Learn About Commerce for Small Business
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe key commerce concepts for small business.
- Learn how Salesforce Starter Suite can help grow your commerce business.
- Address common challenges that commerce businesses face.
What Is Commerce for Small Business?
Commerce for small and medium businesses (SMBs) refers to the buying and selling of products or services to generate revenue and profit. It covers all activities involved in bringing your products to customers, like marketing, sales, payments, and customer service. Commerce can take various forms, such as brick-and-mortar stores, ecommerce platforms, service-based businesses, or hybrid models that combine a physical and digital presence. The goal is to create value for customers while building sustainable income streams.
As a small commerce business, you likely rely on digital tools like websites, social media, and mobile payment methods to reach broader audiences and simplify operations. And you also likely face heavy competition from your peers and large brands. So it’s important to focus on deeply understanding your target market and meeting their needs, because this improves your conversion rate. With customer expectations changing faster than social media trends, effective marketing strategies and competitive pricing can give you an edge. Keep up with the latest tools and technology to stay ahead of the curve.
Common Challenges Small Commerce Businesses Face
According to the Salesforce State of Commerce report, about 65% of commerce professionals are asked to do more with less. This is primarily due to limited resources and tight budgets: Large enterprises with higher budgets and resources scale and enter new markets faster. Investing in modern technology allows them to establish brand recognition and attract new customers, making it tough for SMBs to stand out and capture market share.
Customer acquisition and retention require significant time and effort, especially when competing against established brands with larger marketing budgets. As an SMB owner, you might struggle to implement ecommerce platforms, payment systems, and digital marketing tools. And you might lack the resources for customer relationship management (CRM) or loyalty programs that can help you grow and sustain your business.
Inventory management can also present ongoing difficulties, as your business must balance having enough stock to meet demand without tying up too much capital in unsold products. Another major hurdle is consistent customer engagement and retention. As an SMB, you have to try twice as hard to build lasting loyalty in a crowded marketplace, where customers have endless choices. Even when orders pour in, you need solid tools to build a sustainable business with repeat customers.
Additionally, regulatory compliance, tax obligations, and changing business laws can be complex and time-consuming to navigate without dedicated legal or accounting support. Access to the right tools and information can lead to strategic growth initiatives that show results.
Commerce Tools Small Businesses Need
The Salesforce Small & Medium Business Trends report states that 76% of SMB owners are spending more on technology than they did last year. It’s because growing businesses are constantly evaluating how technology can make a difference, and help them thrive. Here are the key commerce tools you need.
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CRM: A CRM centralizes your customer data and helps you understand your customers better. It allows you to track all interactions and manage leads to build lasting customer relationships.
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Storefront builder: You can quickly design and launch your online store with a storefront builder’s out-of-the-box, customizable templates. Even those with minimal design and technical expertise can get started.
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Payments solutions: A seamless payment and checkout process offers a smooth and secure experience for your customers. This includes features like digital wallets and one-click checkout.
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Sales and commerce insights: These tools analyze your sales data and customer behavior to spot trends and opportunities. They also help you identify best-selling products and high-value customers, enabling smarter business decisions.
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Product customization: This tool helps you customize your product images and descriptions right in your storefront.
Meet Your Needs with Starter Suite
Salesforce Starter Suite is a scalable CRM built for small and growing businesses like yours. It provides tools for sales, marketing, commerce, and customer service—all while improving your team productivity. Starter Suite’s built-in guidance and out-of-the-box tools enable a seamless set up of your commerce business. And if you’re looking for more customization, Pro Suite is the perfect CRM for growth.
Starter Suite provides all the tools you need to launch, run, and grow your commerce business. Here’s a look at its commerce features and how they help you grow.
Storefront Builder
This builder allows you to create and customize your online store and landing pages with built-in guidance and prebuilt templates. It features drag-and-drop design tools to make it easy for you to design and launch your business—even without any design expertise.
Unified Commerce Dashboard
You get a 360-degree view of your customer interactions, and storefront data. Information like this is important in making data-driven decisions and enhancing your overall commerce strategy.
(Source: Salesforce Commerce for Small Business.)
Merchandising Tools
Starter Suite’s merchandising tools give you the freedom to edit and manage your storefront. It allows you to customize your product images and descriptions, to see what sticks with your customers.
Commerce Analytics
Which products are selling the best? Which product listings are catching your target audience’s attention? What can you learn from your underperforming campaigns or loyalty programs? Starter Suite provides you with analytics tools that let you monitor your commerce metrics to enhance your overall strategy.
Seamless Checkout
You can connect your commerce business with Salesforce trusted merchant services for seamless payments. Starter Suite’s managed checkout ensures that both your local and international customers can shop with ease. And it conducts regular security audits and offers data encryption to safeguard your customers’ payment information.
In the next unit, you learn how to launch your commerce business with Starter Suite.