Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the e-commerce platform on the Salesforce portfolio for building and operating online storefronts.
Definition
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the e-commerce platform on the Salesforce portfolio for building and operating online storefronts. It supports both B2C Commerce (consumer-facing retail and direct-to-consumer brands) and B2B Commerce (business-to-business sellers with complex catalogs, contract pricing, and approval flows). The platform provides product catalog management, shopping cart and checkout, order management, payment integration, AI-powered personalization, search, content management, and the integration surface to connect with the rest of Salesforce (Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud) for unified customer view.
Commerce Cloud came to Salesforce through the 2016 Demandware acquisition (the original B2C product, now Salesforce B2C Commerce) and the 2020 absorption of CloudCraze (the B2B Commerce product, now Salesforce B2B Commerce on Lightning). The two products share the Commerce Cloud brand but run on different underlying technology stacks: B2C Commerce runs on the Salesforce-managed Commerce Cloud infrastructure, while B2B Commerce runs on the standard Salesforce platform alongside Sales Cloud.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud across B2C, B2B, and the converging future
B2C Commerce: consumer-facing retail storefronts
Salesforce B2C Commerce (formerly Demandware) is the retail and direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform. It targets brands selling to end consumers: fashion, beauty, electronics, home goods, food. Storefronts run on Salesforce-managed infrastructure with built-in CDN, search (Coveo or Commerce Cloud Einstein Search), checkout, and merchant tools. Developers customize storefronts through the Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) or the newer PWA Kit and Managed Runtime for headless commerce. Mature B2C Commerce implementations also use Page Designer for non-developer content updates, AI-driven product recommendations through Einstein Predictive Sort, and the Marketing Cloud Account Engagement integration for personalized journeys. The economics target high-volume consumer traffic with revenue-sharing pricing on top of seat licenses.
B2B Commerce: business-to-business sellers
Salesforce B2B Commerce (on Lightning) is the platform for business-to-business sellers: manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, and anyone selling complex products to other businesses. It runs on the standard Salesforce platform, which means Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, and Orders share the same data model as Sales Cloud. The product supports B2B-specific features that B2C does not: per-account contract pricing, large catalog management (millions of SKUs), approval workflows on orders, purchase order payment methods, account hierarchies, buyer impersonation for sales reps, and quote-to-cash integration with Salesforce CPQ. The economics target lower-volume, higher-value transactions with seat-based pricing tied to buyer accounts.
How B2C and B2B Commerce relate (and differ)
The two Commerce Cloud products share a brand and a strategic direction but differ in important ways. B2C runs on the Demandware platform (separate infrastructure, separate developer tooling, separate data model). B2B runs on the core Salesforce platform with familiar Salesforce metadata and APIs. Customers buying both products integrate them through Salesforce-native integrations (Customer 360), but the products do not share runtime infrastructure. Salesforce has invested in convergence over the past several years: B2C2B Commerce (a unified solution that combines both), Composable Commerce (a headless approach that abstracts the runtime), and the Commerce Cloud Einstein layer (consistent AI features across both products). For new projects in 2026, evaluate whether the use case is genuinely B2C (consumer retail) or B2B (business buyers); the right product depends on the answer.
Catalog, pricing, and the product data model
Both Commerce Cloud products manage products through a catalog structure with categories, products, variants, and inventory. B2C uses a tree-shaped catalog with merchandising rules and seasonal collections. B2B uses an account-hierarchy-aware catalog where different buyers see different products at different prices. Pricing is more complex in B2B: contract prices per buyer account, volume discounts, customer-specific currencies, payment terms variations. The catalog data model has to support all of this without losing performance. Imports from product information management (PIM) systems are the standard pattern for both products; few Commerce Cloud customers manage catalogs entirely inside the platform. The integration surface is robust on both sides, with REST APIs and bulk import tools for catalog updates.
Storefronts, headless commerce, and the rendering layer
B2C Commerce supports two rendering models. Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) is the server-rendered model with traditional page templates and controllers; runs entirely on Commerce Cloud infrastructure. PWA Kit and Managed Runtime is the headless model where the storefront is a Progressive Web App (React-based) that consumes Commerce Cloud APIs and renders client-side; runs on Salesforce-managed Node.js infrastructure. B2B Commerce runs on the Salesforce Lightning platform; storefronts are Experience Cloud sites built with the Aura or LWR template, customized through Experience Builder. Picking the rendering model depends on the user experience goals: SFRA is faster to develop and ship, PWA Kit is more flexible and modern, Lightning storefronts integrate tightly with the rest of Salesforce. Each path has its own developer tooling and learning curve.
Pricing, licensing, and the commercial model
Commerce Cloud pricing is unlike most Salesforce products. B2C Commerce uses a revenue-sharing model: a percentage of the customer gross merchandise value (GMV) is paid to Salesforce, on top of platform license fees. Higher GMV reduces the percentage but the floor is in the high single digits. This model rewards Salesforce for the customer success and aligns the vendor relationship, but it surprises customers used to predictable seat-based pricing. B2B Commerce uses a more conventional seat-based pricing model tied to the number of buyer accounts and the volume of orders. For multi-product Salesforce customers, Commerce Cloud licensing is typically negotiated as part of a broader Customer 360 deal rather than priced standalone. Plan the budget conversation with finance leadership before committing; Commerce Cloud costs are non-trivial.
Implementing Salesforce Commerce Cloud across platform, catalog, storefront, and operations
Implementing Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a multi-quarter project that combines platform setup, data migration, storefront development, and ongoing merchandising operations. The four core phases differ between B2C and B2B but follow a similar shape: provision the platform, migrate the product catalog and customer data, build and customize the storefront, and operationalize the merchant team. Each phase delivers customer-facing value and can be deployed iteratively. Mature Commerce Cloud implementations launch a minimum viable storefront first and add features (personalization, search tuning, payment options) over subsequent releases.
- Provision the platform and configure the realm or org
For B2C Commerce, Salesforce provisions a realm (the equivalent of an org) and gives the admin access through Business Manager. For B2B Commerce, the customer activates the feature in their existing Salesforce org or provisions a dedicated B2B Commerce org. In either case, configure the basic settings: site name, brand identity, supported currencies, supported countries, default language, time zone. Add the initial admin users and configure their roles. For B2C, set up the developer environment (SFRA repo or PWA Kit project) and connect it to the realm. Document the platform settings in the Commerce Cloud runbook for audit and future onboarding.
- Migrate the product catalog and customer data
Export the product catalog from the existing PIM or legacy commerce system. Transform the data to match the Commerce Cloud catalog schema (categories, products, variants, prices, inventory). Load through the Commerce Cloud bulk import API or the catalog feed (B2C) or through Data Loader (B2B). Validate counts after each load: product count matches, category structure matches, inventory levels match. Migrate customer data: account records, contact records, address books, saved carts. Test the migrated data by performing test customer journeys (browse, add to cart, checkout) against a sandbox realm. Iterate on the migration scripts until the test journeys all succeed cleanly.
- Build and customize the storefront
For B2C, pick the rendering model (SFRA for traditional, PWA Kit for headless). Develop the storefront using the platform developer tooling. Customize page templates, product detail pages, category pages, checkout flow, and account self-service pages per the brand design. For B2B, build the Experience Cloud site using Experience Builder; drag in the standard Commerce components for product browsing, cart, and checkout; add custom Lightning Web Components for any org-specific functionality. Configure search relevance through Coveo or Commerce Cloud Einstein Search. Test the storefront in a staging realm under realistic traffic load before going live.
- Operationalize the merchant team
After the storefront launches, the merchant team takes over for ongoing operations. Train merchandisers on managing the catalog through Business Manager (B2C) or the Lightning console (B2B). Train customer service on order management, returns, and customer impersonation. Configure dashboards for the operations team: orders today, conversion rate by category, abandoned carts, customer service ticket volume. Schedule a weekly business review with the merchant lead. Onboard the marketing team to manage promotions, personalization rules, and email campaigns through the integration with Marketing Cloud. Continuous improvement is the operating cadence; the storefront is never finished.
- B2C Commerce pricing uses GMV-based revenue sharing on top of seat licenses. Plan the budget conversation with finance leadership; the commercial model surprises customers used to predictable seat-based pricing.
- B2C and B2B Commerce run on different infrastructure with different data models. Customers operating both products integrate them through Salesforce-native integrations; they do not share runtime.
- Storefront performance at scale requires CDN, caching, and load testing. Launching without testing under realistic traffic load is the most common reason high-profile Commerce launches go badly.
- Catalog imports from PIM systems are the standard pattern; few Commerce customers manage catalogs entirely inside the platform. Build the integration first; the storefront depends on it.
- Search relevance does not work out of the box. Either tune Commerce Cloud Einstein Search with merchandising rules or integrate Coveo for B2C; either way, search tuning is an ongoing operational task, not a one-time setup.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
- B2C Commerce OverviewSalesforce Help
- B2B Commerce OverviewSalesforce Help
- Salesforce Commerce Developer HubSalesforce Developer Docs
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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