Comparison: Salesforce Commerce Cloud VS Shopify Plus

Online retailers have a wide array of tools at their disposal for selling their products. These include: Shopify Plus and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. What distinguishes both these e-commerce platforms? 

Shopify Plus: an agile platform supported by a comprehensive App Store, for an affordable price

Launched in 2014, Shopify Plus stands out with its agility and vast possibilities. Here are its main advantages:

• Agility: ease of use and simple integration of new functionalities, so your time to market is significantly reduced.
• Scalability: adapts to increased store capacity and to periods of high demand.
• Ecosystem: large choice of partner extensions thanks to a well-stocked App Store.
• Payment: a large number of payment solutions are included.
• Multi-channel: many different sales channels are considered, such as eBay, Amazon, Facebook or Instagram.
• 24/7 technical assistance.
• Pricing is in line with the benefits: perfect solution for small online retailers.

In terms of drawbacks, it should be noted that Shopify Plus is not designed for omni-channel sales, nor for managing several independent stores – namely those located in different countries. Furthermore, certain functionalities pertaining to product grouping are not that easy to grasp. Lastly, in addition to the subscription fee, a commission is due for each transaction.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud: a powerful platform designed for omni-channel sales

Bought-back in 2016 by Salesforce, Demandware became Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SCC), a platform that stands out thanks to its omni-channel management possibilities. Here are a few of its main advantages:

• Omni-channel sales: all distribution channels are available, thus offering an enriched customer experience that forges a link between the online and physical store.
• Catalogue management: countless product promotion, catalogue management and regrouping functionalities are made available, amongst others.
• Multi-site and international sales: several independent shops can be managed (multi-store architecture), including abroad (multilingual and multi-currency).

• Integrated into the Salesforce ecosystem – the most powerful CRM on the market.

Negative points include the SCC requiring technical skills (namely for configuration), and the solution being specifically positioned on the retail market. Moreover, its relatively high prices make it a tool reserved for well-established online retailers.

In a nutshell, Shopify Plus is better-suited to online retailers wishing to get started quickly and manage their online store in a simple manner, without needing to get into complicated multi-store or omni-channel management. For all other companies, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a must-have.