Setting up and running a small business comes with its own set of challenges. From struggling with limited finances to entering a market full of competition, startups and small businesses often have to struggle a lot when it comes to establishing eCommerce ventures. Over time, the eCommerce sector has become extremely competitive as more and more players enter the market. This makes it important for a business to leave its mark, create its niche, and have a decent market share.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) is one of the most sought-after Salesforce offerings used for setting up and managing eCommerce ventures. Its functionality can be tailored according to the specific needs and preferences of businesses. Unlike most cloud-based SaaS eCommerce solutions on the market, SFCC can be implemented by organisations operating at all scales. Even if you are just starting out in the industry or have been running a small business venture that needs to be shifted online, SFCC helps you drive digitization within your organisation in the best way possible.
Here are some noteworthy ways in which SFCC is ideal for startups and small businesses for setting up and managing online storefronts:
Advanced marketing tools
Although the main focus of SFCC is to manage your online storefronts, it also helps you market your offerings to the right prospects and customers. Especially in the case of startups, it is important for businesses to reach out to their audience and let them know about their offerings. Irrespective of how good your products are, you will never be able to drive decent revenue home if people are not aware of your existence.
SFCC allows you to create targeted marketing campaigns that lead your prospects and customers to your online stores. It provides you with a range of tools that help you with content management, spreading brand awareness, and tapping into the right opportunities. SFCC allows you to track the activities of people as they visit your online stores and pitch the right product to the right prospect. Such a personalised approach allows you to market the right product to the right person at the right time.
Predictive intelligence with Salesforce Einstein
Technologies like AI and machine learning are no longer considered niche and are limited to high-end enterprises. Over time, they have found applications in the solutions provided to startups and small businesses as well.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides you with the power of predictive intelligence with the help of Salesforce Einstein, the AI component of Salesforce. The system scans the records within your database, understands the patterns within them, and provides you with productive insights. On the basis of the interactions made by your business with your customers in the past, SFCC helps you predict the behaviour of your customers and tailor your online stores accordingly.
Moreover, Salesforce Einstein analyses the buying patterns of different customers and uses this data to suggest the right product to the right customers. This way, you can customise the products seen by your prospects and customers based on their likes, preferences, and history of shopping with you.
Creating consistent buying journeys
In order to provide the best services to your customers online, it is important to ensure that your different online storefronts provide the same experience to them. SFCC makes sure that you create buying journeys for your customers that are consistent across multiple storefronts. If you are managing different online stores, the eCommerce solution allows you to handle them on a centralised platform with automated tools.
SFCC makes sure that your customers receive consistent services, recommendations, and support across all the stores managed by your business. This allows you to build healthy relationships with your customers and get the traction you were looking for.
Connecting online and offline stores
If you have just shifted your startup or small business online and don’t want to terminate your offline store, SFCC helps you manage both your stores with a centralised solution. The eCommerce solution treats all your stores the same way and makes sure that your customers do not see any inconsistencies while visiting any of them.
SFCC allows you to maintain a centralised database that is applicable for both online and offline stores. Even if the same customer tends to engage with both stores, your system would identify them and keep their preferences in mind. For example, if a customer makes a purchase from your offline store and provides you with their details, the same will be recorded in the CRM platform and used for personalising their buying journeys. If the same customer visits your online store using their credentials, you can personalise their experience by recommending products based on their offline purchase.
This way, SFCC allows you to connect both worlds to ensure consistency in the services provided by your business across the board.
Seamless mobile experience
Especially if you are starting a new business online, it is important to provide the utmost convenience to your customers as they engage with you. In 2022, customers will often prefer shopping on their mobile phones, as it is a faster and more flexible alternative.
SFCC allows you to develop mobile-friendly eCommerce stores that help your customers navigate through your products with ease and make purchases in a hassle-free manner. The eCommerce solution also gives you options for multiple mobile-friendly designs to choose from to provide a seamless UI to your customers.
