SAP recently announced that SAP Commerce, their on-premises commerce platform, is now end-of-life. The final release of SAP Commerce, version 2205, will reach End of Mainstream Maintenance (EoMM) July 31, 2026.

This isn’t too surprising, given SAP’s emphasis on the cloud. Between S/4HANA and SAP Commerce Cloud, the company has set a clear direction for their offerings.

Yet for organizations using SAP Commerce, it’s time to evaluate commerce strategy—both short-term and long-term. Here are the main things to consider.

The opportunity for SAP Commerce customers

No one likes getting that EoMM notification. But for many organizations, there’s actually a silver lining in this cloud.  Now that you have to make a decision, you can take the opportunity to reevaluate your needs and what the market offers in terms of commerce platforms. Commerce has evolved significantly since the days when the on-premises approach was the only way. You may find that there are numerous options that will serve your business better.

In fact, the sunsetting of SAP Commerce offers an opportunity to modernize your commerce program in two main areas:

• Infrastructure
• Customer experience

Let’s talk about those.

Infrastructure: Is it time to move to the cloud?

No doubt about it, an on-premises commerce solution offers total control. But with that control comes great responsibility—and cost. SAP Commerce customers are well aware that the solution requires full-time resources to maintain the entire stack.

For many organizations, a cloud-based approach actually serves the business better. You relinquish control over things that aren’t worth controlling, which reduces cost, risk, and technical debt.

So what do you gain when you move to the cloud?

Quite a bit, actually.

A SaaS (software as a service) solution ensures you’re always on the latest version, always secure, and always receiving new features and functionality. You can say goodbye to the days of backward-compatibility checks, broken customizations, and everything that made the on-premises approach so challenging. 

Customer experience: Getting more bang for less buck

Simply put, out-of-the-box cloud solutions are often cheaper than on-premises alternatives—not to mention more feature-rich. You don’t have to build custom features to serve your customers. Instead, a robust cloud platform will include built-in functionality that can be configured to meet your customers’ needs.

Configuring is always cheaper than building. Ultimately, that helps you create a better customer experience faster and at a lower cost.

The platform provider makes this possible by monitoring emerging industry trends and buyer preferences. The provider works constantly to build and launch new features and capabilities in the platform—specifically to stay ahead of the evolving needs of buyers.

By definition, a cloud platform is far more future-proof in terms of customer experience. It comes with a dedicated product team who constantly takes the pulse of the market and innovates to stay ahead.

Options for migrating off SAP Commerce

Organizations that want to move to the cloud have several options. If they need deep integration to ECC or S/4HANA for B2B use cases, Corevist Commerce Cloud is a great option. Our platform offers a clear path to seamless, integrated commerce that leverages your investment in ERP data and logic. Since Corevist supports even the most complex B2B use cases in a cloud-hosted, out-of-the-box platform, there’s no need to build custom functionality or the dreaded third-party integration to SAP.

For organizations that need even more control (and can justify the expense), SAP offers a well-defined migration path from SAP Commerce to SAP Commerce Cloud. Check out the Thrive with SAP Commerce Cloud program to learn more.

The bottom line

At the end of the day, you just need continuity. Your customers are buying online now, and you don’t want to let them down. Whichever path you choose, you have options as you replace SAP Commerce. The key is to know what matters to your organization—and which path will offer you the best outcome as your commerce program matures.

If you’re looking for low cost of ownership, prebuilt integration, and a dedicated support team, Corevist Commerce Cloud could be a great fit. Check out our demo to learn more.