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Standaard Boekhandel 

Explore how Standaard Boekhandel, one of Belgium’s largest bookstore chains, migrated from a SAP Hybris monolith to Virto Commerce’s composable platform, scaling its marketplace to 25 million+ products across B2B and B2C models.

25M+
products in catalog
1,500+
orders processed daily
200+
offline store POS integrations
2,500+
B2B clients

Key Achievement

Standaard Boekhandel migrated from a monolithic SAP Hybris platform to a composable Virto’s platform in 11 months, integrating 207 offline stores and a complex multi-channel ecosystem that includes two consumer storefronts (Dutch/Flemish and French), a dedicated e-ink reader store, a B2B portal with B2B punchout, and a library ordering channel. The platform now handles 25 million+ products and 1,500+ daily orders with real-time inventory sync across all touchpoints. 
“
With Virto Commerce, we have easily extended the product offering and improved the search functionality for Standaard Boekhandel’s two brands. We found a .NET ecommerce platform capable of processing a catalog that grew from 4 million to 15 million products in just months.
Stijn De Vos
Stijn De VosLead Expert at delaware Benelux

Challenge 

After expanding its online bookstore into a full marketplace by opening it to external sellers (publishers), Standaard Boekhandel’s product catalog exploded from 4 million to more than 15 million SKUs in a matter of months. The existing platform, SAP Hybris (later SAP Commerce Cloud), could not keep up: 

  1. Severe performance issues as the catalog scaled 
  2. Inaccurate online product availability due to the absence of real-time inventory integration 
  3. Offline store sales couldn’t update online stock, causing the ERP (AS400) to crash under sync request volume 
  4. High maintenance and adaptation costs of the legacy system 

Solution

Standaard Boekhandel partnered with delaware, a global IT consulting company, to select and implement Virto’s Commerce Innovation Platform, chosen for its composable architecture, database-agnostic design, and headless API-first approach. 

Key implementation elements: 

  • Elasticsearch for fast, relevant product search across a 25M+ SKU catalog 

  • Custom PIM developed by delaware to manage product data at scale 

  • MIP CRM for customer relationship management 

  • Power BI dashboards connected through ERP and custom databases for commercial reporting 

  • Mollie payment integration across consumer storefronts 

Result

Standaard Boekhandel’s marketplace now operates at scale across five distinct digital channels, serving B2C consumers in two languages, B2B procurement clients via SAP Punchout, library buyers through a dedicated ordering channel, and e-ink readers through a specialized storefront.  

All channels run from one composable commerce core: 

  • standaardboekhandel.be — Dutch/Flemish B2C storefront (books, stationery, gifts, leisure, e-ink, CD/DVD, games) 

  • club.be — French-language B2C storefront (Librairie, Papeterie, Cadeaux, Loisirs Créatifs) 

  • eink.standaardboekhandel.be — dedicated e-ink reader store (Tolino / Vivlio devices and content) 

  • B2B portal — SAP Punchout for corporate procurement clients 

  • Library channel — institutional book ordering for libraries 

SB results
€200M+ in annual sales 
5 digital channels, 1 platform 
525% increase in SKUs since project launch 
Hitting a record of 4,000 books sold in one day 

Business Benefits

  • Tilroy POS integration makes every offline sale register simultaneously as an online transaction — Virto becomes the single inventory source of truth across 207 stores, eliminating the crash-prone manual sync that plagued SAP Hybris.
  • Elasticsearch delivers fast, relevant product search across a catalog of 25M+ SKUs — essential for a multi-vendor marketplace where discovery speed directly affects conversion.
  • Custom PIM by delaware gives the content team full control over complex product data at scale, without the limitations of the previous monolithic system.
  • Entra ID / ADB2C with social login (Facebook, etc.) simplifies registration and authentication for consumers while meeting enterprise-grade security standards for B2B and library users.
  • SAP Punchout B2B portal allows corporate procurement clients to order directly from their existing procurement systems, reducing friction for institutional buyers.
  • Library ordering channel extends the platform’s reach to schools, public libraries, and government institutions — a distinct customer segment with specific ordering and invoicing requirements.

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