• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Ed Sheeran asked Patriots owner Robert Kraft for $2 million aid donation after Macklemore was dropped from his tour for pro-Palestine comments

2

Anthropic billionaire cofounder Jack Clark studied literature, not code—and says liberal arts degrees will win in the AI age

3

Elon Musk’s DOGE swiped $329 million in humanitarian funding from Nepal, leaving a Gen Z tech revolution to transform the budding country’s economy

1

Ed Sheeran asked Patriots owner Robert Kraft for $2 million aid donation after Macklemore was dropped from his tour for pro-Palestine comments

2

Anthropic billionaire cofounder Jack Clark studied literature, not code—and says liberal arts degrees will win in the AI age

3

Elon Musk’s DOGE swiped $329 million in humanitarian funding from Nepal, leaving a Gen Z tech revolution to transform the budding country’s economy
TechData Sheet

Salesforce blurs line between community and commerce

By
Heather Clancy
Heather Clancy
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Heather Clancy
Heather Clancy
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 13, 2015, 8:00 AM ET
Google source logo
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Salesforce (CRM) is the latest high-profile software company to embrace the “buy” button.

Its idea: embed e-commerce features right into customer support sites, feedback forums or other online resources that someone might use to research a product or a project already. Why send someone somewhere else, the argument suggests, if he or she can be convinced to complete a transaction right away?

Need a certain part to fix a faulty appliance? Now, you can buy it immediately after you figure out which one is right to solve the problem. Want to commission an outside expert to help complete a renovation project? You may be able to “order” someone’s services on the spot, after reviewing his or her commentary on a home improvement retailer’s “do it yourself” site.

Social media giants Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (FB) and Pinterest have all added in-context e-commerce capabilities over the past year. Twitter’s experiment was recently expanded to more than 100,000 merchants that run on the Shopify platform. What Salesforce is doing extends the concept beyond retailers, enabling other sorts of companies to enable transactions in the moment.

 

“This makes things more frictionless,” said Mike Stone, senior vice president of marketing for the Salesforce Community Cloud. “Most businesses have separate community and commerce sites. Normally, combining the two would require a significant engineering effort.”

Salesforce Community Cloud is used by organizations to manage outreach and communications with partners, customers and employees. The new capability is part of the forthcoming winter 2016 update. It is made possible through “Lightning Components” that allow new features to be added to their existing communities quickly, without requiring a software developer.

Initially, the release will enable e-commerce services from three Salesforce partners: Bigcommerce, CloudCraze, and Demandware. That means a company needs to use—and pay for—one of these three services to take advantage of it.

The three companies were chosen based on marketshare with existing Salesforce Community Cloud customers, Stone said. Salesforce doesn’t disclose customer counts for any of its individual “Cloud” offerings, but he put the number in the “thousands worldwide.”

Three Salesforce Community Cloud customers already experimenting with embedded e-commerce are PonoMusic, the site founded by musician Neil Young; software company Avid Technology, which is creating marketplaces to support sales between musicians and media professionals; and Deloitte, which has created a “Digital Hub” used by a global consumer goods company to manage orders from hundreds of local retailers.

[fortune-brightcove videoid=4194418802001]

 

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily morning newsletter about the business of technology.

About the Author
By Heather Clancy
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech


Most Popular

Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

    Latest in Tech


    Most Popular

    © 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
    FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.