SAP SE is coming out with new e-commerce service the company is aiming at small- to medium-sized consumer goods manufacturers and merchants that want to quickly launch a “pop-up” online store.

The service will be based on SAP Upscale Commerce, a software-as-a-service that SAP will initially make available in North America. SAP has launched a pilot program for the service  in the United States with New Era Cap, a manufacturer and marketer of logoed headwear for major league baseball and other sports teams and leagues, SAP executives said today at SAP Customer Experience Live, an event the software company is hosting for its customers in Barcelona, Spain.

Pricing and other specific service features of SAP Upscale weren’t yet available, though SAP said it “was designed for the specific needs of mid-market accounts with limited budgets for software and implementation.” Under the SaaS, or software-as-a-service model, users will pay a monthly or annual fee to access it via a web browser without having to run it on their own infrastructure.

Alex Atzberger, president, SAP Customer Experience

“Many mid-market companies want to be able to deploy smaller brands and pop-up stores in just a few days to test new products and materials,” said Alex Atzberger, president of SAP Customer Experience. He added that SAP is looking for up to 20 companies, including manufacturers and merchants, to help pilot and build out SAP Upscale Commerce.

Compared with the longer timeframe it takes to code and build out an entire B2B or B2C e-commerce site, SAP says Upscale Commerce, deployed in a SaaS model, requires no coding and can build a new commerce desktop or mobile site enhanced with artificial intelligence and online payment options in as few as seven days, the company says.

SAP Upscale uses cloud applications and artificial intelligence to target mobile shoppers “to see what is available in the store they are in and where products are available in not in that store by using their mobile phone,” SAP says.

SAP sees its new Upscale e-commerce SaaS product as a complement to its SAP Commerce Cloud software suite, which includes software formerly known as SAP Hybris. Commerce Cloud is part of the broader SAP C/4HANA customer experience suite that also includes SAP Sales Cloud, which incorporates sales management software formerly known as CallidusCloud. “SAP Upscale “is meant for companies that want a rapid deployment of a pop-up site to take advantage of an immediate opportunity or evaluate new ones,” Atzberger said.

SAP also introduced in Barcelona today the SAP Cloud Platform Extension Factory, which it expects to make available next year. It described the platform as a set of “agile, open-source tools” designed to let users quickly customize and extend software applications connected via APIs. APIs, or application programming interfaces, are sets of software instructions integrating and sharing data among disparate software applications.

“SAP Cloud Platform Extension Factory is designed to benefit especially those businesses most impacted by digital transformation,” he said. “It provides the tools to quickly solve their transformation challenge by offering the capability to build innovative services and own disruptive offerings themselves to outpace newer niche brands.”

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