Salesforce Unveils Composable Storefront, a Digital Commerce Solution to Help Retailers ‘Go Headless’ Fast

Today at eTail East, Salesforce announced Composable Storefront, a fully-customizable, headless digital storefront that gives online retailers the ability to make site changes with the speed and flexibility needed to increase sales, conversions and basket size, while helping to drive down costs.

Salesforce also introduced pre-built packages made ​​specifically for headless implementations and use cases with commerce partners. This includes best-in-class integrations, pricing, and implementation accelerators from across the Salesforce ecosystem, all anchored by Commerce Cloud.

Why it’s important: Retailers desire adaptable and flexible commerce sites that can keep up with evolving customer preferences. Headless commerce separates the front end and back end of an ecommerce solution, enabling brands to quickly and affordably customize digital storefronts without disrupting the shopping experience. 

According to the latest Salesforce State of Commerce Report, retailers are investing in headless commerce to drive growth.

• 77% of commerce organizations that have implemented headless architecture say it gives them increased agility by allowing them to make changes to their storefront quickly. 
• 80% of businesses that don’t currently have headless commerce technology plan to implement it in the next two years. 

The Salesforce perspective: Scot Gillespie, GM of Commerce Cloud, said: 

• “With customers expecting both engaging and seamless ecommerce experiences, headless architecture can help online retailers build and implement site changes with speed and agility.”
• “Salesforce’s Composable Storefront is a secure, trusted platform that empowers users to leverage headless while accelerating time to market and reducing costs.”

Driving the news: With Salesforce Composable Storefront, Commerce Cloud customers can implement a headless commerce strategy without exposing themselves to significant overhead or complex development issues. Businesses are empowered to:

• Supercharge storefront performance and engagement with a fast, app-like site experience. The Progressive Web App technology decreases page load time and minimizes disruption for online shoppers.
• Speed time to value and reduce total cost of ownership for headless commerce architecture with pre-packaged integrations, pricing, and accelerators in partnership with Commerce Cloud’s trusted ecosystem, including Algolia, Amplience, builder.io, contentful, Contentstack, Constructor.io, Coveo, Magnolia, OSF Digital, Publicis Sapient, Tryzens, and 64Labs. Using these packages, merchants can easily build composable and engaging experiences with advanced search and content — helping reduce time spent on sourcing vendors, negotiating pricing, and building custom integrations. 
• Take control of the brand experience and drive differentiation by seamlessly incorporating functionality like AR, chatbots, and social media features to create rich shopping experiences. 
• Ship new features and updates daily with 60-second deployments. This eliminates deployment risk, giving developers the freedom to iterate and add new features at any time — even during peak shopping periods. 

The customer view: 

• “As we looked to optimize the checkout experience for our shoppers, site performance was a top priority,” said Yann Milin, Business Solutions Manager of Ecommerce and Digital at Stokke, a global children’s furniture brand. “Commerce Cloud’s Composable Storefront enables us to elevate the shopping experience for our customers by giving us the ability to execute site changes with precision, flexibility, and agility.”

• “It’s important to Newell that every one of our brands has the flexibility to tell their story and seamlessly connect with customers without interruption,” said Doug Robinson, Director of Solution Architecture for Newell. “Working with the Composable Storefront allows us to focus on the consumer, providing a best-in-class experience.”

• “Salesforce will help to transform the customer experience as we seek new world-class systems that will be cloud-first,” said Simon Gregg, Senior Vice President of Ecommerce for grocery retailer Asda. “Salesforce’s technology is perfectly aligned to deliver our vision of a true and exciting omnichannel experience that will set us apart in the UK retail sector.”

Zoom out: The possibilities headless commerce offers to brands has many industries taking note.

• According to the Salesforce State of Commerce Report, the top three sectors most likely to adopt headless in the coming years are health and beauty, food and beverage, and communications and media. 

More information:

• Learn more about Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s headless offerings here.
• For the latest Salesforce commerce innovations, register for Dreamforce 2022.