Certifications are a part of the Salesforce journey, and anyone who has looked into this knows that there are many of them available to give a stab at.
But what about Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud? How many are available. And which ones are they? Let us have a look!
Superbadges
Superbadges are something you will often come across while reading about preparing for your “Salesforce” certification exam.
You have to solve questions and exercises in a sandbox environment. Trailhead will then verify if you have done the configuration or written the code correctly. Since this forces you to work with the platform and configure or code things yourself, it can be excellent preparation!
Unfortunately (yup, I got you excited there, didn’t I), this is only available for the core platform, not B2C Commerce Cloud. And because SFCC runs on a completely different stack, don’t expect this to change anytime soon.
Salesforce Credentials
The first type we will have a look at is the Salesforce Credentials. You know, the ones you can achieve via Webassessor.
A little heads up already. You don’t have many options if you are not a technical profile. But we will get into that later!
B2C Commerce Developer
The Salesforce B2C Commerce Developer credential is designed for those who have experience as full-stack developers for Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital.
The title and the description of this credential do not have any secrets; the main target is Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud developers.
What does it take to grab this certificate? Looking at the past years, experience in one or two projects will give you a high chance of passing the exam.
Now, let’s nuance this a little bit. If your past two projects were with pipelines / SiteGenesis, you have some studying to do. The exam expects you to know SFRA controllers and will not test your knowledge of pipelines anymore.
If you still think you need some preparation, look at the exam guide. It will point you in the right direction!
B2C Commerce Architect
The Salesforce B2C Commerce Architect has experience designing global sites that support multiple brands and channels using standard design patterns.
The next step in the journey of the Certified B2C Commerce Developer! Focussing more on the project lifecycle compared to development.
Important to note that you can only achieve this certification if you are a Certified B2C Developer.
It should not surprise that this certificate is on “another” level than the Developer certification. Do not expect questions like “how do you log a message to the error log” but more like “You have three domains that have to be linked to these two sites. Which of the following four answers is the correct Hostname Alias configuration?”.
Want to know more about what this certificate expects you to know? Have a look at the exam guide!
If you feel like an in-person or virtual training is more suited for you, the ARC-300 course (which I am teaching in EMEA – a bit of self-promotion) is perfect for you.
Accredited Professional
Last year a new type of certification made its way into the Salesforce ecosystem: “Accreditations.”
Before you read more about this, be warned that this is a certification only available for Salesforce Partners (and Salesforce employees looking at LinkedIn)
You can look at these Accreditations as a “specialization” certification. While the other certifications will look at a broad spectrum of platform features, accreditations will test your knowledge of a specific feature or part.
Headless API First
The Salesforce Headless API First Accredited Professional exam is designed for consultants who have experience implementing and consulting on B2C Commerce or headless projects in a customer-facing role. This exam is for individuals who want to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in configuring and using Salesforce Commerce APIs in the context of Sample Apps and real headless implementations.
As Headless (API First) made its way more prominently into the Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud world last year, it was expected that a certification was explicitly made for it.
The exam will focus solely on the SCAPI (Salesforce Commerce APIs), testing your knowledge of this set of REST endpoints.
But not to worry, there is a course on the PLC (Partner Learning Camp) to guide you through preparing for it.
Commerce Cloud Einstein
The Einstein Commerce Cloud Accredited Professional exam is intended for individuals who have the knowledge, skills, and experience with data ingestion processes, security, and access implementations.
One of the selling points of Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud (and other Salesforce offerings) is the AI engine to give personalized product recommendations: Einstein.
This accreditation tests all your knowledge of Einstein:
- Development (Slots & Active Data)
- Setting up the data feeds in the Business Manager
- Configuring the recommender
- Debugging Einstein
As with the other Accreditation, a course is available on the Partner Learning Camp!
What if i'm not a developer?
A common question asked. Currently, only developers seem to get the “Certification love,” but not so much Business Analysts or merchandizers.
If there is one I would recommend that non-technical profiles can pass, it’s the Commerce Cloud Einstein Accreditation.
I feel that this is a gap within the ecosystem that should be filled; developing for SFCC is one thing. But it would be best if you also had profiles who are experts at configuring a channel and making the right choices to get it up and running.
This non-technical certification would allow people to publicly show that they know how to get your company up and running on Salesforce B2C Commerce Cloud (using standard features or knowing when custom development is needed).
If anyone at the Salesforce Credentials team is reading this, give me a shout to discuss this 😇.
