Salesforce Programmer at Freelancer
Real User
Good translation features and community support, but the product and related services are expensive
Pros and Cons
  • "There is a good community of developers for the platform."
  • "There is space to have better communication with other kinds of platforms."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and Salesforce Commerce Cloud is one of the products that we implement for our clients. My role is as a Salesforce developer and I work on different tasks, including product customization.

What is most valuable?

Multilanguage support means that this product will operate in English, Chinese, or whatever language is required. 

The translation feature is available, depending on the region, and it is quite useful for me as well as my customers.

The development capabilities are very powerful, which is what my customers know and why they buy this product instead of something else.

There is a good community of developers for the platform.

With respect to customizability, you can do whatever you want.

You can integrate with other solutions and put everything in one place. For example, you can connect Commerce Cloud with Marketing Cloud, then you can see details on the sales moving through the pipeline. Both these products are from the same company, and some customers already have Salesforce Marketing Cloud. For them, it's easy to implement Salesforce Commerce Cloud. With Salesforce, the technology is the same. They will know how to use it. The developer works the same, they both work with cloud and Salesforce is a known brand. They trust the information that they put on their server and know that the information is secure.

What needs improvement?

When a company buys a license for Salesforce Commerce Cloud, it is almost impossible to handle all of the features. This is why there is a high demand for developers or people who can educate the team on how to use it and how to configure all of the things people need.

People will sometimes go online and learn about the product, then buy a license for something that they don't actually know how to use. This is another business that Salesforce is selling, namely support. They are not only just selling their platform, but also the services that go with it. For smaller companies, it is not going to work. For larger companies, it may work.

There is space to have better communication with other kinds of platforms. If for example, you have a software developer, and a customer presents you with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, sometimes it's difficult to pick it up. It's not a totally different technology, although there are differences. It is a new product in the Salesforce environment, so it's hard to get people to work on it. Finding developers will also cost more money.

There is lots of improvement that can be made in terms of user experience. For example, Salesforce Cloud has an excellent user experience. With this product, however, you have to be tough and you have to study. It's not like other types of products. For a person with no experience, this is like a nightmare.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Salesforce Commerce Cloud for approximately three years, at a time when it was still owned by Demandware.

Buyer's Guide
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
769,599 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is very stable and if you face problems then you can contact support. Unfortunately, they are very annoying to deal with.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is being used by some very large companies that operate worldwide. This product is not typically for startups or small companies that are just starting out. For clients such as this, we will choose another option that is cheaper. Also, they will not spend money developing this product because they don't have enough customers and it will be a waste of money.

Larger companies are sometimes already involved with Salesforce.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate the technical support a four out of ten.

They are weak and they are really hard to reach out to. They can respond but sometimes they don't understand the solution. Salesforce has people running all over the place and sometimes they don't understand what you are asking for. They contact you, you show them the problem that you're facing, and then they put in the case that they don't understand you. They ask for another call and you have to state the case again, but they don't answer. 

Ultimately, I would prefer not to contact everybody to get a case resolved.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Some of my customers use other platforms and products. For example, they might use the Salesforce Community edition, Salesforce Cloud, or something else.

I have worked with a couple before the Salesforce environment. They were based mainly on PHP and you have to put them on your home server. I have used Magento, some time ago, and I found that the technical support was better. It may not be a fair comparison because I have worked more with Salesforce than Magento, but I found that the Magento interface was more user-friendly.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is of medium complexity. For somebody that knows Salesforce, it can be picked up quite quickly. They don't have to know Salesforce Commerce Cloud, but another product like Salesforce Cloud. These people will pick it up very quickly and they can do the implementation.

For somebody who has already done it one time, it's easy.

On average, I would say that it takes a month to deploy. Part of the reason it takes this long is that customers want to add new things. Perhaps they have another Commerce Cloud solution and they want the same information. It costs a lot in terms of time.

The length of time for deployment also depends on the size of the company.

In terms of a deployment strategy, you can do a basic implementation of the solution but sometimes they want, for example, more customization. They want you to develop a specific thing that is not part of the solution. This can be a problem because it puts more into the requirements. For example, you have to see how it works with other solutions. This will increase the amount of time it takes.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Customers for this product normally purchase in bulk because it's not a cheap license.

What other advice do I have?

If I had to choose, I don't know if I would select Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Perhaps for medium to large companies, I would. However, for smaller companies with between 15 and 100 users, I believe that I would go with another product.

One of the reasons that developing with Salesforce is not cheap. You have to hire people, for example. 

If somebody tells me that they are interested in implementing this product then the first question that I would ask is whether they have another Commerce Cloud or another e-commerce platform in place. Then, if so, I would ask why they are trying to change. I see a lot of people buying it just because it is a known brand, globally.

The advantages are that your data will be secure and it will never crash.

My advice for anybody who implements it is to contact somebody that really knows what to do, instead of wasting time trying to figure it out. They need technical people, and even for them, this is not something that is very easy to do.

The bottom line is that this is not a solution for everyone. It costs a lot of time and a lot of money, but different customers will get more value out of it than others.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Security Product Manager at Sencinet
Real User
Can be deployed in minutes for providing reports
Pros and Cons
  • "I find the reports to be the solution's most valuable feature."
  • "The solution should have more and faster reporting, as well as better performance."

What is our primary use case?

The solution provides us all the information we need about sales and reports.

I do not know which version we are using. 

We use the solution for creating the pipeline and getting the learning process. We get reports, which helps us keep track of opportunities. 

What is most valuable?

I find the reports to be the solution's most valuable feature. 

What needs improvement?

The solution should have more and faster reporting, as well as better performance. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Salesforce Commerce Cloud for the entire year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is easy to scale. 

How are customer service and support?

I have never made use of technical support. 

How was the initial setup?

The solution took several minutes to deploy. 

What other advice do I have?

I feel the solution to be very good.

I rate it as a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
769,599 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Salesforce Solutions Architect at Kcloud Technologies
Real User
Features are developed and refined over many years to provide a highly customized e-commerce experience
Pros and Cons
  • "Salesforce offers the best features and functionality, which are developed and refined over many years to provide a highly customized e-commerce experience."
  • "If your organization has a nonstandard or niche business model or audience, the fast nature of the solution may not be a good fit."

How has it helped my organization?

Let me tell you about one of my clients: the basic premise of the solution is to enable the organization to do what it typically does best. It helps to create the platform, as much as possible, without having to focus on some of the associated challenges surrounding e-commerce platforms, like stability, scalability, and managing the technical agency theme or roadmap.

People always choose the solution that best serves their business goals. You can say that Salesforce is the best e-commerce cloud platform on the market, which serves the business purpose.

There is no "one size fits all" approach when it comes to e-commerce. It's a part of Salesforce's family, so Salesforce is very trustworthy and if we talk about Health Cloud, it's HIPAA compliant. If we talk about other industries, it offers all of the security policies which are needed. It is highly trusted, and the data is completely secure and it can easily integrate with the solution set. 

What is most valuable?

Salesforce offers the best features and functionality which are developed and refined over many years to provide a highly customized e-commerce experience. It is mostly for clients who are more into e-commerce, so they go for the Salesforce Commerce Cloud because, the best part is, you don't have to develop everything from scratch.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud has seamless upgrades. Since the platform is SaaS, Salesforce continuously rolls out many new features in the background. These are available through an administration panel and often with minimal or no technical intervention needed on the client-side.

What needs improvement?

The revenue share model is very attractive to organizations — strong product profit margins, from which to fund the license fee. This commerce model is not as appealing to high volume, low margin retailers, or B2B organizations as their margins are traditionally much tighter. I think that's a limitation they should improve. If your organization has a nonstandard or niche business model or audience, the fast nature of the solution may not be a good fit.

I think the E-commerce cloud should be improved for the low margin retailers and B2B organizations.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have seven years of experience with Salesforce, but technically only two to three years if we're talking specifically about Commerce Cloud.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Speaking about scalability as a cloud-based product, Salesforce Commerce Cloud can cope with huge demands and traffic spikes without the customer having to plan for it in advance. If there is a sudden spike in the demand, the platform scales silently in the background with no intervention required.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have reached out to technical support many times but usually, it was for help enabling any features which were not activated, or if there were any technical issues, for example, while publishing something. So in that case, I have reached out to technical support. You can't expect them to do any customizations in your org.

They will only help you with enforced technical glitches if there are any, or any activation features if needed.

Their support is good from my past experience; they definitely offer good support compared to other CRM platforms. Salesforce support is quite better than all of them.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. 

They offer a full system integration service, starting with the discovery that uncovered the highest revenue commercially focused activity roadmap of the business. Everything goes very well in Commerce Cloud. 

What I would suggest, initially it's a straightforward setup, but then later, if you need some customizations or high-level technical things added to your e-commerce platform, then obviously you need a solution partner or implementation partner to design that.

Setup time varies from customer to customer. Speaking about Salesforce in general, or any cloud of Salesforce, we can't give an accurate estimate of how much time it's going to take, because it depends on many factors: is it a big company or a small company? What kind of requirements they have? What kind of platform do they want to build? Do they need it to provide live agent support? Do they want to add social extensions, like Facebook, etc?

Everything adds more time to the total sites, so it depends from requirement to requirement, what kind of implementation they need. Sometimes it takes 10 days and sometimes it takes 10 months to settle things completely.

What about the implementation team?

Whether we follow an implementation plan depends on the client's requirements; however, the initial setup is the same.

If they want to launch their campaigns, personalize their merchandise, help shoppers find what they want and if they want to boost organic traffic, again, it depends on person to person and from client to client.

What was our ROI?

My clients see a return on their investment with SalesForce. For example, some of my clients' data and e-commerce sites were not properly organized earlier. When they started using Salesforce Commerce Cloud, it took some time, but their direct revenue increased.

It really depends on many factors. You can easily see the sales growth, you can analyze that and you can add many features to make it user-friendly. You can add the chat option, you can easily send campaigns. If you are sending personalized campaigns, then obviously you will get some clients which are not coming back to you from the last few months so that is a long process to get more revenue.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If I talk about the cost of using the platform as realized as a revenue share, meaning that the client effectively funds the platform from OPEX rather than CAPEX, then there are no significant upfront license costs. As an approach, it's quite compelling that Salesforce has seen their financial success due to the growth of client revenue in what's described as a shared success model. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have worked with Shopify, some of my customers were using Shopify and Salesforce Sales Cloud, not the Commerce Cloud in that case. They were managing everything on the Shopify website and they mentioned it is easy to use, but still, I feel with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, we have tons of features, which are not available in Shopify.

Sometimes people don't need the features which are provided by Salesforce. They just need a simple e-commerce platform. Shopify is cheaper than Salesforce so that is the reason that people often choose it, but if a company is big and they want to achieve something good, they obviously go for Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

There is built-in marketing functionality in Salesforce Commerce Cloud. If you want to do very personalized marketing campaigns, those are available in Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

If you only want people who have purchased RED products to see sales on other RED products, you can do that with Salesforce Commerce Cloud. If you want to send campaigns to only those people who are living in city X, and who have purchase items worth more than five dollars, within the last 30 days or any duration; you can easily do that with Commerce Cloud. No other solution can hold a candle to this.

A secondary advantage that Salesforce Commerce Cloud has over Shopify is that while the plugin market is much smaller, all plugins must be certified. A constant complaint of everyone using Shopify is that the plugins make the site slower and slower — who knows what crazy code they are including. That doesn't happen with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, since each plugin must be fully certified, which includes speed requirements.

What other advice do I have?

You could say, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is like a cloud-based software as a service, e-commerce solution. 

If you find Salesforce Commerce Cloud a compelling proposition, chances are, you will continue with adopting the Commerce Cloud roadmap provided by Salesforce. It's another thing that you won't have to concern yourself with. Clients can focus on using the solution's features and functions to drive sales for their sites. They don't have to always be focused on the CRM part of Commerce Cloud, it allows them to focus on their sales growth.

There are some huge brands that use Salesforce Commerce Cloud, including Puma and Adidas.

These are not my direct clients, but I have worked for some of these companies, doing some outsourcing work with some third parties involved. 

If you are interested in using Salesforce, be sure to check which additional Salesforce Commerce Cloud you want to go for — B2B, or B2C Commerce. There are different additions: a starter pack, a growth pack, etc. It depends on the business.

Also, if you wish to use Salesforce, you should hire an implementation partner, not just for the customization part, but for the best advice, because implementation partners know the best practice and the best things which are useful for the client and for the company. I have seen people who have completely messed up because they didn't have an implementation partner.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Salesforce a rating of eight.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
Good visualization, stable, scalable, useful filters, and user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "The filters are very useful, and easy to customize. it's very easy to operate."
  • "There is always room for improvement with any solution."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the lead matrix that Commerce provides, which helps us to filter out the leads. It also filters out the companies that are right for us and need to target.

The visualization is very good. It's not confusing. If you are doing an analysis on your Commerce, It's very easy.

The filters are very useful and easy to customize. It's very easy to operate.

The user-friendly interface is better when compared with other CRMs.

For everything that we have used this solution for, we have had the best experience. This si the reason that we have not switched to another CRM. We will continue with this for a very long time.

They are constantly iterating and that is a good thing.

What needs improvement?

There is always room for improvement with any solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Salesforce Commerce Cloud for approximately three years.

We are using the latest version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Definitely, this is a stable solution. In terms of volume, and capability, it's very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very stable. We started using it in a very small segment of our company and now we've expanded it. We have distributed it in geography.

First, we were using it only for the North American client base, and have now, expanded for global usage.

It's very scalable for us.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't used technical support because I haven't required it.

From what I understand, it's pretty fast, and they have a 24 hour turnaround time policy that they follow. Any query is responded to within 24 hours.

Some of my team members have been in contact with technical support, but I have not personally.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Marketo and HubSpot. There are many pre-existing filters, but they're not always useful.

There is a lot of filtration which makes it difficult to customize.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

While the price is reasonable for what you are getting, it could still be better. For a small business, it might be too expensive.

Initially, when we installed Salesforce, we thought that it was a bit pricey, but I think for the value that we're getting, it’s suitable.

It is something that is not too off-the-shelf or too expensive, but the price could be better.

What other advice do I have?

I am very satisfied with this solution. I don't need any changes in it for what I use. They may provide other features in the future that may be very helpful for me, but I have not thought about what I would like to see.

When you are first starting, you should go through all of the tutorials. When we look at the product or look at a tool, we realize that we use the basic aspects of it. You want to have a full understanding of how to customize it for your needs, and data analysis. It's very customizable, unless you don't know how to do it then it won't be utilized fully.

There are several tutorials available online to use, that will teach you how to use it, and to customize it for your usage and requirements.

Take the time to go through the tutorials beforehand.

I would rate Salesforce Commerce Cloud a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user827292 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Multi-tenant infrastructure is a blessing and a curse
Pros and Cons
  • "​Ability to quickly add content and manage products along with associated web content easily."
  • "Not having to worry about maintaining one's own infrastructure."
  • "Needs better access to code and customizability of the solution."
  • "Multi-tenant infrastructure is a blessing and a curse."

What is our primary use case?

eCommerce for consumer packaged goods sold direct to consumers, not via distributors.

How has it helped my organization?

I do not know as we are still in the implementation phase.

What is most valuable?

  • Ability to quickly add content and manage products along with associated web content easily.  
  • Not having to worry about maintaining one's own infrastructure. 

What needs improvement?

  • Better access to code and customizability of the solution. 
  • Multi-tenant infrastructure is a blessing and a curse.

For how long have I used the solution?

Still implementing.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Consultant for customer
PeerSpot user
it_user79803 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect with 51-200 employees
MSP
Merchandizing and website features are easy to master and set up but integration with other systems is not easy

Demandware is a SaaS based Ecommerce platform. Most of its customers are US based but it is rapidly making inroads into Europe.

Its strength lies in it being SaaS and being extremely feature rich. The downside is lack of easy integration capabilities with other IT systems.

Strengths

1. Rich in features:

Demandware has rich Merchandizing and website features which are easy to master and set up in its merchant facing interface called Business Manager. Some of them are listed below

·Promotions – About 70-80 type of different promotions can be set up in Business Manager.

·Search – It has it’s own search engine (no need to integrate with any third party search engines if your SKU count is not exceeding half a million). Various search specific features such as Synonyms, Hypernyms, redirects can be easily set up.

·Product Types – Supports various product types such as sets and bundles

·SEO- There are various features within Demandware to enhance the SEO awareness of the site

·Geo targeting – Recently they have added inbuilt support for Geo-IP based targeting. This means merchants can easily merchandize their goods based on customer’s browsing location.

Apart from these, included are other standard Ecommerce platform features such as Catalogue management, Pricebook management, multi-site roll out feature exists.

2. SaaS

Demandware has achieved a good degree of maturity in regularly upgrading the platform. Being SaaS means clients don’t have to be bother with the release process, upgrading etc. They can just sit back and enjoy the new features offered by Demandware.

Business Model

Its licensing model is transaction based (you pay Demandware a percentage of your revenue) . So retailers/clients don’t have to do a huge capital expenditure.

Weakness

1. Integration capability

It is not very easy to integrate Demandware with other systems. For most of the key interfaces like Catalogue, PriceBook or inventory you have to get a file in Demandware XML format from other systems (like Warehouse management system, Product Management system etc.). Though technically it is possible to do XML transformation and use of web services etc, the only thing I am saying is, it is not as easy as some other platforms.

2. Proprietary development language

To customize or enhance any features within Demandware, you have to work in Demandware Scripting language, which is a proprietary Demandware language. Though it is based on server side Javascripting, you still have to learn it along with Demandware component architecture. As a result, the availability of trained developers in the market is scarce. The learning curve here is steeper than Hybris or ATG (for developers).

After having worked on ATG and Demandware and having self taught Hybris to some extent, I would recommend Demandware for retailers who make anywhere between USD 10 and USD 50 Million/year in online revenue and do not want to operate a large in-house IT team.

-------------------------

Update 2014

1) New multicurrency feature released - A Demandware based transactional site can now have more than one currency.

2) Improved Search As You Type feature

3) Same host name for multiple sites (i.e. www.somesite.com/US points to US site and www.somesite.com/UK points to UK site)

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user72771 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user72771Info Sec Consultant at Size 41 Digital
Top 5Real User

Did you have any major problems with your demandware install?

Manager at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
The implementation team can customize the implementation to the customer's needs
Pros and Cons
  • "The implementation team can customise the implementation to customer needs."
  • "It is similar to ATG, but some features can be exchanged between the 2."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for eCommerce, which is similar to ATG.

What is most valuable?

The sign-up process is easy, as you can link it to other products and sign with your Gmail account, for example. The implementation team can customise the implementation to customer needs. 

What needs improvement?

It is similar to ATG, but some features can be exchanged between the 2.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Salesforce cloud for about 2 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Salesforce is a stable solution. We have not encountered any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Salesforce is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not had to use technical support.

How was the initial setup?

Set up and configuration of Salesforce is straight forward.

What about the implementation team?

In our team, we have 5 people involved in the use and implementation of salesforce, including managers, developers and administrators. Implementation can take up to 2 months. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing works on a per-user basis.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have considered using ATG.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this product 8 out of 10. It is a good eCommerce solution. Compared to ATG, it would be down to choosing which product you needed for your business long term.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
it_user844278 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Baozun
User
New functionalities include membership awards and order sourcing awareness. Cloud services need improvement.

What is our primary use case?

For use in an E-commerce website based on commerce cloud. Applied to front-end and order check, and integrated with order management system.

How has it helped my organization?

Demandware helped the company set up a user friendly e-commerce website in a short time frame and offers stable system performance.

What is most valuable?

New functionalities including membership awards and order sourcing awareness in the order check.

What needs improvement?

The cloud services, the information security services, and the compliance support services.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Commerce Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free Salesforce Commerce Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.