In today’s digital age, the success of any E-commerce business relies on its ability to provide customers with a seamless, engaging, and highly responsive online shopping experience.
Enter SAP Spartacus, a dynamic enterprise framework designed to redefine the world of online storefronts and allow SAP Commerce Cloud customers to drive better sales leads. As a powerful addition to SAP Commerce Cloud, Spartacus aims to make E-commerce exciting and efficient by revolutionizing the way businesses build and manage their online shopping platforms.
This article explores the innovative components and features of Spartacus, how it empowers E-commerce enterprises to remain competitive and adaptable in an ever-evolving digital landscape, and where our team of SAP consultants can come in to help.
What is SAP Spartacus?
Spartacus, formerly SAP Hybris Spartacus, is an open-source framework designed to help companies develop storefront websites, manage feedback and solutions for common issues, and drive seamless integration with SAP Commerce Cloud exclusively through the SAP Commerce REST API.
This lean, Angular-based JavaScript storefront for SAP Commerce facilitates more efficient SAP Commerce Cloud installations, allows users to separate frontend and backend development, and fosters an active development community for all Spartacus users.
Key Characteristics of the SAP Spartacus Platform
Spartacus modernizes the user experience for E-commerce websites and offers greater flexibility in system design and functionality. Businesses using SAP Commerce Cloud can leverage Spartacus to create a seamless and visually appealing online shopping experience for their customers.
Here’s a closer look at a few of the main features of Spartacus:
Extensible Solutions
Spartacus is designed to be easily upgradable, extending Spartacus functionality and allowing users to stay current with the newest SAP Commerce Cloud version while still maintaining full extensibility across their entire SAP landscape.
By regularly updating Spartacus libraries, companies can ensure they have access to the latest releases and improve the efficiency of their digital transformation initiatives.
Progressive Web App
The Spartacus platform supports all major features of the Progressive Web Application (PWA) checklist, enabling users to manage customer data, monitor core storefront features and tasks, and provide the best customer experience possible regardless of their location or device.
Simplified Upgrades
The Spartacus open-source code is published and enables the creation of libraries that follow semantic versioning conventions, allowing users to quickly and easily upgrade to the latest features and capabilities.
By leveraging the Spartacus libraries, users can check in with current upgrade offerings, ensure their SAP Commerce Cloud instance is prepared for an upgrade, and conduct seamless upgrades for minor version upgrades and patch releases.
Open Source Architecture
With an open-source framework, continual development initiatives by the SAP Commerce Cloud team, and an existing CMS component, Spartacus makes it easier for users to stay up-to-date with critical commerce information and foster the active development of a Spartacus community.
And, while Spartacus is provided “as is” with no lines of direct support, the Spartacus community does provide a unified platform where users can come together to ask and answer questions about their existing Spartacus platforms, give feedback, and build long-term relationships with other users.
Modern Composable Storefront
The officially supported composable storefront provides support for modern enterprise organizations, offering customizable yet upgradable technology to help users install Spartacus libraries and enhance their core commerce operations through connections with the SAP Commerce Cloud CMS.
Customizing the SAP Commerce Cloud Spartacus Solution
1) Layout customization
The Spartacus Storefront comprises various JavaScript components mapped to a specific CMS component and represents the content used in each storefront.
Mapping for each CMS component and its respective styling and business logic features can be customized so users can configure their system only to show components when related to a specific context.
2) Component customization
The component customization processes provides custom Angular components that override existing CMS components, enabling users to replace standard CMS components with those customized to meet their unique business needs.
Users can conduct component customization in one of two ways:
- Create your own custom Angular component and define which CMS component will be overridden by the custom component.
- Leverage outlets to place custom templates inside ng-template tags and provide a cxOutletRef directive that links components with the outlets you want to replace.
3) Styling customization
With styling customization functionality, users can create their own CSS rules to style the storefront to meet their unique business requirements.
Customers can also change and customize global variables that affect their entire website, enabling a more user-friendly experience and better functionality across their entire angular development environment.
Styling customization enables companies to leverage custom components or CMS components and shot class collectors to apply structured styles to specific parts of their company website.
4) SmartEdit library customization
The SmartEdit library can be used to customize their Spartacus Storefront, enabling users to access the predefined user interface through their browsers and customize their storefront to meet their needs.
With Basic Edit and Advanced Edit functionality, users can also determine specific page elements, outline the specific order in which they should appear, and leverage additional styling features to customize their E-commerce site further.
5) Multi-store configuration
Users can leverage multi-store configuration capabilities to help companies manage multiple stores with different attributes or layouts. With advanced configuration features, users can configure their storefronts to align with context properties, including language, currency, and base site.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help understanding which Spartacus components are included in your SAP Commerce Cloud license, additional support navigating commerce APIs and integration cloud services for greater functionality, or an extra hand getting started with SAP, Surety Systems can help.
Our senior-level, US-based SAP consultant team has the knowledge, skills, and proven track record of success to help you handle all your most important project needs and maximize success.
Getting Started with Us
Interested in learning how the SAP Spartacus Storefront can enhance the accuracy and efficiency of your core E-commerce operations? Ready to get started on an implementation, integration, or upgrade project with our team of expert SAP consultants?
Contact us today for more information!
