TrustRadius

Optimizely Commerce Connect vs. VARStreet

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Optimizely Commerce Connect
Score 6.5 out of 10
N/A
Optimizely Commerce Connect is a PaaS e-commerce backend solution coupled with Optimizely's PaaS CMS to help e-commerce organizations, of any type, create highly customized websites and buying experiences with a two-in-one content and commerce solution.N/A
VARStreet
Score 0.0 out of 10
N/A
VARStreet is a web-based business management software for VARs in the IT and office supplies industry. It automates and streamlines core business processes with various software modules like eCommerce, quoting, catalog, CRM, and procurement.N/A
Pricing
Optimizely Commerce ConnectVARStreet
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Optimizely Commerce ConnectVARStreet
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Optimizely Commerce ConnectVARStreet
Considered Both Products
Optimizely Commerce Connect
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
In my opinion, Sitecore is a developers and users' nightmare. Terrible UX. Way behind on the curve. Don't recommend.
JB
Jack Bland
Digital Data Manager
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Alderich Web Solutions worked great for us however when it came to diagnosing and fixing issues with the website we had to rely on the support with little ability for us to "get under the hood" and look at the issue for ourselves. After switching to Optimizely, having this …
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
We considered Optimizely Commerce Connect because it is a flexible dot net stack that is highly rated by analysts.
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Stibo STEP MDM was a powerhouse. It seems we could do anything we could dream up, but we also had an in-house IT dev team to support it. The cost was the reason we went with Optimizely Commerce Connect. We did not explore HubSpot for this project.
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Optimizely Commerce Connect offers a very wide range of features for admin users. There is less a need for an IT specialist or programmer to be involved when changes need to be made.
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Optimizely is more flexible and more customizable, but also more efficient from a development standpoint. Salesforce Commerce Cloud has more capabilities but is more prone to become complex, and also generally more expensive. Magento is a comparable alternative but with less …
Jared Wooden | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jared Wooden
Technical Director
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Just depends on the use case. Some clients are more heavily weighted towards a marketing CMS and don't need a ton of complex technical functions of their eCommerce platform. For these we recommend Episerver.
Tim Hardy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Tim Hardy
Software Architect
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Episerver did not have a headless CMS offering when we implemented. They may offer one now, but they are very late to the game in offering an API-based CMS experience. If you use an Angular or React front end, and you want to communicate with this incredibly expensive product …
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Episerver's plug and play architecture is the winning factor comparing to AspDotNetStorefront. We did not choose Magento because it was not built on .Net.
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Coming from a Software Engineering background, Episerver was the preferred system as it was an attractive platform from a developer's point of view. Today, I consult solely on Episerver solutions and still prefer the platform for multiple reasons (some already covered earlier …
Nadia Lotter | TrustRadius Reviewer
Nadia Lotter
Brand Director
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Episerver was by far the most user friendly content platform allowing our business to easily manage the content with ease resulting in an overall productivity increase and time for the team to spend less time doing content management and more time managing the personalization …
Chris Osterhout | TrustRadius Reviewer
Chris Osterhout
Vice President of Business Strategy
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
During the evaluation, Episerver was by far the most flexible as far as features and implementation go. Some of the more SaaS-based products don't allow for the level of customization needed for our clients, clientele. While the other platform boasted similar features, they …
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
Overall, Episerver seemed easier to use from a user perspective and easier setup. There was also preexisting resources with Episerver experience. Factoring in costs it became an easy solution.
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose Optimizely Commerce Connect
I did evaluate other products in addition to Episerver. The other finalist was Magento, which has a very robust cart and a large market share. I have used that platform in the past and overall had been happy with it's performance. I ultimately selected Episerver because it was …
VARStreet

No answer on this topic

Features
Optimizely Commerce ConnectVARStreet
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.8
Ratings
12% above category average
VARStreet
-
Ratings
Product catalog & listings9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Product management9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk product upload6.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Branding9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile storefront9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Product variations9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Website integration9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual customization9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
CMS9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.2
Ratings
7% above category average
VARStreet
-
Ratings
Abandoned cart recovery8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Checkout user experience8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.2
Ratings
2% below category average
VARStreet
-
Ratings
eCommerce security8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.8
Ratings
13% above category average
VARStreet
-
Ratings
Promotions & discounts8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Personalized recommendations9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
Optimizely Commerce Connect
8.0
Ratings
1% below category average
VARStreet
-
Ratings
Multi-site management9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Order processing7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory management7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Shipping7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom functionality9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Optimizely Commerce ConnectVARStreet
Small Businesses
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 8.9 out of 10
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Optimizely Commerce ConnectVARStreet
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
4.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Optimizely Commerce ConnectVARStreet
Likelihood to Recommend
Very strong fit for mid-sized organizations that need more flexibility and customization as compared to canned or template-based offerings, but also want the efficiency and externalization that comes with a pre-existing, cloud-hosted platform (as compared to a full custom offering). Works well with a PIM and more mature catalog data in order to fully leverage the dynamic data capabilities.
Verified User
Anonymous
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Pros
  • Web content management -- the interface is drag and drop and makes it very easy for business users to create product pages.
  • In site search with Episerver Find -- it is easy to promote attributes and make quick tweaks to fine-tune results.
  • Integrate with other systems -- we have integrated with our ERP, our product information management system, our digital asset management system and our marketing automation system to take advantage of investments we have already made in content and customer data.
Verified User
Anonymous
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Cons
  • Support. Episerver used to have direct support and access to the tech team to discuss and resolve issues. The new support portal is not enough for developer needs.
  • Quality Assurance. We find issues in the Episerver code that should have been resolved in QA before release.
  • Sales. Episervers sells the framework as a solution while showing Alloy. While it helps Episerver sell more, it puts the implementation partner into trouble as the client thinks they bought the solution. Episerver does not provide a solution. It provides a framework that you can build a solution on.
Verified User
Anonymous
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Likelihood to Renew
Really want to be able to spend more time and resources on rolling out new things with Episerver but at the moment we seem to be fixing alot of issues and pain points with the way our system was setup.
Nadia Lotter | TrustRadius Reviewer
Nadia Lotter
Brand Director
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
The job functionality is one of the strongest benefits Optimizely offers. It allows a savvy user to quickly go in to a given job, see the job history to find errors and then even take the steps of a job, copy the code and paste it back into your source to diagnose a potential issue.
JB
Jack Bland
Digital Data Manager
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
We had an incredible team at Episerver Supporting us with the go live, reviewing our integration, and pushing our integration partner to deliver a quality product
Nadia Lotter | TrustRadius Reviewer
Nadia Lotter
Brand Director
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Fully understand what is OOTB feature of the platform before proceeding to develop. Then implement a customization of key features once you can prove they are working as OOTB to make them more user friendly and productive for the business. Eg pre order and e gift card
Nadia Lotter | TrustRadius Reviewer
Nadia Lotter
Brand Director
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Stibo STEP MDM was a powerhouse. It seems we could do anything we could dream up, but we also had an in-house IT dev team to support it. The cost was the reason we went with Optimizely Commerce Connect. We did not explore HubSpot for this project.
Verified User
Anonymous
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Positive: We have a usable website - better than what we had before and we are seeing a constant increase in adoption.
  • Positive: Counter associates are using the website to help customers.
  • Negative: Too much time being spent QCing previous work.
Verified User
Anonymous
Read full review
No answers on this topic
ScreenShots

Optimizely Commerce Connect Screenshots

Screenshot of the customizable checkout workflow, used to tailor the customer checkout experience.Screenshot of where catalogs, custom attributes, UOM, catalog restrictions, and multiple sites are managed at once.Screenshot of an example of a personalized promotion based on user web activity, used to drive conversion and increase average order value.Screenshot of customized recommendations reportingScreenshot of Optimizely Commerce Connect's personalizationScreenshot of Optimizely Opal, available within Commerce Connect to automate promotion creation by mapping products and variants from your existing product data. Turn tedious campaign work into high velocity scalable promotions.

VARStreet Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Cart