Magento Commerce vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud

eCommerce is the revolution that changed the perspective of business in many ways. It has opened the avenues which no one had ever thought of. 

Many new platforms are enhancing this resource to make it better for better usage and make out the fortune from the working. 

The best platforms which brought eCommerce to its zenith are Magento Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

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Need of Magento Commerce vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud

There was an immense need for this article. The air already had so many misconceptions regarding these two that they were hampering the market. 

Hence, it was essential to draw out the difference between both. Here are some of the reasons which made this article a need.

• The top notch competitive technology being used by both
• The update of the Magento Commerce
• Constant queries
• Misconceptions

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Defence for Salesforce Commerce Cloud

The reasons due to which Salesforce Commerce Cloud holds a prominent position in the sector is –

• SaaS-based and full manageable platform maintenance
• Strong native merchandising features
• Page designer solutions
• Individual-level personalization
• Multi-product management catalogue
• Unique Omni-channel features
• Built-in testing capabilities
• International native features

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Strengths of Magento Commerce

The reasons which make Magento Commerce the shark of a tank are –

• Built-in multi-store capabilities
• Native wholesale capabilities
• Scalable
• Strong management for product catalogues and data
• Mainstream mid-market eCommerce platform
• Integrated content management

Summing up everything, we can say that Magento Commerce is exceptionally robust, when it comes to native capabilities, managing multiple storefronts, internationalisation, B2B and customer segmentation. 

It is worth noting that Magento Commerce has worked exceptionally well with the launch of its version 2.0. Magento Commerce is the ideal platform for B2B merchants having intricate workings. 

Magento Commerce’s new order management solution is incredibly vast and also allows for multiple site inventory management. 

Salesforce Commerce Cloud on the other side is in a good competition with Magento Commerce when it comes to functionality around merchandising, personalization and omni-channel capabilities. 

It also offers a built-in testing function, which can help locate the bugs and solve the problems quite quickly and efficiently. Salesforce Commerce Cloud comes handy to the sectors of fashion and lifestyle as its offerings are widely in favour of such businesses.

It is also worth saying that given the functionality of Magento Commerce, the cost of ownership is pretty low and extendable according to the customer tastes. 

Salesforce Commerce Cloud on the side of the table has more robust native functionality offerings but is quite weak when it comes to the merchants of B2B Commerce. 

Also, the costs of Magento Commerce are fixed, while those of Salesforce Commerce Cloud is based on a true GMV-model and merchants are also likely to incur the penalty fees.

If we talk about scalability, Magento Commerce takes a back seat. The reason could be that the recent version of Magento Commerce is a newbie in the market and has some unresolved issues. 

Still, yes, over time, it has capabilities of becoming a good competitor of Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

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Features of Salesforce Commerce Cloud

• Omni-channel capabilities

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a platform where eCommerce, order management and offline store operations are unified in one SaaS. The platform is specially made for the merchants who want to do the business in more than one location with more than 1 product line. 

It, through its order management system, also enables the merchants to enjoy the service of ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’. 

This gives the shopkeepers flexible purchasing options including pickup, shipping and more. Moreover, there are integrations with social channels as well to make the transactions even more straightforward.

Magento Commerce, on the other hand, had introduced its order management system, which has strengthened its offerings. 

This has gifted the retailers a lot more capabilities while dealing with non-native demographics. Through the Magento Commerce order management system, there is a better usage and management of multi-store inventory, multi-channel fulfilment, and sophisticated order management. 

Magento Commerce’s order management can be quite costly, but a lot of praises have been heard about it, which have negated the negative impact.

• Internationalisation

Just like Magento Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud too offers global level services. It has features like multi-currency, multi-language, etc.

It also offers the management of each product separately according to the location of the store, and it has solutions for various billing and payment complexities. It also has integrations with some of the best e-commerce apps.

• Commerce insights

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is an intelligent platform that gathers the data, performs the insights and personalises the store according to the requirements. It performs its intelligence functions through a platform named Einstein.

True to its name, Einstein provides machine learning and personalization service, which gives it a form of artificial intelligence. It also helps in product recommendations, which is excellent as in the case of Magento Commerce, it is only possible with third-party integrations. 

• Salesforce Commerce Cloud support

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is there for your service 24/7. And the services they provide aren’t limited to the core code issues. They provide much more reliability than that of Magento Commerce. It also handles the core upgrades like security patches, which is one of the key reasons why retailers prefer this.

• Merchandising and catalog management capabilities

This can be said to be the USP of Salesforce Commerce Cloud. They serve the fashion and lifestyle brands primarily and have become the market leader in this arena. 

Some of the features they possess are – 

• Advanced visual merchandising
• Support for complex categories of products
• The ability of task scheduling
• Advanced promotions

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Core selling points of Magento Commerce

• Merchandising capabilities

Magento Commerce, in this area, gives a cut-throat competition to Salesforce Commerce Cloud as it supports different product types and configurations. 

Here are some of the essential features of Magento Commerce in this arena –

• Scheduled publishing
• Robust native product types
• Content staging and preview
• Availability of random customizations
• Native visual merchandising
• Ability to assign different levels of logic against customer diversity
• Customer segmentation

It also provides knowledgeable recommendations which are for cross-selling and up-selling and can promote your sales in many ways. 

It can also overlay customer segmentation to provide them with more interactive and intelligent recommendations.

• Content management

Magento Commerce allows component-based management across different templates and due to the same, it has become a newly entered strong competitor of the market. This was all possible with the release of Page Builder 2.3.

This is the area in particular where Salesforce Commerce Cloud has been historically weak, and clients have to go for the third-party integrations like DXP and CMS layers via platforms like Amplience or Bloomreach. 

It has been heard that Salesforce Commerce Cloud is going to come with the drag and drop feature and we hope that it scores up the game of the same.

• Loyalty and reward programs

Magento Commerce wishes to retain your customers in various ways. One such method is through the loyalty and reward programs. 

The platform also offers you to set the exclusive shopping experience with private and flash sales. You can also customize the front end according to the customer base you are serving. 

But this being said; still, the big merchants go for third party solutions when it comes to setting the loyalty program. The platforms mostly being chosen are Swell, Loyalty Lion etc.

In addition to this, Magento Commerce also offers several other services, including store credits, multiple wish lists, gifting options, and many more.

• Return Management Authorization (RMA)

RMA of Magento Commerce is specially designed to streamline the return process. It has a basic workflow but can be extended and moulded according to the needs of individual organisations. 

It also allows you to create multiple admin roles so that you can alter the access depending upon the parts of different people. 

• Platform level support

Magento Commerce has its platform support system, but it is nowhere near the service offered by the Salesforce Commerce Cloud. 

Magento Commerce would provide support only around serious concerns, whereas Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides the facility 24/7, which also includes a lot of training, load balancing, etc.

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Platform

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud uses the SaaS protocol for the platform. SaaS is the software as a service. SaaS comes with a load of benefits. 

Some of them are – 

• It liberates the need to maintain the code and underlying IT infrastructure. But, you do not have the freedom to customize or create the functions. 
• All the additions and changes are needed to be gone through a layer of approval, which can multiply the time consumption and can create a question mark on the efficiency.

Magento Commerce

It is specially designed to reduce the costs associated with the SaaS protocol. Magento Commerce integrates a highly reliable and scalable SaaS Platform to reduce the costs and give the freedom to test and launch new customizations as per the individual needs. 

Magento Commerce can be said to be the representative of both the proper fields – full control over the implementation and hassle-free maintenance of underlying hardware.

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Development options

• Salesforce Commerce Cloud

There is far less scope in Salesforce Commerce Cloud development as it has restricted experimentation and customization. Due to the large agency and load of work, the Salesforce Commerce Cloud providers often neglect the specialization and core compassion to bring up a website. The less focused aftercare is yet another downfall.

• Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce doesn’t take a fall here. With a thousand experienced agencies, several certified developers, the specialization, and focussed work, the products have always come out to be outstanding and without any errors. 

As Magento Commerce boosts a big online community, it is also straightforward to borrow advice from the experts out there to make the products that are seamless and perfect.

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Integration

• Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is one of the oldest codes running on Demandware. Hence when integrated with some external extensions, it can perform in a little sluggish manner, which is a total NO for eCommerce. 

Thus, Salesforce Commerce Cloud has to go through a lot of technical and complicated coding to avoid integrations, which takes up a lot of time and effort. Also, the new code cannot be added immediately, and it needs at least 30 minutes to simmer in and show the changes, hence adding to the time bar.

• Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce takes a high table in this as well. Not only it supports a wide range of APIs, but it also offers a marketplace for thousands of extensions to integrate with ERP, PIM, and CRM systems. 

To add on to the benefits, upgrades are not forced on you but are provided with some kind of customizations which can enhance your on-going task.

It allows the customers to decide when to upgrade the system so that the performance of the site does not suffer.

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Hosting and maintenance

• Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud hosts the site under a multi-tenant proprietary solution, which means that Salesforce Commerce Cloud themselves manages all the core functions. 

From one way, it is a benefit for those who do not want any trouble while maintaining the site, but on the other side, it won’t allow any customizations through third-party extensions.

• Magento Commerce

Magento Commerce hands over the steering wheel of the site in your hands. You have full control over what you want your website to look like. You can detect the resource, redirect, and direct it to your site to enhance its working. Magento Commerce provides even the basic controls so that you know very well what your website is going through.

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Cost of ownership

• Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud works on the system called ‘Shared Success.’ It is related to the percentage you have to pay according to the revenues you earn. So, if you receive more, you have to pay more, and if you earn less, then it is vice versa. 

The contracts with Salesforce Commerce Cloud are generally longer than those of Magento Commerce. And if you have to leave early, you have to pay a severance fee as well. All these add up to be a lot of costs to be spent.

• Magento Commerce

Unlike Salesforce Commerce Cloud, you do not have to go for multiple-year project costs. The settlements are done every year. Moreover, Magento Commerce offers monthly payment in the initial business years so that business doesn’t take a lot of stress. 

Furthermore, it gives much better value for money when it comes to the Total Cost of Ownership. To add on, Magento Commerce provides a lot of extensions that have the add-on costs that are kept minimum as well.

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The verdict

Overall, we can say that Magento Commerce is a highly competitive platform for e-commerce development, which not just provides state of the art facilities but a lot of scope in the control and maintenance. 

The add ons it gives, and the extensions it offers are some of its distinct specs. Magento Commerce, with its upgrade, has become one of the best B2B and B2C web platforms for business enhancement.

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Conclusion

The decision on whether to go for Magento Commerce or Salesforce Commerce Cloud depends upon your nature of the business, your demands, and your capabilities. Where on one side, Magento Commerce would give you all the control in your hands, Salesforce Commerce Cloud will provide you with minimal supervision if you do not have a vast experience. 

Both the platforms have their pros and cons, but when we weigh both, Magento Commerce outshines Salesforce Commerce Cloud in many realms.

Are you still feeling confused? Give us a call, and our experts shall have a word with you and guide you through the whole process of development.

Happy eCommerce!