Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service.
In recent weeks, the tech world has been buzzing with excitement over Adobe’s latest announcement: the introduction of Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service.
As more businesses shift toward digital solutions, this fully SaaS-based offering is poised to transform the e-commerce landscape for Adobe’s customers, delivering enhanced flexibility, scalability, and innovation.
What is Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service?
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service combines the powerful features of Adobe Commerce with the scalability and flexibility of a cloud-native architecture. This innovative solution is designed to cater to businesses of all sizes, enabling them to leverage the full potential of e-commerce without the complexities of traditional infrastructure as well as introducing customers into the Adobe Experience Platform.
Why Does Adobe Created This Product?
Some may speculate that Adobe is developing a new competitor to Shopify or BigCommerce, but that is not the case. Adobe is strategically pursuing a different approach.
The clear answer can be found in the direction of the Adobe Experience Platform and Composable Commerce.
The key idea is to guide merchants toward revenue generation, business growth, and creating a commerce experience that truly meets their needs by integrating best-in-class solutions. This approach allows merchants to focus on their core business and marketing activities, rather than spending time on selecting and implementing the right technologies.
The Adobe company is focused on creating the Adobe Experience Platform, which aims to integrate all aspects of the merchant experience. This includes content management, commerce, traffic analysis, marketing tools, campaign and traffic generation, and targeting—all enhanced by AI technology.
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service represents the optimal approach for seamlessly integrating commerce components into the Adobe Experience Platform.
Is this a new product?
For the past few years, Adobe Commerce has been strategically moving toward a microservices and Composable Commerce direction.
Services like Live Search, Catalog Service, Product Recommendations, Payment Service, and App Builder are not new to Adobe Commerce; all merchants currently have access to these services through the Commerce Cloud. These solutions can be seamlessly integrated into commerce operations without any custom development even right now on the existing Adobe Commerce Cloud solution.
Adobe has introduced a new headless storefront (EDGE Delivery) and packaged all the existing services into one cohesive solution. Together, these services are forming a strong foundation for Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service.
This is more of an evolution of Adobe Commerce than the introduction of a completely new product.
Key Benefits of Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service
- Scalability: One of the most significant advantages of a SaaS model is its ability to scale effortlessly. Businesses can adjust their resources based on demand, ensuring optimal performance during peak shopping seasons.
- Performance: A new, fully headless frontend solution for SaaS can significantly improve page speed and conversion rates (EDGE Delivery). Running on a cloud-native setup helps reduce these performance issues. Built-in CDN services ensure your store loads quickly for customers.
- Flexibility: While many SaaS solutions offer limited customization, Adobe Commerce retains its well-known flexibility. Users can tailor their e-commerce platforms to meet specific business needs, ensuring a unique shopping experience for customers using Adobe App Builder.
- Seamless Integration: Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service integrates seamlessly with other Adobe products, such as Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Analytics. This interconnected ecosystem allows businesses to create a cohesive digital strategy, enhancing customer engagement and driving sales.
- Composable API-first architecture: With comprehensive REST APIs and GraphQL APIs, merchants can easily connect third-party tools and customize workflows without touching the core codebase.
- Security and Compliance: With Adobe’s robust security measures, businesses can rest assured that their data is protected. The service also adheres to industry compliance standards, making it a reliable choice for e-commerce operations.
- Continuous Updates: As a cloud service, Adobe Commerce will receive regular updates and new features automatically, ensuring that businesses always have access to the latest tools and technologies.
- Lower cost of ownership: The traditional model required frequent manual updates and patching, which were both costly and time-consuming. With SaaS, updates happen automatically, so teams can focus on more important tasks.
- Faster deployment: Deploying a new store or feature used to take days or weeks. Now, with instant provisioning and better tooling, businesses can launch faster and adapt quickly.
- AI-powered features: From smart merchandising to personalized product recommendations, Adobe leverages AI to help merchants boost customer engagement and conversion rates. Access to the other instruments from the Adobe Experience League.
- Advanced Content Management: AEM-Powered Content Management. Adobe enhances commerce solutions with powerful content management tools such as GenAI and AEM.
What does Adobe Actually offer?
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service is structured as a suite of integrated services.
- Storefront: Powered by Edge Delivery Services.
- Concept: A React-based theme with pre-built Adobe product connections.
- While React-based, other JavaScript frameworks can be used to manage and customize the front-end experience.
- Content Management: Powered by AEM Universal Editor.
- Concept: Utilizes Drop-In Components to inject Commerce content.
- Possibility to use GenAI component and Adobe Digital assets.
- Catalog & Merchandising: Powered by Live Search and Catalog Service.
- Including SaaS Services:
- Live Search (AI Search / Adobe Sensei)
- Catalog Service
- Product recommendation
- Adobe Payments
- Commerce Optimizer (June 2025)
- Including SaaS Services:
- Integration & Customization: Achieved via App-Builder and Adobe I/O Events.
- Backend: Managed by Adobe Commerce.
- Non-Customizable!
- Seamless and sequential upgrades.
- Backend: Managed by Adobe Commerce.
- Service Connections: Run with GraphQL interfaces.
Who’s It For?
With the introduction of Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service, Adobe aims to attract a broader audience to the Adobe Experience Platform.
This offers significant benefits for merchants by consolidating all commerce services from a single provider. The AI-driven and fully SaaS nature of these services allows merchants to concentrate on business growth, rather than managing technology stacks or dealing with multiple solution providers.
This solution is particularly well-suited for:
- Merchants migrating to the Adobe platform or building new commerce experiences.
- Merchants with strategic visions on integration with the Adobe Experience Platform.
- Merchants who are planning a complete rebuild or re-theme.
- Merchants who want to reduce the maintenance costs associated with their existing Adobe Commerce Cloud solution.
The launch of Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service marks a significant shift in how businesses approach e-commerce. With the growing demand for online shopping, having a flexible, scalable, and secure platform is no longer just an advantage—it’s a necessity.
Businesses can now focus on what they do best: delivering exceptional products and services to their customers. By leveraging Adobe’s powerful tools, they can enhance their online presence, streamline operations, and ultimately drive growth.
Challenges to Consider
Migration Challenges:
- While the integration with a robust content management system like AEM is beneficial, design and front-end development remain significant challenges in meeting the business and marketing team’s visual expectations for the website.
- Existing customizations will need to be rebuilt to align with the Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service architecture.
Functionality Challenges:
- Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service does not currently support all features, and ongoing development is focused on maximizing front-end commerce capabilities.
- The extension marketplace for Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service is still under development, potentially limiting available functionality.
What does Adobe Say?
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service and Adobe Commerce Cloud are both supported and will continue to be developed simultaneously. While the primary focus will be on Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service, there are no plans to discontinue or shut down Adobe Commerce Cloud.
Adobe suggests a strategic, hybrid approach to migration, rather than an immediate overhaul.
Begin by adopting existing services such as Live Search and Catalog Service.
Next, migrate key integrations to App Builder and implement custom solutions using its flexible platform.
Finally, complete the transition by migrating your theme to Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service.
Conclusion
This new offering represents a significant evolution in online commerce, enabling businesses to build and manage sophisticated storefronts with greater efficiency and agility.
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service (SaaS) offers a scalable and highly customizable platform for modern e-commerce businesses. Paired with the Adobe Commerce Optimizer, this solution leverages AI-powered personalization and high-performance infrastructure to drive merchant growth and optimize conversion funnels.
Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service is expanding access to the Adobe Experience Platform for more merchants and businesses, which could be a transformative opportunity for many enterprises.
