Siemens simplifies complex customer journeys with Commerce Cloud

Outgrowing a legacy platform

Siemens provides industrial automation, electrification, software, and digital services that help manufacturers run factories and production lines. Behind that global business is a massive B2B commerce operation. Industrial buying is complex, spanning extensive portfolios, product configurations, account-specific conditions, regional requirements, and post-purchase needs. As digital expectations evolved, Siemens’ legacy on-premises commerce platform lacked the flexibility and personalization needed to keep pace.

Those limitations also fragmented the customer journey. Customers ordered spare parts outside Industry Mall, Siemens’ main B2B product and ordering portal, and moved between newer and legacy experiences. With billions in sales flowing through the platform, Siemens needed to modernize without disrupting the business, making a phased regional rollout essential.

A connected industrial journey

Siemens designed SiePortal as a connected digital customer platform for industrial products, services, and support, with Commerce Cloud powering commerce across the experience. Professionals can move from discovering and selecting the right offering to configuring, purchasing, operating, and getting support in one connected journey.

For example, a buyer managing a factory can explore Siemens’ portfolio, configure eligible products and solutions to specific technical requirements, and purchase from more than 400,000 hardware SKUs. Later, they can return to SiePortal to reorder familiar components or get support — making commerce part of an ongoing customer relationship rather than a standalone transaction.

Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace (SXMP) broadens that digital experience with an open marketplace featuring Siemens and third-party offerings. A manufacturer modernizing a production line, for example, can explore software, hardware and software bundles, and subscriptions, then purchase the combination that meets their needs in one place.

Unified context powers every order

Salesforce commerce, data and integration capabilities support the Siemens-designed experience. MuleSoft and Data 360 create a connected flow of product and customer data that helps SiePortal offer accurate, relevant buying experiences.

MuleSoft connects catalog, inventory, pricing, and account-specific information from SAP, ERP, and AWS into the commerce platform. Through zero-copy integration, Data 360 can also access installed products, order history, service contracts, and financial data held in Snowflake and the Siemens Data Cloud without moving or duplicating it.

As buyers move from browsing to purchase, Commerce Cloud uses the latest product and account data to apply the correct catalog, pricing, and account details, allowing them to complete routine orders without a sales rep. A headless architecture lets Siemens control the custom, customer-facing experience while Salesforce powers the commerce and transaction logic behind the scenes. 

With this foundation in place, Siemens envisions adding a Data 360 personalization layer for authenticated customers. In the future, Data 360 will be able to combine a signed-in customer’s account information with their purchasing and click behavior and use those signals to shape the content and product recommendations they see.

Ecommerce at enterprise scale

SiePortal’s scale shows how deeply digital commerce is embedded in Siemens’ customer relationships. In FY25, 880,000 carts were checked out, while the platform serves 1.4 million registered users globally and sees 165,000 visits per working day. More than 400,000 products are actively sold through the experience.

For customers, the impact extends beyond checkout. They face fewer handoffs as they discover, configure, purchase, and get support, with relevant product, pricing, and account information along the way. Routine and repeat tasks become easier to handle through self-service, while SiePortal provides continuity into operation and support.

Behind that experience is a transformation combining Siemens’ industrial expertise, global operating model, and customer insight with Salesforce commerce technology. A cross-functional program coordinates platform capabilities, regional rollout, and continuous improvements to the experience. A repeatable rollout model gives regions a consistent core while accommodating local commercial and process requirements.

That foundation also creates new possibilities for more natural interactions. “I hope we are moving to a world where we don't have to ask anybody anymore to fill out a form,” said Ralf Spanheimer, Head of Sales Effectiveness within Smart Infrastructure. “I hope it’s purely a natural interaction between the machine and the human being to do the right things, in the right moment. That's where agents will help humans the most.”