Intershop

Notes from Benoit:

This article is the 5th in our "CMS E-commerce" series to discover other systems and other interesting features on the web. You can read the other articles via the links below:

• Wix
• Wordpress
• Ecwid
• Salesforce commerce cloud
• and of course Shopify

Intershop, The solution we're about to introduce "to a vision of the future of B2B commerce and its contribution to realizing that vision is even more impressive", is how The Forrester described the company. Intershop in 2020. This German solution is a forerunner of e-commerce solutions because it involves one of the first platforms of e-commerce created in the 1990s.

What is Intershop?

Intershop is a German company specializing in the field of online business.

It was founded in 1992 by three German entrepreneurs, Stephan Schambach, Karsten Schneider and Wilfried Beeck. Initially, it will be known as Net Consult before being officially recognized as Intershop. It is the first real e-commerce creation platform. They created their first store 3 years after their launch, in 1995, for a German company.

During this year, Intershop creates the first software for e-commerce applications, named Intershop Online. At this time, Intershop is one of the leading internet software developers. Indeed, it is the great boom of the internet and e-commerce, we even speak of the "bubble of the new economy" and Intershop is one of the companies exemplifying this trend.

When the bubble burst, Intershop manages to survive and continue its activities. The creator Stephan Schambach then creates by-products such as Demandware, acquired by Salesforce, which we have already presented to you.

 Today, Intershop employs just over 300 employees across twenty countries around the world, headed by Markus Klahn who became the new CEO. This company is headquartered in Jena, Germany and has installed 10 other offices around the world (Amsterdam, Stockholm, Sofia, San Francisco, Paris, Melbourne, Ilmenau, Frankfurt am Main, Chicago and Stuttgart).

Intershop has received accolades for the services offered to customers. In 2019, Intershop was awarded the prize for "best platform/shop software" by the German e-commerce awards. In 2017, the company was voted "company of the year in the e-commerce platform market" by the knowledge solutions quadrant.

Which sites use Intershop?

Today, Intershop has an estimated 700 live websites, mostly in Germany. They have created sites for sites of all kinds, for large companies, rarely for smaller ones. We have made a small selection for you to discover some of these sites.

Norauto & Intershop 

First, the site of Norauto which is a site for the sale of tyres, parts for cars, motorcycles, etc. This is a popular site which has chosen to rely on Intershop for the advantages of selling in B2B that he proposed.

 

Hafele & Intershop

Hafele is a German family business founded in 1923. In 1997, the company was one of the first to embark on e-commerce and therefore called on Intershop, in particular because it enabled internationalization of sites. Today, Intershop enables the brand to manage its 38 stores from one place. Moreover, his solutions B2B allow them to create personal accounts and personalize the customer experience.

 

Wurth utilise Intershop

Finally, the brand Wurth chose Intershop because it was the most suitable platform to match their desire to remain customer-centric. Additionally, the company can manage its 48 websites, its shops and sites in 37 countries from a single interface. Finally, Intershop allowed them to build an omnichannel strategy which is the method allowing to settle on the greatest number of communication and distribution channels.

Main features of Intershop

Intershop is a platform with many features in one place. This allows you to manage all your shops, your orders, your stocks from a single interface. 

1. ANDCommerce B2B

Intershop offers you functionalities to change the sites and the purchase mechanism. The aim of the latter is to offer professionals a real customer experience as if they were shopping in a physical store. In addition, Intershop allows you to reduce transaction costs thanks to order and budget management tools, it is also possible to set up headings for quotes. Thus, your site will be optimized and your productivity will improve.

2. ANDCommerce B2C

There are also many features if the main target of your site is individuals. Indeed, the consumers are more and more numerous and the offer is also more and more strong. It is therefore necessary to stand out to obtain the best conversion rate. In order to achieve this, Intershop offers functionalities of tools to facilitate navigation and thus improve user experience. In addition, your site adapts to any type of screen (computer, tablet, telephone, etc.) thanks to responsive design.

3. ANDCommerce B2X

B2X selling means that the content on your site is aimed at both individuals and professionals. So all the B2B and B2C sales features are proposed in order to simplify purchases and create intuitive and simplified user journeys. The ultimate goal is to meet different needs in order to improve sales.

4. ANDTrade for industries

With the Intershop solution, it is possible for you to set up a site even if you belong to the industrial sector. Thus, you can sell all your software or technologies on your merchant site in a simple and effective way.

5. ANDWorld trade

Inetrshop guarantees you the possibility of international exchanges. Through this solution, you will be able to connect your shops all over the world. In addition, thanks to Intershop you have tools allowing you to adapt your shop to the customer's country.

What price for Intershop?

But what are the prices of this solution? No price is really put forward but the solutions are at the top of the foruchette. We know that three formulas are proposed: a essential subscription, and advanced subscription and one professional subscription. We can see that the accessible functionalities differ according to the chosen formula. For example, in the professional version there is an order management functionality that you do not have in the other two versions. However, to find out more about subscription prices, you will need to contact the platform directly to obtain a quote.

In addition, Intershop offers a free trial period in order to discover and begin to take control of the different functionalities of the solution.

 

In conclusion, Intershop is one of the first existing e-commerce platforms in the world. It expanded rapidly but experienced a downturn following the bursting of the "internet bubble". Today, Intershop is especially popular in Germany, his home country.