Salesforce has released a Composable Storefront that sits within its Commerce Cloud platform.
The solution primarily stands out for two reasons. First, as a “composable solution,” it offers the building blocks for companies to choose and assemble to their ideal commerce experiences and meet specific requirements.
Secondly, the commerce solution splits into two distinct parts: the front end and the back end. As such, companies can quickly customize their online storefront without disrupting the buying journey.
By splitting commerce into two, Salesforce brings its vision of “headless commerce” to life, claiming that the solution offers CX teams the ability “build whatever and however they want.”
However, the vendor has also introduced pre-built packages with oven-ready use cases. These include integrations, pricing, and “implementation accelerators” that sit inside the Commerce Cloud.
Sharing his thoughts, Scot Gillespie, General Manager of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, added:
With customers expecting both engaging and seamless eCommerce experiences, headless architecture can help online retailers build and implement site changes with speed and agility.
Such speech and agility are pivotal in keeping up with evolving customer preferences.
Indeed, 77 percent of commerce teams – which have switched to a headless architecture – claim they can now advance the buying journey faster, as per a recent Salesforce State of Commerce Report.
Of course, many will worry about the costs of implementing a headless commerce strategy. However, Salesforce promises that companies can do so without risking overheads and tricky development problems.
Building on this point, Gillespie stated:
Salesforce’s Composable Storefront is a secure, trusted platform that empowers users to leverage headless while accelerating time to market and reducing costs.
Alongside agility, Salesforce also suggests that users can enjoy conversational AI integrations, daily updates, and a fast, “app-like” site experience.
Facilitating this lightning-speed is Salesforce’s Progressive Web App technology, which lowers page load time and reduces online shopping disruption.
Additional augmented reality and social media features may also help to drive commerce differentiation. Indeed, this proved the case for early-adopter Asda, the grocery retailer.
Sharing his experience with the Composable Storefront solution, Simon Gregg, SVP of eCommerce at Asda, said:
Salesforce’s technology is perfectly aligned to deliver our vision of a true and exciting omnichannel experience that will set us apart in the UK retail sector.
Yet, perhaps the headless architecture appeals more to Asda as a food and beverage brand, with this sector being one of the top three most likely to adopt the approach – according to Salesforce. Communications and media, alongside health and beauty, complete the list.
The latter seems to be a space of growing significance to Salesforce after recently teaming up with Fujitsu on personalized healthcare innovation.
