Algolia vs Salesforce Commerce Cloud

• Algolia is brain-dead simple to set up. I've implemented search with Algolia in a dozen different ways now, and it never took me longer than a few minutes to get the functionality I want. With Algolia, the only challenge is designing your search UI -- if you don't want to use their baked in UI solutions.
• Results come back incredibly fast. I'm not sure how Algolia does it, but every keystroke I make in a search field returns new results instantly. It's hard to believe that I'm searching large datasets on a remote server when it works so fast.
• Very little customization is needed for 99% of use-cases. Algolia's out of the box setup works great, and it takes no prior knowledge to set up.

Read full review

• Being a global brand, having a solution that works globally was key. SFCC is particularly good for allowing easily implementations and deployments of global solutions
• SFCC is a scalable solution which supported our need to roll out global sites quickly
• The vendor marketplace is used to find vendors and solutions who have pre-existing implementations and code templates, meaning it’s more cost effective to deliver
• With speed being such a crucial factor these days, SFCC is excellent at optimising performance. Whether it be server capacity around crucial events or a CDN that can deliver pages and content in a balanced and optimal way
• The SFCC roadmap is impressive. They have been good at understanding client requirements and including solutions to the core platform - i.e Apple Pay or GDPR

Read full review

• Algolia can be a bit complex -- for smaller companies or companies without many tech resources, it may be difficult to implement and use without the help of a third party
• Manually manipulating search results (for specific queries having listings show up first) is a bit difficult to do without custom developing that functionality

Read full review

• The UX within the Business Manager portion of Demandware, the primary interface for marketers, is generally a confusing, inconsistent mess. Particularly infuriating are the lack of consistency for search and sort behavior within the tool.
• A number of useful features, such as the ability to set schedules or tie features to unique customer segments, have seemingly arbitrary limitations imposed.
• Demandware's idea of leveraging the community to be a learning resource and a sounding board for new ideas and features is a nice theory, but in practice it doesn't work for businesses with a lot of customization. I'm left with the impression that individual support is not a priority.

Read full review

• It's too early to measure any increase in our transactions
• We have good customer feedback on the Algolia search function
• We are looking at other apps in development where we can also leverage the power of Algolia

Read full review

• We wasted so much time trying to get this set up right I can't even fathom the monetary loss outside of our actual cash loss from the purchase.
• [I recommend you] vet your SF partners, ask for references or similar business customers to call on your own to learn about the company you may be working with.
• The negative impact was so great we shelved e-commerce and B2B for at least another year. It killed our drive to even want to do it.

Read full review