As many of you have seen, Sitecore has had several strategic acquisitions lately with one of the more recent being Ordercloud, formerly Four51. We are frequently asked what the difference between Ordercloud and Sitecore Commerce. Below, I reviewed several key features of each product along with their advantages and differences.
Sitecore Commerce has been around since 2014 with the acquisition of Commerceserver.net. Sitecore has had several iterations since then, increasing the capabilities along with performance, and in later versions completely rebuilding the framework with their release in Version 9. Their current release, Version 10.1, offers enhancements like data archiving and optimizing the commerce redis cache. The framework is geared toward B2C markets and can be combined with Sitecore XP for a very powerful and robust DXP platform.
One major advantage Sitecore Commerce offers is explicit personalization. The feature allows you to know who a user is, what purchases they’ve made on your site, if there was an abandoned cart, and marketing automation. It’s all processed through Sitecore’s rules engine which can be fully customized to capture and market to the active user. Then, the data can help empower your business by surfacing relevant products, upsells, cross sell, and reorders. Marketing automation will allow campaigns to send emails to customers for further engagement based on relevant products or abandoned carts.
Another major advantage Sitecore Commerce offers is flexibility of your solution. When paired with an existing Sitecore XP solution, it creates a powerful DXP platform. It also offers the ability for extensive customizations with IoT, CRMs, and SSO. There are additional existing configurations for Salesforce clients, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and ERPs. Sitecore Commerce is ideal for someone that’s not looking for a SaaS-based platform.
On the other hand, Ordercloud also comes with its own advantages. As Sitecore’s latest commerce solution, it offers features such as headless, cloudless, and API first. It was originally built as a B2C solution, but has expanded its capabilities to not only B2B markets, but also B2X. With the headless approach, it empowers the development team to leverage their preferred front-end frameworks such as React or Angular. Headless solutions are gaining popularity because they offer increased flexibility in frontend frameworks as well as allow for a decoupling between the frontend and the backend. The backend functionality is made available through API calls allowing for a decoupled solution.
Ordercloud’s framework is based on API calls and as a result, service integrations become much easier. This approach allows for development to be done in parallel between both frontend and backend teams. Headless approaches will decouple your solutions which then offers an easier path to upgrade frontend frameworks and backend solutions as they are independent of each other. Additionally, it offers the ability to have faster deliver with the rese of existing components.
And lastly, Ordercloud includes a “head start” approach which provides preconfigured components for your build. One key advantage is the virtual marketplace which allows you to connect buyers with suppliers.
Both Sitecore Commerce and the newly added Ordercloud platform are great solutions. Each offers distinct features and capabilities to empower your business. Whether your business is B2B or B2C, each of these Sitecore solutions provide robust features to maximize your return along with enriching your customers experiences.
Americaneagle.com is a Sitecore Development Partner. Reach out today to learn more!
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