Shopware, what is it?
Shopware is a software allowing the creation of e-commerce. Its origin dates back to 2000s, the year in which Stefan Hamann launched his internet agency "Hamann-Media GmbH", at only 16 years old. He brings his brother, Sebastian, into the company to manage everything related to the design part. In 2003, a client contacts them to create an online store, but no solution on the market meets the expectations of this client. The two brothers then decide to set up and run their own system with new innovative features. In their process of development and global openness, Shopware offers a version open source of its software in order to open up to as many people as possible. This opening made it possible to make Shopware known but also to break the company's download and annual growth rate records. With this development, Shopware has recruited new employees and collaborators, to accommodate them, the company is constructing a new modern building called "The Tower", in 2019. Shopware is now established on the e-commerce software market and the two brothers do not want to lose this family dimension that they have created.
But how to maintain this dimension? By focusing on three essential values for them:
- The opening, he wants total transparency between them and customers in order to establish a climate of trust
- Authenticity, the company has always been led by the creators, they want above all to keep their feet on the ground and to consider each customer as unique
- To be visionary, Shopware wants to be innovative and ahead of its time, always looking for improvement and new avenues of creation.
Diffusion
Over the years, Shopware has managed to acquire new customers who have trusted this service to build their online store. Do you know some sites created with this platform? No problem if you don't know any yet, we have planned to introduce you to some of them.
First, the siteAston Martin, which is an Inglish car brand that needs no introduction. According to their testimony, Aston Martin has chosen to rely on Shopware for the possibility of manage everything from a single point but also for the dimension internationale (creation of shops in different languages). In addition, the features and extensions available met the client's expectations.
Then the football club of Borussia Dortmund also based its e-commerce store on Shopware. This solution was preferred for its optimal B2C sales features but also for the possibility of setting up a Multichannel strategies in order to reach as many people as possible.
We can also talk about the store Paul Hewitt, a German jewelry and watch brand, created in 2009 and growing worldwide, the managers were looking for a solution that would allow them to increase this development. Thus, thanks to Shopware, Paul Hewitt was able to connect its many businesses and boutiques around the world. They were also able add instagram shop that they created in order to attract their customers coming from social networks. All this has enabled the brand toimprove your conversion rate and number of customers.
Advantages
The Shopware solution has many features that allow optimal development of sites. Among these, we find in particular functionalities of:
- Configuration, the Shopware interface is intended to be accessible to the most experienced and beginners alike. It is intuitive and allows you to manage your store from one place
- Sales channel management, in fact, you can manage all your stores from Shopware. You can also create connection links to redirect your customers to certain sales channels
- Managing your catalog and your products
- THIS, the optimization of your site is essential, so through tools, you can optimize all your content, meta tag or other in order to obtain an optimized site
- Marketing tools, you can find tools to apply discounts and promotions. You can customize these actions according to your products, your campaigns, your customers
- Ability to connect to marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, Shopware highlights that its functionality enables rapid integration into these markets without considerable effort.
- L'internationalisation, when Shopware launched its latest version, they tried to improve their tools to launch your store in international markets. Thus, they have developed tools to install many currencies but also translation and tax calculation tools.
- For businesses, Shopware has developed its B2B sales system, these tools have been developed to improve user experiences, conversions on your site and the ease of placing and validating orders.
- Many plugins are available. In its desire to adapt to as many people as possible in order to meet the needs, Shopware provides many plugins in order to offer other functionalities to customers.
Price
Before using Shopware or purchasing a subscription, you will first need buy a license allowing you to access the application. Shopware offers you two different tariffs in order to obtain the possibility of using its services. One of the peculiarities of Shopware is that it is possible to pay once a certain amount in order to gain access. Thus, the payment is made at once and not in the form of a subscription.
The first is the professional version offered to a price of 199€ per month or of 2 495€ if you want to buy it at once. With this version, you will have many features to manage your online business. The higher version will be the one intended for companies at a price of €2,495 per month or at €39,995 in one go, it will allow you to benefit from superior functionalities.
Additionally, Shopware offers subscriptions which must be subscribed to in addition to the license purchase. These subscriptions silver (73€ or 69€), gold (€157 or €149) or diamond (price depending on the project) allow you to access support in the event of a problem or updates.
Shopware offers many features and functions that make it a popular solution with customers looking for e-commerce sites.
However, it is a solution that adapts more easily to big budget businesses and businesses. Indeed, by adding up all the costs, we can see that they are quite substantial. It will therefore be more complicated to launch your online store through this platform than through one of its competitors such as Shopify, plus accessible.
