SAP Commerce Cloud (once upon a time, SAP Hybris) is an e-commerce platform built by SAP and mainly destined to companies with a high level of complexity and high sell out volumes. This software is one of the main features of the SAP CX (Customer Experience) suite, whose core goal is to ease customer relationship management from all angles. 

Designed for B2B, B2C and B2B2C markets, SAP CC aims to simplify the sales process and to be an omnichannel sales management hub. The tailored digital customer experience enhances users’ satisfaction and retention. 

SAP Commerce Cloud: out of the box modules 

SAP commerce cloud is based on a particularly flexible modular system, which allows both to work with the modules integrated in the platform and to customize them, creating a product tailored to the needs of the shop and the customer 

Let’s do a quick tour of the main out of the box modules (the ready-to-use ones, for who is getting to know SAP for the first time): 

• Product Content Management (PCM) – focuses on the presentation of products and processing of information related to them. This module also gives the possibility of managing several catalogues in one place, so as to improve products management and have a total consistency of content between all sales channels (whether digital or physical); 
• Customer Experience Management – This one is pretty self-explanatory. This module deals with promotions, product suggestions and all those operations that make the shopping experience personal and inimitable; 
• Order Management – Orders and stock management can be managed centrally as well. It allows us to visualize and follow the sale in all its steps, from order placement to delivery operations.  

SAP Commerce Cloud: some more additional information 

There is one more tool available to SAP engineers that we have not yet addressed, and that is a ready-to-use web implementation model: Accelerator.

In a nutshell: to speed up the process of building e-commerces, SAP offers a B2B or B2C implemented solution directly in the platform, capable of engaging customers in the digital experience based on their browsing data.  

Then there is a second concept to keep in mind to really understand the advantages of working with an e-commerce platform such as the one described in this article: that of omnichannel. SAP Commerce Cloud is, in fact, an omnichannel platform.

What does it entail? The synergic management of contact points between company and consumer gives the latter a unified shopping experience across all sales channels. In other words, whichever shop the user chooses (Web, app and even physical store) he or she will find consistency and coherence of all information (products, offers, prices, etc.). 

Pros and cons of SAP Commerce Cloud

SAP Hybris is not for everyone.  

A necessary disclaimer, which we have made clear from the beginning, is that the platform aims to solve the challenges of companies with large sales volumes and high management complexity. In proportion to the offer is therefore the cost of the system: based on a user licence and a variable fee. 

Is this a limitation for Hybris?

Certainly the choice of having such a challenging preferred audience has pushed SAP to create a quality product, which sees its greatest strengths in the out of the box modules we mentioned earlier, as well as in the wide customization possibilities and the excellent support offered by SAP itself. Above all, however, it is the convenience of a product already able to integrate with all the others in the SAP CX package that makes SAP Commerce Cloud an excellence in the e-commerce sector.  

Having said that, let’s go back to the beginning of this paragraph: SAP Hybris is not for everyone. It is therefore up to the competence of the supplier to choose a development system that is affordable for the customer. While SAP commerce cloud can cope with large volumes of requests, there are other platforms that are more suitable for e-commerce creation with less management complexity. 

Listening to the needs of our partners to provide tailor-made solutions is the first step we take in developing a successful e-commerce 

Now that we have given some background on how the platform works, let us elaborate on what the tasks of an SAP Developer are. 

One of the latest projects our SAP Team got its hands on concerns a multinational company specialising in industrial chemicals. Here is a glimpse of what is – and has been – their work during this collaboration: 

 

• Application Mainteanance – includes the routine maintenance of e-commerce and its updating (from minor bug fixing to the development of small evolutions); 
• Implementation of large evolutions – whether already offered by SAP Commerce Cloud or customised ad hoc to the needs of the eShop and business; 
• Support in the global redesign of the website (ongoing); 
• Platform release in different countries. 

The e-commerce market 

Also due to the pandemic, the online sales sector initially experienced a surge, yet the new sales habits proved to hold up even in the face of a return to normality. 

Thus, many players have long since embarked on the path of digital transformation, which has led them both to convert traditional sales channels into e-commerce platforms and to reach traditionally less accessible markets. 

It should also not be forgotten that an important role in the reorganisation of digital experiences has been played by the trend in recent years to place the consumer, his needs and expectations, at the centre of business. 

 

At Hrm, with our well-established partnership with Adobe and the new Academy on Salesforce Commerce, we place great emphasis on training professionals who are well prepared and ready to face the market in which they will operate.