Northeast Battery SuiteCommerce Case Study

Stored Energy Holdings, Inc (SEHI) needed five distinct ecommerce websites to operate from one SuiteCommerce Advanced license while connecting customer data across multiple NetSuite subsidiaries—without looking or behaving like five copies of the same site.

The company also wanted customers to be able to log in once and view transactions across multiple NetSuite subsidiaries. Add customer-specific charges for battery cores, customized checkout workflows, duplicate-account prevention, and expanded online purchasing, and this quickly became more than a standard NetSuite implementation.

Anchor Group provided the NetSuite custom development and SuiteCommerce expertise needed to connect it all while keeping the complex project close to its original scope.

SEHI and anchor group project at a glance

Project Snapshot

Client: Stored Energy Holdings, Inc (SEHI)
Industry: Battery and stored-energy product distribution
Project: Multi-domain SuiteCommerce Advanced implementation
Platform: SuiteCommerce Advanced and NetSuite
Key customizations: Five domains on one license, multi-subsidiary transaction visibility, customer-specific core charges, unique-email validation, customer permissions, custom extensions, and customized checkout workflows
Key solution areas: Multi-domain ecommerce, multi-subsidiary customer portal, customer access & permissions, core-charge & checkout customization, NetSuite-connected online ordering, Custom extensions
Outcome: A connected ecommerce experience that supports online purchasing and gives customers one place to view transactions across multiple subsidiaries

One Battery Network, Five Website Experiences

SEHI previously operated five static websites that were not connected to NetSuite or its ERP data. Customers could not purchase products online or access their account history and balances. The company wanted to bring all five domains under one SuiteCommerce Advanced license while preserving each site’s distinct content and customer experience.

It also wanted to create one source of truth where customers could find products and review orders and transaction histories across every relevant subsidiary.

Challenge accepted.

NetSuite Custom Development for Five Domains

SuiteCommerce Advanced can support multiple domains on one license. However, when domains share the same implementation, changes to Site Management content tend to apply across every site, presenting a fairly large problem for five websites that were not supposed to look identical.

For changes of this magnitude, this project required NetSuite custom development and a detailed understanding of how SuiteCommerce handles multiple domains, content elements, customer access, and checkout behavior (something we happen to know a thing or two about).

Anchor Group created a customization that determines which Site Management elements appear on each domain. Shared functionality could remain consistent, while domain-specific content and experiences appeared only where they belonged, allowing for the efficiency of one connected platform without requiring every storefront to look identical.

suitecommerce configuration screenshot with notes — *SMT Domain Management*

One Customer Portal Across Multiple NetSuite Subsidiaries

SEHI also needed to consolidate customer information from multiple NetSuite subsidiaries into one online hub.

The previous websites gave customers no access to their account history or balances. SEHI wanted its new ecommerce experience to bring that information online, including transactions spanning multiple NetSuite subsidiaries.

Natively, SuiteCommerce functionality does not allow customers to view transactions across multiple subsidiaries within a single website account. Anchor Group built a custom multi-subsidiary extension that lets customers log in and review relevant orders and transaction histories in one place. Combined with online purchasing, the extension transformed five static websites into a connected customer portal—where customers can place orders and see their history across the businesses they buy from.

Additionally, this new extension created a customized NetSuite customer portal around SEHI’s actual corporate structure, giving customers a more complete view of their relationship with the company.

Preventing Duplicate Logins and Managing Core Charges

SEHI wanted each customer email address to be connected to only one website login. Natively, SuiteCommerce allows the same email address to be used across any number of records and does not have the option to check for existing customer or contact email addresses. While this can be a non-issue for some organizations, it can also create conflicting permissions and confusion over which login contains the correct order history. To solve this, Anchor Group built an email-validation extension that prevents customer registrations if the email address already exists in their system.

Note: While this is not the flashiest part of an ecommerce integration with NetSuite, we think clean customer data rarely gets the parade it deserves, as it prevents many avoidable problems from showing down the road.

Selling batteries introduced another complication: core charges.

Depending on the customer, a core charge may need to be added (or excluded entirely). SEHI needed those customer-specific requirements to flow correctly through the website and into NetSuite order management.

Anchor Group answered this need with a customized checkout flow so the appropriate core-charge logic could be applied based on the customer’s account and purchasing requirements. With this solution, the websites could support online purchasing while respecting the business rules put in place for individual customer account pricing.

suitecommerce checkout page screenshot — *Core charge added in checkout*

The work also required careful separation between information displayed on the website and the data used to create the final order. Anchor Group resolved several script interactions so changes to the storefront experience would not unintentionally affect transaction creation.

suitecommerce shopping cart page — *Core charge in shopping cart*

Coordinating an Interconnected SuiteCommerce Implementation

Because SEHI selected SuiteCommerce Advanced for its native NetSuite integration, its ERP and ecommerce platform already shared a strong foundation. But native connectivity does not remove the need for careful planning.

The implementation included:

Five domains
Multiple subsidiaries
Customer permissions
Product displays
Checkout flows
Core charges
Content migration
Transaction visibility
Domain-specific content
Unique-email requirements

Each of these workstreams affected another part (or parts) of the customer journey, where a permissions decision could change what appeared in the account portal, a display customization could affect order creation, or a piece of content intended for one domain could appear across all five.

Anchor Group managed the NetSuite customization and integration work as one connected system, with Anchor Group SuiteCommerce Project Manager Daniel Dobson and the broader team remaining responsive, practical, and solution-oriented as requirements changed.

This was far from a simple out-of-the-box implementation. There were many moving pieces involving NetSuite integration, customer access and permissions, checkout workflows, content migration, and multi-site considerations. Despite the complexity and changes throughout the project, we managed to pull through with only a relatively small amount of additional hours beyond the original scope.

Hengky Suryadi

Stored Energy Holdings, Inc (SEHI)

The Results: One Connected Ecommerce Hub

SEHI needed a SuiteCommerce Advanced experience that could preserve each web domain’s identity while connecting customers to the full history of their relationship with the company.

Following the SuiteCommerce Advanced implementation, through thoughtful NetSuite customizations and a healthy amount of problem-solving, Anchor Group turned five websites and multiple subsidiaries into one connected ecommerce experience.

SEHI finally had five distinct web domains operating through one connected platform.

Customers gained expanded access to online purchasing and a centralized view of orders and transactions across subsidiaries; SEHI gained domain-specific control over content, customer-specific core-charge functionality, cleaner account data, and a simpler path for managing future website updates. We call this a win-win.

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“Overall, [Anchor Group SuiteCommerce Project Manager] Daniel remained responsive, practical, and solution-oriented throughout the process. We appreciated Anchor Group’s partnership and would recommend them for complex SCA implementations.”

— Hengky Suryadi, Stored Energy Holdings, Inc (SEHI)

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Overall, [Anchor Group SuiteCommerce Project Manager] Daniel remained responsive, practical, and solution-oriented throughout the process. We appreciated Anchor Group’s partnership and would recommend them for complex SCA implementations.