Svenskt Tenn is one of Sweden’s most distinctive design brands. Founded in Stockholm in 1924, the company is known for its furniture, textiles, lighting, and interior objects — and for a design language built around craftsmanship, quality, and longevity.
As Svenskt Tenn evolved its digital presence, the ambition was to create an online experience with the same attention to detail as its physical flagship store in Stockholm.
But delivering that experience required more than a new storefront. Svenskt Tenn needed a modern commerce architecture capable of supporting a diverse product assortment, rich editorial storytelling, and both B2C and B2B customers — while making everyday operations simpler for the internal team.
Bringing a century-old design brand into a modern commerce architecture
Svenskt Tenn’s existing setup was creating friction behind the scenes.
Product information was distributed across different systems, while content updates could be slow and require technical support. B2C and B2B were also operated as separate sites, creating duplicated workflows and disconnected customer experiences.
At the same time, Svenskt Tenn’s assortment introduced its own complexity. Furniture, textiles, lighting, tableware, and accessories have different product attributes and storytelling requirements.
The new architecture therefore needed to support a sophisticated, highly visual storefront without forcing that complexity into a traditional all-in-one commerce platform.
The objective was to create a unified digital foundation that could:
- Support both B2C and B2B commerce.
- Handle a diverse and complex product catalog.
- Give content teams greater editorial freedom.
- Integrate cleanly with existing business systems.
- Deliver the performance expected from a premium digital experience.
Separating content and commerce
Working with NoA Ignite, Svenskt Tenn implemented a modern headless architecture with Commerce Layer providing the transactional commerce layer.
Rather than placing content, product information, and transactional logic inside a single platform, each part of the stack has a focused responsibility.
Commerce Layer handles the commerce logic and transactional operations behind the experience. Sanity acts as both the CMS and a lightweight PIM, giving Svenskt Tenn a structured environment for managing product information alongside rich editorial content.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central connects the storefront with core business data, synchronizing information including products, inventory, and customers. Auth0 provides authentication across consumer and business accounts.
The storefront itself is built with Next.js, enabling NoA Ignite to reproduce the detail, transitions, and interactions required by Svenskt Tenn’s digital design while maintaining a fast and responsive experience.
One foundation for B2C and B2B
A key part of the new architecture is the ability to serve B2C and B2B customers from the same digital foundation.
Instead of maintaining separate commerce environments, Svenskt Tenn can support both audiences through a shared architecture while still providing customer-specific functionality where required.
Business customers can access account-specific experiences, including pricing and order functionality, without forcing the organization to operate an entirely separate ecommerce platform.
For Svenskt Tenn’s team, this means fewer duplicated workflows and a more consistent way of managing commerce across customer types.
The composable technology stack
Behind the experience is a composable architecture designed to give each part of the platform a clear role. Commerce Layer provides the transactional foundation, while specialized technologies handle content, data, identity, and the frontend experience.
Capability | Technology |
|---|---|
Commerce engine | Commerce Layer |
CMS / Product information | Sanity |
ERP | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central |
Authentication | Auth0 |
Frontend | Next.js |
Implementation partner | NoA Ignite |
A digital flagship built to evolve
The result is a digital storefront designed as an extension of Svenskt Tenn’s Stockholm flagship rather than simply another ecommerce channel.
The headless frontend provides the flexibility needed to create rich product and editorial experiences across mobile, tablet, and desktop, while modern rendering and caching techniques improve storefront performance.
Behind the experience, the architecture has also changed how Svenskt Tenn operates.
Content and product information can be managed through a more unified workflow, with structured schemas and reusable content components giving marketing and ecommerce teams greater independence. Updates that previously required technical assistance can increasingly be handled directly by the teams responsible for them.
Bringing B2C and B2B onto the same foundation also removes duplicated workflows and creates greater consistency across customer journeys.
Most importantly, Svenskt Tenn now has an architecture in which each component can evolve independently. Commerce, content, ERP, identity, and frontend experiences are connected without being tightly coupled—giving the company a flexible foundation for the next generation of its digital business.
Built for craftsmanship — and change
For a brand defined by enduring design, the goal was not technology for technology’s sake.
Svenskt Tenn needed a commerce foundation that could stay behind the scenes while giving its products, stories, and distinctive visual identity room to lead the customer experience.
With Commerce Layer at the transactional core of a composable stack, Svenskt Tenn can combine that carefully crafted experience with the flexibility to evolve its digital commerce operations over time.