The Future of Retail Industry with Salesforce Commerce Cloud after COVID-19

COVID-19, also known as CoronaVirus Disease, was first identified in 2019 in Wuhan, China. This disease has not been previously seen in humans and is the deadliest infectious disease after the Spanish Flu.  It is believed that it emerged from a bat-borne virus, but no evidence is yet found for the same. While being a highly transmissible disease, it has caused a great disruption in the economy, all around the world.

Let’s discuss how the retail industry, especially the retailers with physical shops only, got affected by the same. Also, in the below topics the future of the retail industry with Salesforce Commerce Cloud will be discussed briefly.

But, before we move forward with the main topic, let’s discuss how the retail industry is affected by the COVID times.

Pre-COVID times and Current Scenario

During the Pre-COVID times, the retail industry worked well in both online and offline markets. It wasn’t a necessity to be available over a digital platform to be successful. The sales and revenue from the same were based on the consumer’s choices and not the availability of goods in the online or offline market.

But in this global pandemic caused by COVID-19, a lot of workplaces were shut off and quarantines happened. Thus, there was an increasing demand for resources that consumers require in their day-to-day scenarios. Moreover, the attitudes, behaviors, and habits of consumers also changed drastically. Their priorities for basic necessities increased more than luxury items. Most retail outlets like grocery stores faced more issues because of the above-mentioned factors. This was majorly faced during the time of lockdown in every corner of the world. Moreover, these lockdowns and social distancing have greatly affected retailers with physical stores. During such a phase, with lesser shopping trips possible for most people, online markets came to the rescue.

Most of the retail industry, in the current scenario, has now become a part of the e-commerce platform. But, to increase efficiency, retailers have to build up their platform on good e-commerce software. This is why the future of the retail industry will be best in the hands of Salesforce Commerce Cloud Implementation Partners. In the later section, let’s discuss how it will happen.

How is Salesforce Commerce Cloud the Future of the Retail Industry?

Before going further, let’s begin with knowing more about the Salesforce Commerce Cloud. 

In a short and precise way, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which aims to provide e-commerce solutions. Before the acquisition by Salesforce, its name was ‘Demandware’. It provides the best-in-class B2B and B2C Commerce Cloud facility to all brands and retailers. Also, it has a multi-tenant architecture. Multi-tenant means a single software running on a server and serving multiple customers.

Moreover, it provides these facilities across all channels like mobile, web, store, social, etc. It is a unified platform that focuses on the agility and flexibility of the entire sales process through a set of features. Some of the major Features of Salesforce Commerce Cloud are listed below:

• Multi-site management
• Responsive mobile design
• Comprehensive Development Platform
• Social Media Integration
• In-store extensions
• Content management
• Product management
• Recommendation based on AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Search engine optimization
• Targeted promotion management
• One-touch payment options
• Price management
• Customer Segmentation
• Marketing and merchandising tools
• Real-time reports and dashboard

As we know, every company aims to create an easy as well as smart commerce experience through every channel. But, for the same, there is a requirement for a centralized commerce platform. This is where Commerce Cloud comes to the rescue. Salesforce Commerce Cloud Consultants aim to help you and your brand grow at a rapid pace along with attracting more customers. Its benefits in terms of becoming the future of the retail industry are discussed briefly as follows:

1. Builds a Faster Path Between the Idea and its Execution

Since it is related to the cloud, the infrastructure is always ready without any issues. This is why the launching of new sites or executing promotions will not ever be a big task, as it will barely take hours or days for the same.

Read How we have helped our client from the USA to Build an eCommerce Store using Salesforce Commerce Cloud

2. Enables Seamless and Continuous Innovation

As it is a SaaS platform, Salesforce keeps on working on new features and upgrades it in the background. Also, they help e-commerce businesses in continuous innovations to deliver unique digital experiences to their customers. Thus, there is a seamless or smooth working of the platform without any disruptions.

3. Provides a Supportive Community

While being a part of Salesforce, you can enjoy a range of CRM-related and marketing SaaS services. This further enables you to share your innovation and ideas freely with the vibrant community.  Also, with the same, you can build up a strong customer base.

4. Personalized User Experiences

Personalization of the applications according to the customers, has become an essential part of e-commerce. Salesforce’s e-commerce platform allows retailers to use AI (Artificial Intelligence) and other scientific technologies to create highly personalized customer experiences.

Benefits of Commerce Cloud in Regards to the Current Situation

The Significance of Salesforce Commerce Cloud can provide you with an array of benefits, even in the midst of the current situation. These are as follows:

1. Predictive Intelligence

Salesforce has built ‘Einstein AI’ which is actually the next level generation of AI (Artificial Intelligence). Through this, the removal of the requirement for third-party extensions and manual data analysis is there. 

2. Enhanced Marketing Tools

With its amazing features, the merchants can easily share and manage all the product-related information, among various sites, catalogs, and categories. Also, payment in different currencies is possible along with translations in different languages.

3. Unified Order Management

With the seamless-driven platform, shoppers can shop flexibly and have the same in-shop experience. There is integrated order management available across all the channels. Through the same, the shoppers can choose how and when orders should be shipped, the location for them to be sent, and the return process. 

4. Rich Mobile Experience

It is well-known that the number of users who are shopping through mobile phones is increasing steadily. This is because most people find working on mobile for shopping purposes very handy. Therefore, a mobile-friendly e-commerce store is a necessity for any retailer. Salesforce Commerce Cloud keeps a mobile-first approach to keep the customer base happy and satisfied with its services.

5. First-Class Customer Support

This e-commerce platform of Salesforce provides 24/7 continuous support to all the merchants and makes sure that their business is running smoothly as per their strategies. Further, they also look after all the security concerns, if any occur at any point in time.

Read Also: Integrating Your System With Salesforce Commerce Cloud 

Conclusion

To sum up, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a very powerful e-commerce platform. While being a cloud-based system, it will be more useful than any other software so far. It would benefit majorly the entire sales process, which is the backbone of any organization. Amidst this COVID-19 time, the Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform would not only provide the best resources to retailers to move online quickly but also the ones that would further attract their customer base. Further, it aims to make shopping experiences seamless and flexible for both retailers as well as consumers. Thus, it would provide next-level shopping experiences and will further boost the sales of the organization.

If you are looking forward to Salesforce Commerce Cloud Implementation, reach out to us at Cyntexa. We are one of the Salesforce Commerce Cloud Partners and offer a seamless integration of Salesforce Commerce Cloud with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, Sales Cloud, Community Cloud, etc. so as to let you access a lot of functionalities in one place. Our in-depth knowledge and expertise in Salesforce Commerce Cloud would help your business reach more heights of success in a more accelerated, optimized, and efficient way.