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TCO halved: Successful replatforming for HABA Pro 
Replatforming – step by step to a more efficient e-commerce platform
Many companies have been using their established e-commerce platform for years. While this often still fulfills its original purpose, most of these store systems are increasingly facing challenges – such as a lack of scalability, the necessary cloud migration, inefficient processes and rising maintenance and upgrade costs. It is therefore worth taking a look beyond the existing architecture and considering the possibilities of successive replatforming, especially with regard to the total cost of ownership (TCO) in e-commerce.
Reduce costs by replatofrming now
Replatforming describes the gradual migration from an existing platform to a new one without completely redeveloping the old architecture. Instead, the platform is modernized, inefficient functions are removed and processes are made more efficient.
In 2025, this often means moving to the cloud in e-commerce or switching from an existing cloud solution to a more modern, flexible and cost-effective alternative.
TCO analysis:
How HABA has reduced the TCO by almost 50%
Savings on license costs for shop systems including hosting
Savings on costs for upgrades and further development
Savings over 5 years
Performance up, costs down:
By replatforming to Emporix – instead of upgrading the existing monolithic system – HABA was able to significantly reduce both migration costs and the long-term total cost of ownership (TCO).
The biggest potential savings:
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- Lower license costs for the store system and hosting as well as peripheral systems
- Constantly increasing savings in maintenance and development costs
- No version upgrades and manual adjustments necessary
Savings in e-commerce of up to 50% – would you like to know how much you could save by replatforming? Contact us so that we can calculate your TCO!
Replatforming to Emporix/h4>
Case Study: HABA familygroup
The HABA Group develops, produces and sells high-quality products for children in the areas of toys, education, furniture and family life. By replatforming to Emporix, the internationally active family business has not only made its e-commerce solution flexible, fast and scalable – it has also significantly reduced its total cost of ownership. In our case study, you can find out how HABA reduced its TCO by 50% by replatforming to Emporix and how a calculation of the TCO during replatforming can also look for your company.
Replatforming – why it’s worth it
The advantages at a glance:
Lower-risk migration
When replatforming according to the strangler-fig pattern principle, existing functions remain active while new ones are gradually introduced. Sources of error are localized early on, and the distribution of risks over small iterations minimizes the risk of failure.
Reducing technical debt
Outdated technologies, great time pressure or technical workarounds sooner or later lead to time-consuming and cost-intensive maintenance. Replatforming removes unnecessary functions, reduces complexity and migrates to platforms with modern architecture and lower or no maintenance costs.
Flexibility and agility
Microservices make it possible for all processes, such as check-out processes, to be developed, updated or even replaced independently without affecting the product catalog or warehouse management. APIs also simplify and shorten the integration of new services.
Facilitating the use of AI
Modern platforms not only offer easier integration of AI and machine learning tools, but also enable the direct retrieval of real-time data. Cloud databases ensure the required computing power and thus support the efficient use of AI.
Scalability
Replatforming offers the possibility of efficient resource utilization and flexible adaptation to changing requirements such as seasonal peaks or product launches. With cloud technologies, server capacities are scaled automatically – without any additional hardware investments.
Improved user experience
Replatforming usually goes hand in hand with headless commerce and cloud solutions, which offer numerous advantages: faster loading times, interactive and accessible designs as well as responsive design that supports a mobile-first strategy that is indispensable today.
Efficiency booster in replatforming
Composable commerce with Orchestration Engine
The modular architecture of the composable commerce approach is the basis for the many advantages that replatforming can bring. With Composable Commerce, the technology stack of your own store can be individually assembled from best-of-breed components. Superfluous components can be easily removed, while new technologies or trends can be seamlessly integrated.
With an orchestration engine, for example from Emporix, the optimal orchestration of all processes and the seamless interaction of all integrated microservices is controlled and guaranteed.
Make your store fit for the future: our experts will be happy to show you the potential of a true composable architecture with an orchestration engine. Find out what individual benefits this approach can offer your online store!
LCS Middleware
“True Composable” for true success
A composable technology stack, as used in replatforming, only works efficiently if all building blocks can communicate seamlessly with each other. In the headless commerce approach, where backend and frontend are separated from each other, applications and microservices are integrated via standardized APIs.
Our LCS middleware based on the Lean Commerce Stack enables standardized communication between extensions, add-ons and systems. This not only creates consistency and stability in development, but also accelerates the implementation of new technologies and integrations. This keeps your system flexible, adaptable and future-proof.
Optimize processes, reduce costs
Make the right decision with Lean Commerce
The lean commerce approach guides you through the entire replatforming process – from consulting to going live. With this approach, we optimize processes in such a way that costs can be reduced and the efficiency of your e-commerce platform is sustainably increased.
Our approach is based on an analysis of your individual status quo. Based on this, we make well-founded decisions together that minimize risks and maximize opportunities at the same time. Because even if the replatforming project initially seems like a risk, with the right partner it will become the basis for your future success.
B2B and B2C commerce
The right solution for your challenge
As B2B business is fundamentally different from B2C business, companies face different challenges here. As experts in e-commerce, we know the requirements in B2B and B2C.
For example, we successfully replatformed both a B2B and a B2C store for our customer HABA. With our individually developed LCS middleware, we were able to optimize processes and implement projects efficiently – in record time. The LCS middleware enabled us to seamlessly integrate and reuse central functions in both platforms.
AI in e-commerce – replatforming is the way forward
Artificial intelligence is opening up new applications in e-commerce every day. In order to remain competitive, the technological basis in e-commerce must adapt. Replatforming offers your store the flexibility it needs to incorporate new building blocks into its architecture and seamlessly integrate new AI products with the help of APIs.
What AI offers your customers:
✓ Chatbots & voice assistants
✓ Personalization
✓ Visual Search
What AI enables internally:
✓ Fraud detection
✓ AI-based dashboards & recommendations for action
✓ Automation and process optimization
Our AI solutions
Efficient and smart recommendations
The Reco Engine provides personalized recommendations for the user without manual maintenance. Based on user data, our AI model evaluates user behavior in real time and thus always ensures that products are displayed appropriately.
Intelligent answers
Our RAG chatbot combines Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) by retrieving relevant information from existing company data and creating precise answers using a generative AI model.
In this way, the chatbot provides up-to-date, contextual and customized answers. This product can be used in customer support, corporate communications and e-commerce to improve the user experience by providing accurate and scalable information. For example, the tool can replace manual searching for tickets.
We revolutionize your search
Instead of using the search in text form as usual, our Visual Search offers the option of using specific product images for the search. Our model makes it possible to display the exact product from your database to the user based on an uploaded image.
Efficient category management with automated precision
The Category Mapper intelligently adapts categories to different formats and recognizes synonyms of your products. This allows products to be automatically added to the appropriate categories. The database thus remains consistent and user-friendly without having to manually assign products to the appropriate category.
Efficient product data preparation
The PDF Analyzer extracts information from PDFs and prepares it optimally for PIM or e-commerce systems. For example, the content of data sheets can be arranged on the product detail page. The available data sheet (PDF) is converted into an image and can thus be read by the AI and converted into a text document. As modern automation reaches its limits, our AI model takes over the work and ensures maximum precision.
Replatforming as a solution for the move to the cloud
Are you using an SAP Commerce on-premise solution and facing the challenge of a cloud migration? We will be happy to advise you on all the options for your upcoming challenge – whether move-to-cloud, extended support or replatforming to another e-commerce platform. We will advise you in all directions and find the most effective way!
FAQ Replatforming
Replatforming means transferring an existing software application to a new platform without developing it from scratch. This involves adapting, optimizing or modernizing parts of the application, for example to make it cloud-compatible or to improve performance.
Replatforming in the context of cloud migration involves moving an application to the cloud, whereby certain components are changed or optimized – e.g. by switching from a self-hosted database to a cloud-based database service. The aim is to utilize the advantages of the cloud (scalability, performance, maintainability) without having to completely rewrite the application.
Rehosting (Lift & Shift): The application is migrated to the cloud without any changes. Fast, but without optimization.
Replatforming: The application is adapted to harmonize better with the new platform, e.g. by using native cloud services.
Rebuilding (refactoring): The application is completely redeveloped to take full advantage of the new platform.
Replatforming is particularly worthwhile for companies that:
- have high operating costs with their current IT infrastructure or e-commerce platform,
- use outdated systems that are expensive to maintain and develop,
- do not have the budget or capacity for a complete redevelopment (rebuilding),
- but still want to benefit from cloud advantages such as automatic scaling, improved performance and lower hosting costs.
FAQ TCO (Total cost of ownership)
TCO stands for Total Cost of Ownership and refers to the total costs incurred over the entire service life of a product, software or infrastructure. This includes not only the acquisition costs, but also operation, maintenance, training and support.
TCO is calculated by adding up all the direct and indirect costs of a system over a defined useful life. These include:
- Acquisition costs (e.g. licenses, hardware)
- Operating costs (hosting, electricity, personnel)
- Maintenance and support costs
- Training costs
- Migration or integration costs
In e-commerce, the TCO includes, among other things:
- License costs for store systems
- Hosting and infrastructure costs (e.g. cloud services)
- Developer costs for customization and maintenance
- Integrations with third-party providers (payment, shipping, ERP)
- Downtime costs in the event of updates or problems
- Scalability and performance during traffic peaks
Replatforming can reduce TCO in the long term by replacing outdated or inefficient systems with modern, scalable solutions. Although migration costs are incurred in the short term, better performance, lower maintenance costs and optimized infrastructure costs reduce the total cost of ownership over time.
