With a CAGR of 14.7%, eCommerce is destined to constitute a market value of $27.15 trillion by 2027. Owing to the massive drift towards browsing and buying on the web (especially using mobiles), this growth rate, by no means, seems to be slowing down anytime soon. Not to mention that the biggest pandemic of our times only fueled the sheer scale of this phenomenon.

Certainly, the reasons behind the exponential growth of eCommerce over the past few years are manifold, and it is safe to say that one of them pertains to user-experience-catering through top-notch CX. This is particularly true in the retail industry, where establishing an omnichannel presence and providing users with a unified experience are keys to success.

Being a customer-centric industry, retail requires flexibility in order to succeed. Just like the user base, shoppers are also evolving at the speed of light. They want to search for products, browse and buy using the devices and the channels they’re fond of – this means numerous conversions and purchases along the user journey, but also numerous touchpoints that require proficient management.

Amidst such complexity, the need for a Headless Commerce architecture inherently kicks in. This architecture allows for an efficient CX strategy with the ability to service users across multiple channels, devices, and interfaces, without having to worry about the backend functionality.

Related Reading – Headless Commerce: The evolution of selling online

However, in the headless commerce world, there is no single place to manage it all, but rather a plethora of disparate sources which need to be unified. This is where the power of Salesforce Commerce Cloud resides.

Scalable Commerce RESTful API Implementation 

The first layer of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, which serves as the foundation to manage everything, is their RESTful API ecosystem. It provides a scalable computing platform that you can use to connect your applications to your users’ networks. In concrete terms, the ability of RESTful API for B2C commerce translates to a developer being able to manifest consumer experiences. These experiences are characterized by shopper data protection, utmost compliance with regulations, 24*7 availability, and the ability to scale up or down in milliseconds. 

Besides, Salesforce Commerce Cloud integrates with Mulesoft’s API Community Manager to assist you in streamlining the design and management of your RESTful API, regardless of the complexity. 

1. The partners and the associated entities are provided with access to self-service resources, including knowledge about document web service endpoints, validation engine endpoints, and support services.
2. The integration associates are given the ability to analyze their RESTful API to create custom implementations that are available through their Salesforce Commerce Cloud applications – all while encouraging the use of service accelerators for agile development. 

Headless Commerce Security

Security in a headless architecture is pivotal. You cannot afford to have your sites or APIs tampered with or hijacked, not to mention that third parties are less likely to trust the data if it has been compromised.

It’s noteworthy that the headless architecture, which constitutes the presentation layer and the data layer, entails securing both layers. As it stands, securing the front-end lies with the business; however, the daunting task of securing the backend and API endpoints resides with Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s highly versatile security protocols, which have been tailored to protect any modern application.

The Salesforce Headless Commerce Security expedites three key features:

1. Authentication (AuthN): This involves authenticating the API clients (both shopper APIs and others.)
2. Authorization (AuthZ): This involves authorizing the API client to access a resource and subsequently perform an operation.
3. Availability: This ensures the API client’s coding is resistant to attacks (mostly DoS) and does not expose a successfully compromised codebase. It also means that the service is constantly available. 

A Multitude of Storefront Options

One of the most prominent benefits of Salesforce Headless Commerce is that it allows a business to select the best fit between the storefront technologies. Storefront technologies are broadly divided into:

1. Storefront Reference Architecture or SFRA: From cutting project costs to driving innovation, SFRA puts forth pre-built configurations for maintaining and updating the storefronts. 
2. PWA Kit and Managed Runtime: The implementation of fast, agile, and engaging Progressive web apps (PWAs) is paramount in eCommerce, something that PWA kits seamlessly accommodate. Managed Runtime, on the other hand, is responsible for maintaining a PWA amidst a decoupled environment. The combination translates to utmost operational flexibility, scalability, and faster time to market. 
3. Custom Storefront: If you wish to have a fine-tuned storefront for your eCommerce site, Salesforce provides you with a powerful custom storefront development kit. In turn, this allows you to have the desired look and feel of the storefront that best reflects your business.

Seamless Management and Design

“Create Experiences with Click, not Code” – that’s what Salesforce Commerce Cloud accomplishes for high-grade CX facilitation via its B2C Page Designer. A host of technologies, including Einstein-AI, come to the table to help you design a highly functional yet aesthetically appealing storefront. 

The Page Designer empowers developers to include AI-powered elements, such as a visual search app, a chatbot, and a voice bot, into the storefront. Third-party solutions, too, are seamlessly integrated for ensuring great CX. 

Conquer the Online Retail Space with Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is perfectly poised to help a wide range of B2C CX initiatives. It is set to take on the headless commerce world in full force, ushering in an age of digital transformation powered by AI and data insights. 

At Sapours, we leverage Salesforce Commerce Cloud to empower our clients to win in the dynamic online retail space. We have been consistently advancing headless commerce abilities by designing and managing a host of innovative consumer-facing eCommerce projects. 

Reach out to us and let us know how we can help you on your journey to conquer the online retail space!