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Slovarm: manufacturer’s B2B and D2C online store linked to SAP S/4HANA

Ball valve catalogue in the Slovarm online store on desktop and mobile

For Slovarm, a Slovak manufacturer of valves and pressure gauges, SmartBase built a single online store for businesses and consumers, connected to Slovarm’s SAP S/4HANA. The store takes prices, customers and availability from SAP and exchanges orders with it in both directions, so sales and production keep working as before. We worked on the SAP integration with EY, Slovarm’s SAP implementation partner.

Selling direct without new processes for sales and production

Slovarm had an older online store and kept its business customers’ terms, its customers, availability and orders in SAP. It wanted to sell directly to consumers as well and was concerned that a new sales channel would add processes for sales and production.

Selling directly to consumers (D2C) opens up new opportunities for a manufacturer, but it also places different demands on how the online store works. While wholesale customers buy regularly, in larger quantities and at individually negotiated prices, consumers expect a simple purchase, an easy-to-browse product range and clear information on availability. Slovarm needed to bring both ways of buying together in one online store without either one holding the other back.

For a manufacturer, online sales are also closely tied to how its sales, warehouse and production work. A new order from the online store is not just another purchase in the cart. It has to fit into the company’s existing processes.

The main requirement was an online store connected to SAP S/4HANA that would give customers a convenient way to buy online without adding another system for Slovarm’s staff to manage day to day. The store had to adapt to the way the company works, not the other way round.

Project in numbers

B2B partners
57
Moved their purchasing to the online store
Active products
6,000+
Including product variants
Delivery countries
2
Slovakia and the Czech Republic, more language versions in preparation

Systems the online store works with

SAP S/4HANA

Manufacturer’s ERP

→ Slovarm online store

  • Business customer prices and discounts
  • Customers
  • Availability
  • Orders

← SAP S/4HANA

  • Orders
  • New customers

Slovarm online store

B2B and D2C

VIES

EU register of VAT numbers

← Slovarm online store

  • VAT number check
The Slovarm online store takes business customer prices and discounts, customers, availability and orders from SAP S/4HANA and sends orders and new customers back to SAP. When a company changes its billing details, the store checks its VAT number in the EU VIES register.

The challenges Slovarm tackled with its online store from SmartBase

  1. SAP S/4HANA

    Business customer’s pricing conditions

  2. Slovarm online store

    Prices and discounts for the logged-in company

  3. Business customer

    Buys at its agreed prices

Customer pricing from SAP applies in the online store too

Challenge

Slovarm keeps its prices for business customers in SAP S/4HANA as customer-specific pricing conditions, which differ from one business customer to another. If the online store calculated them on its own, sales would have to maintain the same terms in two places, and a business customer could see a different price online from the one it agreed.

Solution

  • The online store takes prices directly from SAP S/4HANA, including the prices and discounts for each individual business customer.
  • Sales continues to manage business customers’ terms in SAP, where it kept them before, and does not re-enter them in the online store.
  • A business customer therefore sees the same price in the online store as the one agreed with Slovarm.
A search for “tlakomer” (pressure gauge) in the Slovarm online store on mobile shows the price for each result and either an “In stock” label with the quantity or “Available to order”.

Assembled-to-order goods do not look sold out, customers see when they ship

Challenge

Product availability depends on production, and part of the range is assembled to order. If the online store showed only warehouse stock, assembled goods would look unavailable even though Slovarm will deliver them.

Solution

  • The online store takes availability from SAP S/4HANA and does not hide assembled goods that are not in stock.
  • Assembled goods carry the label “Available to order” with “Usually ships within 7 working days” below it.
  • Right in the search results, for example when searching for a pressure gauge, customers can see whether an item ships from stock or will take a little longer.

A company shops in the online store

Does the company already buy from the manufacturer?

Yes

Offered a login to its account

No

It registers and the store creates it in SAP automatically

The online store recognises existing business customers and offers them a login

Challenge

A company that Slovarm already has in SAP should not be able to register as a new customer, and billing details should not change unchecked. A duplicate registration means the same business customer twice in Slovarm’s records, and the agreed terms do not apply to the new account.

Solution

  • An existing business customer does not have to register again when buying, as the store offers a login that lets the company buy on its agreed terms.
  • The online store creates new customers in SAP S/4HANA automatically, so sales does not set them up manually.
  • A company changes its billing details in a separate verification area, where its VAT number is checked in the VIES register.
PEX-AL-PEX pipe from the PEX-THERM system in the Slovarm online store by SmartBase: choosing the size changes the price per metre, the stock level in metres and the quantity step based on the coil.

Customers buy pipe by the metre and SAP gets the right unit

Challenge

Slovarm sells more than 6,000 active products in its online store, including thousands of variants that share the same properties, and not everything is sold by the piece. Each size of PEX-AL-PEX pipe from the PEX-THERM system is a separate variant with its own price per metre, bought by the metre in increments based on the coil length.

Solution

  • Product templates pass shared properties from the base product on to its variants, and attribute values are filled in bulk.
  • Thousands of variants therefore do not have to be entered in the catalogue one by one.
  • The online store sells goods in different units of measure, from pieces to metres, and sends the order to SAP S/4HANA in the correct unit, so sales does not have to convert the quantities.

Business customer’s cart

Notice of overdue invoices

Business customers with long-overdue invoices settle them first

Challenge

A business customer whose payments are overdue beyond what Slovarm’s rules allow should not keep placing orders. In an online store where a company places orders on its own and at any time, this rule has to apply even without a sales rep.

Solution

  • In the cart, such a business customer sees a notice that it must first settle its outstanding invoices, and it completes the new order once they are settled.
  • Slovarm sets the overdue threshold, and the online store simply applies it.
A customer account in the Slovarm online store on a phone: the order history and an order detail with its status, a downloadable proforma invoice and payment by bank transfer with a QR code. (The video shows sample data.)

The SAP integration was tested with implementation partner EY

Challenge

The connection between the online store and SAP S/4HANA also had to be verified with EY, the company that implemented SAP at Slovarm. The integration determines the prices and availability customers see in the store and whether an order reaches SAP correctly.

Solution

  • We tested the integration three-way, together with Slovarm and EY.
  • Working with EY went smoothly and at a high technical level, and for the open issues from testing we always found the best solution together.

Direct sales added, sales and production processes unchanged

Businesses and consumers now buy in one online store that delivers orders to customers in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Search rankings were preserved during the move from the old store, so customers still find Slovarm in search engines after the change. The store runs on the SmartBase E-commerce platform with the Apache Airflow task scheduler. Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, Serbian and English language versions are on the way, and Slovarm can prepare a new market in catalogue mode and publish it only at launch.

Customers
Businesses (B2B)Consumers (D2C)
Systems
SAP S/4HANAVIES
On behalf of SLOVARM a.s., I can rate our cooperation with SmartBase s.r.o. on our new online store very positively. The project, which we launched in February 2026 as a new sales channel for our customers, ran smoothly, above all thanks to SmartBase’s professional approach and project management. I value their expertise, their constructive cooperation with our SAP partner EY (Ernst & Young) and, above all, their professional approach to the customer. SmartBase have shown that they are a reliable partner who can manage a complex project efficiently and bring it to a successful end in line with the customer’s requirements and expectations.
Ing. Peter Jakovlev
Sales Director, Slovarm
Frequently asked questions

Questions about an online store connected to SAP

Yes, valve manufacturer Slovarm sells this way in an online store by SmartBase that takes prices, availability and orders from SAP S/4HANA. Direct sales therefore do not bring a new system for prices and customers, and sales manages them where it always has.

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