Item: Optimizely Configured Commerce
Rating: 3
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The product is meant to replace our current eCommerce system (StoreFront). Its main purpose is to allow our customers to purchase our products online. The product also allows our in-house staff to manage product descriptions, images, search terms, and user access. It was supposed to also allow our Marketing team to manage web content, but we have foregone that feature.

Pros and Cons

Integration with our ERP system
Management of products
Integration with payment gateways

CMS content management is rudimentary - at best
CMS needs to integrate with other UI frameworks besides just react
Integration with Insite is a hindrance compared to what Episerver has been able to do

Return on Investment

Positive - We will be much better able to manage product data, search tuning, and SEO in-house.
Negative - we have spent over a year trying to get the new system implemented until we gave up on the CMS part.

Support Rating

It's a mixed bag. The team has been very nice, but there has been an underlying feeling of condescension because we have complained or "caused trouble" over the inadequacy of the CMS component. Also, support for modifications or UI changes has been terribly slow. Understandably, COVID has made life hard for everyone, but there is an expectation that we complete our work immediately, but their team will "put it in queue" when we have a request or find a bug. Further, we certainly feel that we were sold a list of capabilities that we have not seen come to fruition. Finally, the change of ownership 3 times (Insite -> Epi -> Opti) over our implementation period has been both confusing and disruptive.

Usability

The CMS is terrible.

Alternatives Considered

Episerver is a great product. I have implemented dozens of CMS systems and developed thousands of websites over my career. It is the overlay of Insite's eCommerce that has hobbled Episerver's functionality. Maybe that is helpful for the most rudimentary of users, but it is a severe hindrance for advanced users or developers.

Key Insights

Do you think Optimizely Configured Commerce delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Optimizely Configured Commerce's feature set?

Did Optimizely Configured Commerce live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Optimizely Configured Commerce go as expected?

Would you buy Optimizely Configured Commerce again?

Other Software Used

Progress Sitefinity, Sitecore Experience Commerce, Adobe Marketo Engage, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Joomla!

Likelihood to Recommend

It is difficult to say specifically as we came to Epi via the purchase of Insite. Episerver has historically been really flexible and developer-friendly. However, the specific implementation that we have received utilizing Insite has all but crippled our internal team. As such, we will not be using Opti for our main, public web functionality.

Opti B2B Commerce Cloud - At First Blush

Overall Satisfaction with Optimizely B2B Commerce Cloud (formerly Episerver B2B Commerce Cloud)