Leaders at major retailers and consumer goods organizations are always adapting their strategy to the latest demands and expectations of everyday shoppers. That’s why agile, scalable, and—perhaps most crucially—changeable cloud platforms are foundational to success in the industry. Salesforce is at the forefront of cloud customer relationship management platforms that follow the entire customer journey and keep functionality fresh for the current trends and needs of consumers. 

Salesforce’s latest update, Winter ‘23, includes the following industry-specific changes for retail and consumer goods companies using Commerce Cloud: TikTok integration, B2B and B2B2C enhancements, payments enhancements, and order management enhancements. Let’s take a closer look at each and how they will impact your business.

TikTok integration

One of the flashiest enhancements for reaching younger customers is the integration between Commerce Cloud and TikTok. You can drive further store traffic with dynamic ads and videos on the social media platform directly through an in-app experience for launching TikTok as a new sales channel within your overall Commerce Cloud. With catalog-focused ad solutions like this, your social commerce can easily expand to one of the hottest platforms for young consumers. 

Applicable product: Commerce Cloud

B2B and B2B2C enhancements

The latest release comes with multiple enhancements for B2B and B2B2C Commerce users. Most notably are advancements in how users can leverage Salesforce to grow revenue with subscription management with new functionality for Connect API resources to support multiple selling models for products: one time, term, and evergreen. Additionally, new SEO documentation helps B2B or B2B2C stores drive more traffic with instructions for adding HTML meta tags, using shopper-friendly URLs, offering store snapshots to web crawlers, and managing a store sitemap. 

Applicable product: Commerce Cloud

Payments enhancements

Further enhancements focus on streamlining the payment processing end of things for your customers. Commerce Cloud now offers Salesforce Payments, a way to offer any preferred payment method securely and quickly. This also comes with built-in reports to examine what payment methods are highest in demand and generating the most revenue. You can also use Salesforce Payments to integrate with multiple Commerce Cloud stores, run reports for Stripe accounts, or to capture payment info and issue refunds with Order Management. 

Applicable product: Commerce Cloud

Order Management enhancements

Finally, the Winter ‘23 Release also includes noteworthy enhancements to Order Management for Commerce Cloud users. First up is the ability to better drive revenue through ordering on behalf of a shopper. With a sequence of API endpoints, users—such as service agents—can submit orders for shoppers directly within the platform instead of leading shoppers to do it on their own during a call. Next, Omnichannel Inventory is a great feature for Order Management to place order and route processes, but when temporary communication issues arise, you can trust your B2C orders will still be managed effectively. With exception checking and retries, your Omnichannel Inventory Downtime Playbook now requires far less manual work to mediate temporary issues without losing operational efficiency. 

Applicable product: Commerce Cloud

If you’d like to understand more about these updates or get started with a tailor-made implementation for your retail business, Simplus can help. Reach out today to work hand in hand with us as we match the right Salesforce functionalities for your top priorities.