# Samsonite — A New Commerce Channel Inside an Existing Architecture

> Samsonite needed to launch a Costco Next storefront, the first of its kind on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. We added a channel without adding a foundation, integrating into the existing SFCC ecosystem and Order Management System rather than standing up something parallel.

- Series: Case Study (SKC-002)
- Published: 2026-07-23
- Updated: 2026-07-23 (v1.0.0)
- Author: Summit ML
- Tags: commerce
- Canonical: https://summitml.com/knowledge/samsonite-new-commerce-channel

**The first Costco Next storefront on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. What it taught us about adding a channel without adding a foundation.**

> **Audience:** Solution Architects · Commerce Leaders · Teams extending an existing platform

## Executive summary

Samsonite needed to launch a Costco Next storefront — both to meet a partnership requirement with Costco and to open a new revenue channel. The instinct in commerce work is to reach for a new platform. The discipline here was the opposite: we added a channel without adding a foundation, integrating into the existing Salesforce Commerce Cloud ecosystem and Order Management System rather than standing up something parallel.

## The organization

Samsonite is an established brand with an existing SFCC ecosystem and an operational Order Management System (OMS). Unlike a greenfield engagement, most of the architecture already existed — the question was how to extend it, not how to create it.

## The problem

Costco required a storefront that met its partner standards and integrated with its systems. Samsonite needed that storefront to behave like part of their existing operation — the same order management, the same fulfillment — not a disconnected island that staff would have to reconcile by hand.

## Constraints

- Meet Costco's partner requirements and integrate with Costco's systems.
- Work within the existing Salesforce Commerce Cloud ecosystem.
- Maintain compatibility with the existing Order Management System.
- Avoid introducing new platforms or operational complexity.
- Deliver on a tight timeline — this was the first Costco Next storefront on SFCC, with no prior template.

## Architecture

Read against SKF-001, Samsonite already had the lower layers in place — a business model, an operational data layer anchored by the OMS, and commerce applications on SFCC. Our work lived in the upper layers: a new channel and its experience. The governing rule was to treat the OMS as the source of truth and let the new storefront consume it, never duplicate it.

## Implementation

| Choice | Why |
| --- | --- |
| Salesforce Commerce Cloud | Extend the platform already in production rather than introduce a competing one. |
| Salesforce Order Management | Keep a single source of truth for orders and fulfillment across channels. |
| React + composable frontend | Decouple the new channel's experience from the shared commerce backend. |
| CyberSource | SOC-compliant, secure transactions without expanding compliance scope. |
| Klaviyo | Channel-appropriate customer messaging on top of existing operations. |

Because this was the first storefront of its kind on SFCC, the Costco integration carried the most unknowns. We de-risked it early rather than late, so that the parts with no precedent were proven before the timeline tightened.

## Results

- **6 mo** Timeline to launch
- **1st** Costco Next on SFCC
- **13%** Costco members clicked through
- **4.9k** Bags shipped, first week

_Scope and outcome metrics from engagement record._

Samsonite launched the Costco Next storefront in six months — the first of its kind on SFCC. The storefront consumed the existing OMS and SFCC ecosystem rather than standing up parallel infrastructure. Post-launch support was ongoing.

## Tradeoffs

A composable frontend adds moving parts compared with a single monolithic storefront. We accepted that cost because the new channel's experience needs differed from the core storefront, and isolation let each evolve without destabilizing the other. On a channel with identical requirements to the core, the simpler monolith would have been the right call.

## Lessons learned

- Adding a channel is not the same as adding a foundation. Reuse the operational base you already trust.
- "First of its kind" work concentrates risk in the integration — prove that part first.
- A composable frontend isolates channel-specific experience from a shared backend.
- Restraint — choosing not to add a platform — is itself an architectural decision worth defending.

## Related knowledge

- SKF-001 — The Summit Architecture Pyramid (framework applied here)
- [SKC-001](/knowledge/parkpro-two-sided-marketplace-from-zero) — ParkPro, the greenfield counterpart
- [SKC-004](/knowledge/dataexpandr-making-an-intangible-product-legible) — DataExpandr, positioning and experience-layer work