SAP ECC and BigCommerce integration

What moves between them

The main flow is BigCommerce into SAP ECC. When a new order is placed or updated in BigCommerce, the webhook fires with the order ID. ml-connector fetches the full order and customer details from the BigCommerce REST API and posts an AR document into SAP ECC via BAPI_ACC_DOCUMENT_POST, mapped to the correct GL account and cost center for the sale. Customer records flow the same way - new or updated customers in BigCommerce trigger a BAPI_CUSTOMER_CREATE or BAPI_CUSTOMER_CHANGE call to keep the SAP customer master aligned. Shipment and refund events log to the audit trail and update AR document status in SAP. The reverse flow is optional: if your SAP ECC instance has pricing or inventory rules, you can poll SAP material master data and price lists back to BigCommerce, but this is read-only from BigCommerce side and typically managed by periodic syncs rather than webhooks.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector runs a local RFC agent (SAP .NET Connector or Java Connector) that you install on or near your SAP network. When BigCommerce sends a webhook event, ml-connector validates the HMAC-SHA256 signature using your BigCommerce client secret, then calls the BigCommerce REST API with your store-level API key to fetch the full order or customer record. ml-connector then maps BigCommerce fields to SAP - order total to a posting line with GL account and cost center, shipping address to the SAP bill-to/ship-to partner function - and calls BAPI_ACC_DOCUMENT_POST via the RFC agent, followed immediately by BAPI_TRANSACTION_COMMIT to lock the document. If the commit fails, ml-connector retries the same BAPI sequence with the same external reference number (REF_DOC_NO), and SAP detects the duplicate and rejects the second attempt, making the flow idempotent. BigCommerce has no built-in retry; if the webhook delivery itself fails, BigCommerce retries up to 11 times over 48 hours with increasing backoff. If ml-connector's endpoint success rate drops below 90% in a 2-minute window, BigCommerce blocklists the domain for 3 minutes. ml-connector tracks every RFC call, every API fetch, and every transaction commit in its audit trail so you can trace the order from BigCommerce all the way to SAP GL posting.

A real-world example

A mid-sized specialty retailer runs BigCommerce for their e-commerce storefront and SAP ECC for inventory, procurement, and finance on premises. Before the integration, when a customer placed an order on BigCommerce, the e-commerce team exported the order export at day-end and emailed the CSV to finance, who manually created AR invoices in SAP and matched them to shipped inventory. Orders often landed in the wrong cost center or with missing customer details, and month-end close involved reconciling BigCommerce sales reports against SAP AR. With SAP ECC and BigCommerce connected, each order posts to AR automatically as soon as the customer checks out, shipment confirmations update the AR document, and customer changes sync back to the SAP master. Finance sees real-time AR totals aligned with BigCommerce orders, and manual order entry is eliminated.

What you can do

• •Post BigCommerce orders and refunds into SAP ECC as AR documents, mapped to the correct GL account and cost center for each sale.
• •Keep SAP ECC customer master in sync with BigCommerce customer creates and updates, including billing and shipping addresses.
• •Validate BigCommerce webhook signatures with HMAC-SHA256 and fetch full order details from the BigCommerce REST API on every event.
• •Call SAP BAPI write functions through your on-premises RFC agent with explicit transaction commits, making the flow idempotent and traceable.
• •Audit every order, customer, and GL posting, with full visibility into RFC call sequences and BigCommerce API payloads.

Questions

How does the integration handle the fact that SAP ECC is on-premises and BigCommerce is cloud?

ml-connector requires you to deploy a local RFC agent (SAP .NET Connector or Java Connector) on or near your SAP network. The agent receives RFC calls from ml-connector via a secure tunnel and executes them inside your network, so BigCommerce data never touches your SAP server directly. Your SAP Basis team configures the agent and creates an RFC user for authentication.

Does ml-connector handle BigCommerce webhook retries and failures?

BigCommerce sends webhooks directly to ml-connector's endpoint. If delivery fails, BigCommerce retries up to 11 times over 48 hours. ml-connector validates the HMAC-SHA256 signature to ensure the webhook is authentic, then fetches the full order details from the BigCommerce API. If the SAP BAPI call fails, ml-connector retries with the same external document number, and SAP detects the duplicate and rejects it, keeping the transaction idempotent.

What happens if an order or customer in BigCommerce has no matching cost center or GL account in SAP?

ml-connector requires you to define a mapping between BigCommerce product categories or customer segments and SAP GL accounts and cost centers before orders can post. If a mapping is missing, ml-connector logs the error to the audit trail and surfaces an alert. You then add the mapping, and ml-connector reprocesses the order on your next sync run or webhook retry.