Introduction

Coresight Research attended Salesforce Connections 2022, hosted by CRM (customer relationship management) technology provider Salesforce on June 8–9, 2022 in Chicago, US. The event took plan in-person for the first time since 2019. It the featured more than 100 keynote addresses and topical sessions, with participation from over 200 product experts.

Salesforce Connections 2022: Coresight Research Insights

Core Values Are Critical to Operating in the New World Salesforce launched its keynote address at Connections 2022 by reiterating its core values of trust, customer success, innovation and equality—plus sustainability, a fifth core value added this year. According to the company, it has “net zero carbon emissions today across [its] full value chain” and has achieved 100% renewable energy for its operations. Moreover, as Marc Benioff, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce, has mentioned on several occasions, the company believes that business is the greatest platform for change, in the environment, in education, in LGBTQ+ equality, in racial equality and in gender equality. Salesforce is a founding partner of “Pledge 1%,” a global movement that requests companies pledge 1% of their equity, time, product or profit (or a combination of these) to support nonprofits and communities. More than 15,000 companies have joined Pledge 1%. Salesforce operates a “1-1-1” model, contributing 1% of its equity, 1% of its product and 1% of its employees’ time back to communities. Furthermore, the Salesforce economy—which the company claims is founded upon trust—generates a large number of jobs, has a large impact on GDP and includes its Trailblazers community groups and its Trailhead training platform. Salesforce explained that its values are especially important today, as retailers and technology providers alike operate in a new world involving elevated customer expectations, data privacy concerns, tighter budgets and a “cookieless future,” with the coming elimination of third-party cookies on Apple’s and Google’s platforms. Salesforce Aims To Bring Back the “Wow” During Connections 2022, Salesforce discussed the need for “wow moments” through its platforms:

• Sales Cloud (which it characterized as the number-one platform)
• Commerce Cloud
• Service Cloud
• Marketing Cloud
• Tableau
• MuleSoft
• Customer Data Platform (CDP)
• Slack Digital HQ (80% of workflows are built by non-developers)
• Net Zero Cloud (which aims to help companies achieve carbon neutrality)

Salesforce explained that it aims to wow every customer and every account through its offerings. The “wow” factor encompasses big moments and small ones (for example, ordering groceries online can save two hours a week), which can be accomplished by using connected data, automation (including email, SMS and Salesforce’s OMS (order management system) and its commerce platform) and hyper-personalization. However, Salesforce identifies four obstacles to creating wow moments: the cookieless future, tighter budgets, data privacy concerns and the need for real-time consumer engagement. The company views data as the foundation for creating wow moments, which put the customer at the center—and its MuleSoft platform can integrate third-party data. In addition, Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud aims to offer intelligence, engagement and personalization, fueled by its Einstein platform, the company emphasized. In addition to the new Marketing Cloud features that Salesforce announced at Connections 2022 (see next section), the company highlighted three future features that it expects to support its efforts in creating wow moments:

• The integration of CDP with Google apps and the App Exchange
• Real-time personalization flowing through engagement
• A new degree of intelligence

[caption id="attachment_149879" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Coresight Research[/caption]   Salesforce Announces Several New Cloud Features In connection with the conference, Salesforce announce several new features for two of its cloud software products: Commerce Cloud, an e-commerce platform that connects commerce to service, marketing and sales channels and Marketing Cloud, digital marketing automation and analytics software. New features announced for Commerce Cloud include the following:

• Integration with social media platforms, including TikTok. According to Salesforce, one in 10 purchases are now made through social media. TikTok is an especially relevant platform due to its appeal to Gen Zers, and its more than 1 billion users spend more time on the platform per month than they do on YouTube, according to a report released by App Annie in September 2021. Salesforce plans to make social integration for Commerce Cloud available in September 2022.
• Commerce Marketplace is a new product for creating, managing and scaling a marketplace solution, including collecting commission and membership subscription fees from vendors. Salesforce plans to make Commerce Marketplace available in September 2022.
• Seamless Commerce combines commerce, order management and payment into one solution. Salesforce plans to make Seamless Commerce available in June 2022.
• NFT Cloud enables companies to mint, manage and sell NFTs (non-fungible tokens) directly on the Salesforce platform and securely connect customer data, with the platform currently in a closed pilot. The platform does not support proof-of-work NFTs in order to reduce energy consumption and enhance sustainability.
• Commerce for Customer Service offers a complete view of order history across channels, with the ability to issue returns, exchanges, promotions or complete orders. This solution is available now.

New features for Marketing Cloud include the following:

• Triggered campaign messages use first-party data to understand customers’ desired products and engage them directly when they are back in stock or on sale. This feature is available now.
• Google Ads plus Customer Data Platform enables companies to connect their customer data to Google Ads customer data so they can plan, activate and optimize marketing campaigns. Salesforce plans to make this feature available within the next several months.
• Intelligence E-commerce Insights for Marketing Cloud combines order and product data to measure product and revenue performance. This enables retail companies to identify where they should focus their spending to enhance ROI (return on investment) across channels, campaigns and products. This feature will be available this fall.

Salesforce also announced the addition of new AppExchange partners for the Marketing and Commerce Clouds, including Acxiom, Criteo, WPP and Yahoo!. Notable Salesforce Customers The following Salesforce customers discussed their use of the technology company’s products:

• Footwear brand Crocs uses Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Tableau. The company reported that it recently saw a 25% year-over-year increase in digital sales. Crocs offers product personalization and is planning to launch new B2B (business-to-business) customization products for schools and sports teams.
• Health insurance provider Humana uses Service Cloud to personalize experiences. It also uses Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud for its online pharmacy.
• Shoe Carnival offers in-store games. The company uses Marketing Cloud and added Service Cloud just before the onset of the pandemic.