In this article, we will walk you through some speed tests we conducted to determine if Salesforce Commerce Cloud works in China or not. Our staff conducted the tests in Shanghai (China Mainland) and (Hong Kong, outside Mainland China) and we used 3rd party testing tools to ensure our tests weren't biased.
By the end of this article, you should have a good understanding of Salesforce Commerce Cloud works in Mainland China or not. Also, you can contact us to get a free speed test of your Salesforce Commerce Cloud site for China.
What is Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a highly scalable, cloud-based commerce platform. It was named as a leading digital commerce platform by Gartner Magic Quadrant 2021.
Does Salesforce Commerce Cloud Work in China?
The short answer is no.
Below is the long answer if you want to understand why:
Salesforce claims that you can "Scale Globally with Confidence" using their Commerce Cloud, but actually, China is not included. Because Salesforce relies on providers like AWS to host the commerce platform. These hosting providers do not work well in China as we'll see below.
If your business didn't have any legal licenses for your site and content in China, your ecommerce store is operating illegally in China.
Luckily we have put together solutions for you to make your business and your Salesforce Commerce Cloud storefront work in China.
Don't just take our words. Let's look at some websites powered by Salesforce Commerce Cloud and see how well they work in China.
How do we check if a website works in China or not?
There are two checks we need to perform to conclude if a website works in China.
- How fast is the site in Mainland China?
- Does the website operated by the business comply with the laws in China?
The second part of the test is a must for most businesses or organizations, not optional.
If you are unsure why it's a must, read Untold facts about ICP for China, and why you should get it.
Speed Tests Results
We picked 5 websites from Salesforce Commerce Cloud's Global Customers and considered these websites to follow the best practices powered by Salesforce.
Then we follow the test questions mentioned earlier for each website and create a report with the following format:
1. A figure to see how fast the site performs across Mainland China.
This figure basically shows how fast the website loads across Mainland China (green = fast, red=slow)
2. A video to see how the site performance in China visually.
We made a screen record of the website loading in Shanghai, China. This provides you with an intuitive way to see how fast the site visually loads and understand what people in China actually experience when they visit the website.
3. A yes-no check to see if the site complied with the laws in China.
If the site passes the legal check, it's a green check. If it doesn't pass, we will tell you why it doesn't pass.
Now, let's dive into the reports for each of the selected websites using Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
Godiva, www.godiva.com
Godiva is a Belgian premium Chocolate maker with a presence in over 100 countries worldwide.
From our speed test, people in China have difficulty viewing the images on the Godiva's website. (that's what the below figure means, red means unable to display images).
Here is a more intuitive way to see it, we screen-recorded the process when a user browses Godiva's website in Shanghai, click the video below to see it in action:
Does the Godiva's website comply with the laws in China?
No. It doesn't pass our Legal check because the business does not have an ICP license displayed at the footer of their website.
If you don't know what an ICP license is, click to learn more.
Finding if a website has an ICP license is pretty straightforward, just scroll to the bottom of the page, if you see a number like this (see below Nike's websites for China), then the business behind the website has an ICP for China. If not, they don't have it. You can check if your website has it or not.
Below is an example of Nike's website in China, and its ICP number.
Similarly, we ran the same tests for the rest of the Salesforce customer's websites. To see the full case studies, just click on the brand name below:
Boggi Milano, www.boggi.com
Boggi Milano is a global men's fashion brand based in Italy.
Click here to see Boggi Milano's full case study.
Columbia Sportswear, www.columbia.com
The Columbia Sportswear Company is an American company that manufactures and distributes outerwear, sportswear, footwear, camping equipment, ski apparel, and outerwear accessories.
Click here to see Columbia's case study results.
Puma, www.puma.com
Puma is the third largest sportswear manufacturer in the world. Based out of Germany, they design and manufactures athletic and casual footwear, apparel and accessories.
Click here to see Puma's case study results.
Samsonite, www.samsonite.com
Samsonite International is a luggage manufacturer and retailer, with products ranging from large suitcases to small toiletries bags and briefcases. They registered office is in Luxembourg and is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Click here to see Samsonite's case study results.
Need Salesforce Commerce to Work in China?
In short, if your business is going to China, make sure your website passes the two tests we mentioned above to have a fast speed of first load and good viewing and browsing quality for your users in China.
Reducing page load time by 0.1 seconds will increase the conversion rate by 8%. - Google, Deloitte
If you need help to get Salesforce Commerce Cloud working in China, feel free to contact us or click here to get started.
For additional detail and future modifications, refer the original post.
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