Huntsman Corporation, a global provider of differentiated and specialty chemicals, relied on SAP Commerce Cloud as a cornerstone of its digital commerce strategy. However, the existing portal - built on an older, private cloud version of SAP Commerce - was approaching end of life status, threatening continuity and future growth.
Beyond the technical urgency of upgrading the platform, another strategic issue became clear: the legacy setup was only tailored to support a single business division. This created limitations for onboarding new divisions and delivering consistent experiences for a broader set of B2B customers.
Faced with these challenges, Huntsman sought a solution that would modernize its commerce foundation while improving scalability, flexibility and long-term operational efficiency.
we+ worked with Huntsman to design an approach that went beyond a simple migration — addressing both current needs and future ambitions.
The core design objectives were:
Architectural flexibility - enable the platform to support multiple business divisions without separate custom development for each.
Loose coupling to ERP systems - introduce an integration layer so the commerce portal is not tightly bound to a specific SAP ERP installation.
Support for future scale - ensure that adding new divisions or changing backend systems requires configuration, not heavy code work.
Collaborative alignment - engage stakeholders early to define functional requirements and prioritize business value.
The design focused on transforming the SAP Commerce setup into a future-ready, extensible platform that can grow with Huntsman’s evolving business needs.
The delivery phase was executed through structured collaboration between we+ and Huntsman’s internal teams.
Requirements alignment and planning
we+ facilitated workshops with key stakeholders to define the scope of existing functionality and identify opportunities for architectural improvement. This upfront alignment ensured clarity on priorities and expectations.
Rebuild with scalability in mind
Rather than performing a like-for-like migration, we+ implemented a rebuild of the SAP Commerce Cloud platform that supports:
A headless, loosely coupled architecture between the storefront and backend
An intermediary API layer that dispatches ERP requests without embedding ERP-specific logic into the portal
A flexible foundation where onboarding new business units is primarily done via configuration
Agile execution and collaboration
Development was structured in an agile way, with continuous involvement from Huntsman’s stakeholders, including sprint planning, demos and user-acceptance testing. This collaboration ensured that functional quality, architectural goals and stability were achieved at each phase.
Quality and stability through co-testing
Huntsman played a significant role in testing, including sprint testing and organized user acceptance testing (UAT), contributing to a stable go-live with minimal business-critical issues.
The upgraded SAP Commerce portal delivered strong value across both technical and business priorities.
Flexible and future-proof platform
The solution now supports multiple divisions - onboarding new units requires mostly configuration rather than custom development.
Decoupled ERP integration
With the API layer in place, the portal can adapt to changes in backend systems without significant redevelopment.
Improved operational efficiency
Internal users benefit from reduced time spent on non-value-added activities, and the platform is more effective and easier to maintain.
Enhanced user experience
External customers experience a more user-friendly portal with greater reliability and performance.
By addressing both architectural modernization and business scalability, the project helped Huntsman strengthen its digital commerce foundation while reducing total cost of ownership and accelerating time to market for new divisions.