Salesforce ecosystem integration — what specifically does SFCC give that AC can’t replicate?

The native integrations that are genuinely hard to replicate on Adobe Commerce:

• Account 360 + Order History. SFCC orders show up inside Salesforce CRM Account 360 with no middleware. Sales reps see commerce + service + marketing in one view. AC requires a custom Salesforce Connector ($150k–$300k build).
• Marketing Cloud Journey Builder triggers. SFCC events (cart-abandon, order-placed, return-requested) drop into Journey Builder out-of-the-box. AC integration needs MuleSoft or Patchworks middleware.
• Service Cloud case-from-order. Customer service rep clicks an order in Service Cloud → sees full order context, can issue refunds / RMAs. AC equivalent requires custom integration.
• Einstein AI personalization. SFCC + Einstein uses Salesforce’s data lake (CRM + commerce + marketing). AC + Sensei AI uses Adobe’s data lake. Different gravity wells.

The "AC can replicate this with a custom integration" answer is technically true but practically expensive — typical replication of native SFCC + Salesforce stack via AC + middleware runs $500k–$1.5M up-front + ongoing middleware fees. If you’re fully Salesforce-native, SFCC’s premium starts to make sense.