Salesforce commerce cloud pricing structure appeals to online retailers in many ways. First, Salesforce does not charge upfront licensing fees (Magento and Shopify Plus do), Second, pricing tiers are scaled, the amount merchants pay shows if their business is performing well or not.
Salesforce is not like Shopify where anyone with few cents can use the platform, they only want serious store owners who are focused on making their eCommerce stores huge.
Salesforce has recently made few changes in order to accommodate SMEs looking to use this platform and also offer competition to Magento, Shopify Plus, and BigCommerce.
In this blog post, we will be helping you understand SF commerce cloud pricing and what factors can affect the pricing.
Table of Contents
Average cost of Salesforce commerce cloud build
A Salesforce commerce cloud build varies depending upon the features and Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV). SF commerce cloud can start from £180k and can go up to £1m and above. This all depends on the complexity of the features.
The average cost of Salesforce commerce cloud build ranges from £250k – £600k
Although, there isn’t much of a pricing gap if we compare the platform with Magento.
Salesforce generally appeals because of its native features, be it, Einstein, for personalization, or Machine learning which tells the retailers about popular searches, and recommends the hit category products.
The best part is, the SF commerce cloud also integrates with SF Marketing Cloud and Commerce Insights.
Use case – £5m online single-store rough estimates
Here we are taking a single store example with £5m GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) and the store is expected to reach up to £20 in 3 years. So here are few important costings:
- 3 years licensing cost would go up to £375k
- SF commerce cloud build cost £200-300k
- On-going development cost £18k
- The cost of any third-party integrations will go separate.
Three core Salesforce commerce cloud pricing tiers
- Starter tier – This tier suits single store owners who have 1 website/store and 2 price books. In this SFCC pricing tier, 1% GMV is charged.
- Growth tier – This tier suits mid-size businesses with up to 5 websites/stores and 10 price books. In this SFCC pricing tier, 1-2% GMV is charged.
- Unlimited tier – This tier suits large-scale companies with complex features. In this SFCC pricing tier, 2% GMV is charged.
Salesforce commerce cloud pricing for B2B:
https://www.salesforce.com/editions-pricing/commerce-cloud/b2b/?d=cta-body-promo-270
Salesforce commerce cloud pricing for B2C:
https://www.salesforce.com/products/commerce-cloud/ecommerce/pricing/
How Salesforce commerce cloud pricing structure is lucrative for small-scale merchants?
The annual licensing fee of Salesforce commerce cloud is around $150,000 / yr. However, here the noteworthy point is that they do not require this large licensing cost upfront which in a way protects the retailer from huge loss.
“SF commerce cloud pricing tiers are scaled (as you have seen above), so the amount you pay shows whether your business is running well or not. If you face a loss or dip for a certain time period, you do not need to worry about paying more to SF commerce cloud which is the case with other commerce cloud platforms.”
SF commerce cloud license cost covers hosting/server management, pre-peak planning & provisioning, platform security and maintenance, CDN management, code quality assessment/validation, platform upgrades, etc.
Core factors Salesforce commerce cloud considers
Although Salesforce does not charge licensing fee upfront, there are some parameters they look into while considering any commerce site/store/business.
- Total no. of stores/websites
- Website total traffic
- International shipping
- Currencies integrated with your store
- Languages option
- Store/website bandwidth
- SKUs
Comparisons
Magento vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud
SCC and MC are two breakthrough technologies and choosing between the two is hard.
On one side, SCC being a Saas platform saves time and money spent on business development i.e. server costs, upgrades etc. whereas MC allows customization. Commerce Insights is another very useful feature for highly personalized user experience.
When we compare the two powerful commerce players in the market, we get to know that Salesforce Commerce Cloud has some advanced commerce and intelligence solutions whereas Magento Commerce is strong in operational capabilities.
Let’s compare SCC and MC in detail so that you get a clear picture.
Magento CommerceSalesforce Commerce CloudSelf-hosted
Magento is a self-hosted platform that gives owners a direct access to the hardware. However, maintenance and monitoring costs are separate.
Cloud-based
SCC is a cloud-based Saas platform that frees users from server hosting and network issues. No need to hire a server, get low cost service, high performance and with cybersecurity.
Customization
Users can improve their store performance, as the source code is open and can make custom changes/functions freely.
Not flexible
Restricts access to the server, hence the source code, preventing users from doing custom changes or modifying the code.
Unified B2B and B2C
Magento Commerce was born for B2B but later they got B2C covered too. On a single website, you can get B2B and B2C with robust features.
B2B and B2C are separate
You can’t create a unified B2B and B2C experience on a single website. Salesforce doesn’t adopt as they don’t have a solution as of now.
Supports various product types
Simple, configurable, grouped, bundles, gift card, virtual, downloadable
Supports complex product types
Standard product, variation master, variation group, variation product, product set, product bundle
Extensive B2B features
Company, account, quote, shared catalog, quick order, requisition list, purchase order
Limited B2B features
Custom catalog, negotiated pricing (quote), purchase orders
Product recommendations – Adobe Sensei
Use Adobe Sensei for product recommendations.
Product recommendations – Einstein
Use Einstein for product recommendations.
In-built reward and loyalty system
MC supports reward and loyalty systems and it’s within the platform.
Need to purchase from marketplace
Purchase from partners marketplaces as an additional tool.
Shopify Plus vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Shopify Plus and Salesforce Commerce Cloud both are Saas platforms and are popular choices for mid to large range enterprises. Shopify Plus, in particular, has seen a rise in adoption with B2C retailers in the last few years as merchants are saving significant amounts.
Functional extensions and third party integrations are there for customization as these platforms are not open source like Magento Commerce.
Let’s compare the Shopify Plus and Salesforce Commerce Cloud in detail so that online retailers can better understand the differences.
Shopify PlusSalesforce Commerce CloudCore features
-Shopify Payments and other payment options i.e., Apple Pay, Android Pay, etc.
-Unlimited 3rd party apps from Shopify app store
-Level 1 PCI DSS compliant
-Native support for 20+ sales channels i.e., eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram
-Integrate gift cards natively
-Store credit native support
-Built-in reporting
-24/7 support
-Dedicated account management
-Built-in address validation
-Complex campaign management (Shopify Launchpad)
-Comprehensive and easy-to-use dashboards and reports
-Open APIs and ready-made SDKs
-A huge number of pre-existing integrations with technology partners
Core features
-Visual merchandising tools
-Gift cards and gift certificates support
-Native support for product bundling
-Strong search management features
-Staging and test environments
-Support for ‘attribute sets’
-Quick order and reorder templates
-Native support for store credit
-Strong promotions engine
-Advanced order management capabilities
-Advanced international capabilities
-Social integrations
-Customer segmentation
-Content scheduling
-Multiple customer segmentation & personalization features
-Advanced native search
-A/B Testing
-Real-time dashboards and reporting
-REST API
-Flexible SEO module which can be extended
Customization, more apps/integrations
Shopify Plus apps come with monthly licensing costs, varying from a few dollars to over $1000.
Customization, limited integrations
Stronger product attribution and catalog management for customizations. The marketplace of Salesforce has limited integrations and are costly as well.
Final Verdict
Salesforce tends to get more involved with the businesses majorly because of their GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) model. Where we are looking into the pros of SFCC, we should not ignore the fact that there aren’t many highly qualified agencies or certified Salesforce developers if we compare the SFCC with other commerce cloud platforms like Magento.
If you want to have a detailed discussion with one of Phaedra Solution’s certified experts on SFCC pricing or any aspect of it, feel free to contact. Let’s see how we can work together.
