SAP Commerce Cloud Reviews

My main use case for SAP Commerce Cloud involves playing multiple roles, most of which are similar to product owner or product manager, along with a consulting role when I work for EPAM.

A specific example of how I used SAP Commerce Cloud in one of these roles is when we implemented Hybris for multiple global international companies from around 2016 to around 2019. One good example was Amway Corporation, which is one of the largest privately held companies implementing SAP Commerce Cloud as the core of their e-commerce business. It was an international installation specific to each of the 28 countries, and I was involved in the initial rollout as well as deploying it to Russia and Kazakhstan.

The best features SAP Commerce Cloud offers include a great suite that provides a lot out of the box, although some models are absolutely useless, such as a print model or the now-deprecated WCMS. Most of the features are genuinely helpful for building a new commerce solution, including promotions out of the box, strong product information management, high load capability, and deep customizations. We refactored Amway's solution significantly because it was more like MLM than clear e-commerce, making such platforms essential for large companies like Primark and Pearson.

Regarding features related to integration or user experience, SAP Commerce Cloud has a data hub model that greatly aids integration with SAP systems. However, in most of our projects, we have built integrations to non-SAP environments, requiring significant modifications and customizations. The REST interfaces to all objects inside Hybris are excellent, allowing regular developers to modify any object seamlessly. User interfaces in our installations were mostly custom-designed, with the possible exception of SmartEdit, and the inbuilt Solr engine serves as a highly effective search engine.

SAP Commerce Cloud positively impacts my organization, as evidenced in the case of Amway, where we eliminated costly old Oracle software that was outdated and slowing down business processes. SAP Commerce Cloud enabled them to deliver features much faster and build more digital native experiences, which everyone is waiting for. In other installations, such as Pearson, they were less satisfied with Hybris and sought smaller, simpler solutions due to heavy license costs. Smaller installations, such as Nokian Tyres and an unnamed UAE company, found that Hybris improved their technical capabilities, providing them with a stable environment operational 24/7 during high-demand periods during sales.

In my view, SAP Commerce Cloud can be improved as it currently feels too heavy, with customers nowadays expecting solutions to be deployed in months rather than years. This is the most significant issue with SAP Commerce Cloud, which caters primarily to Fortune 500 companies and falls short for mid-sized businesses. I do not have a clear idea on which specific feature they should implement to better serve the smaller business market, despite their several past attempts.

Regarding potential improvements for SAP Commerce Cloud, I am not the best person to discuss deployments as I lack a DevOps background. However, I believe the primary enhancement should be in their vision and communication of product benefits. Personally, I have found SAP salespeople to be less friendly compared to their Salesforce counterparts. Their inflexibility regarding discounts and offers might be an area for improvement.

Customer support varies based on specific situations. In Rive Gauche, we faced issues due to poor partner implementation, prompting SAP professional services to step in, acknowledging the strength of our license. However, in other cases, SAP support has responded rapidly, particularly in SAP cloud deployments.

I have seen organizations switch from lower-level solutions to SAP Commerce Cloud, such as Rive Gauche. Conversely, many firms have migrated to other solutions like CommerceTools due to license costs. Pearson, for example, explored BigCommerce instead of SAP Commerce Cloud after also considering Salesforce Commerce due to better sales support.

While I do not have direct access to ROI data, I believe those projects maintain profitability not only because of clear ROI but also due to the stability the platform provides. This stability ensures the capability to handle any load, products, or orders irrespective of technical limitations.

For those considering SAP Commerce Cloud, I advise seeking a strong implementation partner. Engaging with smaller firms without sufficient developers may lead to complications. It is also vital to assess whether you genuinely require all the capabilities of SAP Commerce Cloud due to the associated costs. Nowadays, platforms such as CommerceTools can offer quicker implementations. Finally, I encourage respect for the product and urge users to thoroughly read documentation and pursue certifications to maximize their understanding and use of its features.

A specific outcome metric from using SAP Commerce Cloud for Amway would be approximately a 20% revenue growth after the launch of SAP Commerce Cloud. Additionally, I know that the unnamed UAE company also improved their conversion ratio, though I lack exact numbers. Overall, I am confident that there are strong metrics regarding stability, uptime, and performance in heavily loaded environments, but I do not have access to the specific revenue or other business metrics for most of my projects.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for SAP Commerce Cloud has been significant; only a global company can typically afford Hybris. Many clients share discomfort with revenue-dependent fees, making other solutions such as Shopify or BigCommerce more appealing. For example, Pearson considered switching to BigCommerce due to these licensing issues.

Before choosing SAP Commerce Cloud, I evaluated options such as CommerceTools, Salesforce, and Magento, as my experience was sought by Alcon, a global contact lens manufacturer. Ultimately, they selected Salesforce because of the sales team's helpfulness rather than a strictly technical comparison.

Regarding SAP Commerce Cloud's AI capabilities, the accuracy and reliability of output cannot reach 100%. However, being supported by the larger SAP organization delivers good results in identifying purchasing trends or similar cross and upsell capabilities. Their solid background in SAP CRM enables effective handling of customer data and identifying behavior patterns, which I believe is the future.

Regarding SAP Commerce Cloud's AI capabilities, I find their governance and security to be excellent. They have a robust vision for implementing AI and release security patches almost immediately after vulnerabilities are identified. They resolved significant initial problems, such as using default passwords in installations, over seven years ago. Their published roadmap provides a clear picture of upcoming features and product evolution, reflecting their strong security approach.

I rate this review a 9 out of 10.

My main use case is B2B commerce where we work on design improvement and new functionalities that the platform doesn't have out of the box.

In SAP Commerce Cloud, I find the integration and the back-end part most valuable because they can be easily integrated with the SAP product catalog and CRM and so on.

The integration part has streamlined some organizational processes in my organization, but I wasn't present when they decided to use SAP Commerce Cloud, so I don't know the reasoning behind the decision.

The main issue for improvement with SAP Commerce Cloud is the UX/UI and the fact that it's difficult to change it because of technical constraints, which makes it insufficient as it currently exists.

When it comes to functionality in SAP Commerce Cloud, the basic functionalities are adequate, but if you need additional configuration of the products or different visualization, it's not easy to implement.

I have been working with SAP Commerce Cloud for two years.

I am not using SAP Commerce Cloud Omnichannel Commerce Experience features.

I do not work directly with microservices architecture to support aligned development because we have suppliers that handle all the development work, so I don't know how they manage this.

I would rate the stability of the product as good because I haven't experienced any issues with it.

I think the scalability could also be quite good.

I don't know if the initial setup process was simple or complex to start working with that project because I wasn't there.

As a user, I don't use it directly; I just provide the development team with the design, so I don't know if it was simple or complex for me to begin working.

I don't know how to rate pricing for the product, as I'm not involved in that aspect.

If I compare the product, I would say our main competitor in the market is Shopify.

If I compare Shopify and SAP Commerce Cloud, the more preferable solution for me in the future would be Shopify because UI and UX is the main point.

Based on my experience with SAP Commerce Cloud, I have thoughts regarding data analysis and analytics; I know they have this feature because I've never seen it.

When I ask my colleagues about data, they say they don't have it, so I may need to inform them that SAP Commerce Cloud has such a feature because they never have data about the e-commerce currently.

The multi-languages and multi-currency features in SAP Commerce Cloud are useful for us because we have it cross-country, with an e-commerce presence in the US and another in Europe.

Based on my experience, working with SAP Commerce Cloud can be a bit complex, considering what my colleagues say, but I haven't had direct experience with this.

I rate SAP Commerce Cloud five out of ten.

The solution is used to build e-commerce websites.

The product has good features. We like it because a lot of customers ask for it. If they already use SAP in-house, they use SAP Hybris Commerce as an e-commerce platform. The user interface can be customized. The platform is up to date. The solution has a lot of features.

The learning curve is high.

I have been using the solution for eight years. I am using the latest version of the solution.

We didn't have stability or performance issues. If we know how to configure and extend it, we will not face problems. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

The tool is scalable. We have worked with 150,000 SKUs. We are planning to increase the number of clients.

We work with other e-commerce platforms depending on the client size and project type. We work with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and Spryker. SAP is suitable for big companies with big websites and a high number of products. It is expensive. The other products are suitable for small and medium enterprises. They are less scalable than SAP.

The setup is simple. Our clients pay us for it. We know how to execute the deployment pipelines. The solution can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. We offer maintenance and support. A small team can offer support to multiple clients.

The deployment can be done in-house.

The product helps us satisfy the needs of big companies that have big e-commerce websites.

The price is quite high. The price could be improved. Some of our clients pay a monthly license fee, and some pay once every year.

People planning to implement the solution must evaluate other options before committing to one. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

We use the AWS, on-prem, and SAP cloud versions of the solution for our eCommerce Platform.

SAP Hybris Commerce is a very advanced e-commerce platform compared to other platforms such as WebSphere Commerce, Oracle Commerce, and others. The solution is particularly dynamic in its use of advanced technologies, making it a valuable feature.

The solution is complex due to the rapid development of new features in SAP Commerce, which requires the changing of older technologies and migration to new ones. This makes the process quite complex, especially when migrating from one version to another. For example, I have been using SAP Commerce versions 18 and 19.

I have been using the solution for seven years.

The solution has two different levels of commerce. A B2C commerce is stable and I give it a seven out of ten and a B2B commerce that is not very stable and I give it a four out of ten.

The solution is extremely scalable.

The technical support is not very good. Although they are technical, they have some support issues and take a lot of time to resolve issues.

Neutral

All e-commerce platforms are easy to set up, and the setup of SAP Hybris Commerce is relatively simple due to its reliance on Tomcat.

The full deployment takes about 40 minutes. The deployment depends on if we are doing the development for a data environment or a UAT environment.

The solution is expensive.

I give the solution a six out of ten.

I would not initially recommend using SAP Commerce because we have a large product range and a large customer base, so we are in a good position. However, I would not recommend the solution for startups or businesses with a small number of SKUs. I would recommend Magento Community Edition or other open-source solutions.

The solution helps with e-procurement, quotations, content management, and product management. It also helps us to maintain the look and feel of the website. 

The tool has good performance. 

SAP Commerce needs to have a credit limit like Salesforce. Currently, we have to do the coding and customization and then showcase it to the user. 

I have working with the solution for ten years. 

The solution is stable. I would rate the tool's stability a nine out of ten. 

The solution is scalable. I would rate the tool's scalability an eight out of ten. 

The solution's support is good. However, they take time to understand the issue. 

Positive

The product's setup is not a big issue. I would rate the product's setup an eight out of ten. The time taken for deployment depends from project to project. I have worked on projects which completed deployment in three to six months and others where the process took a year to complete. We follow the agile methodology for the tool's deployment. We conduct the unit testing, and IT testing and then release the solution to our platform. You need a 25-30 member team to manage the deployment process which can include business analysts, project managers, front-end and back-end developers, and QAs. Four to five technical staff is required for the product's maintenance. This technical staff team analyzes issues and asks the developers to fix them. The issues get fixed and implemented in the solution's next release. 

The product is expensive. I would rate its price a seven out of ten. The solution's licensing is yearly. 

I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. Small and medium businesses use the solution. The solution is scalable and can be integrated with any platform. 

We use this solution for both our B2B, and B2C clients; it allows them to carry out product content management.

We like that this solution gives our B2B clients a lot of functionality straight 'out of the box', meaning that they don't need to carry out a lot of configuration to be able to use it.

We also appreciate the fact that this integrates easily with the SAP ecosystem, especially if you have to connect it with the ERP.

We would like to be able to easily add functionality to the CMS, such as instant messaging. This would make is much more usable, especially in B2C scenarios.

We have been working with this solution for more than 10 years.

This has always been a very stable solution in our experience.

We have found that it is easy to increase and decrease the power of the environment, which brings this solution closer to the level of a service platform.

The support for this solution is okay, but due to their single geographical location it can be challenging to contact them if you are based in a very different time zone.

The initial setup of this solution isn't complex, but the main difference between this and other platforms, is that you might need to customize and develop some things that you need, instead of installing add-ons.

We would recommend this solution to any organization that is already within the SAP ecosystem and need to customize a lot of things. 

We would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

SAP Hybris Commerce is basically an eCommerce solution. We are Bosch-Siemens Home appliances. We sell household appliance products, like refrigerators, washing machines, etc... We have our own eCommerce website. Something similar to Flipkart or Amazon. We sell all these products with our websites.

For all the products there will be a product list. As a customer, you will log into this website and then select the particular product, for example, either Bosch or Siemens refrigerators, then check out and pay the bill. Then key in the delivery address, something similar to how you're going to buy any particular product on Amazon or Flipkart.

We have around 300 plus websites across multiple countries. We host and manage all these web applications, basically eCommerce applications. Apart from that, we do have other web applications, which are built on PHP and Node.js. Most of them are hosted on AWS, some of them are hosted on premises. And apart from that, there are solutions like SAP SD module, SAP MM, FICO, CRM.

Generally, as a customer, you will visit the store, purchase the product and the store may deliver on the same day or on the next day or whenever. It is a physical visit and then you're going to get the delivery. You visit the store, you pay and then you come back and the particular product will be delivered to your home. In our case, the customer can be anywhere. He or she visits the particular website and selects the product online. They can see all the features, and then pay online. The website itself will suggest on so and so date it'll be delivered. Based on the date provided, that particular product will be delivered. Post delivery, you can call the customer care. They will come and install. It is all online. You need not go to a physical store. With the click of few buttons with your mobile device or with your notebook or laptop you can purchase the products at your home. Whatever household appliances, it can be refrigerators, microwave ovens, washing machines. We really have lot of products.

We have found the B2B, B2C and D2C very valuable.

In terms of what could be improved, I would say the product search. There will be multiple criteria to search products and there will be a number of products in different categories. The question is how soon can I find the product which I'm looking for. The search can be improved.

There will be security involved in your payment gateway while you are paying. Creating a purchase order. There are many areas that can be improved in the front end - the look and feel performance wise. The entire life cycle right from logging into the particular eCommerce website until you check out, how soon I can complete this entire process? Those are the three areas. There are many areas one can improve.

I think we have the latest Hybris version from 2000, Hybris nine, something like that. Whatever features SAP is releasing, we are evaluating how they will be beneficial to the customer. If it is beneficial, then we are implementing. Apart from that I don't see anything extra.

We have been using SAP Hybris Commerce for close to eight years.

SAP Hybris Commerce is stable.

In terms of scalability, we had certain issues. For example, let's say we have Big Billion Day or Christmas Eve - there were some scalability issues. Now I think, with the help of AWS auto scaling, scaling out or scaling in is pretty much covered.

It is a worldwide solution. We have some 70 countries using it. 

In India itself, we have three teams developing and maintaining it. Two development teams and one support team. Deployment is also happening in Germany. There is a dedicated team there. I think, maybe three to four consultants. But all deployment will happen in Germany. Development and support teams will be in Bangalore. Each development team comprises somewhere around nine to 10 members. Support is also around nine to 10 members.

We have our own in-house solution. So, based on the customer feedback, our business team will analyze the requirements and accordingly, the development team and the IT team will implement the solution.

It's all BSH related development. So, whatever the customer needs, there is a business team that will understand and analyze them. If there are any developments that are required, that will be informed via technical specification documents or business specification documents through the development team. The IT team will materialize the requirements. We follow Agile methodology.

In our case, we started with the older version of Hybris, so at that time, there were not too many improvements. To meet the business requirements, it has been customized heavily. Complex customizations and complex developments have been developed. Those features are now available with the latest versions. Changing that into the latest version will be a tricky task now.

It was a long journey. The implementation started somewhere in the year 2013 or 2014. Currently we are working on whatever enhancement, minor changes or modifications which the customer is looking for. That will take probably two weeks or one month time to develop. To deploy, as it is a cloud deployment, hardly takes two or three hours down time.

We implemented all on our own. We used AWS and there are some deployment tools, like CHOF, all those things.

Obviously we evaluated other solutions. Such as Magento, Demandware and three or four other vendors. Since Bosch is implementing heavily on SAP, Hybris being a SAP product, after a careful analysis, the team arrived at SAP Hybris.

The end user can use any device for this - mobile device, desktop, laptop, anything. I would say it its very convenient

On a scale of one to ten, I would give SAP Hybris Commerce a nine.

We are resellers. We implement the solution for our customers.

The product supports multinational companies and platforms. The tool supports multiple currencies. It also supports multiple storefronts. We recommend these features.

The support team should improve the response time. The solution must improve the UI of the customization screens. The customers must be able to change the screens easily. The function does not work properly.

The tool must add some payment integration options to the standard platform. When we have to add any payments to the platform, we need to develop a custom platform. A business user should be able to add any payment method to the platform.

I have been working with the solution for five years.

The tool is stable.

The tool is scalable. I recommend the tool for bigger organizations. I recommend a part of the solution to small companies.

The technical support team works well. There are no problems.

Positive

It is a cloud solution. It is easy to deploy it. The time taken depends on customers’ requirements. Generally, the deployment takes two months to twelve months.

The solution is very expensive in Turkey.

Some of our customers are working with Magento. Magento has a better price, and it is easy to develop extensions in Magento.

People who use the product must use the standard platform. They shouldn’t develop custom extensions. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use it to monitor customer experience with regard to e-commerce.

It's the best tool on the market and is a complete e-commerce system for product management. For instance, if the customer has a log enterprise level product, they can manage it here.

It's connected to the whole SAP tool, and you now can connect any of the SAP tools to this customer experience tool. They have built a whole web so that any application can be connected to this particular software.

The WCS management or content management is not that great.

Every one and a half to two years, Hybris stops updating or supporting previous versions. This means that the end-customer has to update their version every time.

SAP Hybris can work on the virtual commerce (VR) feature, which is new to the market.

I've been working with this solution for the past eight years.

Stability wise, SAP Hybris Commerce is fine.

The scalability is good.

Technical support from the SAP team has been good, and I would rate it at four on a scale from one to five.

The initial setup was very complex earlier, but now it seems to be a bit easier.

We had a team of eight to ten people for the deployment, and four to five people for the maintenance of the solution.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate SAP Hybris Commerce at eight.

We are now using it as a customer front. We will be using it as a catalog base, and all of the other engines will be independent of Hybris Commerce. Hybris Commerce will be used as a catalog to reach our customers, but the backend will be completely different, mainly in the retail sector.

The simple steps for configuring your checkout processes, as well as the promotional engine, are the most valuable features of this solution. They are both excellent, and you can easily customize them.

The integration side of it with Hybris OCC to integrate with other systems is also effective. That's also a useful feature. It primarily has a lot of features that provide a significant advantage, and it's very good.

It's out of the box, it's a new spectrum.

It's good, but it depends on how you are customizing it to your benefit. It depends on your business objective and your angle, and how you want to go about it.

It's flexible, you can do anything with it.

I don't have any issues with the interface.

The price could be improved. It is very expensive to implement, which is why many companies who can't afford would normally move to Salesforce or Magento. 

It can be tricky to support other features that are inside customization.

I have been using SAP Hybris Commerce since 2017.

I used to work with versions 6.4, 6.5, 1811, and now 2011.

It's stable, especially when you're running it on AWS.

We have the auto-scaling packages. 

The entire framework of AWS's private network makes it simple for us. It's quite good. It's all about where you're hosting it.

I don't know how many users we have, but it's a lot.

Technical support is adequate, particularly on the paid version. Having a consultant to help us is a good thing. To be honest, it depends on the user's question or issue when calling in for normal support. It is determined by the complexity of the issues.

From my perspective, it's going to be extremely complicated for a new person who doesn't know, but it depends on how you build it, and how you run your own build in order to set it up. 

I wouldn't call it complicated. It's quite simple when you have the knowledge.

When you've been doing something for a long time, it becomes easier over time.

The deployment time depends on the size. The first initial deployment, is about three hours, depending on the data size, but after that, it's quite quick, mainly one hour.

The implementation was done in-house. We do everything ourselves.

I don't know the cost, but it can be expensive.

It's a good product in terms of scalability, functionality, and flexibility. The market should shift toward SAP Commerce. Without a doubt.

I would rate SAP Hybris Commerce a seven out of ten.