B2B Commerce versions: Visualforce, Aura or LWR?

Salesforce B2B Commerce exists in three generations. The oldest is B2B Commerce for Visualforce, a managed package that came with the CloudCraze acquisition in 2018. The two newer ones run on the core platform as stores on Experience Cloud, built either with an Aura or with an LWR template. Aura templates are only offered to orgs that had Commerce enabled before Spring ’23, and Salesforce recommends LWR for new stores. As of 27 October 2026, there is no published retirement date for Aura stores or the Visualforce package. Which generation you run decides how much of the current roadmap reaches your store.

Which generations of B2B Commerce exist?

Salesforce B2B Commerce, which Salesforce now also markets as “Agentforce Commerce for B2B”, has a history that explains much of the confusion in projects:

Generation	Technology	Status October 2026
B2B Commerce for Visualforce	Managed package from CloudCraze (acquired 2018), Visualforce pages	Last major version 4.13 (Winter ’21), patch notes only
B2B Commerce, Aura store	Core platform, Experience Cloud site, Aura template	New Aura stores only in orgs enabled before Spring ’23
B2B Commerce, LWR store	Core platform, Experience Cloud site, LWR template	Recommended for new stores

Salesforce announced the completed acquisition of CloudCraze1 on 6 April 2018 and described it as a B2B commerce platform built natively on Salesforce. That product continued as B2B Commerce for Visualforce. Later, Salesforce built B2B Commerce into the core platform, with its own objects for stores, buyer groups, carts and orders, and with storefronts as Experience Cloud sites. Help and Trailhead call this “B2B Commerce on Lightning Experience” in older material and simply “B2B Commerce” in newer material.

1. 6 Apr 2018Salesforce completes the CloudCraze acquisition
2. Winter '21Version 4.13, the last major version of B2B Commerce for Visualforce
3. Spring '23Aura templates only for orgs that had Commerce enabled before
4. Summer '25Salesforce maintains only patch notes for the Visualforce package
5. Jun 2026Innovations with headless, Buyer Agent and Quote to Cart, without the Visualforce package

B2B Commerce for Visualforce only gets patches

The release notes page in Salesforce Help2 lists patch notes for versions 4.5 to 4.13. The newest is version 4.13 from Winter ’213. The same page says that since Summer ’25 Salesforce maintains only patch notes for B2B Commerce for Visualforce. The list of installation URLs4 calls it “the B2B Commerce managed package” and advises installing the most recent patch for your major release, because patches are cumulative.

A former Trailhead unit on B2B Commerce on Lightning Experience answered the question whether customers must move with “no”: Salesforce will continue to support the Visualforce deployment option. I take that at face value. I also note that the last major version listed is Winter ’21, and that recent announcements such as the June 2026 innovations5 with headless, Buyer Agent and Quote to Cart do not mention the Visualforce package.

My reading: a Visualforce store keeps running and gets fixes. New capabilities come on the core platform. If your store does its job and your roadmap needs nothing new, there is no urgency. If you want agents, new search or headless, the path leads to a store on the core platform, and I would plan it as a new implementation with the same business requirements, not as an upgrade.

What is the difference between Aura and LWR stores?

Both run on the same core platform with the same commerce data: buyer accounts, buyer groups, entitlement policies, price books, carts and orders. They differ in the frontend. The migration guide’s key differences6 name these:

• Components. Aura stores support Aura components and Lightning web components. LWR stores support only Lightning web components.
• Styling. In Aura you write your own CSS classes. In LWR, components use shadow DOM, and you style them with “–dxp” styling hooks that map to the Theme panel.
• Data access. Lightning web components get data through wire adapters. Aura uses more restrictive form-based components such as force:recordData.
• Checkout. According to the developer guide on the Aura checkout flow7, Aura stores run checkout as a flow you configure in Flow Builder. LWR stores use Salesforce Commerce Checkout, and you configure its steps in Experience Builder.

The migration guide8 states that orgs which had Commerce enabled before Spring ’23 can still choose an Aura template, and that Salesforce recommends the B2B LWR template for new stores and suggests that existing Aura stores consider migration.

Is there a retirement date for Aura or Visualforce?

No. As of 27 October 2026, neither Aura stores nor B2B Commerce for Visualforce appear in the list of active product and feature retirements9, and the migration guide names no date. I would only act on a date that Salesforce publishes in Help or in a release note.

That is why I plan by features, not fear. Worked example: a manufacturer runs an Aura store for spare parts since 2022, with 15 custom Aura components for the parts list per machine and a custom checkout flow. A move to LWR then needs a concrete trigger:

Two checks belong in every roadmap discussion:

• Which new feature do we want, and does Salesforce document it for our store template? The June 2026 announcements do not name a template. Ask the partner for the Help or developer page that confirms support for your store type.
• How much custom Aura code do we have? Every Aura component is a piece the migration replaces. The more there are, the larger the move.

Find out within an hour what your company runs

Many manufacturers do not know it exactly, because a partner set up the store years ago. Three checks give an answer within an hour:

1. Installed packages. If the B2B Commerce managed package is installed and the store pages are Visualforce, you run the Visualforce generation.
2. Stores in Setup. Core stores appear under Stores in Setup. The LWR migration guide10 creates new stores there with the “B2B Commerce (LWR)” template.
3. Checkout and components. If checkout runs as a flow in Flow Builder, the store uses the Aura template. If checkout steps are set in Experience Builder, it is LWR. The migration preparation11 also suggests reviewing Aura components under Lightning Components in Setup.

Write the result down with the number of custom components and the partner who built them. That one page is the basis for every later decision.

Identify your generation and check roadmap features

Find out which generation you run and list the features on your roadmap for the next two years. Then check per feature whether Salesforce documents it for your store type. If nothing on the list needs a new generation, keep the store and invest in data and processes. If something does, plan the move with the release planning for Salesforce releases in mind, because a store migration should not collide with a major release. The cost side is covered in chapter 1 of the B2B Commerce masterclass, the move itself in chapter 5 on agents, migration and rollout, and the licence question for buyers in B2B Commerce buyer licences. Store architecture decisions like this are part of my Salesforce architecture work.

Sources11

1. 1acquisition of CloudCraze (opens in a new tab)salesforce.com
2. 2release notes page in Salesforce Help (opens in a new tab)help.salesforce.com
3. 3version 4.13 from Winter ’21 (opens in a new tab)help.salesforce.com
4. 4list of installation URLs (opens in a new tab)help.salesforce.com
5. 5June 2026 innovations (opens in a new tab)salesforce.com
6. 6migration guide’s key differences (opens in a new tab)developer.salesforce.com
7. 7developer guide on the Aura checkout flow (opens in a new tab)developer.salesforce.com
8. 8migration guide (opens in a new tab)developer.salesforce.com
9. 9list of active product and feature retirements (opens in a new tab)help.salesforce.com
10. 10LWR migration guide (opens in a new tab)developer.salesforce.com
11. 11migration preparation (opens in a new tab)developer.salesforce.com