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Salesforce B2B Commerce Implementation with SAP S/4HANA ERP and Akeneo PIM Integration for Rexel

Salesforce B2B Commerce implementation, SAP S/4HANA ERP integration & Akeneo PIM architecture for global electrical distribution and enterprise account-based commerce

Salesforce B2B Commerce Implementation with SAP S/4HANA ERP and Akeneo PIM Integration for Rexel

Project Summary

Elogic Commerce partnered with Rexel, a global distributor of electrical supplies, automation components, and energy solutions, to design and implement a Salesforce B2B Commerce platform integrated with SAP S/4HANA ERP and Akeneo PIM. The initiative unified enterprise commerce, customer relationship management, product information, and ERP-driven operations into a single account-based commerce ecosystem serving large industrial buyers, contractors, infrastructure project teams, and contract customers.

Managing 300k+ SKUs across electrical, automation, and energy product categories with contract pricing and complex procurement workflows, Rexel required a platform combining the CRM-native intelligence of Salesforce with the transactional rigor of SAP S/4HANA and the product data depth of Akeneo.

Key Outcomes

39%

reduction in manual order processing through automated SAP S/4HANA order injection and validation

41%

increase in self-service order placement among enterprise procurement teams

99.7%

real-time inventory accuracy between Salesforce B2B Commerce and SAP S/4HANA

Client

Rexel

Industry

Electrical distribution / Energy solutions / Industrial automation / B2B distribution

Region

Global operations

Platform

Salesforce B2B Commerce (Salesforce Commerce Cloud B2B)

Project type

Salesforce B2B Commerce implementation + SAP S/4HANA integration + Akeneo PIM integration + account-based commerce architecture

Integrations

SAP S/4HANA ERP, Akeneo PIM, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud, middleware orchestration layer, payment gateway, tax engine, shipping carriers

Timeframe

Multi-phase implementation; ongoing engineering partnership

About the Client

Rexel is a global leader in the distribution of electrical products, industrial automation components, and energy solutions, serving contractors, industrial enterprises, infrastructure projects, and utility customers across multiple international markets. The company operates a complex multi-country B2B distribution model spanning large enterprise procurement organizations, contract-based pricing agreements, multi-region operational structures with localized assortments, and extensive SKU complexity across electrical and industrial supply chains.

Before the engagement, Rexel’s digital commerce ecosystem was supported by SAP S/4HANA as the core ERP system handling pricing, inventory, contract management, and order fulfillment, while Salesforce served as the CRM system managing account relationships and sales operations. Product data was fragmented across multiple internal and supplier systems, creating inconsistencies in catalog management and limiting the scalability of digital procurement experiences. Leadership prioritized a unified enterprise commerce architecture connecting CRM intelligence, ERP execution, and product data governance into a single scalable B2B commerce platform aligned with multi-country contract customer modernization and digital procurement expansion priorities.

Project Complexity

This engagement combined CRM-driven commerce architecture with ERP integration complexity and large-scale product data management across a global electrical and industrial catalog.

Salesforce-native commerce architecture

Salesforce B2B Commerce operates within the broader Salesforce ecosystem with deep ties to Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and account workflows. The platform had to leverage account intelligence, opportunity context, and customer engagement history from the existing Salesforce environment while serving as a transactional channel for enterprise buyers across multiple international markets.

SAP S/4HANA as an authoritative system of record

SAP S/4HANA owns customer master data, contract pricing, inventory, payment terms, credit holds, and fulfillment. Integration had to handle high-volume bidirectional sync, real-time inventory for enterprise procurement workflows, contract-specific pricing precedence, and order injection with validation against SAP credit and contract rules.

Account-based pricing across enterprise customers

Rexel’s enterprise base operated under negotiated contract pricing with customer-specific price lists, volume breaks, SKU-level overrides, and entitlement rules. Replicating this in Salesforce B2B Commerce required deterministic synchronization from SAP with conflict resolution, audit logging, and contract precedence handling across multi-country contract structures.

Akeneo PIM as canonical product source

With 300k+ SKUs across electrical, automation, and energy product categories, Akeneo PIM was positioned as the canonical product information source feeding Salesforce B2B Commerce, while SAP S/4HANA remained the source of pricing and inventory truth.

Business Challenge

01

Fragmented commerce, CRM, and ERP systems

Customer-facing teams operated across Salesforce CRM, legacy commerce, and SAP S/4HANA without unified account intelligence at the commerce layer. Enterprise buyers experienced inconsistent pricing, fragmented account history, and limited self-service across digital channels.

02

Manual quote-to-order workflows

A significant share of enterprise activity originated through field sales, inside sales, and account managers handling quotes, contract negotiations, and order entry manually. Each transaction required contract validation, pricing verification, and manual SAP entry, consuming capacity that could otherwise be directed toward account development and contract expansion.

03

ERP-dependent pricing and inventory complexity

Pricing, inventory, contract entitlements, and credit status all resided in SAP S/4HANA. The commerce platform had to defer to SAP for canonical state while delivering modern transactional performance without compromising consistency or contract precedence.

04

Product data fragmentation

Product information was distributed across SAP master data, supplier feeds, and legacy catalog systems with inconsistent specifications, missing certifications, and limited digital enrichment across the 300k+ SKU base. Akeneo PIM was selected as the canonical source but required integration with both upstream SAP and downstream Salesforce.

05

Account-based commerce expectations

Enterprise procurement teams expected account-specific catalogs, contract pricing visibility, multi-buyer hierarchies, approval workflows, and self-service quote management. These patterns standard commerce platforms could not support without significant CRM integration depth.

Elogic's Solution

Salesforce B2B Commerce Implementation

Elogic Commerce implemented Salesforce B2B Commerce with account-based storefronts tied to Salesforce account records, customer-specific catalogs driven by SAP contract entitlements, role-based purchasing permissions, quote-to-order workflows integrated with Salesforce opportunities, multi-buyer purchasing hierarchies, and procurement self-service tools including order history, invoice visibility, quick reorder, and saved purchase lists. The platform was architected to leverage existing Salesforce account intelligence while serving as the transactional channel for enterprise buyers across Rexel’s multi-country operations.

SAP S/4HANA Integration via Middleware Orchestration

Elogic Commerce developed a middleware-mediated SAP S/4HANA integration providing bidirectional synchronization across customers, products, contract pricing, inventory, and orders. The middleware handled queue management, idempotent retry semantics, dead-letter handling, and reconciliation jobs. Six primary data flows were implemented: customer master sync from SAP to Salesforce, contract pricing sync with precedence handling, product data sync coordinated with Akeneo, real-time inventory availability, order injection from Salesforce to SAP with validation and credit hold checking, and order status callbacks pushing fulfillment and shipping updates back to the storefront. Synchronization accuracy reached 99.7% across all flows.

Akeneo PIM Integration and Product Data Architecture

Akeneo PIM was integrated as the canonical product information source for 300k+ SKUs across electrical, automation, and energy product categories. Product attributes, technical specifications, certifications, images, documentation, and category structures were managed in Akeneo and synchronized into Salesforce B2B Commerce on a scheduled cadence with delta detection. SAP S/4HANA remained the source of pricing and inventory truth, while Akeneo provided enriched product context for digital discovery, advanced filtering, and procurement search.

Account-Based Pricing and Contract Commerce

Account-based pricing was implemented through deterministic synchronization of SAP S/4HANA contract data into Salesforce B2B Commerce price structures, with customer-specific catalogs, volume break tiers, SKU-level overrides, and contract precedence rules. Contract entitlements, payment terms, credit limits, and currency assignments were inherited from SAP customer master records and applied at the account-storefront level. Enterprise buyers saw consistent contract-specific pricing across browsing, quote, and checkout flows.

Salesforce-Native Quote-to-Order Workflows

Quote-to-order workflows were implemented natively within the Salesforce ecosystem, allowing sales representatives and inside sales teams to generate quotes from Salesforce opportunities, apply contract pricing adjustments, route quotes through approval chains, and convert approved quotes directly into Salesforce B2B Commerce orders that synchronized to SAP S/4HANA. The workflow unified field sales activity, CRM intelligence, and digital order capture into a single quote-to-cash motion.

Embedded Engineering Partnership

Following launch, Elogic Commerce transitioned into a long-term embedded engineering role covering platform enhancements, SAP S/4HANA integration evolution, Akeneo PIM optimization, account-based commerce expansion, and performance monitoring.

Results & Business Impact

Digital commerce adoption

41%

increase in self-service order placement among enterprise procurement teams

Compressed

quote-to-order cycle time through Salesforce-native workflows integrated with ERP pricing

Increased

enterprise buyer engagement with digital self-service tools across account segments

Operational efficiency

39%

reduction in manual order processing through SAP S/4HANA order injection automation

+

sales team capacity redirected from order entry toward account development and contract expansion

Eliminated

pricing discrepancies between commerce and ERP systems.

ERP integration health

99.7%

real-time inventory accuracy between Salesforce B2B Commerce and SAP S/4HANA

Synchronized

contract pricing deterministically while respecting SAP precedence rules.

Reduced

order injection failures through middleware validation and idempotent retry logic

Product data and CRM convergence

300k+

SKUs unified across Akeneo PIM and Salesforce B2B Commerce

+

Salesforce account intelligence applied directly at the commerce layer for enterprise buyers

+

Sales representatives operate within a unified quote-to-cash motion across CRM and commerce

Capabilities Demonstrated

01

Salesforce B2B Commerce implementation

including account-based storefronts, customer-specific catalogs, role-based permissions, and procurement self-service tools

02

SAP S/4HANA integration engineering via middleware orchestration

with bidirectional synchronization of customers, contract pricing, inventory, and orders

03

Middleware architecture design

with queue management, idempotent retry, dead-letter handling, and reconciliation tooling

04

Akeneo PIM integration

as canonical product source feeding Salesforce B2B Commerce across 300k+ SKUs

05

Account-based pricing architecture

synchronizing SAP contract data into Salesforce B2B Commerce price structures

06

Salesforce-native quote-to-order workflows

integrated with Sales Cloud opportunities and SAP order injection

07

CRM and commerce convergence architecture

leveraging Salesforce account intelligence at the transactional layer

08

Embedded engineering delivery model

for long-term Salesforce B2B Commerce evolution and enterprise integration maintenance

Best Fit For

global electrical distribution, energy solutions, and industrial automation businesses

enterprise B2B distributors managing large technical catalogs across multi-country operations

companies running SAP S/4HANA ERP with Salesforce as the CRM system of record

organizations requiring CRM-driven commerce with deep account intelligence at the transactional layer

enterprises needing Akeneo, integration alongside Salesforce B2B Commerce

B2B sellers transitioning from manual or fragmented commercial workflows to a unified quote-to-cash motion

When This Solution Is a Good Fit

This approach is ideal for companies that:

01

Operate enterprise B2B commerce with negotiated contracts and account-specific pricing structures

02

Rely on SAP S/4HANA as the system of record for pricing, inventory, contracts, and orders

03

Have Salesforce established as the CRM platform with significant account and opportunity intelligence

04

Manage large industrial or technical catalogs requiring PIM-driven product data enrichment

05

Require account-based commerce with multi-buyer hierarchies, approval workflows, and contract precedence

06

Need unified quote-to-cash motion connecting field sales, inside sales, and digital commerce

Planning a Salesforce B2B Commerce Implementation?

If your organization is building enterprise B2B commerce with Salesforce at the core, SAP S/4HANA or comparable ERP as the system of record, and Akeneo as the PIM, Elogic Commerce helps global distributors and manufacturers design CRM-native commerce architectures with deep ERP integration and account-based pricing logic.

Get a free consultation