Salesforce has released an updated version of Salesforce Order Management for Commerce Cloud. The new version extends the solution to support more international markets. As well as the new localisations, Salesforce has also released Quick Start Commerce for Channels. It extends the functionality of Sales Order Management into new social media channels such as Instagram.
In a supporting blog to the release, Kemberly Gong, Director, Product Marketing at Salesforce noted five new trends in order management that are changing shopping forever.
Gong noted: “Porches and stoops are dotted with parcels of all sizes, as more shoppers use eCommerce sites instead of traditional brick & mortar stores. From flowers to medication to home furnishings, nearly everything can be delivered — and consumers like it that way. But in this all-digital world, the importance of order management has never been so high. A delayed package or inaccurate delivery data could drive a loyal shopper to abandon your brand.”
The five trends she highlighted are:
- Curbside pickup or click-and-collect is growing in importance as people look to maintain social distancing.
- Order management systems for eCommerce stores need robustness to cope with the surging demand
- Transparency around delays mitigates risk to brand
- With increased sales can come increasing pressure on returns solutions.
- Online ordering has increased significantly and is here to stay
Salesforce Order Management internationalised
Salesforce has localised part of the Salesforce Commerce Cloud solution Salesforce Order Management for more countries. It includes support for currencies, addresses, payment types, tax formats, timezone, date and number formats. It also now supports 35 languages, including right to left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.
This opens up the possibility for companies to launch and provide products across the world from a single solution. It makes it easier to provide a localised eCommerce site even though fulfilment might still be a challenge.
Bennet Yen, Vice President of Product, at FinancialForce commented: “FinancialForce is excited that Salesforce has expanded their order management solution to support the B2C global marketplace and provide consumers the ability to purchase goods without leaving social media sites. Given the current times, it is more critical than ever that global businesses are able to quickly pivot to online sales and Salesforce Order Management enables them to do so. “
While Salesforce provides the front end, financial systems such as FinancialForce and Accounting Seed will need to provide the backend accounting system. Commerce Cloud, as a product-centric offering, now opens up the possibility of further international expansion for both companies.
Tony Zorc, CEO Accounting Seed, commented: “SOM works very well with Accounting Seed to handle the financial dimensions of inventory and provide an end to end ERP. The SOM focuses mostly on communications and logistics while Accounting Seed provides the accounting dimension as a complimentary feature set. That’s the white space we fill.“
Quick Start for channels
This new feature enables Salesforce customers to rapidly deploy Order Management and checkout capabilities into social channels in four weeks. It enables them to publish a single unified product catalogue outside the traditional commerce store without having to maintain a duplicate copy. Salesforce has not explicitly stated which social media channels are available on launch, although Instagram is showcased as an example. Commerce Cloud also provides integration to Facebook.
The extension enables the customer to engage within the social media channel to view, search and place orders. Regardless of where the customer initiated the order, the solution enables companies to initiate returns, refund and exchanges. Pricing is a minimum of $90K per year with a minimum 3-month commitment. The price includes the cost of the service partner to build and operate the feature.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Salesforce continues its international growth. Ensuring that Salesforce Order Management is now available across the world will help to ensure that the growth continues. Missing from the release and the supporting documentation is which languages and localisation are supported and how comprehensive the local tax support is. Also, is it looking to maintaining the tax information itself or is it leveraging a third party such as Avalara? There is a connector for AvaTAX for Salesforce Lightning Order Management, but this is not mentioned in the release. Although an ISV Integration is included within some elements of Commerce Cloud such as D2C for consumer and essential goods.
The second question is about which social media channels are supported within Commerce Cloud and Order Management. Overall this is a significant move forward for its Commerce solution. However, with no mention of ERP integration, the finance element is still missing from the Salesforce solution, will it look to fill that gap through an acquisition or a partnership?
