FAQ
Short answers to recurring questions about the model, roles, terminology and citation.
What does PRISM Commerce mean?
PRISM Commerce means Proxy Retail with Inventoryless Sourcing Model.
It describes a retail model in which a platform presents products to end customers without pre-purchasing the displayed inventory; after a customer order is paid, the platform sources and purchases the relevant product from an external inventory source and manages the downstream operational flow to the customer.
Is PRISM Commerce a marketplace?
PRISM has one customer-facing retailer/MoR in the base architecture; upstream inventory sources and expert curators are not independent sellers to that customer.
PRISM Commerce is therefore not automatically a marketplace, classic dropshipping, a forwarding service, or classic proxy buying. A specific implementation may incorporate operational features associated with those models, but classification depends on the complete relationship.
Is it the same as dropshipping?
Supplier-direct shipping may occur in PRISM, but it is not the defining feature. PRISM is defined by Virtual Inventory, On-Demand Sourcing, unified retail responsibility, and managed downstream flow, which may include consolidation or other fulfillment steps.
Who is the customer-facing Retailer?
The Retailer is the customer-facing retail counterparty in the PRISM base architecture. It makes the retail offer to the customer and bears the customer-facing obligations assigned to it by the actual contractual and legal structure.
Is the Platform Operator always the Merchant of Record?
One entity may perform all three roles, or an implementation may allocate operational functions among multiple entities. Such allocation does not permit the terms to be treated as interchangeable without examining the facts. A platform must not claim MoR status merely because it operates a website, coordinates procurement, or uses PRISM terminology.
What is Virtual Inventory?
Virtual Inventory is the assortment presented by the platform without a requirement that all displayed goods have already been purchased and placed in the platform's own physical stock. Availability may be derived from external inventory sources and is subject to confirmation, sourcing controls, and the implementation's customer terms.
When does On-Demand Sourcing / Procurement occur?
On-Demand Sourcing / Procurement is the order-linked process through which the platform selects and purchases the relevant product from an external inventory source after the triggering customer order has been paid.
What makes Expert Commerce a core architectural pillar?
Expert Commerce is a core architectural pillar of PRISM Commerce alongside the centralized commerce infrastructure. It brings distributed human expertise into the same architecture that organizes distributed global inventory, while preserving the unified customer-facing retail relationship.
Are ECCs or ECSs independent sellers?
In the base architecture, an ECC or ECS is not an independent seller merely because it curates products, manages permitted price positioning, communicates expertise, or attracts demand. The platform remains the customer-facing retailer/MoR and operates or coordinates payment, procurement, compliance, fulfillment, delivery, returns, and claims.
What does Market Access Enablement mean, and what does it not authorize?
Market Access Enablement (Russian: инфраструктурное обеспечение доступа к неохваченным рынкам) is the PRISM Commerce function that connects suppliers and products with markets they do not serve directly, or serve only to a limited extent, because they lack local payment, logistics, customs, fulfillment, compliance, or customer-service infrastructure.
PRISM Commerce is positioned as market-access infrastructure, not as a mechanism for circumventing seller, geographic, regulatory or commercial restrictions. If a product cannot lawfully, contractually, or regulatorily be supplied to a market, PRISM must not be described or used as a means of bypassing that restriction.
How is PRISM Commerce used to classify an implementation?
PRISM Commerce is a business-model classification and conceptual identity. Whether a specific implementation qualifies depends on its actual customer relationship, transaction structure, sourcing flow, and allocation of operational responsibilities—not merely on use of the name.
How should the works be cited and reused?
The documentation is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) to the extent of the licensor’s rights. When reusing it, credit the author and provide the source and license; when adapting it, indicate the changes made.
Where are the canonical versions and hashes?
The publications are available through persistent DOIs. This website provides materials for exploring the model, while the Zenodo records preserve the published versions. OSF hosts an independent mirror of the materials. Version and correction history is documented in the governance section.
How can an error or proposed contribution be submitted?
Submission does not constitute acceptance, approval, publication, or canonical adoption.