Valtech Launches First Connector to Seamlessly Integrate Salesforce Commerce Cloud with Optimizely

Global business transformation agency Valtech today announced it has developed the first connector to act as a bridge between Salesforce Commerce Cloud and leading experimentation and digital experience platform Optimizely. 

The new connector allows businesses within B2C retail commerce to easily synchronize their products, catalogs, content, and other relevant information between the two platforms. By integrating the connector, businesses eliminate the need for manual data transfers and ensure real-time data consistency, leading to faster time-to-market and the ability to deliver personalized e-commerce experiences to customers. 

"We’re seeing businesses in B2C retail commerce face various challenges," said Janaka Fernando, Director of Optimizely Practice at Valtech. “They’re reaching a marketing and merchandising dead-end, hitting a wall when it comes to personalization and experimentation, and dealing with lengthy upgrades or migrations of existing Commerce Cloud implementations. The market is changing at an accelerated speed as consumer expectations rise. We launched this connector with Optimizely to help businesses maintain pace with these changes and truly elevate their customer experiences. Our partnership shows that when industry technology players work together, they enable an exciting future for experience innovation."

Increased demand for personalization 

According to Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer report, 52% of customers expect offers to always be personalized – up from 49% in 2019. As a result, most retailers (56%) are prioritizing technology that enables customized experiences. 

With the help of the connector, businesses can leverage advanced CMS, experimentation, targeting, and personalization capabilities to optimize their websites or apps, drive better customer experiences, and improve business outcomes. 

"Valtech's Optimizely to Salesforce Commerce Connector seamlessly unifies two powerful platforms, offering our joint customers an unparalleled blend of capabilities,” said Aniel Sud, Chief Technology Officer at Optimizely. “Valtech has created an exceptional opportunity for Salesforce Commerce clients, addressing challenges related to customer data activation, personalization, experimentation, and marketing agility, while harnessing the added value of Optimizely. We’re excited to see how this new offering will streamline processes, elevate customer experiences, and drive revenue growth for our clients."  

Powering commerce with CMS

Interestingly, the connector was born from Valtech’s work with a global fashion footwear brand. 

At its core, the technology enables merchandising opportunities via the CMS by syncing the Salesforce product catalog with Optimizely. It also gives editors rich and highly flexible digital experience management by effortlessly serving Optimizely CMS content through Salesforce Commerce Cloud. All of these benefits provide businesses with the ability to personalize their engagements using real-time customer segments and achieve faster time-to-market.

In terms of performance, the connector accelerates a typical project from start to dev completion within 60 days. Once deployed, it synchronizes a typical 4,500-product catalog in 5 minutes and keeps it up to date so marketers can focus on merchandising. Content from Optimizely to Salesforce Commerce Cloud can be loaded in milliseconds, providing a fast response to optimize performance. Real-time personalization can also be delivered using ODP segments to the client – without any performance costs. 

The development of the connector was a joint venture between Optimizely and Valtech, and has been validated by their internal SMEs. It complements other accelerators that Valtech is developing for Salesforce. While Valtech will be performing customer implementations, they are currently verifying it through Optimizely’s Marketplace.

The accelerator is currently accepting early access participants and will be available for GA by the end of this year. 

Announced at Opticon 2023

The new connector was announced today at Opticon San Diego 2023, where Valtech is conducting live demos. 

According to Fernando, the company is bullish about the connector's potential to help both existing customers and new prospects – not just in B2C, but B2B as well.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for Valtech to grow its footprint in the market. It will of course be beneficial for existing customers, but will also be an excellent way to help us improve the customer experience and increase conversion and operational efficiency for new Salesforce customers.”

There's also a plan to make the connector available to other CMS platforms in the future. Valtech's marketing science practice is already implementing Optimizely experimentation with other platforms. “We’re driven to continue to innovate in this space and use our learnings across all platforms,” Fernando said, “and we expect to do so with this accelerator as well.”

In addition to demoing the connector at Opticon San Diego, Valtech will also be presenting at Opticon London and Opticon Stockholm. More details can be found here.