Today’s guest post is delivered by Gilad David Maayan, a technology writer who has worked with over 150 technology companies including SAP, Samsung NEXT, NetApp and Imperva, producing technical and thought leadership content that elucidates technical solutions for developers and IT leadership.
The consumers of 2020 want to access and purchase products and services anytime and anywhere. They are always connected and engage with e-commerce brands through chatbots, social media, and marketing emails.
Consumers often expect to instantly find and buy the product they are looking for. This is why e-retailers want to create a smart, and easy shopping experience in every media channel. You can achieve these goals through the use of Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
Salesforce recently announced some new features in its Commerce Cloud platform. New features include artificial intelligence, inventory availability and more. Read on to explore some of these new features.
What Is Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) is a cloud-based e-commerce platform that lets you manage products, promotions, content, and pricing. From the operational point of view, the platform offers different functionalities over multiple channels like mobile, web, social, and store. SFCC integrates with your order fulfillment channel and with your back-office tools.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud key features include:
- Omni-Channel platform—SFCC integrates your physical store with your online store to improve customer experience and grow your business.
- SaaS solution—SFCC is a SaaS solution that enables real-time access to information about your online and offline operations.
- Flexibility—SFCC enables customers to return products anywhere they want. In addition, shoppers can save time by paying online and picking up the product from the store.
- E-commerce website management—SFCC provides a Content Management System (CMS), and Operations Management System (OMS). The e-commerce store does not require programming experts to work on the backend. SFCC provides a wide audience reach with compatibility to all popular operating systems like Windows, Android, and iOS.
- Personalization—SFCC offers a personalized shopping experience by analyzing customer behavior. As a result, store owners can promote unique content that is appealing to specific users.
- Seamless upgrades—Salesforce constantly rolls out many new features and updates. Updates are available in the administration panel and the installation does not require any technical intervention.
- Internationalization—SFCC enables users to manage multiple stores from a single back-end. As a result, store owners can integrate things like multi-language and multi-currency.
Newest Salesforce Commerce Cloud Features
Top-shelf shopping experiences are critical in the competitive e-commerce landscape. One way of doing so is through Artificial Intelligence (AI). That is why Salesforce recently integrated AI-powered features into the Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Below is a quick review of the newest Salesforce Commerce Cloud features and how they can transform e-commerce brands.
1) Einstein AI-Based Visual Search
The term visual search refers to a product search, which is run with a photo instead of text and keywords. Recent reports reveal that 62% of millennials prefer visual search over any other search technology. In addition, brands that offer voice and visual search will increase their revenue by 30% in 2021. The visual search market is estimated to reach $28.4 billion by 2027.
To address increasing customer expectations, Salesforce announced the Einstein Visual Search. Einstein is an AI-based feature that enables users to search, shop, and discover promotions through photos. Shoppers upload an image from their mobile device and the Einstein Visual Search automatically finds a visually similar product.
An AI algorithm improves the search capability of Einstein when various users upload different images. SFCC enables image optimization and uploads from smartphones through services like Cloudinary. Retailers can extend the feature to include uploads from laptops or desktops.
2) Einstein Recommendation Engine
Recommendation engines enable retailers to offer the right product to the right customer at the right time. The result is an increased conversion rate and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Experts indicate that up to 31% of e-commerce store revenue comes from product offer personalization. Another report indicates that 35% of Amazon’s revenue comes from its recommendation engine.
Formerly, the Einstein recommendation engine was only available in the SFCC storefront. The new update enables retailers to integrate Einstein recommendations beyond their e-commerce site through an API. Merchants can now personalize user experience on mobile apps and across customer service and marketing channels.
3) Inventory Availability Service
This new feature enables e-commerce sores to activate a fulfillment center and in-store inventory across multiple digital channels in real-time. As a result, retailers can use programs like buy online, browse by store or, pick-up in store. The new feature also supports spike periods with high-volume requests like holidays.
4) Developer Sandboxes
Developer sandboxes isolate development work from your production environment until you are ready to deploy changes. Sandboxes provide a training environment for developers and enable them to test changes against users and versions of production data. You can set up a sandbox in minutes and deliver innovation to the e-commerce website faster.
5) Commerce API Explorer
The new Commerce API Explorer allows developers to search across an API library and test different functions and calls. This new one-stop-shop for all Commerce APIs in a single portal and easy-to-use user interface allows developers to design and test new experiences more efficiently.
6) Salesforce Commerce Cloud Pricing Model
SFCC has recently changed its pricing model to a range that enables smaller merchants to use the platform. The new pricing is based on a Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) model and offers three core options—Starter, Growth and Unlimited. GVM is the total gross revenue of an e-commerce store in a given period.
The Starter option is for single store retailers and stores with up to two price books. The pricing starts at 1% of GMV. The Growth option is for retailers with up to five stores and up to 10 price books. The pricing is set to 2% of GMV. The Unlimited option is for merchants with larger demands.
The new pricing is more appealing because there are no significant ‘upfront’ license costs. However, this approach may not appeal to a niche business model or non-standard audiences. SFCC features are mainly focused on what the majority of B2C retailers find compelling.
Conclusion
Digital commerce is no longer just a shopping cart. In fact, 21.8% of the world’s population shops online, which makes online shopping responsible for 11.9% of all retail revenue worldwide. For this reason, retailers can leverage Salesforce Commerce Cloud to deliver enhanced shopping experience through AI-powered commerce services, APIs and a robust partner ecosystem. Some of the most well-known brands use Commerce Cloud, including Under Armour, Fila, GoPro and more.
For more info about the Commerce Cloud product click here.
Leave a Reply