Recently at the Philadelphia Sitecore User Group, Martin Sandvad from uCommerce stopped by to give the user group a quick overview of uCommerce for Sitecore. Martin explained that uCommerce is currently opening up a Boston office (what is it about Sitecore and Boston), and wanted to introduce the group to another eCommerce solution that integrated with Sitecore. The idea makes sense – why not pitch your solution directly to the Sitecore developers who may have future requirements for eCommerce in upcoming client websites. Martin also caught the attention of the room with the promise of Free Certification. Who doesn’t like free? Overall, it is all part of the “Land and Expand” plan for uCommerce to conquer the US!
uCommerce has 7 foundations within its product:
Martin described the solution as 80-20. 80% is ready out of the box and approximately 20% will need to be develop for your customizations such as UConnector, etc. This sounds about where I’d expect it when paying for a eCommerce solution as there will always be some development, but you like when the framework is fairly developed out of the box so you can quickly get started.
uCommerce is being pitched to small to medium size B2B and B2C companies with the caveat that it does scale up to meet larger enterprise level needs too. The pricing model works for those size companies as it is only $8000/per Sitecore CD+CM/year. Not too much for a Sitecore customer looking to make the plunge into eCommerce.
Additional Positives:
The way I see it this is another viable eCommerce solution for Sitecore to keep in your back pocket for the next time eCommerce is brought up by a client. Is it the best on the market? Very hard to tell as I haven’t implemented it but it looked to have most features that eCommerce websites would need to get started. Ideally I’d wanted to vet the solution to see how extendable it really is as we all know clients always ask for the 1 thing that the solution doesn’t do – its Murphy’s Law.
Additional resources:
Demo site: demo.ucommerce.net
Live sites using it:
HeinzOverstock.com
Corkybbq.com
IAmsterdam.com
uCommerce has 7 foundations within its product:
- Catalogue Foundation
- Standard Store
- Multiple Stores
- Multiple Markets
- Multiple Pricing Points
- Bookings
- Content and Commerce
- Transaction Foundation
- Checkout Flow
- Shipping Options
- Payment Providers
- Order Management Foundation
- Orders Overview
- Integration Foundation
- UConnector
- Marketing Foundation
- AAA: Advertise, Act, Award
- Sales
- Vouchers
- Free gift options
- Search Foundation
- Faceted Search
- Security Foundation
- Role Management
Martin described the solution as 80-20. 80% is ready out of the box and approximately 20% will need to be develop for your customizations such as UConnector, etc. This sounds about where I’d expect it when paying for a eCommerce solution as there will always be some development, but you like when the framework is fairly developed out of the box so you can quickly get started.
uCommerce is being pitched to small to medium size B2B and B2C companies with the caveat that it does scale up to meet larger enterprise level needs too. The pricing model works for those size companies as it is only $8000/per Sitecore CD+CM/year. Not too much for a Sitecore customer looking to make the plunge into eCommerce.
Additional Positives:
- uCommerce offers a buddy system where a developer gets assigned to your project to help get started.
- uCommerce hooks into Sitecore’s engagement plans
- uCommerce integrates with Komfo to push to social channels
- uCommerce uses Raven db so add a 3rd db vendor into the mix
- No MVC support – although this seems to be a common issue with eCommerce solutions
The way I see it this is another viable eCommerce solution for Sitecore to keep in your back pocket for the next time eCommerce is brought up by a client. Is it the best on the market? Very hard to tell as I haven’t implemented it but it looked to have most features that eCommerce websites would need to get started. Ideally I’d wanted to vet the solution to see how extendable it really is as we all know clients always ask for the 1 thing that the solution doesn’t do – its Murphy’s Law.
Additional resources:
Demo site: demo.ucommerce.net
Live sites using it:
HeinzOverstock.com
Corkybbq.com
IAmsterdam.com
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