Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA), the brand-new offering from Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) offers retailers a platform that is necessary to launch their Webstore. SFRA is synonymous with an out-of-the-box and best-in-class experience, with extensibility and customization as its unique features.

The SFCC architecture is in harmony with MVC concepts. It empowers the developer to write more organized, simple, independent, and maintainable codes, which remove all the pre-existing duplicate logic. SFRA makes the launching of an eCommerce site simple with pre-configured default templates. Hence, customers can either use the default ones to set foot into the market or they can customize it as per their requirement.

Download Whitepaper: SFRA-Designed for the future of e-commerce

SFRA seamlessly represents a store front with no impact on Data Migration for the existing SFCC customers. Only customers who are using a different platform for their webstore should migrate their legacy data to the Salesforce eCommerce platform.

Besides, when brands want innovation in their payment modules, they can integrate it into SFRA for smoother experiences.

Similarly, staying on par with competitors is integral to SFRA migration so that you can integrate all the latest features and not lag.

Best Practices of SFRA Adoption:

  • Upgrade to a new Job Framework
  • Careful review and adjusting of the development process before the migration begins
  • Keeping all the tools and governance ready
  • Include all code changes during the Unit testing
  • Clear notion about the areas that need to be covered under Functional testing

Recommendation: Use SFRA as an extensible baseline application for digital transformation in the retail industry

salesforce commerce cloud

Why SFRA?

Ref: Salesforce.com

SFRA is useful when:

  • Your business requires a new site or you plan to introduce a new brand or launch geo-based sites
  • You plan to redesign your existing site

Benefits of SFRA:

  • Improves the time-to-market since developers can leverage its prebuilt storefront designs and templates and use its latest innovations with ease
  • Quickly incorporate new features to enhance the digital shopping journey of customers
  • Marketers can reach out to customers on the go. It’s because SFRA is compatible with the latest mobile frameworks and storefronts and these latest mobile frameworks do not require manual updates
  • The flexibility of SFRA allows developers to code outside the core code base and independently plug them into the storefront in contrast to Sitegenesis, which requires merchants to modify the core reference application code
  • SFRA offers an accordion style, out-of-the-box one-page checkout for shoppers to reduce the number of clicks and create an improved shopping experience, and increases the rate of conversions

Closing Thoughts

Switching to SFRA is a business-specific decision. It definitely ensures seamless shopping and checkout experiences across devices, allowing brands to pass on these benefits to customers quickly and cost-effectively. The most prominent difference between Sitegenesis and SFRA is better checkout flow, sticky CTAs that push customer transactions, vast search functionality, and a wider display of product varieties. Besides, along with improved user experience and redesigned front-end, the SFRA framework has greater extensibility and adaptability for future upgrades.

Therefore, brands who are keen to use the latest technology and features should try SFRA. But, do not be in haste, because once again the old saying, ‘Slow and Steady wins the race’, seems the most logical step.

Reference:

Salesforce.com

Recommended Reading:

Salesforce Commerce Cloud: Why is SFRA crucial for your business?

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