commercetools vs SAP: Which eCommerce Platform is Best for Your Business?

Choosing the right eCommerce platform can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re tasked with balancing customization, scalability, and integration needs—all while keeping your eye on rapid growth. commercetools and SAP Commerce Cloud are two of the top contenders, but which one is truly the best fit for your business?

In this article, we’ll dive into the key differences between these platforms, helping you determine which one aligns with your technical expertise, growth plans, and integration needs. Keep reading to find out which platform will support your business’s long-term success.

Key takeaways

• commercetools excels in flexibility and rapid scalability, making it ideal for businesses looking to customize and grow quickly.
• SAP Commerce Cloud offers deep integration with SAP ERP systems, making it the go-to choice for enterprises needing robust backend connections and operational stability.
• Both offer reliable solutions for complex enterprises, but commercetools excels in agility, while SAP prioritizes stability.

commercetools vs SAP Commerce Cloud: A quick comparison

For a quick overview on comparing SAP vs commercetools, see the table below.

Overview of commercetools and SAP Commerce Cloud

What is commercetools?

commercetools is a cloud-native, API-first platform designed for flexibility and scalability. Its composable commerce model lets businesses customize their setup with various components, making it ideal for companies prioritizing rapid innovation and growth. commercetools is recognized for excelling in both B2C and B2B commerce. It’s especially suited for businesses looking to create custom, high-performing eCommerce experiences.

What is SAP Commerce Cloud?

SAP Commerce Cloud is part of the SAP ecosystem and is a legacy name in the industry, known as one of the top choice for handling complex B2B and B2C setups. It integrates deeply with SAP’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other backend systems, making it a solid choice for companies already using the SAP ecosystem. The history and evolution of SAP highlight its shift from traditional ERP systems to advanced cloud platforms like S/4HANA, showcasing its ability to adapt and innovate over time. It’s the go-to for companies looking for stability and seamless integration across their entire operations.

To get an in-depth overview of SAP and explore case studies, make sure to check out this free PDF resource on unleashing the power of SAP Commerce Cloud.

commercetools vs SAP: Which platform supports long-term scalability?

Cloud-native vs monolithic: How commerce architecture impacts scalability

A cloud-native platform like commercetools offers inherent scalability, designed to grow with your business:

• Modular components (e.g., payments, product management) can scale individually based on demand
• Each service can be scaled independently, reducing bottlenecks in infrastructure
• Ideal for businesses that expect fluctuating traffic or rapid scaling needs.

In contrast, SAP Commerce Cloud operates on a more monolithic architecture, which can make scaling more resource-intensive:

• When you grow, you must scale the whole platform, not individual components
• Slower and more costly scaling as traffic or demand grows
• While SAP has integrated headless and API-based options, it still lacks the agility of a cloud-native platform.

Microservices vs legacy systems for modern eCommerce

The microservices architecture of commercetools provides significant advantages for businesses looking to innovate and stay competitive:

• It breaks down the platform into smaller, independent services that can be deployed and scaled separately
• Teams can move quickly, updating or expanding individual parts of the platform without disrupting others.

SAP Commerce Cloud relies more on legacy systems, which can present challenges:

• While SAP has incorporated modern elements like APIs and headless commerce, the underlying structure is more rigid
• The monolithic foundation may slow you down whenever you want to update and scale your system.

However, if your business is already tied into complex backend systems, like ERP, SAP’s integration is a huge advantage.

Cost comparison and pricing: commercetools vs SAP

Pricing models comparison

commercetools offers a pay-as-you-grow pricing model with costs rising according to revenue and usage, which is perfect for businesses that need scalability without upfront investment spikes.

SAP typically follows a quote-based pricing model where costs vary based on complexity and business size. This makes SAP Commerce Cloud a more substantial investment, particularly suited for larger enterprises that need deep ERP integration.

Upfront costs vs long-term investment: Which platform delivers better Return on Investment (ROI)?

With commercetools, you’ll likely see a quicker ROI thanks to lower setup costs and a faster time to market. It allows you to start small and expand without significant reinvestment.

SAP Commerce Cloud requires a larger upfront investment, especially with customization and integration into legacy systems. For enterprises with complex backend, the tight integration with SAP ERP can deliver significant ROI over the long term by streamlining finance, supply chain, and eCommerce. However, that ROI may take longer to materialize due to the high initial costs and longer implementation times. Nevertheless, when the US footwear brand Flexi Shoes integrated with SAP Commerce Cloud, they achieved double the conversion rate and projected end-of-year cost savings 2.5 times higher than their initial ROI expectations.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Are costs lower with commercetools or SAP Commerce Cloud?

commercetools can offer a lower TCO due to its cloud-native, versionless architecture, which eliminates infrastructure and maintenance costs. Maintenance, hosting, and updates are all included in the subscription, which means fewer surprise costs. One of Denmark’s largest retailers, Sailing Group, demonstrated a 75% reduction in TCO after switching from SAP Hybris to commercetools.

On the other hand, SAP Commerce Cloud often incurs higher TCO, especially when factoring in ongoing maintenance, upgrades, and customizations. Additionally, its reliance on Azure limits cloud flexibility, potentially increasing long-term operational costs. If your business requires deep integrations with other SAP systems, the long-term benefits might outweigh these costs, but for businesses needing more flexibility, the expenses can add up.

Integration: Which platform is better for your existing systems?

commercetools’ API flexibility for agile innovation

commercetools is built for API-first integration, connecting effortlessly with third-party systems like CRMs, ERPs (including SAP S/4HANA), and marketing tools. It gives you full flexibility to choose best-in-class solutions without being tied to a single ecosystem and enables businesses to customize and adapt rapidly as needs evolve.

SAP ERP mastery for stability and control

SAP Commerce Cloud excels in seamless integration with SAP ERP and other SAP systems. It is ideal for existing SAP users with SAP’s long-standing expertise in ERP software and cloud solutions. It means that core operations are tied together in one stable eCommerce ecosystem. For enterprises with complex systems that are already relying on SAP, the benefit is stability and control.

Customization capabilities: How much control do you have?

Customization flexibility with commercetools’ composable commerce

commercetools offers complete design flexibility by allowing you to fully separate the frontend from the backend. This means you can create a unique interface using any frontend framework (React, Vue, etc.), customizing every part of the user journey without the limitations of pre-built templates.

When it comes to the entire ecosystem, the real advantage lies in its microservices architecture. Whether you’re adding a new payment provider or building custom workflows, it allows each component to be independently customized to your specific needs.

Customization with SAP’s industry templates and solutions

SAP Commerce Cloud, on the other hand, provides tried-and-trusted templates optimized for specific industries like retail and B2B. While fast to deploy, they offer less design flexibility.

However, SAP excels in ERP integration and enterprise-grade functionalities. If you’re already within the SAP ecosystem, this platform greatly facilitates the management of business processes across various departments. Customization here is more focused on configurability than building from scratch, so it’s a good match for enterprises that prioritize stability over frequent changes.

Omnichannel support: Which platform powers seamless customer experiences?

commercetools: Omnichannel capabilities for agility and flexibility

commercetools is designed for businesses that need agility in their omnichannel strategy. It allows seamless integration in one place across multiple channels—whether it’s online, mobile, or in-store. This flexibility enables businesses to create a consistent customer experience across all touchpoints while remaining adaptable to new technologies and changing customer expectations. The modular approach means you can easily add new channels without disrupting your overall system.

SAP Commerce Cloud: Robust omnichannel support for large enterprises

SAP Commerce Cloud, by contrast, offers quite robust omnichannel support that connects eCommerce with ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management. Its strength lies in the deep integration it offers across all operational layers, ensuring unified customer experiences across web, mobile, and physical stores.

Content and product management: Which platform offers better control?

Managing content in commercetools: API-driven flexibility

commercetools gives you full control over how you manage and present content. Being headless, it allows you to tailor how your products and content are displayed across different channels without being tied to a rigid structure. This makes it easy to integrate content management system (CMS) tools of your choice or even build custom workflows for product data, descriptions, and images.

SAP Commerce Cloud’s built-in tools for enterprise-level Product Information Management (PIM)

SAP Commerce Cloud excels with its built-in PIM system, designed to manage complex product data for enterprises. It can handle large catalogs and multiple SKUs and synchronize data across channels and departments, ensuring consistent product information. Integrated with your supply chain and ERP systems, it keeps product content aligned with backend processes like inventory and order management while also improving data accuracy through validation and workflows.

Time to market (TTM), implementation, and ROI: commercetools vs SAP

commercetools: Faster implementation and quick ROI

With commercetools, implementation is faster. Its modular setup lets you roll out key features quickly. Businesses can launch essential features first, then build and scale additional capabilities over time. This, in turn, reduces development bottlenecks, enabling faster iterations and a quicker ROI if you want to grow quickly and innovate.

SAP Commerce Cloud: Longer implementation but strong ROI for complex enterprises

SAP Commerce Cloud takes longer to implement due to its monolithic structure and complex ERP integration. While it requires significant upfront effort, especially for enterprises with intricate B2B setups or supply chain needs, its robust commerce architecture ultimately delivers strong ROI by streamlining operations. For large companies with complex processes, SAP’s investment pays off through improved efficiency and centralized control, though it takes more time to see results.

Mobile performance: Which platform delivers a better experience for mobile users?

commercetools’ mobile-first architecture for fast, responsive performance

commercetools is designed with a mobile-first architecture for fast, responsive experiences on any device. Its headless, API-first structure lets you build custom mobile frontends optimized for speed, even if you’re creating progressive web apps (PWAs) or native apps. Its microservices architecture also allows for mobile-specific tweaks—like faster load times—without affecting the whole system.

SAP Commerce Cloud’s mobile capabilities: Stability and performance for enterprise-scale

SAP Commerce Cloud prioritizes enterprise-grade stability in its mobile capabilities. It’s not as flexible as commercetools for custom frontend design, but it offers reliable performance and ensures everything from mobile apps to websites stays synced with backend systems like ERP and CRM. This means customer experiences are unified across channels. For enterprises managing complex, multi-channel setups, SAP guarantees consistent mobile performance even with heavy traffic or large product catalogs.

Customer support: commercetools vs SAP Commerce Cloud

SAP Commerce Cloud provides comprehensive, enterprise-level 24/7 support with dedicated account managers, making it ideal for large businesses, though it comes at a higher cost.

commercetools, while offering strong documentation and partner support, leans more on external agencies or in-house teams for technical help, which suits companies with internal expertise.

Weaknesses and challenges of commercetools and SAP Commerce Cloud

Both commercetools and SAP Commerce Cloud have their strengths, but they come with significant challenges that businesses need to consider.

commercetools’ main strengths—flexibility and customization—can also be its challenges:

• Implementing a composable commerce solution requires skilled developers or specialized agencies
• The platform provides powerful APIs but lacks advanced pre-built features like complex discounting or merchandising, often requiring third-party solutions or additional development
• Though commercetools boasts seamless integration capabilities, connecting to older legacy systems can bring unforeseen complexities that require careful planning.

On the other hand, SAP Commerce Cloud brings a different set of challenges:

• Enterprises need the resources to manage their steep licensing fees and lengthy implementations
• While offering deep ERP integration, including S/4HANA, SAP Commerce Cloud requires extensive customization for advanced features, which can be costly
• SAP users report scalability limitations and issues during peak traffic
• The lack of hosted checkout solutions means businesses have to build and maintain their own checkout systems, which is time-consuming and can make it hard to keep up with the latest payment technologies and security standards
• Vendor lock-in is an issue due to pricing and contractual constraints, SAP’s closed ecosystem, proprietary technology, and developer requirements.

Future-proofing your eCommerce platform: Key considerations

To ensure your eCommerce platform stays adaptable to customer needs, consider the following:

• Headless, API-first, and microservices architectures are trending, because they allow you to scale individual components without the need for system-wide overhauls, which means your platform grows with your business and technological needs
• A cloud-native solution like commercetools not only reduces infrastructure and maintenance costs but also ensures seamless updates with minimal downtime, keeping your platform efficient and up-to-date
• Platforms such as SAP Commerce Cloud provide reliability and deep integration with legacy systems, making them ideal for businesses with complex operational needs; however, they may lack the agility required for fast-paced innovations.

But what about AI and other cutting-edge eCommerce trends to improve customer experiences?

• commercetools easily integrates with modern trends like AI, AR/VR, and voice commerce, thanks to its API-first microservices approach, making it highly adaptable to technological advancements
• While SAP supports AI-powered features like chatbots and personalized merchandising, adapting to new trends and implementing innovative solutions is slower due to its monolithic structure.

Choosing the right eCommerce platform for your online store

To choose between commercetools and SAP Commerce Cloud, consider how much customization and integration you need and your desired time-to-market. Evaluate your team’s ability to manage the complexity of an API-first system like commercetools. Also, factor in your long-term plans for scalability—will you expand across multiple channels or regions soon? Finally, think about how agile your business needs to be to adapt to rapid changes and growth.

To summarize, here’s a quick guide to help you decide on the best eCommerce platform for your business.

Choose commercetools if:

• You need flexibility and customization
• You’re looking for rapid scalability and a faster time-to-market
• You prefer a pay-as-you-grow pricing model and want lower upfront costs
• Mobile performance, headless commerce, and agility are top priorities for your business
• Your team is technically capable or has access to skilled developers for integration.

Choose SAP Commerce Cloud if:

• Your business relies on SAP ERP or other SAP systems, and you need deep integration
• You’re an enterprise requiring stability and centralized control
• You need robust omnichannel support across web, mobile, and physical stores
• You’re prepared for longer implementation times but seek strong long-term ROI from deep integration with backend systems
• You can manage higher licensing costs and ongoing expenses for a unified enterprise platform.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both commercetools and SAP Commerce Cloud offer robust eCommerce solutions for B2B and B2C enterprises, but they cater to different needs.

commercetools is ideal for businesses prioritizing flexibility, scalability, and fast innovation. However, it requires a more technically capable team and a higher upfront investment.

SAP Commerce Cloud, on the other hand, is better suited for large enterprises seeking deep ERP integration and operational stability, though it comes with longer implementation times and higher costs.

The choice ultimately depends on your business’s growth plans, technical capacity, and long-term budget. Prioritize what matters most—whether it’s agility and innovation with commercetools or stability and deep integration with SAP.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the key difference between commercetools and SAP Commerce Cloud?

The key difference lies in their infrastructure: commercetools uses a headless, API-first, microservices model for flexibility and scalability, while SAP Commerce Cloud operates on a more monolithic structure with deep ERP integration, offering stability but less agility.

What are the pros and cons of choosing commercetools over SAP Commerce Cloud?

commercetools offers flexibility and scalability but requires technical expertise, while SAP Commerce Cloud provides deep integration and stability at a higher cost and complexity.

How do pricing and TCO compare between commercetools and SAP?

commercetools offers a revenue-based subscription model with lower upfront costs and generally lower TCO, while SAP Commerce Cloud follows a license-based model with higher initial expenses and a more significant TCO due to ongoing maintenance and complex integration process.

How do commercetools and SAP Commerce Cloud handle ERP integration?

SAP Commerce Cloud seamlessly integrates with SAP ERP, while commercetools requires third-party solutions for ERP systems.

Can’t decide which is the right eCommerce platform for growing your online store? Reach out to us for your personalized consultation on how to elevate your business online! Let’s achieve success together!

About scandiweb

scandiweb is an eCommerce agency specializing in development, migration, optimization, and more. With expertise across platforms like SAP Commerce Cloud, commercetools, and Magento, scandiweb helps businesses grow, scale, and improve revenue through tailored solutions. Trusted by global brands, we focus on driving digital success with innovative strategies and a customer-centric approach.

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