15 tips for E-Commerce website with Shopware for Starters

Intro: Shopware for online Shop

Shopware 5.0 is an E-Commerce product of Shopware AG based in Schöppingen Germany. It has been around in the market for now over 10+ years, with overall 3500+ Plugins, modules and Themes. Which E-Commerce website platform one should select? Shopware, Magento 1 / 2, PrestaShop Gambio or Oxide-Sales depends on your individual requirements, features and 3rd party integrations. Shopware is a successful E-Commerce shop system with an extremely good usage rate in Germany. It is expanding into UK market with a growth of 500% last year. In year 2018, it established its first office in the UK. This article will assist in having a clear picture of do’s and don’ts during the initial stages of a Shopware E-Commerce website development. It will provide an insight of the Shopware key features and required tips to successful develop and running your online store. Guidelines from where to download the latest Shopware version, and how to start your E-Commerce website with shopware. It will list the minimum requirements to start and run the job easily and successfully. The article will be helpful in knowing about different version of Shopware, about it templates and plugins. The key points that are required when starting with Theme selections and online shop design. Moreover, the reader will have a clear picture of objectives at upgrading stage. A list of useful resources for its community is given at the end for further reading. BrandCrock is at your service at all stages. We are just a call away.

1: Start your E-Commerce website with Shopware:

Figure Shopware Download for Free

To start with shopware, the latest Shopware community edition which is open source and free version, can be downloaded from; https://en-community.shopware.com/Downloads_cat_725.html

2: Webserver Requirements (Shopware Hosting Requirements)

Selection of the Shopware compatible Webserver is of prime importance as well as it is a great investment. There are many specialized Shopware hosting providers both in Germany and UK. There are Hosting provide which are also providing cloud hosting and services for Shopware.

Figure Shopware Hosting and Webserver Requirement

Minimum Shopware Web server requirements are:

Linux-based operating system with Apache 2.2 or 2.4 Web server with enabled mod, a rewrite module having ability to override options in .ht access files
PHP 5.6.4 or higher
MySQL 5.5 or higher
Possibility to set up cron jobs (time-based jobs to schedule the work load)
Minimum 4 GB available hard disk space

3: Shopware 5 System Requirements Administration panel (aka Shopware Backend)

The Shopware Backend system requirements are listed here:

Latest version of Firefox, Edge, Chrome or Safari
Java Script and Cookies enabled
4 GB RAM or higher
Dual-core CPU or better
1366 x 768 pixels minimum backend resolution

4: Shopware E-Commerce Editions:

Shopware comes with 4 Editions which include Community, Professional, Professional Plus and Enterprise. Each edition has its specified features as per requirement of the user. Briefly, the Community edition is your entry into shopware E-Commerce platform. Shopware Professional edition is effective for any special brand and its services. Shopware Professional Plus provides wider opportunities and comes with all 12 premium plugins. Shopware enterprise is for the greater E-Commerce projects.

Shopware Community Edition (CE):

Available free of charge, the Shopware Community Edition contains all the basic functions required to run a shop and possesses the most common payment methods like Paypal and Paypal plus. Beside these Payment methods there are many other payment provides which are offering free plugins on shopware store, which enables to use their payments methods in shopware cart and checkout process. Current Shopware 5 Community Edition is equipped with a mobile shop version, which is very advantageous for any new shop operators.

Shopware Professional Edition:

The license of the Shopware Professional Edition costs € 1,295/= net. In addition to the basic functions of the Community Edition; visually very appealing storytelling functions are also provided and this provision open up many marketing opportunities for its user. The storytelling functions are maintained via the familiar shopping words and can be set individually.

Figure Shopware Edition and Prices

Shopware Professional Plus license:

In the Shopware Professional Plus license which costs € 5,995/= net, all 12 Shopware Premium plugins are included besides the basic functions plus the storytelling functions. The Shopware Premium Plugins cost € 499/= approx per plug. Here is a catch: the buyer has to be sure whether Shopware Premium plugins are worth buying. The decision has to be taken before choosing this Shopware license. As a rule of the thumb if you require at least 6-7 premium plugins you should go for the Professional Plus license addition.

Shopware Enterprise:

Master of Shopware versions is the Shopware Enterprise. Officially Shopware does not give a price for the Enterprise version. But it is well known in the market that the Shopware enterprise version costs about € 30,000 plus € 500 approximately as maintenance fees per month. Of course this license includes all functions of the Professional plus Edition. Additionally it accommodates as many sub-shops as needed and an individual B2B E-Commerce solution. Shopware Enterprise version is primarily aimed;

at very large online retailers with a large number of (multilingual) shops.
international corporations.
24 / 7 online availability with many backup servers and clustering of the Databases.
required location based access to the nearest server based on the client’s location worldwide.
Shopware enterprise include the support offered by Shopware teams.

5: Shopware 5 Configuration list “Go Live”

Figure: Shopware for online shop Configuration List for Starters

Basic configuration of the Shopware store functions includes:

Adding articles as product in Shopware article listing
Adding Shopware store Products Categories
Individual customization of the invoice data, company logos, imprint etc
User Management of the Shopware backend
Payment methods integration
Shopware store Shipping Method configuration
Email Templates for Auto generated replies
Shopware Orders Statuses
online shop articles and customer streams
Setting up various price groups for merchants, for example difference, Price Groups for B2B and B2C customers
Configuration of the additional plugins each 2-4 hours for each plugin
Configuration of Shopware 3^rd party plugins, depending on the scope of the required plugins.

Tip: The work duration of configuration varies. Overall, one can expect a total effort of 1-4 working days.

6: Options for Shopware Theme Design selection

Another important factor is the selection of Shopware store design as you E-Commerce platform. Basically you have three options.

Figure: Shopware Theme Development Options for new Shopware Design

Theme setting of default Shopware theme (Shopware Demo Theme) according to your CI (Corporate Identity).
Buying a readymade plug and play Theme and adapt according to needs.
Create an individual design for online Shops for more individual impact for your online buyers.

Tip: Creating, designing and implementating an E-Commerce Shopware store design can take 2-3 weeks’ time. Complete Shopware theme can be see and downloaded from Shopware community store.

7: Shopware Templates

Shopware Template development and selection depends on the choice of design from the shop owner. An eye catching design and professionally created SEO optimized template has a greater impact on the higher ranking in search engines (SERP) and better traffic and higher sales revenues. Templates has a greater role to play in how;

the text
banners
Articles and Articles listing
page elements and block

will be displayed to the end user on each page. By use of template, Shopware provide a way to give the most optimized user experience on desktops, mobiles and tablets. With its bulit in module for Shopping world (available for all version) and addition Preimum module for Digital Publish (come with Shopware professional or higher version) makes it very easy for any shop owner to optimize and design the landing pages on its own. For a better, improved and emotional online Shopping user interface (UI) template development includes;

Placement of SEO optimized text on the Article Listing pages.
Category pages.
Blogs and SEO Optimized Banners.
Inner and Static Pages.
Storytelling.
Adaptability in main Navigation menu points.
Footer section.
Header section.
Single page checkout.
Shopping cart pages and checkout Pages.

8: Shopware third party Plugin(s)

In addition to the Shopware Premium plugins, installation of as many 3^rd party plugins is also possible and this is carried out by the Shopware E-Commerce services providers. The Plugins have many useful additional features ranging from:

Additional Shopware online payment gateways.
Additional Shopware delivery methods.
Customized designing of Menus, Mega Menu, Images in Menus.
Integration of Social Media Icons in your E-Commerce Shopware store
Chat functions.
Article listing for your Store with SEO optimized.
Search Engine Optimization for Store.

TIP: all the Shopware available plugins can be seen at Shopware community Store. There is a wide range of selection and with currently 3500+ Plugins.

9: Shopware Mainshop, Subshops & Languages Shops: (E-Commerce multishops)

Shopware is a powerful E-Commerce platform, which offers better categorization and division of different type of Shopware Shops based on your individual needs. Subshops can have completely individual design, template and layout. The shops can be divided into language shops based on different regions and languages. In addition to lanaguges, localization for curreny management is also possible for individual subshop and language shops. All subshops and languages shops can be managed only with one Shopware installation instance. Shopware is fully loaded with the support of dividing the Shop main Shopware instance into:

Main Shop
Subshops (Based on categories of products) &
Language Shops (EN, DE, FR, IT, ES, CZ, TR…)

Further details can be found at what are shops subshops and language shops

10: Individual E-Commerce Shopware development and extension

Extending E-Commerce website for Shopware is a demanding task in itself. It is a highly flexible,powerful and open source E-Commerce website platform. It enables quick and easy creation of an online shopping system that meets all of the requirements. As a true open source platform all kind of individual, further enhancement and creation of the new features are support in all editions of Shopware.

11: Shopware E-Commerce website plugin development

There are many specific requirements of online E-Commerce Shopsystem owners such as;

Automation of processes in Shopware backend.
Enhancement and offering rich user functionality to the E-Commerce wesbite at frontend.
Work flow automation.
Digital transformation according to individual business needs.
Custom checkout process.
Integration of PIM, ERP and warehouse management.
and countless other processes.

These individual requirements and processes are converted in to usable E-Commerce website software solution using Shopwae plugin development. Development of plugins is highly challenging job, which require good knowledge of Shopware architecture and work flows. Brandcrock can assist you in with any level of Shopware plugin development tasks. The following work can be done as per plans, requirements and individual needs of both Shopware frontend and Shopware backend.

Shopware Plugin developments as, when and where required.
Shopware plugin development for Shopsystem frontend.
Shopware plugin development for Shopsystem backend using and extending Sancha ExtJs.
Customized Module and Extension development within Shopware.
Additional features enhancement in the current plugins.
Modification and extension of the existing plugins both Shopware plugins and 3rd party plugins.
Making 3rd party plugins compatible with Shopware version.
Updates existing Shopware E-Commerce Plugin.
Shopware Widget development.
Shopware theme development.

12: Shopware Theme Development

Create Individual design of icon and logo.
Develop Theme design for E-Commerce website according to your business domain.
Implement and expand your existing Corporate Identity (CI) design.
Customize the mobile template and navigation for E-Commerce website.
Build content structure according to Responsive Web Design.
Make Blog Design and Magazine Design for E-Commerce website.
Create individual page designing and implementation according to different screen sizes.
Do the Shopware Theme installation.
Carry out a complete responsive customized theme Shopware development.
Carry out Shopware theme customization for the purchased theme or developed themes.
Give and enhance modern and appealing look and feel for your Shopware landing pages.
Redesign Front page, Home Page, Landing page for E-Commerce website.
Create Shopping World.

Figure: BrandCrock Shopware theme development services

Install Story Telling
Design Article Detail Page
Design Shopware store checkout pages
Beautify styling for your Shopware Static and Reference Pages
Fix any bug related to Smarty Blocks, TPL files, LESS or CSS, Theme compilation
Solve frontend Migration issues in Shopware Themes
Carry out cross browser testing in Safari(Mac), Edge, Chrome and Firefox
Implement responsive & mobile/tablet ready designs
Make Shopware banners and design, optimized for SEO
[HINT] : Shopware Digital Publish for SEO banner design comes with Shopware professional editions.

13: Shopware E-Commerce website template development

Shopware Template development is another service in the field of Shopware development which includes the context of theme files with the HTML code and placeholders for actual data. Template files contain the HTML, generated for a particular piece of content like node, block etc. BrandCrock team does this tedious job well. The following Shopware services for Template Implementation must be kept in the mind

Showpare Templates for Homepage.
Templates for landing pages.
Templates for article’s listing pages.
Templates for Shopware article’s details pages.
Shopware Content Pages templates.
Shopware Static Pages Templates (FAQ’s, Blog, etc.)
Different templates for Mobiles, Tablet and Desktop versions.
Template & .tpl files customization (Template Engine).

14:Upgrading/Updating Shopware E-Commerce website

Upgrading any live system is a challenging task, with Shopware one needs to be more careful when upgrading. We can do it for you. Following are all the necessary steps involved in Shopware E-Commerce website upgrading:

Take the backup of the current system, if does not exist.
Create development environment (Staging) if does not exist.
Check how many Shopware plugins are in use.
Update first Shopware 4 to Shopware 5.1.2 and then to latest Shopware version while upgrading from Shopware 4 to Shopware 5.
Must check if there are changes made in Shopware “core files”.
if yes, restore these core files.
by making separate Shopware plugin(s) for the features which were implemented using the Shopware “core files”.
Check the compatibility issues with Shopware own plugins.
Check the compatibility issues with any 3rd party Shopware plugins.
If the plugins are not compatible with the latest version, make them compatible.

Check whether the plugin being used is not compatible with the latest Shopware system then installed plugin are replaced with the better plugin.

TIP: It is not recommended to upgrade Shopware System by someone in doubt. This is always a tricky and risky process. Call a professional or get the BrandCrock services ask for help.

15: Shopware Useful links & Community:

Some of the useful links of Shopware community are:

Shopware forums https://forum.shopware.com/
Shopware demo https://www.brandcrock.com/services/web-development/ecommerce/shopware/demo/
Shopware download https://www.shopware.com/en/download/
Shopware store http://store.shopware.com/
Shopware community day (#SCD) https://twitter.com/@shopware

Tip: Shopware has a very active user community.

Bonus Point: Key Features of E-Commerce website with Shopware

Shopware is Open Source:

Online Store management software
100% Open source software under AGPL3 license

Shopware ShopSystems:

Rich Administration panel (Ext JS based)
integration of Cart Module
Products and Articles Listing
Article Categories
Payment method
Checkout
Wish list
User Management
Multi-language and Subshops

Shopware Marketing and SEO Tools:

Emotional Shopping feature (Walk through for enhanced user experience for online Shopping).
Storytelling function, which opens up many marketing opportunities.
Digital Publishing Marketing features (SEO Text, Banners publishing for different devices).
Newsletter.
GDPR compliance (Shopware Store dsgvo).
Promotions and Coupons.
B2B and B2C stores.

Shopware Extensions:

Over 3500+ plugins.
Complete API access.
PIM Integrations.
Extension and Plugin development.
Integration of ERP (JTL Wawi, Pickware ERP and others).

Shopware as Content Management Systems:

Complete CMS solutions and Integrated Blogs.

Shopware Partners:

There are over 600 Shopware Services providers and Partners in Germany alone and BrandCrock GmbH based in Munich is one; a certified Partner of Shopware with its unique Shopware outsourcing development. We have a long list of accomplished jobs and happy clients. The engineers at BrandCrock GmbH are certified, experienced and innovative Shopware developers. We aim at reducing the cost to one third never ever compromising on our high standards of the job we do. https://www.youtube.com/embed/U7NpjSrXJbU Please feel free to contact us. Kindly leave your comments below if you find this article useful while setting up your online Store with Shopware.

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