Spryker - e-commerce of the future?

Alexander Graf, Nils Seebach and Boris Lokschin are the faces of the Berlin start-up and its in-house online store system Commerce OS. It is one of the younger and more innovative e-commerce store systems on the e-commerce market and its agility is ideally suited for the "post-desktop" and "post-shop" era. ideally suited to the "post-desktop" and "post-shop" era. The existing investors Project A from Berlin, One Peak from London and the new investor TCV are also convinced of this and are investing 130 million euros in Spryker.

But what is behind the promising e-commerce solution?

Spryker sees itself as a "software construction kit", as it enables other companies to build an individually configured online store. This is made possible by the large number of modules - more than 160 - for landing pages, payment connections, product categories, stock management or shopping carts.
In this article, we explain the advantages of Commerce OS for your B2B company and whether it is the right e-commerce solution for you as an official Spryker Silver Partner.

What are the advantages of Spryker?

Spryker is an e-commerce system for medium-sized and large companies, which is suitable for companies that want to implement individualized B2B business models in an agile and, above all, fast manner.The advantages of Commerce OS for B2B companies are diverse and contemporary, as the e-commerce operating system does not see itself as a system that operates with a so-called out-of-the-box solution (OOTB).
OOTB solutions already include all operating resources when the system is installed, without the need for subsequent adaptation to the operator's requirements. Spryker pursues an extremely agile approach here. This means that the basis is not a self-contained program, but an entire island landscape of independent modules, each of which maps its own function. These are connected via APIs. This allows users to adapt Spryker to ever-changing circumstances. The system also allows easy connection to other systems via APIs. This means that Spryker is not tied to a specific front end.

Modular system structure, headless store system and diverse integration options

Individualized B2B business models are possible thanks to the large number of modules and the possibility of integrating a wide range of business software. Glue REST API is part of Spryker's e-commerce solution and is an extremely high-performance JSON RESET API that can be used as a contract between an integration or possible touchpoints and the Commerce OS Backened with a third-party system. Glue can both read and interpret API resources, as well as use function models that expose existing Spryker functions.This advantage of Spryker is of particular benefit to developers working according to the MVP approach, as modules can be excluded as a whole for the first "minimum viable product" and integrated as required.
As Spryker Commerce OS is a headless store system, there is a separation of frontend and backend (Zed and Yves). The advantage of both functions?

Development cycles are shortened, as the modular system structure leads to a faster development speed. This gives programmers the opportunity to work on both systems in parallel, keeping the risk of maintenance and development and the costs of the system low in contrast to the monolithic software architectures of classic store systems.Spryker is characterized in particular by the high quality of its modules, as these are programmed directly by Spryker and not purchased externally, unlike Shopwware, for example.

Advantages of Spryker's modular architecture at a glance

• No superfluous code in the project.
• Simple expansion of the project using the large selection of modules.
• No loss of functionality of the online store system despite testing, adding and deleting new functions.
• "Atomic release approach": New and existing modules or functions can be adopted and updated immediately after release.