Salesforce has announced a series of new innovations and partnerships that company says will power the future of commerce. Salesforce says these innovations will enable companies to modernise their systems, develop more flexible digital strategies. Furthermore, connect with customers wherever they are.
Retailers and brands are increasingly turning away from traditional channel planning and embracing a digital-first approach that brings more flexibility. Digital is also leading enterprises to use their physical spaces in more innovative ways that supports the brand.
“Today, consumers expect retailers to offer their products anytime, anywhere, and this is transforming the shopping experience,” said Lidiane Jones, EVP & GM, Salesforce Digital Experiences. “25% of shopping expected to happen beyond a retailer or brand’s website, app or physical store by next year. Companies must quickly adapt and embrace emerging channels to provide their customers with more purchasing options and greater flexibility.”
New integrations future-proof the shopping experience
With the proliferation of new channels, retailers need to adapt quickly to meet customers where and how they want to shop.
- PayPal at Checkout for Salesforce Payments: Retailers can add PayPal to their checkout experience with a click-based configuration. Brands using Salesforce Payments now have even more options to reduce checkout friction and drive sales.
- Salesforce Commerce for B2B Wholesale Retail: Built on Commerce Cloud by ISV partner XCentium, this digital portal for wholesale apparel and fashion companies supports preseason ordering, in-season re-supply, and fully automated interactions across self-service and sales teams.
Digital intelligence delivers personalised marketing and commerce experiences
In a cookieless world, digital professionals need intelligence across their data to personalise experiences and optimise business growth. New Datorama and Tableau features are expected to help companies connect and visualize data from their cross-channel marketing campaigns. This includes customer order data from Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Amazon, providing real-time analytics that optimise relationships, ROI, and revenue.
Social Commerce for China with Alibaba
First announced in September and now generally available, this platform supports e-commerce across China-specific channels, including social networks and .CN websites. Salesforce Social Commerce, hosted by Alibaba Cloud, provides retailers with the tools they need to evolve with China’s ever-growing commerce ecosystem and easily integrates with digital commerce systems such as Tableau, DingTalk, the retailer’s ERP, OMS, and more.
Delivering dynamic commerce experiences
According to Ed Poppe, VP of CRM and Performance Marketing at Build-A-Bear, “Our relationship with Salesforce has been instrumental in our digital transformation strategy. Build-A-Bear is a high-engagement brand, and we believe in delivering personalised and interactive experiences to our shoppers across all channels. With Datorama, gained actionable insights across all our marketing activities and effectively connect them to customer purchases in Commerce Cloud. With these two complementary solutions, we have the digital intelligence to optimise customer experiences.”
Jan Steck, SVP of Global eCommerce and Digital Marketing at Claire’s commented: “Claire’s is committed to making interactions seamless, consistent, and personalised for both our digital and in-person shoppers. We launched our new order management system, same-day Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store, and Click & Collect powered by Salesforce. We will continue to produce streamlined omnichannel customer experiences that align with Claire’s vision and cater to shopper expectations.”
Enterprise Times: What this means for business.
Salesforce’s ecosystem is already impressive. The company’s recent innovation and partnership announcement are interesting. It potentially brings together the flexibility of Salesforce’s platform with its expansive ecosystem. Retailers want to build shopping experiences that best suit their customer needs and meet their expectations. Salesforce’s own data finds that by next year, 25% of shopping will happen beyond a brand’s website, app, or physical store.
The challenge for Salesforce is rising to the microservices, API and headless theme that is emerging in business. More and more, enterprises are moving away from traditional architectures and choosing headless because it gives them the freedom to be agile and deliver compelling experiences faster across any kind of engagement channel, from social to mobile. The question is whether Salesforce can meet those emerging technological challenges. That will be the encounter to watch over the next few years.
