ECommerce business was already booming when the pandemic came and gave it a big boost. Customers today prefer digital services and personalization. The new normal is all about online services with fast availability of goods and services at the consumers doorstep.
The pandemic gave all industries a much-needed push towards compelling the world to go digital. Some of the major challenges faced by the businesses due to this was that they were struggling to adapt to the digitization. They could not provide customization let alone a personalized offering to their customers.
Recently, the digital experience market leader Sitecore acquired Four 51 for creating a high-tech, cutting-edge eCommerce solution. Their priority was to drive extraordinary digital experiences for customers with personalized journeys and customized functions and features for the platforms.
This is how Sitecore OrderCloud Service was born.
What is Sitecore OrderCloud?
Sitecore OrderCloud is an API-first, headless cloud platform made with the purpose of solving complex business problems and helping businesses go digital with unique and distinguished features. OrderCloud is perfect for delivering customer experiences that turns them into fans.
Be it B2C, B2B, or any B2X business model, Sitecore OrderCloud will ensure long-term success along with future-proofing your business.
Why Sitecore OrderCloud? Here are 10 reasons why!
Complete Customization
When you are building your own eCommerce platform, you want it to be unique and completely different than the ones existing in the market. You want it to stand out and also have functions that will make your customers keep coming back. Through Sitecore OrderCloud, you can design the functions and the capabilities according to your vision.
Hyper-personalization
Because OrderCloud was created keeping in mind the customer expectations and support all types of business models and marketplaces, it allows brands to track data, segment, and create personalized, unique experiences for each of its customers. The one-on-one personalization enhances the experiences of your infinite buyer types and also increases brand loyalty.
World-class Security
When you have an online platform, especially an eCommerce one, it means you are dealing in tons of sensitive and confidential data. Not just the customer behavioral patterns and buying journeys but their demographic information as well. Apart from this, there is vendor data as well to be taken into consideration.
It is the business’ responsibility to ensure the safety and security of every ounce of data that is being received. For this, Sitecore OrderCloud is audited every year, for SOC Type 2 with HIPAA controls. It is also compliant with GDPR, CGPA and PCI.
Cloud-native Architecture
The implementation of all Sitecore related services are directly on Microsoft Azure. The fact that it is cloud-native allows it flexibility and scalability. It is better to have everything on the cloud rather than offline and it allows your platform the ability to meet the heavy traffic spikes seen during prime times.
This leads to a decrease in the down time. Your customers get a faster loading time and can focus on the core purpose of visiting your platform, which is to make purchases and shop.
 Better Management of Order, Products, Vendors
Being an eCommerce business, it goes without saying that there will be order management, product management, and vendor management. OrderCloud actually supports various types of marketplaces and supports the varied type of buyer sets, supplier sets and customer sets that come with it.
Sitecore OrderCloud Catalog Management provides brilliant product management for your eCommerce business. You can onboard over 6 million products on the platform. End-to-end inventory, onboarding of vendors, ordering process and a smooth customer buying journey are just some of the many functions that you can incorporate in your platform.
Saves Time and Cost
Through Sitecore OrderCloud, you can build and develop a complete portal within 1 month. Due to MACH architecture being there, individual pieces of business functions can be developed and deployed separately. This not only allows you to save the cost of ownership but also gives you a faster time to market.
Developer-friendly
The API-first platform comes with headless integrations. It also provides SDKs for the perusal of the developers. They can drive the development process with value through Sitecore OrderCloud. There is also a developer portal for testing as well as for interacting with the APIs.
Headless Integrations
Headless means that your front-end and your back-end are both independent. Many times, when making changes or updates or any modifications to your back-end, the presentation and the front-end of your platform get disturbed or vice versa. This issue is taken care of by OrderCloud as it has headless integrations. This means that you reduce the downtime extremely low and also make changes without causing the immediate effect on the other side.
Extendibility
When you are dealing with an eCommerce platform, it comes with many third-party and outside functions such as merchant services, product indexing, shipping services, tax calculation, delivery networks, and most important of all, payment gateways. Sitecore OrderCloud allows you to independently integrate these functions without reducing the development time.
Sitecore Omni-channel Integrations
Through OrderCloud, you can streamline your operations and connect multiple platforms, applications and social media to your business. This will allow you to provide an exceptional experience for your customers across all touchpoints. It is a benefit to both your marketers and your business.
OrderCloud is one of the best eCommerce platforms out there for businesses to go digital and as a Sitecore Development Company, we highly recommend it. The above mentioned are the top 10 reasons why you should go for Sitecore OrderCloud for launching your business online.
