What is Shopware? - A comprehensive guide
What is Shopware?
Shopware was developed in 2014 and is an open source e-commerce platform based on PHP that can be used to create professional online stores and provide support at all stages of development. The head office is located in Schöppingen.
The latest version is Shopware 6, which was released in September 2020, but is constantly being improved and optimized by Shopware developers to provide users with excellent technologies. Nowadays, Shopware 6 agencies provide users with excellent technologies.
Compared to previous versions, Shopware 6 is realized as a more complex but better controlled program. The design has become more intuitive and minimalistic thanks to a redesigned admin area based on JavaScript framework Vue.js. The key difference is noticeable and valuable. The updated Shopware 6 SEO feature offers a new Shopping Experience option to centrally create and customize content pages. The enhanced social shopping option helps to increase brand awareness and identify new customer engagement tools. If you are interested in the new version, you should think about Shopware 6 Installation.
Shopware 6 offers different editions to suit different business needs:
- Community Edition - The free open source solution for developers and small businesses that is flexible and customizable.
- Rise Edition - A cost-effective solution for growing businesses that require advanced features and professional support.
- Evolve Edition - For companies looking for a scalable solution with advanced features, extensive support and more customization options.
- Beyond Edition - The premium solution for large companies with complex requirements that need customized functions, maximum scalability and comprehensive support.
Functions of Shopware
The main functions of Shopware are divided into 6 main groups that relate to the optimization of e-commerce management. Thanks to Shopware 6 Update you get an even wider range of functions and new possibilities.
Product Management
- Creation of products and categories.
- Numerous number of products.
- Shopware import and export of products.
- Product types and properties.
- Tagging system.
- Creation and management of text fields.
- Creation of variants and filtering of product variants.
- Creation and sale of virtual products.
- Product reviews and cross-selling function.
Customers & prices
- Rule-based prices.
- Specific prices for certain customer groups.
- Currencies and tax rates.
- Customer groups and profiles.
- Shopping basket and checkout.
- Optional ordering as a guest without registration.
- Multichannel capability - B2B and B2C.
- Customer and order management.
- Automatic document creation.
Store configuration
- User guide.
- Multi-channel capability.
- Any number of sales channels, stores, links.
- Language packages are available.
- Creation and integration of forms.
- Configuration of shipping and payment options.
- Risk management.
- Filter options.
- User administration.
- Central media management.
- Search in the backend.
- Tagging function for grouping customers and products.
Design
- Design of online store & templates.
- Optimization for all devices.
- Content Management System (CMS).
- Drag & drop editor for creating pages (landing page).
- Storytelling / sectional scrolling.
- Social shopping.
- Catalog lists and filter functions.
- Configurable HTML and text e-mails.
marketing
- Vouchers and discount codes.
- Product export for price search engines and partner platforms.
- Product catalogs with filter criteria.
- Advertising functions such as time-controlled discounts.
- SEO functions.
- Optimized for mobile-first indexing.
- Comprehensive statistics including bounce analysis.
Technology
- Open source, available on GitHub.
- Operated on the latest PHP 8.
- SSL-enabled.
- Privacy and cookie consent tool.
- API-first - every single “component” of the store system has an API interface.
- Integration of Elasticsearch.
- Admin area based on the JavaScript framework Vue.js (ensures faster and more flexible integration of personal administration modules).
- Bootstrap as CSS framework, Twig as template engine.
- Blue-green deployment.
- Composer integration.
- Migration wizard for easy conversion from Shopware 5 to 6 or from other systems such as Magento.
- Caching (HTTP, entities, search indexing).
Conclusions
The table shows a difference between 3 editions: The Community Edition provides basic features to start and set up the e-commerce project in a hosting environment. Providing free presets, customer and product flows to filter and identify buyer preferences.
Professional Edition aims to customise, promote and develop business as a single brand. Customisable products and CMS extensions help to create a user-friendly environment to increase sales.
Social Shopping - Instagram, Pinterest & Facebook An option enables quick presentation of the product on social shopping channels, management through one system and definition of the target audience with the appropriate channel to meet user needs.
CMS Extensions It offers advanced features for the shopping experience such as quick view of products directly in the list, scroll navigation to set navigation points in a shopping experience as well as designing simple CMS pages with definition of visibility of individual blocks, forms and fields.
Customer Products The ability to customise products in user-friendly step-by-step mode. Use a variety of configuration options such as checkbox, date field, text area, text field, number field, etc. Define the prices and surcharges/discounts for each option.
Enterprise Edition is presented as a complex system for implementing classic e-commerce requirements and specific sales solutions. The system also aims to manage B2B and B2C business processes to fulfil the requirements of manufacturers, distributors or end users.
The Enterprise Edition proposes: Order number / delivery date There is the possibility of assigning an internal number when ordering or specifying the desired delivery date via the customer account (front end).
Offers It is possible to offer the price for an order with a discount (reject, change, agree on an offer), communication is carried out in chat format.
Assignment of B2B roles Sales representatives. In the customer account (in a separate area in the frontend), assigned customers are displayed for the "Sales representative" role. The customers are assigned via the backend. "Sales representatives" can log in to the customer account, which allows them to use the same functions as the customer (access to statistical information, orders, offers).
Enterprise Search Configuration plugin It allows you to manage and customise the search based on Elasticsearch. It can be configured separately for each sales channel. The parameters are set for a quick search and a search results page. The preview of the setting results is on the "Preview" page. The "Boosting" page is used to make the settings for product promotion, and each edition has different tools and implies different development strategies.
The user who first wants to select one of the presented editions should determine the goals and desirable capabilities of the company management. If in doubt, the demo versions are of course available to try out. Consultation with the Shopware 6 Agentur Stuttgart will also be useful for you.
