Shopify vs. Sana Commerce: How to Choose the Most Suitable E-commerce Solution for Your Business

Choosing the right e-commerce solution could make or break your business — in many cases, quite literally. It doesn’t matter whether you're an established company looking to streamline operations, or a new player aiming to hit the ground running — your choice of an e-commerce platform can significantly impact the growth trajectory of your business. 

In this article, we look at two widely popular e-commerce solutions: Shopify and Sana Commerce. We sum up the benefits, features, interface, integrations, and other characteristics that you should consider before committing to an e-commerce solution.

Shopify: Popular, Flexible, Customisable

The solution is renowned for its user-friendly interface and exceptional flexibility. Much-loved by B2C businesses and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it’s a great choice for those who prioritise design, value customisation, and general user-friendliness. Here are some of the most appreciated features:
 

User-Friendly Interface Well-designed drag-and-drop features make it simple for businesses to launch and manage their online stores even without deep technical knowledge.	Design Flexibility Shopify offers a wide variety of themes and templates that you can customise. That’s why it’s a popular choice for businesses looking to build a visually appealing online store without having to hire an agency.
Integrations & Apps Generous support of an extensive app marketplace allows businesses to integrate with various third-party tools when using Shopify. Think payment gateways, marketing automation tools, customer service platforms, and more. Pretty much all the integrations a business may need are there for you to grab!	B2C Focus Having been built with primarily a B2C model in mind, Shopify is best suited for businesses that sell products directly to consumers. Its flexibility, combined with low operational complexity, makes it an obvious choice for B2C online retailers.

→ NOTE: If your company operates within the Microsoft ecosystem, you’d be happy to hear that Microsoft and Shopify have joined forces a few years ago. That means integrating Shopify with your business systems got easier, seamless and pretty much out-of-the-box. And Pimics uses this to our customers’ advantage.
 

Sana Commerce: Perfect for Businesses That Need Deep Integration with their ERP

Although Sana Commerce is also perfectly usable as a B2C e-commerce solution, its customers tend to be B2B businesses. It’s mostly due to its tight integration with ERP systems like SAP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. 

Here's where Sana Commerce shines:

ERP Integration Sana Commerce seamlessly integrates with both Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP, a power couple among ERP systems. The integration goes deep and ensures that product data, pricing, and inventory are synchronised and working in real-time. A solution that helps companies reduce errors and increase efficiency.	Customer-Specific Pricing Allowing businesses to easily manage complex pricing structures (including customer-specific pricing) is a typical requirement for B2B transactions. Sana Commerce delivers excellence in this respect, overpowering Shopify with features like individualised pricing, discounts, and tailored catalogues.
B2B Flexibility Handling large, complex catalogues and product data with ease makes Sana Commerce ideal for the B2B environment. Features like reordering capabilities and customer account management are crucial for this segment.	Stability & Security As a platform designed with enterprise needs in mind, Sana Commerce is built to scale according to your business needs. It’s a secure and reliable platform that provides a strong foundation for B2B companies looking to expand their digital footprint.

 

Your Cheat Sheet for E-commerce Shopping

During our 20+ years of practice, we implemented Pimics at companies of various sizes, operating in numerous countries and industries. We humbly think that our summed-up experience might help you choose the most suitable e-commerce platform for your business — so we’ve put together the following cheat sheet to help you.

Before committing to an e-commerce solution, honestly answer the following questions:

1. What type of business model do you have?

• B2B, B2C, or both? Consider also the desired future outcome and how you would like to scale your business.

2. What’s your product range? Ever-growing, large, smallish?

• Do you have a large, complex product catalogue? Do your products differ in many attributes (sizes, colors, variations)? Sum up how you need/want to handle your product data and inventory.

3. What level of customisation do you need?

• How much control do you need/want over the look and feel of your website? Do you require custom features and out-of-the-box templates?

4. What is your current tech stack, what integrations do you need?

A crucial point. For instance, if your company runs on Microsoft products, implementing an e-commerce solution will get much easier if you choose one that already has an out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft. (Both Shopify and Sana Commerce do. Sana Commerce ticks the box also for SAP users — Shopify doesn’t.)

5. How complex are your business processes?

• Review and describe your processes — supply chain, inventory management, customer journey. Consider the nature of your internal systems (ERP, CRM, and others) and find out which available e-commerce solutions offer out-of-the-box integrations with the systems you’re using. 

6. What’s your budget for initial setup and ongoing costs?

• How much are you willing to invest upfront in platform setup, as well as in maintenance and transaction fees down the line? Budget thoroughly (don’t forget to add a buffer), then look for a solution within your price range.

7. Do you see yourself scaling your business?

• If the answer is yes, you need an e-commerce platform that is easily scalable. Do you plan to expand to markets abroad? Choose an e-commerce solution that enables multiple languages and localisation.

8. How in-depth are your reporting and analytics requirements?

• Does the platform provide in-depth analytics for tracking sales, customer behavior, and inventory?

9. What’s your team’s technical expertise?

• Do you have in-house technical experts, or do you need a platform that’s easy for non-technical teams to manage? 

10. What’s your plan for mobile e-Commerce?

• Does the platform offer responsive, mobile-first design to ensure a seamless experience for customers using smartphones and tablets? (Note: This point would most likely be relevant primarily for B2C businesses.)

11. How much stock do you put in security and compliance?

• Does the platform meet industry standards for security? Is it compliant with regulations like GDPR, AML, does it offer fraud prevention tools?

12. How well does the platform support customer experience features?

• Does the platform offer tools to personalize the shopping experience, recommend products, or offer live chat and other support features? (Again, this would be more relevant to B2C-oriented websites.)

Inspiration from Real Life 

In the end, it all comes down to what your business needs. Here’s an example from our Pimics portfolio: an international company that operates in multiple countries. Vafo is a premium pet food seller, and we’re in touch with three branches — Vafo Sweden, Vafo Germany and Vafo Czech Republic. As their operations vary slightly in each country, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution:
 

• Vafo Sweden uses Shopify as their e-commerce platform of choice. 
• Vafo Germany is moving to Shopify from Shopware at the moment. 
• Vafo Czech Republic picked Sana Commerce as the ideal solution for them. 

Here are some other examples of Shopify and Sana Commerce users in our client portfolio: 

Pimics: A Seamless Fit for Both Platforms

At Pimics, we know both Shopify and Sana Commerce solutions inside out. Both platforms are tailored for the Microsoft ecosystem, as is Pimics. We’ve developed an out-of-the-box integration solution for both Shopify and Sana Commerce, making the connection as seamless and hassle-free as it can possibly be.

Got you interested? Get in touch: