Over the last several years, Adobe has strategically invested in its eCommerce platform, consistently delivering brand-new and enhanced existing business tools to propel business growth.
Unlike a disruptive revolution, Adobe has opted for a step-by-step evolution, methodically combining proven enterprise products into a comprehensive suite of commerce solutions. The expansion of business services within Adobe Experience Cloud has been a steady process since 2017. Adobe Commerce, with its strong enterprise background, has become a central pillar in this gradual evolution, ultimately seeing Adobe Experience Cloud transform from a collection of individual products into a unified ecosystem.
The introduction of Adobe App Builder in 2021 and Edge Delivery Services (EDS) in 2024 was an important step, acting as a strong signal for the future evolution of Adobe Commerce. These provided essential building blocks for a composable and extensible architecture.
Now, with Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service, this transformation reaches its next level.
The Big Shift: Commerce as a Service
With the upcoming release, Adobe Commerce moves away from its open-source code access roots. While open-source once offered flexibility, it also came with high maintenance costs and complex upgrade cycles, placing a burden on businesses. With Adobe’s shift to an API-first model, platform support is now fully managed by Adobe.
Why is this important?
- Lower TCO: Businesses no longer need to allocate resources for platform support, allowing them to redirect efforts toward strategic initiatives.
- Instant Security Updates: Security updates are seamlessly deployed by Adobe as soon as they become available, ensuring businesses always operate on a secure and reliable platform.
- Versionless: Continuous updates provide businesses with immediate access to new features as soon as Adobe releases them, ensuring they always benefit from the latest innovations.
- Performance boost: Controlled API utilization enhances system efficiency and scalability.
But What About Customization?
Custom features in Adobe Commerce no longer share the same codebase with the platform. Instead, flexibility is now provided through an API-first approach, serverless extensions, and an app-driven ecosystem. Shopify has already demonstrated that an app-based approach ensures businesses have the flexibility to satisfy all their needs while significantly reducing development costs. Adobe took this to the next level by launching App Builder, a serverless development platform that enables custom features without infrastructure headaches.
Key benefits:
- Universal Layer: App can be utilized for a platform extension or as independent middleware, offering secure endpoints that allow any system, not just Adobe Commerce, to send events for processing.
- Reliable & Predictable API: Adobe Commerce API remains consistent over time, ensuring reliability and long-term compatibility while offering GraphQL flexibility.
- Serverless Solution: Eliminates infrastructure costs and self-hosting challenges, with Adobe App Builder enabling seamless, event-driven extensions for Adobe Commerce.
- Unified Engineering: By leveraging JavaScript at its core, this solution ensures easier access to skilled developers and enhances cross-platform agility, eliminating rigid technology lock-ins like PHP.
- Extensibility Toolkit: A robust set of development tools, including API gateway, UI SDKs, webhooks, event hub, and more. Low-code solutions and marketplace apps further accelerate deployment, enabling faster time-to-market.
Performance Meets Scalability
A fast storefront is no longer optional - it’s a competitive necessity. EDS (Edge Delivery Services) addresses this challenge, delivering unmatched performance and simplified development with a JavaScript framework-agnostic approach. However, in enterprise commerce speed alone isn’t enough and that’s where Adobe Experience Cloud plays a crucial role.
The Power of the Adobe Experience Cloud Ecosystem
A great website is a starting point, but in today's demanding eCommerce landscape, businesses need more. A robust ecosystem of tools is essential for effective growth. Industry leaders like Salesforce have long understood this, providing comprehensive solutions like CDP/CRM, Marketing Cloud, and Service Cloud to enable personalized, customer-centric sales strategies. Understanding the increasing need for such capabilities among businesses, Adobe began developing its own connected suite of business solutions within the Adobe Experience Cloud.
Here are some of the key products within Adobe Experience Cloud:
- Adobe Analytics for deep data insights and performance tracking
- Adobe Real-Time CDP for unified customer intelligence and segmentation
- Adobe Journey Optimizer for orchestrating personalized customer journeys
- Adobe Target for AI-driven A/B testing and experience personalization
- Adobe Campaign for cross-channel marketing automation
- Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) for enterprise content management and digital experiences
- Adobe Workfront for marketing workflow automation and project management
- Adobe Marketo Engage for B2B and B2C lead nurturing and automated marketing
- Adobe Advertising Cloud for AI-driven advertising automation across search, display, video, and connected TV
This is more than just a technological upgrade - it's a strategic move that positions Adobe as a global leader in enterprise commerce and unlocks incredible innovation potential. Businesses benefit from a modern, low-maintenance platform brimming with a powerful commerce ecosystem, while system integrators receive a cutting-edge foundation for building composable, MACH-inspired solutions that lead to highly scalable and agile storefronts.
Exciting times ahead 🚀
source LinkedIn
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