Salesforce Commerce Cloud Reviews

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Public Cloud

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

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

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

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

Less than one year.

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

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

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

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

Still implementing.

• The various cartridges like Customer Service (although be aware, this is a community based cartridge so a lot of SIs will recommend ZenDesk instead but that seems more for their own piece of mind in support rather than the customer requirements), PayPal and Amazon Pay: They aren't plug and go, but they take away the need to develop a lot, so they reduce costs.
• Its scalability. (You must prebook if you have a sale - see the Stability Issues section for more details).
• Reporting is very good.
• Up-sell ability is very good.
• Out of the box gave the basics and you build from there.

It's allowed us to merchandise FMCG in a speedier way.

We can easily report on daily customers, sales, conversions, etc.

Commerce Cloud is not cheap. You will not find a cost-effective solution with official systems integrators. They need a lot more smaller companies offering SI solutions. It can only help the marketplace

Out-of-the-box solutions should present a viable e-commerce site and they sort of do but also sort of don't.

Demandware claims to have an OOTB solution – and to some degree it does – but you can’t really run with it. You need a systems integrator to help manage the deployment. Demandware makes these guys pay a license fee to simply call themselves SIs so right off the bat you have prices that will include the off setting off that cost. The traditional Dermandware recommended SIs are large and so the market is sort of closed, in some respect, and this influences the prices offered for a developed solution. Demandware needs to encourage smaller SIs and development houses (and there are some coming through now) to allow competition.

I have used it for a year.

I did not overly encounter any deployment issues with the platform.

You must tell Commerce Cloud that you are having sales/holidays (even Xmas), so this is not a scalable solution without intervention. When you raise a ticket in their support and tell them, though, it's problem-free, so it's a point to mention, not a huge obstacle.

As mentioned in the Stability Issue section, scalability must be requested.

Customer Service:

Actually, their ticket system and help area is very good. You can find everything you need there.

Technical Support:

Technical support is very good. You have a team of people ready to help and fix issues.

It's a big solution. Make sure you go through discovery thoroughly as it can be costly to redo bespoke work after (same with anything, though).

A vendor team implemented it.

I'd recommend having skills in-house or getting a technical PM as a sounding board, so you can challenge system integrators.

Look into prices carefully. The percentage "fee" charged on each sale is negotiable and can range from around 2% to almost 3%.

It's easy to setup.

They don't provide scope for more customization in the core module.

I've used it for eight months.

The deployment is straightforward with cloud instances, but we don't have any control over the servers.

Almost no issues.

As its code base is hidden, we have little scope for our own customization. We compulsorily have to go with the partners they have chosen.

Customer Service:

It's good - 7/10.

Technical Support:

It's good - 7/10.

We did use a previous solution, and our customer chose to switch.

It was straightforward.

We did it in-house.

It is revenue sharing base, so i don't know about pricing.

If you want a straightforward e-Commerce site, this is a good product with less setup formalities and easy to use, but if you want in-depth customization this might not be a good choice for you

Demandware is at the top of the list when it comes to a SaaS-model e-Commerce solution for it's ease of use, low start-up costs (compared to an On-Premise solution) and scalability. For companies who do not have their own internal IT departments to support a solution, Demandware is an excellent choice. There is relatively minimal setup beyond the usual data migration for catalog development and design elements for UI development.

OOTB APIs for integration to 3rd-party applications like Social Media, payment gateways and other critical applications also add to the low implementation level of effort. Like other smart e-Commerce platforms, Demandware has enjoyed the interactive relationship with business partners and Systems Integrators who actively implement the platform and develop industry-specific extensions and APis, subsequently incorporating those components into consecutive releases.

Demandware brings with it the opportunities for integration with Salesforce and backoffice applications that enable companies to consolidate their e-Commerce backbone and impose standard workflow functions, roles-based permissions for interaction with the platform, performance and sales reporting and other tools for companies to use as a step towards better e-Commerce management.

Demandware is strong across the board. It's difficult to point to a specific area for improvement because there are several variables outside the platform such as the implementation partner, the need to involve an agency for UI work, the amount of data a company needs to migrate, etc.

Over 5 years

None. Demandware is a SaaS-model e-Comm platform so there is very little hands-on setup. Once you push from Staging to Production, you're done.

Minimal. Keep a close eye on order volume throughput if this is your first cloud-based application. The typical adjustments for performance apply.

Minimal. Keep a close eye on order volume throughput if this is your first cloud-based application. Because it's in the cloud, resource allocation can happen quickly because there's no hardware to allocate or deploy. The typical adjustments for performance apply.

Customer Service:

Excellent. Demandware has continually improved it's commitment since the early days.

Technical Support:

Also excellent. Demandware's support team knows Java and the critical components well.

Very straightforward which is why they are a perennial consideration for e-tailers.

I was part of the team that did the implementation.

The associated costs vary because of the nature of the platform. Clients pay for licenses and the subsequent fees for maintenance depend upon sales volume.

The customization and the ability to extend every feature, as well the integration with 3rd parties is very good.

I have used this product for 4 years.

All the changes in the platform are made backward compatible.

If you have followed the best practices you will not have a problem, however you are allowed to change the caching for different pages and that may cause a lot of problems with the performance.

All the solutions based on the platform should be implemented by people who have experience. The platform is capable of handling thousands of orders per hour and Demandware take care of the scalability and hosting infrastructure, so you do not have to worry about that.