Salesforce Agentforce Commerce vs. SAP Commerce Cloud vs. Shopify

Global Sites; larger commerce organizations but not too large where the % rev-share would affect its feasibility in a feature comparison. Salesforce is rock solid in infrastructure and rarely has outages or issues; it scaled appropriately for holiday peak and was able to accomplish anything we put our minds to as long as we staffed development appropriately. The latter, however, is not to be overlooked. Developers are necessary and expensive.

Incentivized

SAP Commerce Cloud is well-suited for large enterprises requiring robust personalization, seamless multi-channel integration, and the ability to handle high-volume transactions, especially during peak periods like Black Friday. Its scalability and advanced features make it ideal for businesses needing to manage complex product catalogs and global operations.Enough development capacities are needed to have a best in class shop

Incentivized

Shopify allowed us to handle matrix items and combined listings. Both of which we could not do on our previous platform. There was some customization involved but overall, it did what we needed it to. The one downside was that if we want to change anything we would have to reload the entire set of matrix items manually.

Incentivized

• Traffic - When we have sales, our traffic will increase exponentially and their cloud can handle the huge uptick in traffic we receive without overloading our servers.
• Site updates - it continually monitors in the background for any upgrades or updates needed so we don't have to go in and do it ourselves. A real time saver!
• Integration - outside plugins and add-ons are easy to install with Salesforce commerce cloud as it allows a seamless integration of extra plug ins onto our site.

Incentivized

• Centralized Data Management: SAP Commerce Cloud excels in centralizing data from various operational sectors, which is pivotal in the chemicals industry. This feature allows for better oversight and management of complex supply chains, regulatory compliance, and customer interactions. Having a single source of truth for crucial business data minimizes discrepancies and promotes informed decision-making.
• Real-Time Data Processing: The real-time data processing capability of SAP Commerce Cloud is invaluable. It aids in timely adherence to regulatory changes and helps in meeting customer demands promptly. In a sector where regulations and market conditions are ever-evolving, real-time data processing is fundamental for maintaining compliance and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Incentivized

• It's base security and integration with trusted security partners (such as NoFraud) is a game-changer when it comes to reliability and a "hands off approach" for our IT department. The up-time is also very good.
• It offers a wide range of verified plugins that are (for the most part) easy to install and use for any specific scenario you're looking for.
• It's Analytics area in the admin is actually nice and offers a wide variety of reports that you can run.

Incentivized

• The UX within the Business Manager portion of Demandware, the primary interface for marketers, is generally a confusing, inconsistent mess. Particularly infuriating are the lack of consistency for search and sort behavior within the tool.
• A number of useful features, such as the ability to set schedules or tie features to unique customer segments, have seemingly arbitrary limitations imposed.
• Demandware's idea of leveraging the community to be a learning resource and a sounding board for new ideas and features is a nice theory, but in practice it doesn't work for businesses with a lot of customization. I'm left with the impression that individual support is not a priority.

Incentivized

• It's a little pricey; further cost reductions will expand product selection; also, trained operators are required.
• HAC occasionally functions extremely slowly and does not provide any problem messages; it simply gets stuck. Logging into the Backoffice for testing purposes causes a lot of trouble; it does not enable us to log in in one attempt, and the page refreshes every time we enter in the credentials.

Incentivized

• I would love it if Shopify built an in house app which helped us post UGCs and social proof from platforms such as Instagram, Youtube etc. more seamlessly on our website. Right now, we are able to do it through third party apps but the look and feel is just okay.

Incentivized

A huge factor influencing our decision to remain on the Demandware platform is that our new parent company is standardizing all its luxury brands in the US on it. We are fortunate. However, even if we had remained an independent company, I believe we would continue on the Demandware platform for all the reasons outlined in this review. I appreciate the stability the platform has provided to our eCommerce site in the last three years as well as the continuous improvements and technological advances being rolled out that will allow us to keep the site fresh, engaging, modern and stable. I've heard many horror stories from colleagues on other platforms who struggle with the expense and complexity involved with making what should be minor and simple changes and updates to their sites.

SAP Commerce and Spartacus together becomes one of the omnichannel powerhouse of commerce application. It also comes with edge advantage with out of the box integrations with many SAP applications and also non-SAP applciations which gives it edge advantage over other tools. The main reason being the integration becomes easier as SAP shares the common data schema and model across all its product line and new feature releases are compatible with all the SAP product line.

Incentivized

Nothing we have used in the past or have seen thus far even comes close to offering what we get with Shopify Plus, especially for the price. You cannot even come close to getting what we are getting at the price we pay. We are beyond thrilled and Shopify Plus meets and exceeds all of our needs and expectations. We love it!

Incentivized

The overall ease of using the system. Consolidation in location for our team members. Mobile application for on the go research, as many of our team members are constantly traveling to job sites or to meet clients. No more duplicate calls to current customers, since we have 12 different divisions that span the company. Mostly the ability to look at the database when our team members begin cultivating a new
lead/prospect with a potential customer to see if anyone within the team has a
relationship with that person or the company they work for.

Incentivized

More true headless and a more rationale pricing. Since moving from the Hzbris Monolyth towards SAP Commerce Cloud a lot of progress has been made, but dissecting the monolyth into composable components where you just pay for what you use is still a longer journey and here pricing should be more realistic. Things become so expensive once they have the SAP stamp on them (example the SAP CIAM)

Incentivized

It is fairly easy to use Shopify regardless of what task you are attempting to perform. Most things are customizable to a degree without requiring coding ability. I have very limited coding experience and have still been able to navigate my way around changing features of the website that require edits to the code with the use of AI and trial-and-error. This previously wasn't possible with the WooCommerce platform.

Incentivized

We have only had one instance where the platform went down in the time we have been using it.

Shopify support is always available when you need them.

Incentivized

Shopify website speed is quite impressive. Even if we integrate couple apps, it does not hamper the site speed.

Incentivized

They are very responsive and a support technician will be assigned quickly. Even if there is further clarification needed for the ticket, or a solution is not immediately available, you feel that someone is there and staying on top of the issue. Most common issues are resolved quickly and satisfactorily.

Incentivized

We have the right to open a ticket or submit request to SAP support teams for all the problems we have experienced. They also provide solutions for critical issues within 48 hours. In addition, the product has support documents such as a user guide and admin guide. In addition, there is a strong community of users. In this way, we can access solution of some specific problems that we have fallen on from there.

Incentivized

In terms of support I give Shopify a 9 out of 10 because they're always very friendly and thorough, and they personally can't solve my problem for me they always point me in the proper direction with the proper information I need to move forward

Incentivized

The in-person training was thorough. Trainer was pretty dry, but covered everything really well.

Shopify offered us several trainings to setup a Shopify store, how to build a brand, SEO, product photography etc. All this content have been super helpful in our journey.

Incentivized

Implementation went fairly smoothly.

Scalability of the product was good Seamless integrations were helped in reducing the implementation for the development team to integrate with the SAP ERP Product framework helped customer to customize and adapt the new features which were developed basis business processes and ease of customer experience. Deployment and creation of the build becomes very easy with the CCv2 setup.

Incentivized

Just start now and make the switch, the sooner the better. You will love it and it is really a simple process

Incentivized

When I think of Salesforce products, I sometimes think of them interchangeably as one big lump. It's hard not to be incredibly immersed in the ecosystem day in and day out and taking advantage of resources like Trailhead. While Microsoft Dynamics compares in quality and offerings, it doesn't offer the same engagement and resources as Salesforce in its communications, social, and marketing, which makes a difference in terms of relevance and help. Commerce Cloud comes with the support you need to succeed and the tools you need to grow. In a high demand consumer world, we need products like this to keep up and get ahead. The minute we catch up, we're behind. Salesforce helps you stay on pace and create the unique and personalized experiences customers everywhere expect.

Incentivized

SAP Cloud is much better than GoDaddy. it was a smooth transition and every aspect of the program is easier. My scalability increased greatly from GoDaddy to SAp Commerce Cloud and sales are now tracked easier and inventory is at the touch of a button, making sales much easier than previous software.

Incentivized

Big Commerce and SAP Hybris are two other platforms we've investigated and Shopify is by far easiest to use and customize. While it doesn't do everything out of the box, the apps do fill in many gaps. The cost however, is probably the biggest selling point against these other two options.

Incentivized

The business users/admins were able to quickly segment products by brand, allowing for unique branding and header-less page design. As new products are added to the SAP backend, all characteristics and pricing automatically migrate to Commerce Cloud. We also segment our user sign-on (domains) by brand and allow targeting displays.

Incentivized

Shopify has basic to high-end plans. The plans grow with the brand`s growth and I love that about Shopify.

Incentivized

• In my experience I see most of the retailers see better sales after moving to Demandware.
• Site performance is really good if the application built with best practices suggested by Demandware.
• Service integrations have some limitations in terms of quota etc but still all are inside manageable grounds.

Incentivized

• It has a positive impact on my client's business and ROI is higher than expected. As orders count is increasing due to smooth and better experience.
• My current client's customers have given very positive experience about new website built on SAP Commerce Cloud.
• Due to SAP Commerce Cloud website rollout is very easy and due to it, my current client has introduced around 25 websites. As SAP Commerce Cloud logic needs to develop once and can be reused for multiple websites easily with minimal effort.
• Branding is also very easy as promotions, events can be implemented on the website easily and with minimum time.
• SAP Commerce has helped our client to integrate the Recommendation tool ISS which is easy to configure after this tool product sale is increased. The best thing was that integration was very easy and quick.
• One option of Blue/Green deployment helping us to check the production release in advance on production environment. Prev we don't have this option and many times face P1 issue in prod which had ruined client reputation. But now this feature is helping lot

Incentivized

• It got the store up quickly so the client could start selling. She was previously selling products on Etsy and Facebook and wanted to consolidate everything onto one website, so the main thing Shopify solved was to reduce the store owner's time in managing all her products on multiple sites. Also, we had previously built a website on Wix with all the custom functionality and branding she needed - a truly great, high-end website - but it performed so slowly that it was unusable. So the speed at which Shopify can be set up and then works on the page is appreciable.
• The website was manageable by the client - she could figure the system out herself after a while so she saved money on costs for hiring developers. She did have to hire developers to customize some of the plug-ins but costs are all relative; it wasn't a high investment compared to building a full e-commerce website. With the complexity and size of her product base and the functionality and branding she wanted to have in a website, and the potential of her business, she would have needed to invest well over $10,000 to get to where she really needs to be. In the end she kept the budget under $5000.00.
• Costs kept climbing with plug-ins having to be added with everything. My client became more involved in building the website and began to try multiple plugins, and she did not have the skill base to evaluate the plugins functionalities so she chose plugins that did not do everything she needed, and then ended up paying the plugin developers to customize the plugins. So on one hand, it's pretty amazing to be able to bring up an e-commerce website as quickly as a week or so, but on the other hand if you need anything customized or deeper functionality in regards to product searching and filtering on the web page, and management on the backend, it quickly goes beyond the skills of the average person to manage, and above their expected budget as well. In the end my client really did not get anything close to the functionality for the website we had originally envisioned.
• Shopify was the easiest way we could find to bring the client's products to a global market. We evaluated several other platforms and the functionality simple did not seem to be adequate, so Shopify seemed like the only solution that could do enough of what we needed and still stay within this client's budget. Really the problem in this project was not platform per se but that the budget wasn't large enough. Shopify managed to provide a solution for an ecommerce store with thousands of products on a tiny budget, so in the sense of pure functionality it provided the best value of all the platforms we evaluated. The solution still isn't big enough for this client's business though so, without having insights into this client's post-build sales results, my guess is that because her new website did not make her products easier to sort through, and she likely didn't have much more budget left to invest in SEO and other marketing of the website, her sales probably didn't increase substantially as a result of having built the website. So I think this project all in all did not likely have a high ROI.

Incentivized