invoices (synced bi-directionally from the ERP through Clarity Connect).

B2B Terms customers on NET 30, NET 45, NET 60, or NET 90 are billed after the order is placed. The invoice arrives later and customers pay through the dashboard.

Payments captured online post back to the ERP automatically as posted payments against the corresponding invoices. No manual reconciliation. Read more about Invoice Payments →

Account Balances / Credit Limits is a customization that lets Checkout complete using Account Credit. The pattern covers two B2B scenarios:

Pre-paid contracts. The customer pays a deposit up front (e.g., $50K) and draws against it through the year. The balance decreases with each order.

Lines of credit. The customer has an open balance against which they can draw. The balance behaves like a revolving credit account.

Balances and Credit Limits are manageable from the Admin Portal or synced from your ERP customer master via Clarity Connect. Any authorized User on the Account can complete checkout using Account Credit. Standard Checkout and invoice payment both honor the balance. Common in industrial distribution, agriculture (prepay-discount programs), and large-enterprise procurement contracts.

Two stock modes per SKU:

Counted Stock. Tracked quantity that decrements per order. The catalog shows remaining stock.

Unlimited Stock. The catalog always shows the item as unlimited. Used for services, digital products, or made-to-order SKUs.

For Counted Stock, three inventory states surface in the catalog: In Stock (standard add-to-cart), Out-of-Stock (cannot be added to cart, but a Bell Icon lets users subscribe to In-Stock Alerts), and On Backorder (can be purchased with a clear notification of immediate-fulfill vs. backorder quantity at the cart line).

Inventory typically syncs bi-directionally with the ERP via Clarity Connect. The ERP is the system of truth. CEF surfaces real-time stock to buyers. Bulk import via spreadsheet, ERP integration, or manual Admin UI updates is all supported. Read more about Inventory Sync →

Multi-Warehouse Inventory (PILS) handles it. The Warehouses Module in the Admin Portal ties multiple Warehouses and Inventory Quantities to a single Product, exposed in both catalog (per-facility stock counts) and checkout (allocation routing).

Allocation logic picks the right facility based on customer location, available capacity, and scheduled production. Capacity-based scheduling integrates with the ERP's production planning module to surface accurate lead times at quote / cart time.

Common patterns: multi-plant manufacturers (4–12 plants is typical for a tier-1 supplier), multi-DC distributors, retailers with cross-store inventory, cold-chain DCs for food and beverage, and consigned inventory at customer plants. Read the Multi-Warehouse use case →

Built-in Shipment Calculation Providers: USPS, UPS, FedEx.

Flat Rate fallback for simple shipping (one cost regardless of quantity or destination).

Optional upgrades: LTL (less-than-truckload), intermodal, international, and 3PL providers. For international and freight, named carrier integrations include DayTon, Freight, ABD, YRC, R&L, Conway, and Super Regional.

Customer-specific shipping providers can be added via Connect customization. Provider-calculated quotes use product weight and dimensions, Shipping Packages templates let you pre-define package dimensions and reuse them across many products.

The Phase 1 base installation includes one of the built-in providers. Additional providers may require additional configuration time. Read more about Shipping & Fulfillment →

Three tax-calculation providers, configured per site:

Avalara. Clarity is a certified Avalara partner. Recommended for B2B with complex sales-tax nexus, multi-state operations, or international customs / duties handling.

Internal Tax Tables. Static tables in CEF maintained per Country, State, or ZIP Code. Suitable for simpler operations (Internal Tax Tables must be regularly maintained by your team after go-live, or Clarity can manage them using your Support Hours balance).

ERP Tax Tables. Dynamic calculation using your ERP's built-in tax engine (requires Connect license and ERP integration).

Per-account Tax Exemption Number and Tax Entity Use Code are captured for B2B exemption handling regardless of which provider is active. Read more about Tax Management →

Targets Checkout supports Multi-Address Selection.

The Shipping Address Section of Checkout lets customers select multiple shipping addresses and splits the order into multiple shipments per how many addresses are selected. A per-line-item address selector drop-down lets the buyer assign individual line items to specific Ship-To locations.

Common use cases: multi-location retailers shipping to branches, contractors splitting between job sites, customer-managed inventory shipments to multiple manufacturing plants, gift-giving / sample distribution, and tier-supply releases to multiple receiving docks. The split is preserved through to ERP sales orders and ASNs. Read more about Shopping Cart & Checkout →

Three inventory states surface to the buyer:

In Stock. Standard add-to-cart.

Out-of-Stock. Cannot be added to cart. The catalog displays a Bell Icon / In-Stock Alert Button that registered Users click to subscribe. A modal prompts the user for desired purchase quantity. When stock returns and exceeds that quantity, an automated email goes out.

On Backorder. Can be purchased even with zero current stock. The cart displays a backorder notification breaking out how many items will fulfill immediately versus how many are on backorder.

Backorder behavior is configurable per product (allowed Y/N). Out-of-stock products with active In-Stock Alerts also appear in each subscribed User's Dashboard tab for review or removal.

The Customer Portal is the User Dashboard hub with 11 tabs:

My Profile (User personal info), Account Profile (company info including Tax Exemption Number and Tax Entity Use Code), Address Book (shared across all Users on the Account), the PCI-compliant Wallet (saved credit cards and ACH methods), Orders (view all orders + one-click reorder), Invoices (NET Terms billing + multi-invoice payment), Quotes (review, approve, reject, convert to order), Wish List, Favorites, Shopping Lists (multiple named lists per user), and In-Stock Alerts (bell-icon subscriptions for out-of-stock products).

All account-level data is shared across every User on the Account, so the procurement team sees a consistent view. User-level data (profile, personal preferences) stays per-User. Read more about the Customer Portal →

The storefront is mobile-responsive out of the box. The same UX scales from desktop to tablet to phone using a responsive template, including the catalog, product detail pages, shopping cart, checkout, and entire Customer Portal.

For native iOS or Android mobile apps, build them against the thousands of API endpoints. The headless / decoupled architecture is what makes this practical.

Common use cases: field-sales reps placing orders on iPads in customer locations, route-truck drivers reordering from the truck, service technicians checking parts availability on-site, and B2B buyers approving orders from their phones. Read more about Mobile Commerce →

The Multi-Lingual Module is an optional upgrade that translates menu, navigation, and storefront text into international languages.

The key difference from blind machine translation (like a Google Translate plug-in): admin-controlled translations let you specify exactly how specific words and phrases translate. That matters in B2B contexts where terminology must match the customer's industry vocabulary, regulatory requirements, or your own brand voice.

Deeper modules are available for full product content and category translations, requiring additional development time. Common pattern: cross-border B2B marketplaces (e.g., GoAfrica enabling Africa-wide trade with multi-currency and multi-language) and international manufacturers / distributors with EU or APAC operations. Read more about Multi-Language →

The Multi-Currency Module is an optional upgrade that provides live conversion rates via an external API. Buyers shop and check out in their local currency, which measurably reduces cart abandonment from foreign-currency uncertainty (international users feel safer when they know exactly how much they are spending up front).

The payment gateway must accept multi-currency processing to capture in the local currency. Some gateways convert at capture, others at deposit.

Multi-Currency pairs naturally with the Multi-Lingual Module and Multi-Storefront for full international expansion: one CEF installation, multiple regional storefronts, each with its own language, currency, catalog, and shipping configuration. Read more about Multi-Currency →

Eight built-in reorder paths cover every recurring-B2B-buying pattern:

1. Wish Lists: aspirational / future-purchase candidates.

2. Favorites: frequently-purchased shortcuts.

3. Shopping Lists: multiple named lists per user (e.g., “monthly office order,” “new-hire kit”) with single-click add-all-to-cart.

4. Past Orders: reorder any or all items from any prior order.

5. Past Invoices: reorder from invoices, especially useful for B2B Terms customers.

6. Sales Quotes: reorder from approved quotes.

7. Bulk XLS Import: spreadsheet-driven bulk orders for hundreds of line items (requires additional development).

8. Quick-Add Sales Pad UI: rapid SKU + quantity entry for power buyers (requires additional development).

On top of those, Subscriptions automate fully-recurring orders and In-Stock Alerts handle the back-in-stock case. Read more about Bulk Ordering →

The PCI-Compliant Wallet on the User Dashboard.

Customers save credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) and, when ACH is enabled, bank-account entries (ACH usually requires a separate merchant-services agreement). Saved methods are dynamically displayed and selectable during both Checkout (regular order) and Invoice Payment (B2B Terms invoices), so the next payment is one click instead of re-keying card details.

PCI DSS tokenization means cards are never stored on the vendor's servers. They are securely vaulted by the payment processor (Trustwave / Verisign / equivalent token providers).

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) via Email or SMS is available as an additional security layer for the Wallet and for high-value account actions.

Native SEO architecture: SEO is in the platform, not bolted on. Out of the box:

SEO-friendly URLs (clean, descriptive paths instead of database IDs), per-product and per-category meta tags (title, description, keywords) editable in the Admin Portal, auto-generated productsitemap.xml (one-click), WYSIWYG editor for category landing pages so each category becomes a long-form indexable page, Custom Product Tabs that add long-form copy to PDPs, Product Reviews surfaced as user-generated content for fresh-content signals and Review schema rich results, and a mobile-responsive storefront for Google's mobile-first indexing.

Most B2C-focused platforms store product information in databases hidden from indexers. CEF's native SEO architecture is built specifically to surface that content to search engines. Read more about SEO & Marketing →

Built-in integration with Google's advanced ecommerce analytics. Setup is single-click in the Admin UI.

Standard ecommerce events captured: product views, add-to-cart, checkout step funnels, purchases, and revenue attribution. Combined with the Custom Reporting layer in Clarity Connect (PowerBI / Tableau), it gives you Google's out-of-the-box ecommerce dashboards plus your own internal BI on top of the persisted commerce data. Read more about Analytics & Reporting →

Clarity Connect's persistence layer can be configured to persist data passing through the integration platform. Once persisted, any reporting engine (PowerBI, Tableau, Looker, Qlik, Domo) connects directly to the database. Custom Reporting is part of Connect's customization menu.

Common pattern: CEF + Connect persists order, payment, customer, product, and inventory data. Your BI team builds PowerBI or Tableau dashboards aggregating across the data. CFOs, controllers, and revenue ops see real-time B2B metrics like DSO trends, AR aging, channel mix, customer-cohort revenue, contracted-pricing realization, and L2 / L3 interchange savings.

Persisting data requires a server with adequate disk space, sized during Discovery.

The AI Content Generation Module is an optional upgrade that uses an AI engine to generate product and category marketing content directly from the Admin Portal.

Common uses: write product descriptions, category landing-page copy, SEO meta descriptions, marketing emails, and FAQ entries at scale. The module saves enormous time for catalogs with thousands or millions of SKUs where hand-writing copy is not practical. That is especially common for distributors, technical-product manufacturers, and large industrial catalogs.

Other AI customizations are available (custom recommendation models, AI-driven order intake, customer-service bots) and are estimated per use case.

Two complementary ways to drive personalization:

Curated: Product Components are admin-defined data sets attached to each PDP, where the Admin specifies which products show up in “Related Products,” “Featured Products,” or any custom-built component.

AI / ML: the AI / Machine Learning Add-On Module enables behavior-driven recommendations that adapt to each User's viewing and purchase history.

Both are account-aware: pricing tier, purchase history, account-tier visibility, and account-specific authorized catalogs shape what gets recommended. The full personalization stack works with Account Hierarchy so two users at the same Account see the same authorized catalog but with their own personalized recommendation surface based on their individual behavior. Read more about Personalization & AI →

Six built-in Product Component types out of the box:

Featured Products, Frequently Purchased With, Recently Viewed, Alternative Products, Top Sellers, and Up-Sell.

On top of those: admin-curated Related Products (manually associated per SKU and displayed in a carousel at the bottom of the PDP), the Comparison Engine (Add-to-Compare for side-by-side spec comparison), and cross-sell patterns via Shopping Lists / Wish Lists / Favorites matching.

The AI / ML Add-On Module enables behavior-driven dynamic recommendations. The same Product Component slots can be filled algorithmically instead of curated, or any mix of both. For B2B contexts, recommendations respect contracted pricing and authorized-product visibility, so buyers never see unavailable or unauthorized items.

PCI DSS compliant out of the box. The PCI-Compliant Wallet uses tokenization: credit card numbers are never stored on the vendor's servers. Tokens are securely vaulted by the payment processor (Trustwave, Verisign, or any PCI-certified token provider). All browser-to-portal communication is encrypted with TLS / SSL.

To remain PCI compliant, the merchant account must be a PCI token provider, or Clarity integrates a third-party tokenization solution. This architecture ensures PCI DSS compliance and protects you from penalties in the event of a security breach. You cannot leak card data that you do not store.

Two complementary mechanisms handle it:

The HIPAA Module secures any Protected Health Information (PHI) passing through the platform, with specific handling for caching, the integration queue, and the persistence layer.

HIPAA Hosting addresses the infrastructure side: when an integration passes PHI, the entire integration solution falls under HIPAA compliance regulations. Clarity typically recommends Microsoft Azure for HIPAA deployments. It is easier to deploy, more configurable, and Microsoft provides the Business Associates Agreement (BAA) so their legal team supports your compliance.

Common HIPAA use cases: e-pharmacy ordering, medical-device distributors, GHX EDI for healthcare networks, IDN systems, 340B program participants. Available on either SaaS or one-time pricing. See the Healthcare industry page for the full HIPAA / GPO / GHX stack →

CEF supports GDPR-compliant deployments out of the box. Cookie / privacy consent banners (also CCPA-compatible) are configurable, right-to-be-forgotten data deletion workflows are supported, users can request their full data export, and audit trails capture data-access events.

For EU data residency, Multi-Storefront supports per-region hosting on EU Azure regions or equivalent providers, so data captured from EU buyers stays in EU infrastructure.

Compliance specifics depend on the deployment configuration, your hosting choice, and your operational policies. Clarity provides the technical capabilities. Your privacy team owns the policy implementation.

Accessibility is built into the foundation. The OOTB storefront and customer portal are built on Radix UI accessible primitives (dialogs, menus, tabs, popovers, selects, etc.), which ship with semantic HTML, proper ARIA attributes, full keyboard navigation, focus management, and screen-reader support by default. Forms use accessible labeling and error-association patterns.

Section 508 compliance is a hard requirement for federal contractors and GSA Schedule holders. CEF is designed to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA against the standard component set. Color-contrast and other theme-level criteria are validated against your brand palette during Phase 2 design, and accessibility audits (including ACR / VPAT preparation) and remediation are part of the standard customization workflow.

The Government industry page covers Section 508 alongside TAA / Buy America, FAR / DFARS clauses, SAM.gov registration, and WAWF invoicing. See the Government industry page →

SOC 2 Type II compliance is achievable for CEF deployments. The customer's auditor handles the attestation. Clarity supports the audit with operational controls, system logs, change-management documentation, role-based access enforcement, and infrastructure evidence.

HIPAA Hosting via Microsoft Azure runs on SOC 2-aligned infrastructure, which simplifies the underlying control inheritance.

SOC 2 is common for enterprise customers in financial services, healthcare, and any operation where the client's customers (or auditors) demand a SOC 2 report from the eCommerce platform. Plan for the attestation timeline during implementation. SOC 2 Type II requires a minimum 6-month observation period.

Hosting is flexible.

SaaS Pricing: Clarity-hosted, typically on US-based Azure or equivalent infrastructure. HIPAA deployments are hosted on Azure US regions by default.

One-time Pricing: you host wherever you want. That means your own data center, your Azure / AWS / GCP tenant, on-prem, or a hosting provider of your choice.

Data residency via Multi-Storefront, so EU buyers can be served from EU regions, APAC from APAC, US from US.

For government / defense / regulated clients: client-controlled hosting on FedRAMP-authorized regions of Azure or equivalent. With one-time pricing you also get source-code and file-level access, which is required by some regulated organizations for security audits.

Migrations are roughly 75% of Clarity's projects (described internally as “rip n' replace”).

Common origin platforms: Shopify, Shopify B2B, BigCommerce, BigCommerce B2B, Magento, Adobe Commerce, WooCommerce, AspDotNetStorefront, custom .NET storefronts, and legacy in-house carts.

The migration playbook is consistent: audit and map legacy data and URLs → bulk-import to CEF → parallel-run with the legacy system → cut over with redirects.

Common reasons clients migrate: outgrew their platform's B2B capabilities, needed real ERP integration via Clarity Connect, hit scale limits, needed customer-specific pricing at B2B depth, or needed PunchOut readiness for institutional buyers. Read the ERP / Platform Migration use case →

Day-one bulk import covers every primary entity:

Accounts (companies with Tax Exemption Number, Tax Entity Use Code, contract terms). Users (contacts with login credentials, mapped to their Account). Categories (with up to 7 tiers of hierarchy). Products (with attributes, images, descriptions, SEO meta tags, kits and bundles). Customer-specific pricing tiers and contracted prices. Address Book entries per Account. Order history and Invoice history (carry-forward for B2B Terms customers and audit).

Each entity has its own bulk-import endpoint with attribute mapping. Data comes from spreadsheets, your legacy database, or your ERP directly. The EKDB (External Key Database) preserves cross-system identity so the new platform recognizes records that already exist in the ERP. No duplicates on day one.

URL preservation is a discrete step in the migration playbook, not an afterthought.

Clarity maps legacy URL patterns to CEF equivalents and issues 301 redirects from every old URL to the corresponding new URL at cutover. Per-product and per-category meta tags (title, description, keywords) are imported alongside content. The auto-generated productsitemap.xml replaces the legacy sitemap and gets resubmitted to search engines.

The result: search rankings carry forward through the cutover instead of resetting.

Without explicit URL preservation, SEO equity built up over years can disappear at cutover. The difference between a successful migration and a traffic catastrophe is often the URL-preservation discipline.

Parallel-run is the standard migration pattern.

Clarity Connect keeps both systems in sync through the parallel-run period (orders flow to both ERPs or both records get updated. Inventory stays consistent across both platforms). Customer cohorts migrate progressively: 5–10 strategic accounts as the pilot to validate pricing, ordering, and integration flows end-to-end, then scale to the next cohort by vertical, region, or account tier.

Once a cohort is on CEF and stable, they're cut over fully and removed from the legacy platform's active list. The legacy platform is decommissioned only after the final cohort migrates.

This dramatically reduces risk vs. a hard cutover and is how most large B2B migrations succeed without disrupting revenue.

It is a common scenario. Clients regularly replace both their cart and their ERP simultaneously: SAP to NetSuite, Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 Business Central, custom legacy to Acumatica, Sage 100 to Sage Intacct.

Clarity Connect's Common Model is the key enabler: switching ERPs does not require rewriting the storefront's integration logic.

Two valid sequences:

Phased: migrate to CEF first, run against legacy ERP. Once stable, swap to new ERP via Connect's connector swap.

Coordinated: migrate both simultaneously in a tightly choreographed cutover with extensive parallel-run.

Phased is usually safer. Coordinated is faster but doubles the complexity of any one cutover step. Discovery picks the right sequence based on your timeline and risk tolerance. Read the ERP-eCommerce Integration guide →

Pricing migration depends on where the pricing lives today.

If contracted prices live in your ERP: Connect syncs them to CEF on day one as Multi-Tiered Price Points, and they stay in sync going forward.

If pricing lives in legacy-cart spreadsheets: bulk-import via CSV with Account-tier mapping.

If pricing is buried in the legacy cart's database: custom export then import to Multi-Tiered Price Points.

CEF's three pricing-provider models (Flat, Pricing Rules, Multi-Tiered Price Points) cover the patterns. Pick the model that matches your existing structure. Custom Workflows can transform legacy pricing rules into CEF rules during migration.

As a rule of thumb, 80–90% of contracted pricing carries forward automatically, the remaining 10–20% needs manual review (edge cases, legacy quirks, special bundle pricing, one-off customer contracts). Plan for that review during Phase 2. Read the Customer-Specific Pricing guide →

Phase 3 (Production & Maintenance) covers everything after launch.

The standard support model is request-based: you submit a request, Clarity provides an estimate, you approve, work is performed. No extra cost beyond the hours billed for the work itself. No required monthly retainer for support-style work. Your Project Manager gives you a timeline for each request.

Proactive maintenance items are part of the standard cadence: performance audits, SEO audits, security audits, and platform update reviews.

For clients with critical-operations requirements, SLA options provide guaranteed response times and 24 × 7 × 365 access. See the SLA question below.

Clarity offers SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for clients with critical support needs.

Options include 24 × 7 access, 365 days a year, with guaranteed response times for urgent requests, defined escalation paths, and an on-call engineering team. SLA tier is picked based on criticality: revenue impact of downtime, customer-facing risk, regulatory requirements.

Common for: enterprise B2B clients with mission-critical commerce flows, HIPAA and healthcare clients, government deployments, and any operation processing significant daily transaction volume.

SLA tier and price are scoped during contract negotiation. Standard support without an SLA is available to all clients on either pricing model.

The Help Center is a stand-alone web portal covering every Clarity solution: CEF, Clarity Connect, Marketplace Module, HIPAA Module, Auction, and Payment Hub.

Content types: step-by-step how-tos, video walkthroughs, recorded webinars, technical reference docs (e.g., editing cron schedules in Connect, configuring Multi-Warehouse PILS, setting up PunchOut endpoints), and best practices.

Most operational questions your team has after go-live can be answered through the Help Center without opening a support request. The Help Center is included free with every CEF deployment on either SaaS or one-time pricing.

Two patterns based on your pricing model.

SaaS clients: updates roll out on Clarity's release cadence. Base hosting includes ongoing updates so your platform stays current without active management.

One-time clients: updates are available to apply on your schedule. Your team decides when to upgrade, with Clarity providing release notes and migration assistance.

Update reviews are part of proactive maintenance in Phase 3. Clarity proactively recommends updates relevant to your deployment. Major updates typically include new features, performance improvements, security patches, and integration enhancements. Customizations are reviewed against new versions during the update process to ensure no regressions. The Hangfire Dashboard and Swagger UI surface integration-level changes for ops teams.

Same request → estimate → assessment → approval process used for support.

Two paths based on complexity.

Simple edits (adding a blog, live-chat widget, form, minor copy tweaks): quick estimate and approval, fast turnaround.

Larger enhancements or new features: cursory design → estimate → assessment → approval → development → testing → deployment.

Your Project Manager coordinates each request and gives you a timeline. Pricing is hour-based with no minimum monthly retainer required for support-style work. For ongoing development work, dedicated-team or sprint-cadence engagements are available.

Customizations can be at any level: storefront, Admin Portal, Clarity Connect workflows, custom integrations, or entirely new custom modules.

SaaS to one-time transition is supported. You can migrate from SaaS pricing to one-time pricing without re-platforming.

Common triggers: growing into enterprise scale where infrastructure control becomes essential, adding compliance requirements (HIPAA, FedRAMP, on-prem hosting), an internal engineering team that needs source-code access for custom extensions, or acquisitions / multi-brand consolidation that change the operating model.

Transition cost is the one-time license fee plus modest transition services. Source code and file-level access transfer at completion.

The reverse direction (one-time to SaaS) is also supported in some cases, useful for clients who want to step back from infrastructure management as their team shifts focus.