This comparison has often been biased, but we're diving deep to do a reality check. As Digital Commerce Advisors with experience on both Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Shopify Plus, we're pragmatic, not fanatic. Our goal is to provide a balanced view on which platform is a better fit for your business and who has the lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
For this comparison, we've selected Salesforce B2B/DTC Commerce because it's designed for B2B, just like Shopify Plus, while also enabling a Direct-to-Consumer model, which Shopify Plus also supports.
Ultimately, remember this: a platform is just an enabler. Your strategy is the true driver of success.
Time-to-Market
A common misconception is that Salesforce Commerce Cloud is slow to launch. The reality is that an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) can be live in as little as 4 weeks. For more extensive enterprise projects, the timeline is typically 3 months and up. This agility is a key advantage, and it challenges the narrative that Salesforce is only for long, drawn-out implementations.
Functionalities
Let's start with a feature-by-feature breakdown, noting the crucial difference in their out-of-the-box (OOTB) capabilities. Salesforce Commerce Cloud includes more native functionalities, while Shopify Plus relies more heavily on its app ecosystem.
Personalization
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus does not include native personalization features. Brands must rely on third-party apps to personalize customer experiences. A significant drawback is the siloed data, making true end-to-end personalization difficult, if not impossible, without an additional Customer Data Platform (CDP).
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Salesforce Commerce Cloud comes with Commerce Einstein, which natively personalizes product recommendations, search results, and category listings. Furthermore, Salesforce's Customer Data Platform, Data Cloud, is included. This means brands can harmonize customer data from all sources to build a 360-degree customer view, enabling robust, end-to-end personalized customer experiences.
B2B
Shopify Plus
With Shopify Plus, merchants can manage B2B customers using company and company location profiles. The platform offers separate controls and tools for customer acquisition and customization. B2B buyers can manage their accounts, edit contact and shipping information, and if they have a location admin role, they can also place reorders, view order history, and submit returns.
Salesforce B2B & DTC Commerce
Salesforce B2B Commerce boasts a very robust set of features, thanks to its native integration with Sales Cloud CRM. This enables merchants to deliver tailored experiences for every buyer with account and buyer entitlements, negotiated pricing, custom promotions, and personalized catalogs. It also empowers buyers to make purchases on behalf of other accounts, businesses, or locations seamlessly.
Checkout
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus merchants can customize their checkout's appearance and functionality using the Checkout Editor. This tool allows for basic branding changes like logo and background image adjustments, and color and font changes. For more advanced customization, merchants have access to the `checkout.liquid` file for deeper branding and can use custom scripts for discounts and logic. Third-party checkout apps can also be used to add features like upsells, trust badges, and dynamic content.
Salesforce B2B & DTC Commerce
Salesforce B2B & DTC Commerce offers a comprehensive checkout functionality that includes payment, tax, and shipping services. For a D2C store, merchants can choose between a managed or custom checkout. B2B stores are limited to a custom checkout. The managed checkout integrates Salesforce merchant services and provides automatic UI updates. The custom checkout option allows for the use of third-party providers and offers extensive UI customization.
Integrations
Shopify Plus
The Shopify App Store has approximately 13,000 apps. Merchants can integrate their existing tools like ERP, CRM, WMS, or OMS using Shopify Plus API access, or with third-party iPaaS solutions like Patchworks or Zapier.
Salesforce B2B & DTC Commerce
Merchants on Salesforce B2B & DTC Commerce can utilize the Independent Software Vendor AppExchange marketplace, which currently includes around 9,000 solution providers. Salesforce also offers sophisticated API access. Additionally, merchants can use third-party iPaaS providers like MuleSoft or Patchworks. It's worth noting that Salesforce Commerce Cloud generally requires fewer third-party apps, as many core functionalities are built-in (e.g., global tax management like Avalara, payment gateways like Adyen, and shipping solutions like ShipStation).
AI
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus includes AI features such as Sidekick and Magic. These tools allow merchants to get advice from an AI agent, generate images from product descriptions, build storefront designs faster, create email campaign content, and enable chatbots.
Salesforce B2B & DTC Commerce
Salesforce's platform comes with two distinct AI features:
1. Commerce Einstein: Provides AI-powered merchandising tools to enhance the shopper experience through personalized recommendations and insights.
2. Agentforce for Commerce: A tool to reduce the time to value for store creation and to boost revenue through data-driven shopper insights and automated workflows.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
TCO is a critical, and often misunderstood, factor. Let's break down the costs for both platforms.
Shopify Plus
License: The base license starts at $2,500 per month, or a variable fee of 0.4% of Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV).
Monthly GMV | License Fee
$420,000 | $2,500
$850,000 | $3,400
$1,650,000 | $6,600
Transaction Fees: These fees vary by country and average order value (AOV). Assuming an AOV of $125:
Monthly GMV | Monthly Transactions
$420,000 | 3,360
$850,000 | 6,800
$1,650,000 | 13,200
For a US-based merchant using Shopify Payments:
$420K GMV: $11,088/month
$850K GMV: $22,440/month
$1.65M GMV: $43,560/month
Shopify claims that 38% of orders are paid through Shop Pay, which has its own processing fees. If so, the payment processing fees can look like this:
$420K GMV: $20,888.98
$850K GMV: $42,272.2
$1.65M GMV: $82,057.8
App Costs: A merchant on Shopify Plus will often need to add third-party apps for personalization, CRM, search, and OMS, which adds to the monthly cost.
$420K GMV: Est. $2,622/month
$850K GMV: Est. $4,260/month
$1.65M GMV: Est. $7,100/month
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
License: The license is typically a flat 1% of GMV.
Monthly GMV | License Fee
$420,000 | $4,200
$850,000 | $8,500
$1,650,000 | $16,500
Transaction Fees: Using a third-party payment gateway like Adyen for Salesforce Commerce Cloud:
$420K GMV: $11,356.8/month
$850K GMV: $22,984/month
$1.65M GMV: $44,616/month
The Verdict on TCO
The total cost of ownership is highly dependent on payment processing. If Shop Pay is enabled and heavily used by consumers, Shopify Plus can have a significantly higher TCO compared to Salesforce Commerce Cloud, primarily due to the transaction fees. While Shopify's licensing is often seen as lower, the combination of transaction fees and the need for a larger number of third-party apps can quickly drive up the overall cost.
Managed Services
Regardless of the platform, managed services are essential for enterprise commerce. Here are some estimated hours per month for a typical project:
$420K GMV: 20 hours/month
$850K GMV: 50 hours/month
$1.65M GMV: 200 hours/month
This ongoing investment in development and maintenance is a crucial part of the TCO that many businesses overlook.
Final Thoughts
While both platforms are powerful, they cater to different needs. Shopify Plus is a highly agile solution, particularly for brands with a clear path to market that can leverage its extensive app ecosystem. Its simplicity and speed to market are key advantages. Salesforce Commerce Cloud, on the other hand, is also an agile enterprise-grade solution that shines with its deep native functionality, especially its built-in personalization features and tight integration with its CRM. This makes it an ideal choice for businesses with complex B2B needs or a strong focus on delivering a unified, personalized customer view across all channels.
The reality is, there is no single "better" platform. The best choice depends on your business's specific requirements, strategic goals, and long-term vision.