Adobe Commerce for business: one product name, several different ways to run a store

Adobe Commerce for business: one product name, several different ways to run a store

Softwhale delivers Adobe Commerce for companies that need to know which deployment model they are actually buying — and then need the catalog, the checkout and the data behind them to hold up under real traffic.

Enhance digital commerce with Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce is not one product with one delivery story, and a buying team has to hear that first. Commerce on Cloud is platform-as-a-service: automated hosting on AWS, a git-based workflow with automatic build and deploy, environment configuration your team drives. Commerce as a Cloud Service is software-as-a-service: the infrastructure adjusts resources automatically to meet peak demands for traffic, orders and catalog management, and Adobe applies maintenance and security updates itself. Commerce Optimizer keeps the back office you already run and changes only the storefront.

Three delivery contracts under one product name, and the difference decides who is responsible for what for years. Softwhale makes that choice explicit before anything is designed.

Our Adobe Commerce Expertise

Our Adobe Commerce Expertise

Model & Catalog
  • Deployment model fit. Which of the three models matches your customization appetite.
  • Catalog and data readiness. Where product, price and inventory data comes from, and which system is the source of record.
  • Services and entitlement map. Which merchandising services your license includes, and which — B2B among them — must be installed.
Storefront Build

We build the storefront and everything that feeds it: on Commerce as a Cloud Service a headless storefront powered by Edge Delivery Services, on Commerce on Cloud the application and its git-based deploy workflow. Extensibility goes through the routes Adobe supports: GraphQL and REST APIs, App Builder, API Mesh and webhooks. Data Connection then sends storefront events to Experience Platform, which makes Commerce behavior usable in Real-Time CDP audiences.

Search & Merchandising

A store degrades in ways reporting does not always show: search relevance drifts as the catalog grows, a recommendation unit takes expensive page space without moving anything, a price feed silently half-fails. We watch the storefront and the feeds behind it — merchandising rules reviewed against real query data, catalog and inventory synchronization checked end to end, promotions verified before campaigns.

Three deployment models, and Magento Open Source is not one of them

Commerce on Cloud is platform-as-a-service: you own the application and its upgrade path, Adobe the managed environment. Commerce as a Cloud Service is software-as-a-service: extensibility moves into APIs, App Builder and webhooks. Magento Open Source is its own free product.

Merchandising and discovery delivered as services

Several capabilities that decide conversion are services you configure, not core code: Live Search replaces standard search, and Catalog Service serves catalog data through a GraphQL API.

Recommendations against a catalog belong to Commerce; propensity scoring belongs to Customer AI and Attribution AI.

B2B selling without a second platform

Adobe documents B2B for Adobe Commerce as an integrated solution supporting both B2B and B2C models: company accounts with role-based permissions, shared catalogs with custom pricing, negotiable quotes, requisition lists, purchase order workflows and credit lines. It is an extension that must be installed, not a default — a scoping decision at the start of a project.

Benefits of moving to Adobe Commerce

Merchandising stops being a development ticket: facets, synonyms, promotional rules and shared catalog pricing are configured by the people who own the commercial outcome. B2B stops living in email — quotes, approvals and credit terms become states in the platform.

The commercial change is that the store stops being a data island: with Data Connection in place the same shopper is recognizable in audiences, journeys and analysis, not only in the commerce database.

Why Adobe Commerce?

Commerce projects rarely fail on the shopping cart. They fail on everything that feeds it. Product data lives in a PIM that nobody trusts, pricing rules live in an ERP that exports overnight, the search box returns the wrong thing often enough that shoppers stop using it, and the B2B side of the business runs on emailed spreadsheets because the platform was only ever set up for consumers. Meanwhile the storefront is slow, and every attempt to fix that turns into a rebuild. Adobe Commerce is worth choosing when you need catalog, merchandising, promotions, checkout and B2B selling in one governed system — and when you want the shopper data that system produces to be usable by the rest of your marketing stack rather than trapped inside the store.

Custom Adobe Commerce Solutions & Features

We deliver Commerce as a system with a data layer, not as a template with a checkout: the deployment model chosen deliberately, the catalog and pricing feeds made reliable, the storefront built for speed, and the shopper data connected to the rest of your Adobe stack.

Why Softwhale is Your Ideal Adobe Commerce Partner

Most Commerce disappointments trace back to a decision made before implementation: the wrong deployment model, an unowned catalog feed, or a capability assumed to be included. That is where we start.

Expertise in Adobe Commerce

We work across all three deployment models and know what changes between them — extensibility through App Builder, API Mesh and webhooks versus application-level customization. We configure the merchandising services rather than treating them as defaults, and build the Commerce data path with Experience Platform in mind.

End-to-End Support and Training

24/7 Dedicated Technical Support: Our experts are always available to ensure smooth operation, rapid troubleshooting, and continuous optimization.

We hand over to the people who run the store: merchandisers learn search and promotions, B2B teams learn company accounts and approvals, developers the extensibility model you use.

Business-Focused Approach

We scope from the commercial outcome backwards: the categories that carry margin, the buyers being under-served, the manual steps that cost time every week. We are explicit about what a capability requires before it is promised, because in commerce a late discovery is a missed trading season. AI across your wider Adobe estate is scoped through our Adobe AI services.

Testimonials

What our clients says about us

For over five years, we have trusted SOFTWHALE with critical projects involving Adobe technologies. Their dedication and in-depth knowledge have made them a truly invaluable partner. We look forward to many more years of successful collaboration and innovation together.

Marc Haarmeier

Thanks to SOFTWHALE’s expertise, we successfully optimized several of our business processes, enhancing data integration across departments and automating key workflows. Their work has led to increased efficiency and productivity, helping us achieve strategic goals with precision.

Ganesh Kumar

We appreciate SOFTWHALE’s invaluable assistance in developing our new e-commerce platform. This site has become essential in expanding our commitment to a sustainable future, aligning perfectly with our mission to provide eco-friendly solutions for our customers.

Federica Giuseppini

Daniil was one of our AEM Leads for our digital products. He worked on www.usopen.com and www.usga.org to name some of the projects he collaborated on. At that time, he demonstrated his deep technical skills and knowledge in AEM development. Apart from working on new features and innovations, his experience also included migration of our existing code from Classic to Touch UI interface. He is a reliable and a professional resource on any AEM related dev projects.

Almer Matias

Working with SOFTWHALE has transformed our content management processes, allowing us to connect with audiences more efficiently. With SOFTWHALE’s support in Adobe Experience Manager, we’ve streamlined workflows and improved content delivery. Since our partnership began, their expertise has consistently enhanced our operations.

Marc Marheineke

Partnering with SOFTWHALE has been instrumental in modernizing our digital infrastructure. Their team brought a level of skill and precision that helped us implement Adobe Experience Manager seamlessly, resulting in a faster, more responsive platform. This partnership has directly contributed to enhanced user engagement and overall customer satisfaction.

Ilse De Vocht

Our collaboration with SOFTWHALE has been transformative for our digital platforms at Sisal. Their expertise in Adobe Experience Manager has enabled us to streamline content delivery and enhance user experiences across our site. With SOFTWHALE’s support, we’ve seen significant improvements in both efficiency and engagement, making them a highly valued partner in our journey toward digital excellence.

Antonio Margheriti

From the blog

Ready to get more out of Adobe Commerce?

Ready to get more out of Adobe Commerce?

Tell us what you need working and we will scope the next step with you — a discovery, an implementation plan, or a second opinion on what you already have.