SAP Hybris Accelerator UI Deprecation

SAP Commerce Cloud customers should be aware of the Accelerator UI storefront deprecation. The Accelerator storefronts serve as sample templates and starting points for building transactional B2C and B2B websites, allowing businesses to customize rather than build from scratch.

SAP is transitioning toward new baseline offerings through the Composable Storefront framework (formerly called Spartacus), which uses AngularJS technology. The deprecated components specifically include UI templates built on older technologies like JSP and Spring.

Deprecation Rationale

The core reason for this shift centers on modernization. The older Accelerator UIs remain tightly integrated with SAP Commerce Cloud's backend systems, making updates difficult and costly. Moving to a decoupled architecture offers several advantages: simpler updates without operational disruption, reduced customization complexity, accelerated feature releases, expanded design flexibility, and improved scalability.

The article emphasizes a "headless" vision where backend and frontend systems operate independently. This separation enables retailers to implement backend upgrades without impacting customer-facing operations and facilitates innovation across multiple touchpoints—desktop, mobile, and emerging platforms.

Timeline

As of SAP Commerce Cloud's 2205 release:

• Accelerator UIs deletion: planned for no earlier than H2 2025
• OCC v1 and OCC v2 template extensions deletion: planned for H2 2023

Deprecation represents a planned future removal, giving organizations time to adapt, while deletion means permanent removal from the platform.

Modern Storefront Alternatives

Desktop options include SAP Composable Storefront, Vue Storefront, Frontastic, Salesforce Composable Storefront, Front-Commerce, or custom solutions. Mobile alternatives feature Flex Storefront, Capacitor, or custom native applications.

Preparation Steps

Organizations should: assess their Accelerator coupling level, plan API access strategies, select a forward-facing storefront option, and develop transition timelines.