At this year’s SuiteWorld 2018, I attended a session titled “Get Your Web Store Ready for SuiteCommerc.” Here are some of my notes.

SC stands for SuiteCommerce and SCA stands for SuiteCommerce Advanced. SC is NetSuite’s newest offering. It is not replacing SCA but is a complementary product. If you are implementing a new web store or converting from SiteBuilder, you now have 2 options.

• SC and SCA are both still available
• Neither will be deprecated
• SC moves closer to a SaaS application, utilizing APIs and contracts
• SCA remains a fully customizable open source platform
• SC comes with built-in themes
• SC support “extensions” as a means of customizing
• SC and SCA share the same base source code and will continue to do so in future releases

Pros and Cons:

• SC makes upgrading easier – Customizations are extensions which utilize APIs. This allows NetSuite to upgrade their platform with less chance of breaking a user customization. Extensions can be tested in a pre-release website. Since most hacks occur against known vulnerabilities which have been public for more than 90 days, SC leverages the power of their platform developers to close vulnerabilities on our behalf.
• SCA offers deeper customizations. SC and SCA are single page applications, meaning the entire website consists of 3 pages, Shopping, Cart, and Account Administration. If you wish to change the behavior of one of these pages, you can do it with SCA.
• SC supports extensions, which are similar to bundles. This leverages the power of 3rd party developers without having to contract developers on your own. You simply purchase ( or subscribe to) the extension and let the author maintain it going forward.
• SC offers built-in themes. They have a handful now and plan to develop many more. This is a big plus. My company just purchased a theme for SCA. It was not cheap. And there is no guarantee that our theme won’t break if we decide to upgrade SCA to a newer release.
• SC is designed to be managed by administrators, not developers. This should translate to a lower cost for your web store.

I took more notes on how to develop extensions and how to prep your SiteBuilder web store for conversion to SC. NetSuite was really pushing SC. They offered free installation of SC to the first 1,000 customers that signed up to buy it during SuiteWorld 2018. It’s where they want to take their web store customers. I’d love to write more, but that’s all the time I have this morning.