Introduction

2.14 billion people buy goods and services online; this rapid growth of e-commerce makes businesses manage online stores with Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Below are some of the most notable e-commerce trends:

• Omnichannel purchases

• Mobile-friendly

• New payment channels 

• Artificial intelligence technologies

You can follow those trends and technologies with Commerce Cloud and improve your eCommerce experience to build your business, expand geographically and present your brand globally. This post describes what Salesforce Commerce Cloud is, its benefits, features, and integrations, as well as real-time examples from companies that already use it. 

Let’s get started!

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

At first, Salesforce acquired a cloud solution for e-commerce for large and small businesses, Demandware, in 2016. It was an important step toward changing how e-commerce enterprises interact with their customers. Then, Salesforce created the new Salesforce Commerce Cloud and integrated it into its Customer Success Platform with Demandware technology.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based commerce platform that includes various off-the-shelf features, accessible tools, and trading portals to improve and expand your online business. It simplifies the buying process, personalizes the customer experience, and makes purchases convenient for mobile devices.

Benefits of Commerce Cloud

With Commerce Cloud, Salesforce development providers like MagicFuse can assist companies in providing better user experiences to retail customers while enhancing marketing possibilities to reach more online presence. 

Here are some major advantages of Commerce Cloud for commercial clients:

1. It is unified

You may profit from integrating the complete buying experience of your customers via digital channels, from marketing to successful purchase and retention efforts.

48% of customers spend more when their experience is personalized.

With the Salesforce commerce cloud, you can personalize each customer's journey and make appropriate product suggestions if you have information about their interactions with your brand and purchasing activities. Moreover, building a customer-centric company model and overreaching consumer expectations is one of the main companies’ goals, isn’t it?

2. Ease of use

You can successfully address today's business difficulties, such as heavy traffic, deep data storage, massive numbers of items, and huge transaction volumes. With Commerce Cloud, you can smoothly adopt new technologies and automated scalability and handle traffic surges and other unanticipated situations.

3. Mobile-friendly approach

55% of purchases are made from mobile. That’s why a mobile-optimized eCommerce store or app with an easy-to-use interface is critical for attracting customers and making their buying experience pleasant. Furthermore, Google prioritizes indexing and ranking your website in organic search results based on the mobile version of the content. Commerce Cloud focuses on mobile technology. For example, you can develop a smart app to streamline your staff's work and a strong app for customers to make their experience outstanding using Commerce Cloud's convenient features.

Overview of features and integration

Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides many useful capabilities for managing e-commerce firms and providing excellent customer care. Also, Commerce Cloud is a component of the Salesforce Digital 360 platform for selling and communicating with the audience through digital channels.

Let's look at the features and integrations of Salesforce Commerce Cloud and the commercial elements of Salesforce Digital 360 in detail:

1. Endless Aisle

By integrating trading channels, you can simplify the buying process for your customers and shop employees. Ensure personalized customer service and provide your team members access to your online customer database and product information. Let your customers create wish lists from your preferred products and minimize sales by displaying attractive offers in your online store.

2. Architecture

You may rapidly construct a great Commerce website using this robust framework. To customize your website efficiently, utilize pre-designed wireframes, built-in digital breakthrough technologies, and important integrations.

3. E-commerce platform

It provides a variety of templates, developer tools, and commercial APIs for building e-commerce websites without programming knowledge. Connecting your company's data across all digital channels is feasible and reaches data-driven information on your customers' experiences on a single platform.

4. Digital

Popular tools, mobile frameworks, and features will help you create responsive eCommerce websites. With Commerce Cloud Digital, you can promote your online store on social media and reach a wider audience. Furthermore, you may optimize mobile payment and search, minimize abandoned carts, and create your own branded app to better client mobile experience.

5. Portals

Account portals, loyalty programs, and other tools can help you establish long-term relationships with your customers. Use communities and social networks to provide your target audience with current content and corporate news. Provide your customers with appropriate training resources at every stage of their journey to purchase.

6. Commerce Cloud Developer Center

You can find educational resources, user applications, and solutions and discuss the latest commercial developments. Also, with MuleSoft Accelerator for Commerce Cloud you can quickly integrate external systems such as Jira, ServiceNow and SAP into Service and Commerce Cloud.

7. Built-in artificial intelligence

Einstein AI is the key to increasing customer engagement and satisfaction. With Commerce Cloud Einstein, you can track and analyze consumer behavior, display personalized product offerings, and automate search and category pages based on commercial information. You can also use Einstein’s search dictionaries to configure the intelligence search and provide relevant results.

8. Integration with Salesforce Digital 360 

In September 2020, Salesforce presented Digital 360, a holistic solution for decision-makers in marketing, commerce, and digital technology. It allows business owners to respond to today’s digital environment by digitizing brand-customer relationships and creating personalized customer experiences.

Digital 360 combines the main components of Marketing Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Commerce Cloud, bringing innovations to the Salesforce Customer 360 platform. 

As an integrated component of Digital 360, Commerce Cloud helps companies simplify the payment process and increase security. Collaboration with Stripe uses the Commerce Cloud Payments to add the ability to pay to your website with just a few clicks rather than encryption. As a result, customers can pay with credit cards, mobile wallets Apple Pay, and Google Pay with built-in fraud protection.

Companies that use Commerce Cloud

Cloud Commerce meets the needs of both B2C and B2B companies. It provides two commercial products for consumer brands and retailers: 

B2C (Business to customer) 

B2C Commerce is used to manage e-commerce websites with a large number of visitors and to improve customer experience.

B2B (Business to Business)

Salesforce B2B Commerce aims to meet the needs of B2B buyers who make large purchases by providing them with a first-class experience. 

B2C and B2B organizations strive to provide their customers with outstanding e-commerce opportunities through e-commerce websites, so they must use many practical solutions. Companies with 50-200 employees and sales of $1 to $10 million most often use Commerce Cloud. 

Actual businesses that use Commerce Cloud

Many ecommerce businesses have benefited from Salesforce Commerce Cloud with excellent outcomes; to be precise – 5,787 active eCommerce websites now use Commerce Cloud.

1. Ritual Cosmetics

European cosmetics and lifestyle company Rituals Cosmetics is positively able to affect the unique customer service they provide in their physical locations with Commerce Cloud.

The company has improved the digital experience by introducing valuable components into its e-commerce store, such as data collection by clicking and collecting», next-day delivery, selection of local payments, and availability of real-time stocks through the Commerce Cloud. They can use AI to help their website users find new products and perform transactions.

Ritual Cosmetics increased its online sales by 80% in one year.

2. Puma

One of the world’s leading sports brands has decided to change the architecture of its mobile websites in 25 markets worldwide and improve user interaction. Using Commerce Cloud’s Storefront reference architecture, they restarted PUMA’s mobile sites, added more convenient options, improved top navigation and internal search, and more. 

Puma reported:

• upload speed of sites display and full load 35% and 69% faster 
• communication speed from less than 1% to almost 1.5%.

3. Poppin

Poppin, a workplace provider, serves B2B and B2C clients. They use Commerce Cloud for a single website that allows them to segment customers and gives excellent customer experience to both groups. 

Poppin had impressive achievements during the Christmas season, integrating technology: 

• 90% increase in transactions 
• 84% increase in online revenue 
• 55% increase in orders 
• 78% increase in units sold over the year

4. Johnny’s Selected Seeds

A supplier of seed products and colors, tools, and consumables, launched its e-commerce shop and raised its gross value by 16% using Commerce Cloud's innovations and commercial solutions.

Customers also spent 33% more time on the site and saw 29% more pages.

5. Solorwartt

One of the world’s leading home battery suppliers relied on digital achievement and won. They expanded their sales to online platforms and established their firm in eight countries using B2B Commerce in six months. Their sales and service personnel have unified commercial procedures and can easily and quickly view information about customers and their orders.

The company increased the number of conversations from 0.3% to 10% due to improved quality control.

Bottom line

To stand out in a big eCommerce market – use Salesforce Commerce Cloud. You can optimize your business operations and provide a world-class consumer experience.

Vova Babin