Late one November evening in 2024, as millions of shoppers swarmed online for holiday deals, one iconic workwear brand watched in amazement. Their ecommerce site handled record-breaking traffic without a hitch. For Carhartt’s digital team, it was a moment of relief and triumph: the future of ecommerce they’d bet on had arrived, and their new platform was delivering. Across the industry, similar stories are unfolding. Ecommerce in 2025 is not just bigger – it’s smarter, faster, and more personalized than ever. Global online retail sales are projected to hit $7.4 trillion in 2025, accounting for roughly 24% of all retail transactions. In an era when 85% of consumers worldwide shop online, businesses are racing to offer the seamless, data-driven experiences customers expect. The future of ecommerce isn’t a distant vision – it’s here, right now, powered by SAP Commerce Cloud services.
The 2025 Ecommerce Landscape: Sky-High Expectations
To understand why a platform like SAP Commerce Cloud is crucial, consider the state of ecommerce in 2025. A few data points paint the picture of this new landscape:
- Massive scale: Online retail has grown explosively – global ecommerce sales are projected at $7.4 trillion for 2025. That’s a 74% jump from just five years prior, and now about one out of every four retail dollars is spent online.
- Digital-first shoppers: Consumers have fully embraced digital shopping. 85% of global consumers now shop online, and even B2B buyers expect the convenience of ecommerce. In fact, 33% of B2B buyers say they search for products on mobile devices and social platforms more now than in the past – they demand the same ease of use and speed as a regular retail customer.
- Personalization & trust: Customers want tailored experiences and privacy. Nearly 45% of millennials and Gen Z shoppers say they appreciate personalized product recommendations when shopping online. Yet at the same time, 40% of online shoppers have refused to buy from a brand due to concerns over how their personal data is used. The takeaway: brands must personalize without betraying trust.
- Omnichannel norms: The line between online and offline retail has all but dissolved. Nearly two-thirds of retailers have now embraced an omnichannel strategy – connecting web stores, mobile apps, and physical outlets into one cohesive customer journey. And less than half of retailers expect a full return to pre-pandemic in-store shopping levels, meaning digital will continue to carry the day.
- Need for speed (and agility): With trends like AI, social commerce, and AR evolving quickly, companies need to adapt on the fly. Those who can’t iterate fast risk falling behind. Gartner predicts that organizations adopting a modular, composable commerce approach will outperform competitors by 80% in rolling out new features and functions. In short, agility isn’t just nice to have – it’s a survival skill.
SAP Commerce Cloud: Built for the Future of Ecommerce
SAP Commerce Cloud has evolved precisely to meet these modern demands. It’s not just marketing spin – industry experts and users have validated its leadership in the field. Gartner named SAP Commerce Cloud a Leader in its 2024 Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce, for the tenth year in a row, making SAP the only vendor consistently in the Leaders quadrant since 2014. And real customers are echoing that confidence: SAP Commerce Cloud earned a 2025 TrustRadius Buyer’s Choice Award, an honor based entirely on verified customer reviews of its capabilities, value, and support. In Gartner’s words, SAP’s commerce solution is a “reliable foundation for agility, speed, and stability” even as commerce trends accelerate. So what makes SAP Commerce Cloud such a fit for 2025? Baked into the platform are capabilities designed for the era of intelligent, omnichannel commerce:
- Unified experiences: SAP Commerce Cloud enables smooth, consistent shopping across all customer touchpoints – web, mobile, social, even in-store – while providing businesses a unified view of their customers and products. A purchase started on a phone can seamlessly finish in a store, and the system ties it all together behind the scenes.
- Composable architecture: The platform is built with a modern, API-driven architecture that lets companies mix and match components as needed. Businesses can flexibly integrate SAP’s own capabilities or third-party services (for search, reviews, payment, etc.) without heavy custom development. This modular approach means brands can rapidly add new features or channels – aligning with the “composable commerce” trend that promises faster innovation.
- AI-powered personalization: Intelligent commerce is a core focus. Out-of-the-box, SAP Commerce Cloud offers AI-driven tools to personalize content and product recommendations, automate search ranking, and optimize promotions to each shopper’s behavior. These smarter tools help boost conversion and sales by showing customers more of what they want, when they want it.
- B2B and B2C on one platform: Whether you sell direct-to-consumer or to other businesses (or both), SAP Commerce Cloud supports it. It can handle complex B2B scenarios – like custom pricing, large orders, or dealer networks – alongside rich B2C features, all in a single solution. This flexibility has made it popular for manufacturers and distributors going digital without losing the nuances of B2B relationships.
- Cloud scalability & resilience: Because it’s cloud-based, the platform scales dynamically to handle traffic spikes and large catalogs. Customers have reported virtually zero downtime – updates and deployments happen in the cloud with no interruption to shoppers. And when peak season hits, the infrastructure “holds up from an infrastructure and performance standpoint” even during the busiest times of year, as Carhartt’s team observed. In short, it’s built to stay online and responsive, even under pressure.
Crucially, SAP Commerce Cloud is part of the broader SAP Customer Experience (CX) portfolio, integrating natively with solutions for marketing, sales, customer data, and service. This means the commerce platform can easily tap into tools like SAP’s marketing automation (for personalized campaigns via SAP Emarsys) or SAP Customer Data Cloud (for secure customer identities and consent management). The result is an end-to-end ecosystem where AI insights and customer data flow seamlessly to deliver exceptional experiences. It’s a true omnichannel backbone for companies looking to connect with customers in the moments that matter most.
Real-World Success Stories: Innovation in Action
Perhaps the best way to discover SAP Commerce features is through the companies using it. From global retail icons to industrial B2B leaders, organizations are leveraging the platform to transform their business. Here are a few standout examples from SAP:
- Carhartt (Retail): The 135-year-old apparel brand, known for its durable workwear, rebuilt its online presence on SAP Commerce Cloud to ensure reliability and scalability. The payoff came during peak shopping seasons – Carhartt’s site has withstood holiday traffic surges without a hitch. “SAP Commerce Cloud helps us [get products to customers] when and how they want them,” said Donavan Marchywka, Carhartt’s Director of Digital Solutions, noting it stood up to the test during the busiest times of the year. With the platform’s stability, Carhartt even got the chance to rethink and improve their site design, confident that the infrastructure would support a top-notch experience.
- Coca-Cola HBC (B2B Distribution): One of the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottlers, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company operates in 29 markets – and now powers its customer ordering through SAP Commerce Cloud. The company has onboarded 160,000 business customers onto its digital ordering portal, seeing over 130,000 orders placed each month through the system. By moving to the cloud, Coca-Cola HBC accelerated its software release cycle from once every eight weeks to deploying updates every two weeks, allowing them to roll out new features and improvements four times faster than before. The result is a more flexible, self-service buying experience for restaurants and retailers stocking Coca-Cola products, with consistent service and improved data security via integration with SAP’s customer data solutions.
- Nokia (Telecom B2B): The telecom giant (focused now on network infrastructure) turned to SAP Commerce Cloud to modernize its complex order-to-cash processes for B2B clients. Nokia implemented a digital “connected” commerce system to handle orders for big-ticket network equipment with many configuration options. The result has been end-to-end order status visibility – every order now flows through a unified digital pipeline from quote to delivery. This improved orchestration has in turn led to a better customer experience for Nokia’s clients, with orders processed more efficiently and accurately. Nokia’s team also gained the agility to adapt their sales processes faster. As Irina Starikova, Nokia’s Head of Enterprise Applications, shared, the SAP Commerce Cloud-based solution became the “heart” of their digital order management, bringing newfound efficiency and customer-centricity to a very complex B2B environment.
These are just a few illustrations. From Nestlé to Nokia, Miele to Mitsubishi Fuso, organizations across industries are leveraging SAP Commerce Cloud to stay ahead of the curve. Even public sector bodies like Christchurch City Council in New Zealand have used it to create modern, user-friendly online experiences for their constituents. The common theme in all these stories is how a flexible, robust ecommerce platform can drive real-world results – whether that’s higher sales growth, faster innovation cycles, or completely new digital business models.
The Future of Ecommerce Is Now
As we stand in 2025, it’s clear that the “future of ecommerce” we talked about a few years ago has well and truly arrived. In many ways, reality has caught up to – and even surpassed – the vision. AI is delivering personal shopping experiences at scale, mobile and social commerce are second nature, and cloud platforms have made constant innovation possible. Companies like those we’ve highlighted – from Carhartt to Coca-Cola HBC – are not just predicting the future, they’re living it, using these tools to delight customers and drive growth every day.
And this is only the beginning. The trajectory of ecommerce growth is set to continue, with the number of online buyers worldwide projected to reach 3.7 billion by 2028. New technologies (think more immersive AR/VR shopping, or AI-driven customer service agents that get ever smarter) will further blur the line between digital and physical commerce. The most successful brands will be those that remain agile and customer-centric, ready to meet shoppers wherever they go next.
In this dynamic environment, SAP Commerce Cloud stands out as a platform that not only embraces the future but helps democratize it. It gives businesses the kind of advanced capabilities – from composable architecture to intelligent analytics – that once were the domain of only the biggest ecommerce giants. Now, any company with the right vision can deliver world-class online experiences backed by solid technology and data-driven insight.
The future of ecommerce is here, today, in the solutions and stories we’ve discussed. And perhaps the most exciting part is imagining what comes next. With the foundation in place, retailers and brands are freer than ever to dream up new ways to engage shoppers. The next chapter of this story will be written by those who dare to innovate and leverage these powerful tools. For consumers, that means shopping will keep getting more convenient, more personal, and more inspiring. For businesses, it means an era of opportunity – the chance to build loyalty and growth in ways we’re only beginning to explore.
The message as 2025 unfolds is an inspiring one: The future of ecommerce isn’t some far-off horizon – it’s here, and it’s happening now. Companies that recognize this and act on it are already seeing the results. The only question is, what bold transformation will we witness next? Whatever it is, one thing is certain: it’s a great time to be part of the ecommerce revolution, because the future is now – and it’s brighter than ever.