Contextual commerce is the new mantra for brands. It encompasses a unified experience across channels. Salesforce commerce cloud is relentlessly trying to offer retail merchants an edge so that they effortlessly engage with their customers. Minimum implementation time along with hassle-free commerce are unique features that the SFCC platform has been offering brands across the globe.

In line with their continuous effort, they have come up with yet another regular release in January 2022. In this blog, we shall have a quick look at some of its new features.

The B2C Commerce 22.1 release occurred from December 2, 2021, through January 25, 2022.

The features of the new Release include:

  1. Enforce Login_On_Behalf Permission

The Login_On_Behalf permission is now necessary for agents to access a storefront on behalf of another user. Earlier agents could access it without permission.

Why?

The permission allows an application, such as the call center, to access the storefront site and restrict access to some other specific sites. For instance, a call center agent with the Login_On_Behalf_Permission can log in to a particular site on behalf of a customer.

How to set it up?

To set the Login_on_Behalf functional permission, select Business Manager | Administration | Organization | Roles & Permissions

  1. Review Salesforce Commerce API Metrics in Reports & Dashboards

You can now access the Salesforce Commerce API (SCAPI) report in the technical dashboard of the Reports & Dashboards app. It gives insight into your site’s Commerce API requests. A daily update of the report metrics is also an integral feature.

For whom is it designed?

The report is designed for Headless B2C Commerce and PWA customers that use Commerce APIs.

What is its importance?

The report can be used to review metrics that show detail API usage on a particular site, including metrics like:

  • The total number of SCAPI requests per day
  • The average response time per request
  • The number of requests by response time in 500-millisecond segments
  • The performance metrics of each individual SCAPI call

The report also plots the frequency trend as a percent of total requests that resulted in a non-200-level response code during the dashboard time period.

How to access it?

You can access the report in the Reports & and Dashboards app. Click the Technical Tab and select the SCAPI report.

  1. Use Custom Caches to Return Immutable Objects

Custom caches help to return immutable copies of the original objects stored in the cache. Previously, there were edge cases in which both objects and arrays in custom caches could be modified. The particular issue has been solved now.

When to use it?

This change has become effective with the B2C Commerce 22.1 release and applies to all sandbox, development, and staging instances. However, production instances will become active in a later release.

How to use it?

If you don’t use custom caches or use custom caches in the intended and documented way, you don’t need to take action. During some rare instances, when you use custom caches with code that performs an operation to modify the state of an object returned by custom cash, a code change is required to avoid a failure exception when calling the affected operation.

  1. Review On-Demand Sandbox Usage in Control Center

It’s now possible to view the usage statistics for the previous and the current month of your On-Demand Sandbox (ODS) instance in the Control Center.

How to use it?

The metrics display both ‘Minutes up’ and ‘Minutes down’ parameters. You can access such parameters to monitor your ODS usage with ease. Also, now it’s possible to download the data in CSV format.

B2C Commerce Release Notes

To remain relevant to the B2C Commerce Product Updates, it’s important that developers keep reviewing the SFCC Release Notes.

Get Holiday Ready with B2C Technical Solutions

The B2C Technical Solutions enables the efficient building of scalable solutions that can perform through any sales season. Flawless performance and high-end security are crucial elements during the holiday season. Each B2C Commerce Technical Solutions topic provides an in-depth look at the subject with expert implementation advice, so developers and architects of all skill levels can build high-performing B2C Commerce solutions.

Use the Einstein B2C Experiences Learning Map

The Learning Map provides strategic links to key Einstein-related information that comprises Commerce, Service, and Marketing Clouds. You can have things like documents, videos, webinars, and much more to help your shoppers find what they want using Einstein’s artificial intelligence.

Future Requirement to Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

On February 2, 2021, SFCC had announced a future requirement for all customers to enable MFA for their Salesforce products. To satisfy the MFA requirement, all internal users who log in to Salesforce B2C Commerce through the user interface must use MFA. It’s possible to turn on MFA directly in B2C Commerce or use your SSO provider’s MFA service. Salesforce MFA is available at no extra cost.

Inclusive Terms Are Replacing Legacy Language

As part of efforts to refine language in our products to more accurately reflect inclusivity, Salesforce is replacing terms deemed non-inclusive. APIs and older API documentation aren’t included because changing terms in the code can break current implementations.

Change of Identity Management for Commerce Cloud GitHub Repositories

Salesforce commerce cloud is simplifying the way users access the Commerce Cloud GitHub repository. The access has now become direct via Commerce Cloud Account Manager. Previously, the access required users to register a GitHub account. This change only affects resources that require Commerce Cloud accounts. Any resources that are publicly available are still accessible using any GitHub account.

Get Ready for Future Multi-Factor Authentication Enforcement

As of February 1, 2022, customers are contractually required to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to access B2C Commerce, either when logging directly or through a single sign-on (SSO). In May 2022, to help customers comply with the MFA requirement, Salesforce will automatically enable and enforce MFA for all direct logins to B2C Commerce accounts. For valuable data protection, SFCC encourages customers to implement MFA as soon as possible.

Closing Thoughts

New and major feature enhancements are a repeat feature of SFCC. It keeps on happening almost on a month-on-month basis. To never miss an update again, stay tuned to the right place. Only when you know all the features, you can decide the ones which are most relevant for your business.

References:

  • https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.rn_b2c_rn_22_1_release.htm&type=5
  • https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.b2c_rn_release_notes.htm&type=5

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