At a Glance
Objective
Design and implement a B2B marketplace
Industry
B2B wholesale, with a focus on food service, hospitality, and healthcare
Technology
Turbine Kreuzberg’s wide-ranging experience in technically demanding projects and deep commerce expertise won us over in every respect.
Mercanto leads Switzerland’s B2B commerce landscape. Its mission: consolidate procurement for bakery, food service, and care providers, and connect suppliers and buyers across sectors.
With nearly 75,000 products, more than 400,000 user‑created items, and processing of 400 million prices, Mercanto sets a new technical benchmark. The business impact is substantial: In March 2025, the platform registered its one‑millionth order. By revenue, Mercanto is Switzerland’s largest B2B platform according to Carpathia’s annual ranking (2024).
Objective: Build a Connected B2B Ecosystem for Switzerland
Mercanto’s ambition is to establish an ecosystem that tightly connects Switzerland’s B2B trade. From its base in Rothenburg near Lucerne, the company is building a B2B marketplace that brings together products across food, non‑food, and healthcare, plus value‑added services – creating the central entry point for procurement in bakery, gastronomy, and care.
To achieve this, we are delivering the technical foundation. Our brief: to design and implement a high‑performance commerce architecture that scales quickly and adapts to new business models and market shifts. At its core: a commerce platform tailored to Mercanto’s target industries featuring custom pricing, supplier relationship management, inventory management, reusable shopping lists, and more. The marketplace should deliver immediate, tangible value to its users – turning the vision of a connected B2B market into day-to-day reality.
The project was initiated by Pistor AG, Switzerland’s leading wholesale and service company for the bakery, gastronomy, and healthcare sectors, founded over 100 years ago by members of the Swiss Bakers Association as a purchasing cooperative. Mercanto now brings that spirit to Swiss digital commerce as an independent company.
We knew the technological complexity would be high. With Turbine Kreuzberg at our side, we’re making great strides toward our vision of a fully connected Swiss B2B market.
Solution: B2B Marketplace with Strong Growth Potential
We built a modular commerce architecture using Spryker Commerce OS. The core combines flexibility and performance: a headless setup separating front and back end, as well as a consistently composable approach prepare the platform for continuous evolution. Capabilities are modularized and extendable via APIs and independent services.
Spryker Commerce OS as the commerce backbone
Headless architecture: front end and back end decoupled for maximum agility
Cloud‑based infrastructure for scalability and high availability
Composable, modular architecture to accelerate feature evolution
Data interfaces for flexible ERP connectivity
Apache Cassandra databank for high‑throughput processing of very large datasets
High‑performance pricing service to process 400+ million prices at speed
Vue.js for responsive, high‑quality user experiences
For buyers, Mercanto radically simplifies B2B purchasing: one login to access all suppliers, smart shopping lists, and scanner‑app integration for rapid reorders directly from storage. A cart structured by supplier and granular access controls streamline operations.
Buyer‑facing capabilities:
Single sign‑on across all purchases and suppliers
Smart shopping lists: custom product catalogs with flexible sorting (e.g., by temperature zones)
Scanner integration: an offline‑capable app to scan on‑hand products and add directly to cart
Personalized pricing: real‑time, customer‑specific prices across all product views
User and role management to define granular access rights
Business unit management (e.g., locations, kitchens)
Order templates for fast repeat purchasing
Global and supplier‑specific catalogs for full product visibility or focused on select suppliers
Supplier‑structured cart for clarity across complex orders
Data interfaces to connect industry software for seamless downstream processing
For suppliers, Mercanto provides a dedicated digital storefront with full control over assortment and pricing, robust marketing tools, and direct access to potential new customers. A dedicated supplier portal offers actionable business insights—ideal for regional specialists and international enterprises alike.
Supplier‑facing capabilities:
Digital Storefront as customizable supplier profile
Open product catalog to display items with or without prices
Marketing tools for product campaigns and editorial content
Dashboard for offer management and analytics
Data sovereignty: full control over assortment and customer data
Flexible pricing for existing and new customers
Campaign management for seasonal and promotional initiatives
Direct contact with interested buyers via forms
Reporting for data‑driven, active growth management
Challenges: Managing Complexity, Ensuring Stability
Reliability is business‑critical – especially for buyers dependent on daily fresh goods. We engineered a robust system architecture and high‑quality codebase with comprehensive automated testing. In practice: clean code, SOLID principles, and CI/CD for secure, frequent releases.
A core technical challenge was processing pricing at scale. We implemented a dedicated pricing service and architecture capable of delivering 400 million customer‑specific prices to product listings, detail pages, and search – high-performing and dependable. Apache Cassandra underpins this with linear scalability and resilience under peak load.
We also managed the migration of thousands of users via a cluster‑based approach. Existing customers were grouped by feature usage and migrated iteratively – starting with straightforward use cases (e.g., ordering and cart), followed by increasingly complex clusters. In parallel, Mercanto expanded its support team so that user feedback could feed directly into product iteration. The result: a seamless transition without interrupting business operations.
Collaboration: A Strategic Partnership as Equals
From the first workshops, Mercanto and Turbine Kreuzberg worked as one team with a shared vision and deeply integrated processes. That partnership is the foundation for the platform’s continued successful development. Two factors proved decisive: a clear target vision and mutual trust. We paired strategic key account management with the engineering team, established regular steering meetings, transparent controlling, and continuous alignment with all stakeholders.
After more than six years, the partnership is stronger than ever. “We see ourselves as one team advancing our platform with a shared vision – always at eye level and with mutual respect,” says Tobias Felbecker. “Partnerships matter to us. We live the network mindset with all our partners.”
Sarah Hoidn, Managing Director at Turbine Kreuzberg, sums it up: “Mercanto shows how a well‑designed, vision‑driven commerce infrastructure becomes a true technological business driver. For that, you need a shared goal and collaboration built on trust. And you need to celebrate the milestones – in early 2025, we hit one million orders, which we’re especially proud of. Our teams are excited for what’s next.”
Ready for more?
Let's talk ideas, challenges, needs, and solutions.
- Sarah Hoidn
- Managing Director
- sarah.hoidn@turbinekreuzberg.com
