Imagine ditching the limitations of a traditional online store and crafting unique shopping experiences that captivate your customers. With Shopware, a future-proof e-commerce platform, you can! Shopware empowers you to embrace headless and composable commerce, a revolutionary approach that breaks down barriers and lets your creativity soar. Curious? Buckle up and get ready to discover a world of possibilities with Shopware!
(And hey, while we explore, remember Bhoost offers rock-solid Shopware hosting to keep your store running like a dream – just sayin’)
Shopware is a rising star in the e-commerce world, ideal for ambitious businesses seeking to expand. This sophisticated platform is designed for mid-market and lower-enterprise merchants, with the capability to handle B2C, D2C, B2B, and even service-based models. (Think of it as your commerce chameleon!)
Shopware’s magic lies in its open-source, API-first architecture, granting you unparalleled flexibility and control. This translates to a highly customizable storefront tailored to your unique brand and customer needs. Plus, with over 34,000 thriving online stores already powered by Shopware, you’re joining a community of e-commerce champions.
And the best part? Shopware is built for headless commerce, meaning you can break free from traditional limitations and craft revolutionary shopping experiences that amaze your customers. Let’s explore how Shopware’s headless approach can supercharge your business!
Imagine your online store as a fashion icon – always keeping its core functionality flawlessly in check (that’s the backend), but with the freedom to change its look and feel on a whim (that’s the frontend). This, my friends, is the magic of headless commerce. Think of it as decapitating the traditional store structure, where the frontend (the visual storefront) operates independently from the backend (the engine that runs everything). But fear not, they stay connected through a “clever little API,” like a stylish messenger coordinating between designer and tailor.
This split personality gives you incredible flexibility. You can experiment with new frontend designs without affecting the smooth operation of your backend. Want to launch a whimsical mobile app or integrate your store into a chatbot? Headless commerce makes it a cinch! This agility keeps you ahead of the evolving e-commerce curve, allowing you to test new trends and embrace future technologies like voice assistants or augmented reality. Basically, headless commerce unleashes your imagination to create shopping experiences so remarkable, that they’ll leave your customers saying, “Molto bene!” (That’s Italian for “very good,” in case your fashion sense extends to multiple languages.) Now, let’s dive into the tangible benefits of embracing this headless revolution!
Unleash your inner e-commerce innovator with the power of headless commerce! Here’s a taste of the remarkable advantages you’ll enjoy:
Composable commerce takes headless commerce a step further by breaking down the e-commerce ecosystem into modular components. Each component, like a product information management (PIM) system or a content management system (CMS), can be a best-of-breed solution, chosen and integrated seamlessly through APIs.
By embracing composable commerce with Shopware, businesses unlock a new level of flexibility and future-proofing:
When it comes to crafting exceptional e-commerce experiences with Shopware, some leading brands are showing the way. Amen Collection, a renowned Italian fashion house, AlexMax, a provider of cutting-edge IT solutions, and WODKA Agency, a powerhouse digital agency, have all leveraged Shopware’s headless capabilities to achieve remarkable results.
Bhoost is proud to be a part of their journeys. We provided these brands with high-performance Shopware hosting solutions, ensuring seamless performance and unwavering reliability for their online stores.
Bhoost is passionate about helping businesses thrive in the e-commerce landscape. Our team of specialists is here to guide you every step of the way.
That’s it, folks! Check out our blog for more information.
In the brightly lit ring of e-commerce, two titans stand ready: WordPress vs. Shopware.
In one corner, the undisputed champ of content, WordPress, muscles rippling with a massive plugin library. But can its e-commerce add-on, WooCommerce, deliver the knockout punch for serious online stores?
Across the ring, Shopware, the German challenger, steps forward, its sleek design promising an innovative shopping experience. But will its growing community and cutting-edge features be enough to dethrone the king?
This blog post signals the start of the fight.
Tonight’s fight? Choosing which platform has the power to KO your online store competitors.
By the way, no matter which platform you choose, we offer reliable hosting solutions optimized for both WordPress and Shopware to keep your online store running smoothly.
In our first contender’s corner stands WordPress, a heavyweight champion with a knockout punch in versatility. Born in 2003 as a platform for bloggers to share their voices, it’s evolved into a powerful Content Management System (CMS) used by a staggering 43.4% of websites globally.
This open-source giant boasts a massive plugin library, with WooCommerce reigning supreme for e-commerce functionality. Think of it as a Swiss Army Knife – you can customize your marketplace with an arsenal of tools to fit your specific needs. And with a user-friendly interface, even beginners can get started quickly, building a beautiful and functional online store.
While ideally suited for small to medium-sized marketplaces, WordPress offers surprising scalability for those with ambitious growth plans. No matter your experience level, WordPress is a strong contender, ready to rumble in the e-commerce ring.
In the opposite corner, we have the challenger – Shopware, a rising star from Germany with a focus on innovation and flexibility. Born in 2000, this platform isn’t messing around. Shopware is built from the ground up for e-commerce, offering a robust solution for businesses looking to create dynamic online experiences.
Unlike WordPress, Shopware isn’t a jack-of-all-trades. It’s a specialist, designed to help you craft unique shopping experiences that keep customers coming back for more. Think of it as a state-of-the-art race car – sleek, powerful, and engineered for speed.
Shopware boasts an impressive suite of built-in features, including drag-and-drop design tools, intuitive content management, and flexible product management. This lets you create a beautiful and highly functional online store without needing a mountain of plugins. And for those with ambitious growth plans, Shopware’s modular architecture and scalability ensure it can keep pace with your success.
While its community and third-party plugin ecosystem are still growing, Shopware is a serious contender, especially for those who prioritize a cutting-edge shopping experience and out-of-the-box features. Get ready for Shopware to push the boundaries of e-commerce innovation.
Let the battle begin!
Winner: This round depends on your needs. If you crave ultimate flexibility, WordPress is your champion. But if a laser focus on e-commerce is your priority, Shopware might be the knockout punch.
Winner: This round goes to WordPress. Its user-friendliness makes it a clear winner for beginners jumping into the e-commerce ring.
Winner: Shopware takes this round. Its scalability ensures your e-commerce store can grow and evolve without limitations.
Winner: This round is a draw. Both platforms offer cost-effective options, though WordPress might have a slight edge with its free core software and a vast selection of free plugins.
Winner: WordPress wins this round. Its massive user base translates to a wealth of readily available support resources.
Winner: This round depends on your needs. If endless customization is your priority, WordPress offers endless possibilities with plugins. But if you prefer built-in features and a streamlined experience, Shopware stands out.
Choosing the Right Platform for Your E-commerce Knockout
The choice between WordPress and Shopware ultimately depends on your specific needs and priorities. Here’s a quick cheat sheet to help you decide:
Choose WordPress if:
Choose Shopware if:
No matter which platform you choose, Bhoost offers reliable hosting solutions optimized for WordPress and Shopware to keep your online store running smoothly.
That’s it, folks! Check out our blog for more information.
A website, especially in e-commerce, must respond quickly to the user. Therefore, this guide will show you how to optimize Shopware’s performance.
Some tricks can be useful to improve the performance of your Shopware website. But let’s start by seeing together what they are.
A hosting provider should be reliable, efficient and secure. Furthermore, it should be able to offer its customers the possibility to update their hosting plan during the construction phase, if they need a more performant resource. In essence, the customer must be able to modify their offer according to the development and growth of their shop.
Not to mention that the support part must be fully effective. Continuous support can give you feedback in the unfortunate event that problems arise. Unfortunately, it can happen online. The important thing is that your provider can give you immediate and effective support.
Therefore, when choosing your hosting provider, you should consider the following arguments:
By choosing the right hosting optimized for your platform, you can guarantee an efficient and fast service, so that your customers are fully satisfied.
The first step is to measure performance so you can identify critical issues and know where to intervene.
When measuring the store’s performance, loading times can only be an indicator of the expected performance level. The features present in your store, ranging from item counting to internal structure or momentary capacity utilization, will always have a significant influence on loading times.
To generate comparable measurements, we recommend installing the Shopware demo data plugin before running tests in your store. Firebug is a browser extension that can be installed directly through your browser. If installed, it will display the loading times for each component of the page in the browser’s network tab.
Particularly relevant are the loading times of the entire web page, most likely the first item in the list. To collect relevant measurements, it is necessary to load the target page multiple times, listing the pages and noting all the loading times.
To call the benchmark using a Linux shell, use the following command:
Here you should choose the average of all connection times (= total time).
The default configuration of many distributions is not ideal for production environments. But don’t worry, there’s a script for that! “Mysqltuner” provides suggestions for non-optimal configuration and parameter settings.
If you have defined your sorting criteria, you should make sure that there is an index in your database for each of the columns in the table.
There are several processes active when you access one of the pages of your store. For example, SEO links are generated, the search engine cache is generated, and the data necessary to display best-selling items or other items of interest, based on similar customer behavior.
So you need to consider whether or not all of these features can be useful to your store.
For example, you can consider changing the update strategy from “live” (request per page) to “cronjob” (cumulative, timed). To do this, go to Configuration –> Cache/Performance –> Cache/Performance –> Settings (tab).
Look for the entries SEO (1), Search (2), Top sellers (3) and Referral Marketing (4) and you can make your changes directly. To use the cronjob features, you will need to first install two custom plugins, “Cron” and “CronRefresh”. With these plug-ins, you can control the timing of server requests and you should schedule them, most likely at night.
With Shopware, you can use caching instead of retrieving all data from the database in real-time for each user. Since each database access uses scarce web resources, consider also enabling http-cache. This will create a cache file, which incorporates the most important information from the article list and its detail page, thus preventing unnecessary database queries. This will also make browsing your store much faster and therefore more enjoyable.
With the cronjob we created above, we made sure that the cache file does not grow too large, as it is regularly deleted (default value: every 24 hours). This has proven to be quite practical as the HTTP cache could grow by 1-2 GB per day if used frequently.
Activate the HTTP cache via Configuration –> Cache/Performance –> Cache/Performance –> Settings (tab) > HTTP Cache and check the plug-in and all changes made for compatibility with your store.
We recommend running a test before activating the changes made.
There are many cases where the use of plugins has had a serious impact on the performance of a store. To check whether or not a plugin can affect the performance of your site, it might be a good idea to disable all third-party plugins and compare the performance of the front end with and without plugins activated.
An easy way to do this is to run an SQL query in a test environment. Both queries shown below can be executed in phpMyAdmin and will disable a plugin that is not part of the default Shopware configuration.
Alternatively, you may want to use the plugin safe mode provided by the Plugin Manager from Shopware 5.3 onwards.
Once the store is running smoothly again, you can try to identify the plug-ins that are affecting your store’s performance by reactivating third-party plugins one by one. You can also reassess the need for each plug-in and tidy up your store’s backend a bit.
Out-of-the-box Shopware comes with a “Debug” plug-in that can monitor and compare individual processes on a server. It will provide you with sufficient information on e.g. page request durations and will indicate processes, e.g. database queries, controllers, etc., that could slow down individual requests.
Shopware collects information about your system configuration and lists it in Configuration –> System Information. Here you will find entries like “memory_limit” (1). Exceeding the memory limit e.g. will harm performance. Keep in mind that memory limits can be changed and virtually enlarged, making a thorough examination of your system worthwhile.
By going to Configuration –> Theme Management –> Settings, you have the option to disable compiler caching. This is generally recommended during the normal production cycle of the store. Since compiler caching slows down a store considerably, it should only be used during development and infrastructure changes.
Source: Docs Shopware
That’s it, folks! Check out our blog for more information.
Shopware 6 offers you the possibility to expand the range of functions and in this article, we will show you how to install an extension for Shopware. To do this, go to Extensions > My Extensions and manage the extensions already available for your store. You can purchase new extensions in the store.
The My Extensions area is divided into several subsections.
Now, to get a better understanding, let’s see the sections in detail.
The apps section gives you an overview of all apps added to your store.
The App section provides a clear overview with several columns for easy navigation:
The Themes section gives you an overview of all the themes added to your store.
The section is divided into several columns
The Recommendations section gives you extension recommendations for certain areas of your store.
Here you can connect to your Shopware account to access your purchases.
If the extension you’re looking for isn’t available in apps or themes yet, you’ll first need to add it to your store. There are two ways to achieve this:
Since the extension is now available in apps or themes, you can proceed with installing it. To achieve this, simply open the context menu by clicking on the “…” button. Once you’ve done that, select “Install” from the menu. Finally, you can activate the extension using the button in the Status column.
For some active extensions, you’ll find a dedicated menu item within Settings > Extensions. This menu item allows you to open the extension configuration. To understand the specific functionalities and configuration options, the respective extension documentation provides detailed information for each extension.
That’s it, folks! Check out our blog.
Reading Time: 4 minutesIn this guide, you will find all the instructions that will explain what you need to consider before installing Shopware 6 and will guide you through the installation process.
Before installing Shopware, you should pay attention to some requirements. Let’s see together what they are.
You can typically run Shopware on a self-hosted server.
The htaccess file is a configuration file of your web server. Among other things, it specifies which users have access to the shared files and folders. With an htaccess file, you have the option to allow access to your store only to selected users.
During installation, you should do without htaccess protection or use the following solution.
AuthType Basic AuthName "Please login." AuthUserFile /path/to/.htpasswd <RequireAny> Require expr %{THE_REQUEST} =~ m#.*?\s+\/api.*?# Require valid-user </RequireAny>
Before installation, make sure your system meets the system requirements for Shopware 6.
If you are unsure of any of the requirements, we recommend that you consult the server hoster to make sure these requirements are met.
Also, I recommend that you change the web server’s routing settings if necessary.
A corresponding Apache-based example is shown below.
Remember to replace _SHOPWARE_DIR and _HOST_NAME_ with your settings.
You will also notice that the document root directory points to the / public folder in the Shopware 6 installation directory.
A reverse proxy sits in front of the front-end and admin interface, eliminating the need to include the public directory in the URL when accessing it through your browser.
After making sure that the system requirements for Shopware 6 are met and that your web server’s routing settings are configured correctly, you can download the Shopware 6 installer and unzip it to the desired directory on your system. Also, make sure that the unzipped files and directories have write permissions.
After downloading Shopware, all you have to do is extract it to the desired directory on your system. Make sure the unzipped files and directories have write access.
Simply visit your store URL to launch the Shopware 6 installer, which will guide you through the installation process step by step.
You can also change the language of the installer. The language can also be changed at any time by using the country abbreviations in the lower right corner of the screen.
By clicking on Next you can continue the installation.
During the second phase of installation, the system checks its requirements against your system. Arrow buttons list the requirements, while a folded menu reveals unmet requirements or areas for optimization.
In the next step, you can read the license under which Shopware is licensed. To continue the installation, you must accept the license terms.
After acceptance of the Shopware license, the login credentials to the Shopware database are entered. You can create an empty database for installation in advance, or the installer can create one for you.
Please note that existing databases must be empty to import the tables needed for Shopware.
If you see advanced settings, you can also specify the database port and (optional) a socket.
In this step, the Shopware database is imported. Click Start Installation to start importing the database.
The installation wizard will inform you that the installation is complete. Click Next to proceed with the configuration.
In the last step, you specify the basic settings for your shop:
Note that the default language and currency cannot be changed later.
The installation is now complete and the installer will automatically redirect you to the admin interface. To log in use the admin user you just created to set up your Shopware 6 store.
Source: Shopware Guide
That’s it, folks! Check out our blog for more information.
Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen a merchant decides to undertake an E-Commerce business, the first challenge he encounters is to choose a platform.
In fact, there are many possibilities: Magento, PrestaShop, Woocommerce, Shopware etc, all have their positive and negative sides. But above all, each one has its specificities, which may or may not adapt to your needs.
As with many other products, it is not as easy as searching on Google for “the best e-commerce platform”. There are many factors that should be taken into consideration before making this choice.
For example, you should consider the costs related to opening your online business, costs that are not only related to the price of the platform itself. Any additional functionality you may need will typically be provided by paid apps/extensions or by custom development. And this fact also requires an additional budget.
This is why it becomes essential to make the right considerations. You will find some key elements you should look into before jumping into a new ecosystem below.
First, we must understand that all E-Commerce platforms provide more or less the same basic functionality. However, the various business models are unique and have specific needs.
This is why the requirements for an E-Commerce platform must cover more than just basic functionality.
So you need to understand what makes your business unique and how you intend to engage your customers.
One way, for example, may be to provide discounts for different goods, according to predefined rules. As a result, customers with a matching set of products in their cart should receive a discount. The discount system should include many factors that play a role in generating the final price.
In some rare cases, maybe only one thing is required in addition to the basic functionality provided by most platforms. In other cases, there are at least a couple of other extra features that are a must for a merchant’s business.
Another example is related to site search. In general, we can outline two main categories of the E-Commerce store structure:
So, if your store is going to use the second search-oriented model, you’ll need a well-organized search on your website. In this case, well-organized means support synonyms, stopwords, filters, suggestions, etc.
Also, it would be great to have AI-based research.
With these two elements of your business model, you can check the capabilities of the different platforms on the market. The main goal is to find a platform that covers the scenarios mentioned.
In addition to the functionality we were talking about above, it also makes sense to think about perspective. Most likely, if you are aware enough, you will not put everything in the very first version of your store.
This means that in choosing the platform, you will have to take one that is scalable. In this case, it makes sense to check the capabilities of the different platforms, considering the features planned for the future.
At some point in time, you will face the situation where no platform covers your particular business needs. So, you need a third party solution or developer team that will bring the missing features.
Therefore, you must take this aspect into consideration. If you see that you may need a lot of custom development in the future, it is good to check the price attached to this type of business for the different platforms available.
Another thing you should consider is the size of your catalog and visitor base. If you have a million SKUs and more, it may not be easy for some platforms to manage this amount of data.
Or, if your business model will use flash sales with hundreds of orders per minute, it could be overkill for most platforms as well.
In this case, you must therefore consider the characteristics of the various platforms, whether or not they can support a large number of products, but not only.
In fact, you must also define a hosting and its characteristics, especially if you have a lot of products and a lot of traffic. The choice of hosting also leads you to additional costs to consider.
If you are interested in a quotation, contact us and we will find the right hosting for your needs!
To sum up, when choosing an E-Commerce platform, you must first think about the following factors:
There are many other factors to consider, but in this guide we have described the most common ones, then it is up to you to decide according to your needs.
Reading Time: 4 minutesShopware is a German, open source E-Commerce platform that, especially in this last period, is gaining more and more market shares in Europe.
But why is Shopware so popular for E-Commerce?
First, let’s discover this platform in detail.
Shopware, as I told you, is a German open source platform founded in 2000 and which currently boasts more than 80,000 satisfied customers.
The interesting thing about Shopware is that the software is developed by the very people who use it. For this reason, the software has therefore been designed precisely on the needs of those who use it, both in terms of design and technology.
With the release of Shopware 5.5, the German platform wants to offer merchants the possibility of having an optimal user experience that can satisfy even the customer who visits the site in terms of design in front of competitors.
Shopware is available in the following editions:
Now let’s see what are the advantages and disadvantages of this Ecommerce platform, to understand if it is actually valid or not.
The great success of Shopware is linked to the numerous advantages offered by the platform. Shopware comes standard with some specific features, which we are going to see in detail now.
The Shopware CMS is called “Shopping Worlds” and with this, you can create content / pages in a very simple way, without having knowledge or technical support.
In fact, the backend is very intuitive and allows you to respond to all the emotional aspects of shopping.
This Drag & Drop feature is very interesting because it allows you to easily set up and manage complex components such as products, banners, content and product blocks and much more.
With built-in tools, it’s easy for developers to increase performance and scalability.
In this way you will be able to easily customize your store and make it perfectly tailored to your needs.
Extensive marketing features
However, we can create a perfect, functional E-Commerce, but if we don’t convince the public to buy, we will never be successful.
For this reason it is important to have effective marketing tools. There are many additional marketing features in Shopware.
For example, there is an option to segment customers based on their interests or the shopping behavior shown above.
You can also create beautiful banners which you can provide with buttons and text for the call to action.
Another nice marketing tool is the loyalty program. Thanks to this, customers can accumulate points with each purchase and take advantage of special rewards or discounts. This is definitely an element that builds customer loyalty and brings them back to buy in your store.
We already know Magento, which with its great potential also offers the possibility of having more shops “under one roof”. The same thing is offered by Shopware.
The management of the product and the catalog is very simple.
The fact that you can create so-called product flows is also a nice feature. Product flows respond to the visitor’s shopping behavior and provide a personalized experience.
You can create product groups by filtering by brand, price, manufacturer and reviews. When visitors select the right filters, they can see a customized product flow.
Shopware is SEO optimized and offers a whole host of possibilities to make your site SEO friendly. For example, it allows you to create SEO-friendly URLs, adapt meta titles and descriptions, use Rich Snippet, has a built-in sitemap, and you can easily work with redirects and canonicals.
So far we’ve seen the benefits of Shopware, but each platform has both pros and cons. So let’s see now the disadvantages.
The development of a Shopware store takes much longer than, for example, a WooCommerce store. This is because Shopware is much more extensive and therefore involves greater complexity in the configuration phase.
For such an important player and in the current moment in which more and more online stores are going international, it is surprising that Shopware still does not have everything in order. In fact, this platform does not yet have ready-made settings for these rules and indeed you have to configure them yourself.
The main competitor Magento, for example, did a lot better in this regard.
Thanks to Shopware’s flexibility and high performance, you will need more than just a hosting plan. Shopware requires serious server power, and you need to keep in mind that this is an investment too.
Although Shopware offers enough ready-to-use features, Magento has multiple plugins available. This therefore has a very strong impact on what can be the customizations and functionalities of an E-Commerce, created with this platform.
As always, also in this case, the competitor Magento, offers instead a rather wide choice in this sense. Even if this can affect development costs.
Shopware is free to download. The license costs depend on the chosen edition.
In addition to these fixed costs, you also have to contend with Shopware hosting costs, but also, for example, the costs of additional plugins.
But also keep in mind the following:
The costs of developing a good Shopware online store. This is undoubtedly the largest cost item.
So as you see, this is a platform that has advantages and disadvantages. You will therefore have to understand if its characteristics are close to your business idea or not.