How to Choose the Right E-Commerce Platform

A commerce platform provides the technological foundation for your digital sales processes. Depending on the solution, it may include features such as product catalogs, shopping carts, checkout, pricing, customer accounts, ordermanagement, and promotions. 

However, the requirements of modern commerce platforms go much further. They need to integrate with existing system landscapes, support different customer touchpoints, and keep pace with growing demands for personalization, internationalization, and scalability. 

Especially in enterprise and B2B commerce, the biggest challenge is rarely simply setting up an online store. Instead, it is about connecting commerce effectively with systems such as ERP, CRM, PIM, CMS, and marketing platforms. 

Switching commerce platforms is a significant undertaking. Data needs to be migrated, interfaces redesigned, processes adapted, and teams prepared for new technologies. A commerce platform should therefore do more than meetcurrent requirements. 

The more important question is: Can the platform grow with your business? 

Choosing the right commerce platform creates the foundation for expanding into new markets, integrating additional brands, expanding self-service capabilities, or connecting further digital sales channels. 

When selecting a commerce platform, you should therefore look beyond individual features. What matters is how well the platform supports the specific requirements of your business model while providing enough flexibility for futuredevelopment. The following aspects are particularly important. 

Before comparing different commerce platforms, companies should define their own requirements as precisely as possible. A B2C commerce platform for a relatively straightforward product catalog has very different requirements from an international B2B platform with individual pricing, complex product configurations, and customer-specific ordering processes. 

Questions to consider include: 

• Is the business model B2B, B2C, D2C, or a combination? 

• How complex are products, pricing, and variants? 

• Are there customer-specific pricing models or conditions? 

• Which countries, languages, and currencies need to be supported? 

• Which sales channels need to be integrated? 

• Which self-service capabilities do customers require? 

• Which systems need to be connected? 

• How quickly should new features and markets be launched? 

• What are the requirements for personalization and customer experience? 

  
  

Only once these questions have been answered can you assess which commerce solution is actually the right fit. 

In B2C, the focus is often on creating a seamless and intuitive customer journey. B2B commerce, on the other hand, typically involves much more complex processes. 

These may include: 

• customer-specific pricing 

• individual product assortments 

• approval workflows 

• different user roles 

• quotation processes 

• order templates 

• recurring orders 

• complex product configurations 

• self-service portals 

  
  

A B2B commerce platform should be able to support these requirements either natively or with sufficient flexibility.

Our project with MVV, for example, illustrates how different these requirements can be. Together with our customer MVV, we integrated a SAP Commerce solution into its existing system landscape to provide business customers withfeatures including individual offers and self-service capabilities. Learn more about the project here.

In complex organizations, a commerce platform does not operate as a standalone system. Typically, it needs to connect with ERP, CRM, PIM, CMS, payment solutions, marketing systems, logistics platforms, and other components of the technology stack. This makes openness and integration capabilities important considerations when selecting a platform. 

Key questions include: 

• Which APIs are available? 

• How easily can the platform be integrated into the existing architecture? 

• Which standard connectors are available? 

• How is data synchronized between systems?

• How easily can new systems be connected? 

• Which integration capabilities are built into the platform, and which require custom development? 

  
  

Especially in complex commerce projects, integration capabilities can be more important than the number of individual storefront features a platform offers. 

A commerce platform should not only meet a company's current requirements. It should also be able to evolve with the business. New markets, additional brands, growing product catalogs, or additional sales channels cansignificantly change the requirements placed on a platform. 

The key question is therefore how flexibly the commerce solution can be extended and scaled – both from a technical perspective and in terms of new business models and requirements. 

When evaluating a platform, companies should consider questions such as: 

• Can the platform scale as traffic and transaction volumes increase? 

• Can additional markets, languages, and currencies be integrated? 

• Can additional brands or storefronts be managed? 

• How easily can new sales channels be connected? 

• How flexibly can the platform be extended with new features and services? 

• Does the architecture support future requirements without extensive modifications to the core system? 

  
  

A future-ready commerce platform provides more than the foundation for existing operations. It creates the flexibility needed for continued growth. This should be considered during the selection process – rather than only once the existing solution reaches its limits. 

Artificial intelligence is increasingly changing how companies manage commerce processes and develop digital customer experiences. From personalized product recommendations and intelligent search to automated contentcreation and AI-supported customer service, the number of potential applications continues to grow. 

When selecting a commerce platform, it is therefore worth taking a closer look at which AI capabilities are already integrated and how easily additional AI solutions can be connected. 

Companies should consider questions such as: 

• Which AI capabilities are already available as standard features? 

• How can AI-powered product recommendations and personalization be implemented? 

• Does the platform support intelligent and semantic product search? 

• How can generative AI and large language models be integrated? 

• Can AI be used to create and optimize product data and content more efficiently? 

• What options are available for AI-powered customer service and self-service applications? 

• How are data, privacy, and governance addressed when using AI? 

• How easily can new AI services and models be connected via APIs or a modular architecture? 

  
  

The goal should not be to tick off as many AI features as possible. What matters is whether the commerce platform provides the technological foundation to integrate AI meaningfully into existing processes and customer journeys. 

For companies with complex commerce landscapes in particular, an open, API-based architecture can provide valuable flexibility. It makes it possible to integrate specialized AI applications and test new use cases without having to replace the entire commerce platform. AI should therefore not be viewed as another feature on a checklist when selecting a commerce platform. It should be considered part of the long-term commerce strategy. 

When selecting a commerce platform, companies today face different architectural approaches. 

• A traditional approach bundles many functions within a single platform. This can be beneficial for companies that want to source as many components as possible from one provider and reduce the complexity of their overalltechnology landscape. 

• Headless commerce, by contrast, separates the frontend from the backend. This allows content and commerce functionality to be delivered via APIs to different frontends and customer touchpoints. 

• Composable commerce takes modularity a step further. Individual commerce capabilities can be assembled from different components and services based on specific business requirements. 

  
  

Which architecture makes sense depends heavily on the individual organization. Composable commerce is not automatically the better option simply because it is more modern. Greater modularity can also mean additional integration and operational complexity. 

The key question is therefore not “Which architecture is currently trending?” but rather “Which architecture best supports our business strategy?” 

A common mistake when selecting a commerce platform is focusing primarily on the license price. For a realistic assessment, companies should consider the total cost of ownership (TCO). This includes factors such as: 

• license and subscription costs 

• hosting and infrastructure 

• implementation 

• custom development 

• integrations 

• migration 

• operations and support 

• updates and upgrades 

• ongoing development 

• training 

  
  

A seemingly inexpensive commerce platform can become costly over time if it requires extensive custom development. Conversely, a more powerful enterprise commerce platform may be economically worthwhile if it supports complex processes out of the box and reduces development effort. 

Technology is not an end in itself. Ultimately, the quality of the digital customer experience determines whether a commerce platform fulfills its purpose. Before making a decision, companies should therefore assess how well the platform can support requirements such as: 

• personalized content 

• relevant product recommendations 

• intuitive navigation 

• fast loading times 

• mobile experiences 

• consistent experiences across multiple touchpoints 

• personalized B2B customer experiences 

  
  

Commerce and content are also becoming increasingly interconnected. Product information, editorial content, and commerce functionality need to come together to create a consistent experience for customers. 

Only after defining these requirements does it make sense to compare specific providers. Depending on the requirements, platforms such as SAP Commerce, Adobe Commerce, Spryker, Shopware, Salesforce Commerce, or SCAYLE may be relevant options. However, the selection should not be based solely on marketreputation or feature lists. 

The key question should not be: Which commerce platform is the best?  Instead, ask: Which commerce platform best fits our business model, system landscape, and future development? 

A smart commerce platform evaluation should go beyond feature lists. A more effective approach is to define specific use cases and assess different platforms against them. This provides much more meaningful results than a genericfeature matrix. 

diva-e Conclusion works with various technology partners and selects platforms based on the individual requirements of your organization. 

✓ Define Your Requirements 
Clearly capture and document your business model, target groups, markets, processes, and technical requirements. 

✓ Define Must-Have and Nice-to-Have Criteria Prioritize requirements and distinguish between essential capabilities and desirable features. 

✓ Evaluate Platforms Based on Concrete Use Cases 
Define relevant use cases and use workshops or proofs of concept to assess how effectively each platform can support them. 

✓ Consider TCO and Future-Readiness 
Look beyond implementation costs and include ongoing expenses for operations, development, integration, and scalability. 

✓ Evaluate the Technology and Implementation Partner Together 
Assess not only the platform itself, but also the implementation partner's expertise and its ability to support strategy, implementation, and ongoing operations. 

This last point is often underestimated. A successful commerce solution is not created simply by selecting the right software. What matters is how effectively technology, processes, and business objectives are brought together. 

Selecting a commerce platform is a strategic investment. It should therefore not be determined solely by technology, features, or short-term costs. 

The key questions are: 

• What do we want to achieve with our digital commerce business? 

• Which processes need to be supported? 

• How is our business model likely to evolve? 

• Which technological foundation will enable this development over the long term? 

  
  

Answering these questions before making the platform decision creates a much stronger basis for selecting the right solution. 

A future-ready commerce platform needs to fit the business model, system landscape, and digital strategy of the organization. Scalability, integration capabilities, customer experience, architecture, TCO, and time-to-market all play an important role. Rather than focusing solely on features or providers, companies that put concrete business requirements and use cases at the center of their evaluation are more likely to make a sound, long-term decision. 

Because the right commerce platform is not necessarily the one with the most features. It is the platform that enables your commerce strategy to be implemented sustainably and economically. 

Our experts at diva-e Conclusion would be happy to support you in developing and implementing customized e-commerce platforms – from strategy and consulting to development and integration, as well as optimization and scaling.