In 2020, digital commerce became an integral part of the post-coronavirus recovery of every business. Throughout the year at Salesforce we saw a major spike in B2C order volume (related to social distancing and new consumer changes) capped off by a huge holiday shopping surge. Compared to Cyber Week last year, the commerce platform saw a 50% growth in merchandise sales, an 80% increase in page views and a 77% increase in machine learning predictions.
To continue this digital growth, companies are quickly pivoting their operating models to launch new direct-to-consumer channels such as curbside pickup and delivery apps. Making these transformations a reality are Salesforce developers, who are at the frontlines of delivering new functionality and experiences with a new B2C headless commerce toolset. With Commerce Cloud, developers can build with agility and efficiency on top of a flexible platform that enables commerce transformation.
- New B2C APIs launched in August covering the full gambit of shopping and backend data services, mediated by a new API Gateway and built with trusted availability, security and compliance.
- The Commerce Cloud Developer Center was built in conjunction with the new APIs to serve as a base camp for all developer documentation, an SDK to jump start development, solution kits, downloadable tools, Trailhead modules, and most importantly, a full community of over 7,000 developers to engage with and ask questions.
Headless Commerce APIs in the Commerce Cloud Developer Center
The new APIs and developer efficiency tools are just the start of Salesforce’s headless commerce adventure. In the Spring 2021 release, Commerce Cloud released a new Omnichannel Inventory (OCI) microservice that provides a single source of truth into location-level inventory across all fulfillment channels, and at massive scale. We also launched new MuleSoft Data & Shopper API Connectors for B2C Commerce which serve as prebuilt, certified connectors to simplify development and ensure best practices around authorization, security, performance, and more.
So what have Salesforce developers been able to do with all of this new tech? This year, we saw saw a rise in orders via social media, increased usage of mobile apps, and new experiences like Live Shopping. During Cyber Week, B2C commerce saw a 51% increase in B2C API usage amounting to over one billion API calls delivered from the platform – all with trusted scale and performance.
The Commerce Cloud roadmap for developers is bright. The recent acquisition of Mobify will give developers additional tools to build headless storefronts with a new Progressive Web App Kit and Managed Runtime. We look forward to much more in future releases.
Complete a Learn MOAR Spring ’21 trailmix for Admins or Developers by March 31, 2021 to earn a special community badge and enter for a chance to win one $200 USD Trailhead Certification voucher. See Official Rules below.
Share what you love about the Spring ’21 Release with the #LearnMOAR hashtag. Also, don’t forget to sign up for Release Readiness Live happening on January 29, 2020.
About the author
Eric Lessard is a Product Marketing Manager for Salesforce Commerce Cloud, focused on digital innovation and empowering developers. Eric has over a decade of experience in high-tech marketing serving in field, go-to-market, and product roles in both EMEA and US. Eric holds a BS from Fairfield University and MBA from Babson College.