Sitecore OrderCloud: an e-commerce solution for B2B and B2C

When Sitecore announced the acquisition of Four51, and rebranded it to Sitecore OrderCloud, everyone was eager to know what this platform is all about. In this article, w're breaking it down for you.

Sitecore OrderCloud is a full headless commerce engine. It is a SaaS (Software As A Service) that provides APIs allowing for channel-agnostic commerce functionalities. It is built for complex businesses, supporting B2B as well as B2C and B2B2C scenarios.

Sitecore OrderCloud - what?

In line with Sitecore’s DNA, OrderCloud supports customizations to have endless freedom for growth, supporting complex and complete commerce strategies. Wherever your business needs to go, today, tomorrow or in years' time: you are ready to lead the way.

Let's take a look at the platform, which exists of the following building blocks:

NOT JUST A WEBSHOP: HEADLESS, FLEXIBLE, AND AGILE

This does not mean that Sitecore OrderCloud cannot be used for your webshop. It is also built for large, complex, and highly distributed businesses to sell online through custom online commerce solutions – on any channel.

Enabling commerce for B2C, B2B, or B2B2C businesses, you can connect your products, services, and information to your multi-level buyer-types.

OrderCloud is ideal for organizations who are aware that the buyer journey has different touch points across channels and includes different experiences, no matter the persona of the buyer, seller, or supplier.

While there are many options out there, you want to pick a platform that mirrors the make-up of your business so as you customize and extend.

BUILD YOUR OWN FRONT END AND BACKEND USER INTERFACE

The SaaS platform holds headless APIs, which means that – except for a developer portal - there’s no UI included. You are in full control and free to use whatever technology you want to use the APIs in the front-end languages you want. In fact, there are SDKs available for multiple development frameworks to help you.

Do not worry if you do not know how to start – there is a Headstart application available on Github for both front-end and backend. Of course, we are happy to guide you as well.

CUSTOMIZATIONS AND EXTENSION OF THE PLATFORM

With its microservices architecture, OrderCloud can be extended and customized by adding your own microservices based on Webhooks and Integration Events. For example, the calculation of promotions and prices can be done by your own microservice, based on business logic from your backend systems.

The platform provides modern tools for development:

OrderCloud is built with Open API standards and has the following SDKs available:

More information can be found on the OrderCloud website.

KEY FEATURES

At its base, OrderCloud was implemented with the intention to solve complex B2B operations. That doesn't mean that you can't choose this solution in the B2C or B2B2C field. If you are looking into this solution, we can simply implement a subset of features that make sense for your business.

To finalize this article, we're listing the OrderCloud key features:

Define Your Own Marketplace

• Complex Buyer and User Group Setup

• 100% Extensible Model for Business Segmentation

• Anonymous Shopping or Secure Behind a Login

• Mirror Your Sales and CRM Processes

• Custom Properties to Target Different User Personas

• Support Customer Service with Impersonation

• Tiered Approval Rules

• Supplier Management and Workflows

Personalized Shopping

• Segmented, Multi-Supplier Catalogs

• Faceted Keyword Search

• Buyer and Buyer Group Product Visibility

• Promotion Configuration

• Product Variants and Specifications

• Customized Price Rules

• Price Breaks based on Quantity Ordered

Fulfillment Automation

• Supplier Order Management

• Various Order Types (Quote, CPQ)

• Advanced Payment Methods

• Email Notifications

• OMS Integration

Omni-Channel Integration

OrderCloud is designed to be the backbone of your commerce operations as an API-first, headless SaaS platform.

This means that you can build and connect any number of application experiences on top of OrderCloud, may they be the buyer shopping experience, administration of orders from another third-party tool such as your CRM/ERP/Point Of Sales system, or setting up a portal for your employees, suppliers or franchises to manage orders.

Excited about the possibilities of Sitecore OrderCloud? Watch this video or get in touch - we're happy to discuss the possibilities with you.