Modern customers have sky-high standards, but, fortunately, solutions like Salesforce Commerce Cloud exist. It gives businesses, big or small, the tools to craft the standout online shopping experiences consumers crave – by offering personalized product suggestions, hassle-free checkout processes, and robust analytics.
So if you’re looking for an eCommerce platform that can help you with everything from setting up your digital storefront to driving sales through any customer touchpoint, Commerce Cloud is your top choice.
How Does Salesforce Commerce Cloud Help You Grow Your Business?
Put simply, Commerce Cloud’s one goal is to boost earnings at every interaction. And it does exactly what it preaches, all thanks to integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into daily, repetitive tasks. As a result, users can automate processes 27% faster.
What’s more, Commerce Cloud’s 99.99% historical uptime means your store is always up and running, giving meaning to the saying “your eCommerce is your 24/7 salesperson.” Rest assured that your eCommerce business stands on a secure, reliable, and scalable infrastructure to keep it live, even while your team is asleep.
Whether you’re a small business just starting out or a large enterprise with complex needs, Commerce Cloud can handle it all. You can easily add new products, channels, and markets as your business grows.
Core Features
Commerce Cloud includes everything you need for a complete unified commerce experience including digital storefronts, customer acquisition and loyalty tools, reporting and insights, order management, payments, and embedded apps. Here are just a few of the most-loved features:
Digital Storefronts
Get window shoppers to take out their credit cards! In Commerce Cloud, you can fully customize your digital storefront to align with your brand’s identity. If you’re in a hurry, jump into the market with ready-to-go storefront templates and let AI guide you through the setup.
Already have a storefront elsewhere? Integrate it seamlessly with Salesforce’s headless APIs. Speed up the setup process with automation, and increase conversions with templates crafted for B2C, D2C, and B2B, all of which follow best practices to help your sales skyrocket.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud Intelligence
Check out the Product Intelligence dashboard to see what products and categories are doing well (or not) and how those trends shift over time. Get insights into customer behavior, like how many are active, the average order value (AOV), and different customer segments using the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) dashboard.
For instance, you might notice some products are flying off the shelves, but other categories need a little boost. That’s where you step in with a 360 view of your commerce journey – so you can see what’s working, what’s not, and where to steer next.
Order Management
Save big and fuel smart growth by adopting a customer-first, distributed order management system seamlessly integrated into your CRM through Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Slash fulfillment costs, supercharge agent performance, and automate boring manual tasks to ensure every customer order is as successful as possible.
Use Customer 360 to give agents all the context they need on one screen – from order history and customer records to payment terms and service tools. Simplify complex order routing for a silky-smooth operation!
Imagine an online electronics retailer implementing this system. With a unified Order Management system, they can streamline the entire process from order placement to delivery. Agents have immediate access to a customer’s purchase history, so they can recommend complementary products, offer personalized promotions, and keep customers happy.
B2B, B2C, and D2C Solutions
Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) solutions.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud for B2B
If you’re running a B2B business, you need a platform that can handle complex pricing, product catalogs, and processes. Some of the key features you can expect include the following:
- Custom price lists: Create custom price lists for each of your customer segments, so they can view the prices that are relevant to them.
- Workflow automation: You can automate your workflows, so you focus on growing your business instead of managing your orders.
- Multi-site management: You can manage multiple storefronts from a single platform, making it easy to expand your business or juggle international website versions with localized pricing and offers.
B2C Commerce
If you’re running a B2C business, you need a platform that can handle high volumes of traffic, multiple storefronts, and personalized experiences (the chief of which is cart abandonment). Key features include:
- Personalization: Create personalized experiences for your customers based on their previous behavior, so your next offer speaks to them (and increases your conversion rates).
- More stores, fewer problems: Manage multiple storefronts from a central HQ which makes localization and expansion a piece of cake.
- Scalability: Handle high volumes of traffic without worrying about your platform crashing (remember the 99.99% historic uptime!). This means more ambitious campaigns that won’t get sidetracked because your website is down. Salesforce Commerce Cloud keeps everything up and running!
D2C Commerce
If you’re in the D2C game, you’re aiming for direct connections with your end consumers, and that calls for a specialized platform. Check out the key features:
- Single customer view: Gain insights into individual customer behaviors and preferences, allowing you to create targeted and effective marketing strategies, as well as smart approaches to upselling and cross-selling.
- Content-rich experiences: Deliver engaging content to your consumers, building brand loyalty and enhancing the overall shopping journey.
- Seamless scaling: Handle surges in online traffic without breaking a sweat, ensuring a smooth and reliable shopping experience for your D2C customers.
Analytics and Reporting
If you don’t measure your efforts, you’re essentially relying on guesswork. This is why Commerce Cloud’s analytics and reporting capabilities are a must.
The platform’s analytics and reporting tools provide you with real-time data on your customers, your products, and your sales. This means that you can make informed decisions based on the latest information, rather than relying on outdated data. (It happens more often than you’d think.)
The Reports & Dashboards app does the math to give you solid data on how your storefront is performing. Teams can use this information to make sharper decisions about revenue and top-selling products, as well as watch trends in real-time. If you want to go granular, you can easily sort the data by customer type, website, location, device type, and more.
Architecture and Integration
Salesforce Commerce Cloud stands on a cloud-based framework that is scalable, flexible, and features top-notch security. The platform adopts an API-first approach.
APIs work like bridges, making it easy for any device or app to connect with and use the platform. This approach helps developers create applications that blend with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, making it more flexible for different use cases.
A developer building a custom mobile app for an eCommerce store can use Salesforce Commerce Cloud APIs to integrate features like product listings, cart management, and secure checkout, providing users with a smooth and cohesive shopping experience, no matter the device they’re using.
Third-Party Integrations
Commerce Cloud effortlessly links up with various third-party apps. It pairs with well-known options such as Salesforce CRM, Marketo, and SAP. Plus, it offers easy connections to popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net, streamlining payment processing for businesses.
All in all, Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s design and integration options make it a powerful choice for businesses looking to grow fast and cut straight to the processes that matter most.
How Heathrow Airport Increased Revenue After COVID-19 with Salesforce Commerce Cloud
The famed Heathrow Airport amped up its digital revenue by a solid 30%, thanks to Salesforce Commerce Cloud. They revamped their digital services and teamed up with partners, with around 10% of their yearly cash flow coming from retail and catering spots.
They introduced the Retail Reserve & Collect deal, powered by Commerce Cloud, allowing travelers to buy products online before they hit the airport. This gave passengers more shopping options, even if their favorite brand wasn’t out in the terminal.
Behind the scenes, Commerce Cloud teamed up with customer service and marketing tools, keeping passengers in the loop on their orders and suggesting extras. Heathrow also fine-tuned its parking services using Commerce Cloud, resulting in increased conversion rates.
Despite a 20% dip in passengers during the COVID-19 scene, Heathrow’s overall digital revenue shot up. In a nutshell, Salesforce Commerce Cloud played a key role in Heathrow’s digital makeover, enhancing customer experiences and driving significant revenue growth.
Commerce Cloud: Your Path to eCommerce Success
While it’s true that you can make your online stores work for you, you’ve still got a chunk of responsibility in your hands – and that’s choosing the best eCommerce solution for your needs.
If you’re serious about navigating the challenges of online retail with finesse as you accelerate your business growth, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the seasoned professional’s choice. And, if other Salesforce products are already part of your stack, choosing Salesforce yet again is table stakes.
