7 Commerce Pain Points and How Salesforce Commerce Cloud Solves Them

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a powerful cloud-based platform designed for online retailers to enhance every aspect of their digital commerce journey – from marketing and merchandising to fulfillment and customer service. Unlike traditional Salesforce products, Commerce Cloud, particularly the B2C variant, operates on a distinct stack, providing brands with specialized tools to create engaging eCommerce sites, unify in-store and online experiences, and connect with customers across channels like social media.

For businesses operating in the B2B space, Salesforce B2B Commerce Cloud offers similar advantages tailored to the complexities of B2B transactions. It enables companies to deliver a B2C-like experience with features like personalized catalogs, complex pricing models, and self-service portals, helping businesses streamline their sales processes, manage bulk orders, and provide a seamless buying journey for their corporate clients.

Brands using both B2C and B2B Commerce Cloud can efficiently manage products and orders, save time and money, and deliver personalized, seamless shopping experiences that meet modern consumer expectations. Trusted by over 150,000 brands including L’Oréal, Puma and more, Salesforce Commerce Cloud empowers businesses to adapt quickly to evolving trends such as conversational commerce and buy online, pick up in-store, providing the flexibility to stay ahead of the competition and build lasting customer relationships.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) has become a powerful tool for businesses striving to provide seamless, personalized shopping experiences. However, like any comprehensive platform, it addresses specific pain points that can significantly hinder business growth if left unhandled. In this article, we’ll explore seven critical challenges that Salesforce Commerce Cloud can solve and provide insights on how to optimize these solutions for your eCommerce success.

1. Lack of Personalization and Unified Customer Experience

• The Problem: Modern consumers expect personalized shopping experiences across all touchpoints. However, many businesses struggle with disjointed data, leading to inconsistent customer experiences that can deter potential buyers.
• How SFCC Solves It: Salesforce Commerce Cloud leverages AI-powered tools like Einstein to deliver personalized product recommendations and dynamic content. It unifies data across all channels – online, in-store, and mobile – ensuring a cohesive customer journey.
• Optimization Tips: To maximize SFCC’s personalization capabilities, continuously refine your data inputs by integrating other Salesforce products like Marketing Cloud. Use A/B testing to gauge the effectiveness of personalized recommendations and adjust strategies accordingly.

Adding to this, in order to achieve a really unified customer experience for the client, it is recommended to start by mapping all the systems involved (inventory, sales tax, shipping, ERP, payment) so as to provide an integral solution. Start by designing a tailored solution and documenting as there are other systems or digital products that may need integration with Commerce Cloud, for example, at the specific point of digitizing inventory or involving other systems such as ERP or Salesforce products such as CPQ.

2. Complex Integrations with Existing Systems

• The Problem: Integrating multiple systems – like CRM, ERP, and order management solutions – can be time-consuming and error-prone, leading to inefficiencies and data silos.
• How SFCC Solves It: SFCC’s API-first architecture allows integrations with various third-party solutions, ensuring data flows smoothly between systems. The platform’s compatibility with Salesforce’s broader ecosystem makes it a natural choice for businesses looking to connect all their operational systems under one roof. That is to say, integrating CPQ to the commerce site.
• Optimization Tips: Utilize the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform to create unified integrations and streamline data sharing across all systems. Conduct regular audits of your integrations to identify and resolve data flow issues promptly.

During this phase of implementation, it is suggested to seek weekly feedback in order to ensure alignment with requirements and have specific first data to analyze the commerce site’s behavior. After all, nothing speaks louder than data and results.

3. Scalability Challenges During Peak Traffic

• The Problem: Handling high volumes of traffic during peak seasons, such as holidays or sales events, can cause website slowdowns or crashes, negatively impacting sales and customer experience.
• How SFCC Solves It: Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides scalable cloud infrastructure capable of handling large traffic spikes without compromising performance. It offers auto-scaling capabilities that adapt to your website’s needs in real-time.
• Optimization Tips: To ensure optimal performance, regularly test your site’s load capacity with stress testing tools. Consider implementing a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute your content globally and reduce server load times during peak periods.

It is also important to train sales agents on how to use the site in order to optimize SFCC solutions and achieve higher performance during peak traffic times. They will be your ambassadors for making this sales channel your main source of income and attracting your customers.

4. Inefficient Order Management and Fulfillment

• The Problem: Managing orders from multiple channels and ensuring timely fulfillment can be complex, leading to errors, delayed shipments, and dissatisfied customers.
• How SFCC Solves It: Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s Order Management System (OMS) streamlines the entire order lifecycle, from processing to fulfillment. It provides real-time inventory visibility, enabling businesses to fulfill orders quickly and accurately from any location.
• Optimization Tips: Integrate SFCC’s OMS with your logistics and warehouse management systems to automate order routing and minimize manual intervention. Utilize predictive analytics to forecast demand and manage inventory levels efficiently.

Regarding inventory management, we also suggest exploring ISV solutions to facilitate this process. With a proven track record of having teamed up with Salesforce Consulting Partners and ISVs, it is recommended that you offer a bundled service solution to the customer and work together with Salesforce partners. Not only is an integral solution provided to the client but also a powerful force and outcomes can be achieved. In this same line of business, we recommend reviewing orders and inventory within Salesforce to ensure consistency and expected results.

5. Limited Mobile Commerce Capabilities

• The Problem: With the rise of mobile shopping, businesses that lack a robust mobile commerce strategy risk losing a significant portion of their audience.
• How SFCC Solves It: SFCC offers a mobile-first approach with responsive design capabilities, ensuring your site is optimized for any device. Its Progressive Web App (PWA) kit further enhances the mobile shopping experience, providing app-like functionality directly within the browser.
• Optimization Tips: Regularly update your PWA to incorporate new features that improve user engagement, such as push notifications for personalized offers. Monitor mobile site performance metrics closely and optimize load times to enhance the overall mobile shopping experience.

With Salesforce Commerce Cloud, automatic processing of orders through an e-commerce site can be achieved, control of orders is possible, and drawing reports is a plus. This comes with predictability and capacity control in deliveries and the chance to build a strong relationship with your customers and audience.

In the B2C space, this is also solved. Ensuring customers find what they need is crucial for any channel, and Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud offers powerful tools to optimize search for your brand. It allows you to group related terms like synonyms and hypernyms, manage compound words, suggest relevant phrases, and exclude unwanted terms. You can even control how common phrases are searched to ensure they appear as intended. Plus, detailed reports show what customers are searching for and when terms come up empty, enabling continuous refinement and sales strategy execution.

With these features, your “no results found” page will be a thing of the past.

6. Difficulty in Launching New Products and Campaigns Quickly

• The Problem: Slow go-to-market strategies can hinder your ability to capitalize on emerging trends or respond swiftly to competitor actions.
• How SFCC Solves It: Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s drag-and-drop interface and business manager tools allow for quick adjustments to your storefront, product catalogs, and promotions without heavy reliance on developers.
• Optimization Tips: Empower your marketing and merchandising teams by providing training on using SFCC’s Business Manager tools. Establish a testing environment to preview changes before deploying them live, ensuring your campaigns are error-free.

In the B2B space, we’re dealing with carts that could contain hundreds of items, potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. Additionally, these transactions involve negotiated, account-specific pricing and terms, often made on behalf of a call center agent or sales representative. So, effective training is essential.

7. Managing Global Commerce Complexities

• The Problem: Expanding into new markets presents challenges, such as handling multiple currencies, languages, and local regulations.
• How SFCC Solves It: Salesforce Commerce Cloud simplifies global commerce with built-in support for multi-currency, multi-language, and local tax and shipping configurations. This ensures a tailored shopping experience for customers worldwide.
• Optimization Tips: Use SFCC’s multi-site management capabilities to tailor the experience for each region and ensure compliance with local regulations. Regularly review local performance metrics to optimize your regional strategies further.

For B2B business applications, it allows you to launch digital B2B ordering in weeks and capture your share of the booming eCommerce market. You can quickly adapt to changing demands with industry-tailored, customizable storefronts and seamless integration with your existing systems.

So, enhance customer experiences by offering easy, self-service purchasing options and consumer-like shopping across all devices. Drive growth through efficient online buying features like fast reorders, contract pricing, and custom catalogs. Connect every customer touchpoint with a 360-degree view powered by Salesforce, enabling personalized, data-driven recommendations. Some leading brands like Greenfield Global, OSRAM, and McKesson are transforming their businesses with Salesforce B2B Commerce.

Why Salesforce Commerce Cloud Matters Now More Than Ever

Salesforce has introduced the Commerce Cloud Foundations, a free upgrade that makes this powerful tool even more accessible to businesses of all sizes. This upgrade presents a unique opportunity to transform digital commerce, making it especially relevant today as businesses look for cost-effective ways to enhance their online presence.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is designed to address many of the common pain points that businesses face when managing their digital storefronts. By leveraging its robust set of tools and continuously optimizing your approach, you can overcome these challenges and drive significant growth in your eCommerce business. Understanding how SFCC tackles these issues – and implementing these solutions effectively – will not only enhance your operations but also provide a seamless and personalized experience that keeps customers coming back.

Absolutely, brands can utilize Salesforce Commerce Cloud on their own. However, the real power emerges when you integrate multiple Salesforce clouds, and many pain points are solved in multiple ways. This approach provides a unified view of your customers’ data, enhancing your operational efficiency and saving valuable time. Moreover, this consolidated data within Salesforce empowers you to deliver more personalized and seamless experiences, elevating customer engagement to the next level.

Summary: A Guide to Upgrading and Implementing Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Upgrading to Salesforce Commerce Cloud is straightforward, and businesses can take advantage of Salesforce’s resources to ensure a smooth transition. Implementing Commerce Cloud involves evaluating your current systems, setting clear goals for your eCommerce strategy, and leveraging Salesforce’s powerful integrations to enhance your digital ecosystem.

With the right approach, companies can quickly unlock the full potential of Commerce Cloud, driving sales and enhancing customer satisfaction across every touchpoint. But let’s dive deeper into this guide in a future article…