Salesforce Commerce - Website Builders

Our Verdict

Salesforce’s eCommerce platform for small businesses offers a comprehensive solution that seamlessly integrates CRM functionality with the ability to create and manage a digital storefront. Unlike a traditional website builder, Salesforce eCommerce is a full-fledged platform that powers eCommerce stores and other critical operations such as marketing, merchandising, and analytics.

While feature-rich, it may be a bit complex for small businesses with limited products and small inventories. It’s better suited for small or medium businesses that expect to scale up fast and want to use other Salesforce or third-party tools, which can easily be integrated.

Pros

Quick and easy AI-assisted storefront creation
Integration with Salesforce products & thousands of 3rd-party apps
Affordable pricing for small businesses
No hassle of arranging store hosting
Scalable solution for fast-growing eCommerce businesses

Cons

Slow loading at times
Can be a bit complex for simple stories

Products & Pricing

Salesforce eCommerce for small businesses offers two plans, while the Salesforce Commerce Cloud has three pricing tiers. For small businesses, the company uses a per-user-per-month billing format, so the cost depends on the company’s size. It’s slightly more expensive than the most sought-after eCommerce platform, Shopify.

Here are the plans offered:

Starter Suite

The Starter Suite is the entry-level CMS plan designed for small businesses. It offers the ability to create a digital storefront as well as basic sales, marketing, and commerce services. In addition, it also offers email marketing and analytics. This plan is priced at $25 per month per user.

Pro Suite

The Pro Suite plan is a contractual plan that’s for eCommerce businesses looking for sales solutions as well. It includes everything in the Starter Suite along with sales forecasting, automation tools, and real-time chat for the storefront. This plan costs $100 per month per user.

Commerce Growth Cloud

This particular tier caters to fast-growing businesses selling to other businesses (B2B). Besides all the eCommerce functions and features, it offers 6 storefronts, order management, and 60K Einstein requests. It’s billed annually at one percent of the gross merchandise value. So, the price isn’t fixed and is based on your revenue.

Commerce Advanced Cloud

The Commerce Advanced Cloud is for more mature B2B companies. It offers 10 storefronts, advanced analytics, and 120k Einstein requests. It’s priced at 2% of the gross merchandise value.

Commerce Cloud B2C Premium

This plan is for businesses directly selling to consumers. It’s ideal for large eCommerce businesses with high sales volumes and/or multiple online stores. With unlimited storefronts, full order management, and 120K Einstein requests, this plan offers the most perks. The price varies and can be obtained via phone call.

Starter Suite

$25 /mo per user

Pro Suite

$100 /mo per user

Commerce Growth Cloud

1% of GMV

Commerce Advanced Cloud

2% of GMV

Commerce Cloud B2C Premium

Custom Pricing

In-depth review

Features & Functionality

Integrated Payments

Salesforce eCommerce makes it hassle-free for customers to pay online. This includes not only enabling transactions within online stores but also allowing businesses to send secure payment links via email. This feature is particularly beneficial for businesses offering services that require payment after the service is rendered, such as consultations or subscriptions.

AI-Guided Store Setup

The digital storefronts at Salesforce offer many website templates to choose from and an AI-assisted setup process. It takes about 30 minutes to set up a store by following the tasks that are automatically generated based on the indicated sales channel, for example, setting up checkout, adding product, adding branding, etc.

Merchandising Tools

Salesforce eCommerce for small businesses also offers a built-in merchandising tool that can be used to simplify inventory management and pricing. With features like automated product recommendations and promotions, businesses can intelligently sell products on their storefronts. All these tools are easily accessible on the dashboard.

Commerce Analytics

Easy-to-understand commerce analytics on the dashboard paint a picture of how the store is performing. These analytics can be used to experiment with store layouts and marketing tactics. Setting up analytics from the dashboard and getting periodic reports is easy. Metrics include order volume, returns, refunds, and fulfillment efficiency.

Certified Partner Apps

Salesforce offers over 8,000 certified partner apps to help businesses extend their store capabilities. All partners are thoroughly vetted for security. These apps can be used to add extras to the storefront, like subscriptions or blogs, and connect it with other operations, for example, marketplaces or logistics.

Design & Templates

Salesforce eCommerce offers various AI-driven storefront templates. The templates are categorized by B2B, B2C, and D2C business models. Unlike traditional website builders, Salesofrce digital storefronts offer step-by-step store creation with AI assistance (Einstein Copilot), making it a breeze to customize on the go.

The templates are created with simple clicks and there’s no coding required. All templates come with reliable security features such as HTTPS encryption, multi-factor authentication, and threat detection. These are out-of-the-box ready templates optimized for the type of store and sales channel.

Common eCommerce features like promotions, product descriptions, and returns can be added while setting up the store.

In addition to ready-to-use templates, Salesforce eCommerce also offers composable storefronts that deliver an app-like experience and performance.

Ease of Use

Salesforce eCommerce is designed with ease of use in mind. Its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality make it accessible to technical and non-technical users. Small and medium-sized businesses can easily create and manage online stores without extensive coding knowledge, personalize customer experiences, and optimize their eCommerce operations. The platform’s pre-built templates and customizable components further streamline the setup process. Businesses can launch their online stores in days and start selling quickly.

Furthermore, Salesforce Commerce Cloud integrates seamlessly with other products, such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud. This integration provides a unified view of customer data across various departments, enabling businesses to personalize customer interactions and deliver a consistent brand experience across all touchpoints.

Customer Service

Salesforce offers all its customers a comprehensive suite of help and support resources. While most resources are designed to let users find answers on their own, there are support options like a ticketing system and phone/chat to have a human solve the issue. In addition to their traditional support, Salesforce also offers:

Video Tutorials: A vast online knowledge base containing articles, tutorials, and videos covering a wide range of topics related to Salesforce products.
FAQs: FAQs are answered on product pages and separately related to specific products or services on the Salesforce website.
Community: Salesforce also has a vibrant online community where users can connect with other Salesforce customers, experts, and partners to share knowledge, ask questions, and find solutions.
Support Cases (Ticketing System): Users can create support cases directly within the Salesforce platform for more complex issues. These cases are managed by Salesforce support agents who provide personalized assistance.
Blog: Salesforce also has an informational blog that publishes insightful articles about its own products and industry trends.
Trailhead: An interactive learning platform offering free online courses and hands-on trails to help users learn and develop Salesforce skills. This is more suitable for developers working with Salesforce.