Experience report Shopware move

This experience report was published in the "ultimate guide to shop migration" has been published. It describes the Shopware migration to Magento. 

It all began with 5,000 borrowed gold marks: In 1919, at the age of 23, Walter Seidensticker laid the foundation stone for the long-established Bielefeld-based company Seidensticker. Today, almost 100 years later, the group of companies holds numerous licences, including the master licence for "camel active", in addition to the brands "Seidensticker", "Schwarze Rose", "Jacques Britt" and "Redford". The family-run company has long since moved beyond shirts and now offers high-quality fashion for men and women, which, in addition to the Online shop primarily via stores throughout Europe.

Against the backdrop of an extreme increase in online activity in the fashion sector, Seidensticker quickly realised that it needed to find new ways to continue its success. The result of thorough deliberations at Seidensticker's management level was a long-term corporate strategy for the shirt specialist from Bielefeld that was more focussed on online retail. Part of this strategy included a Relaunch of all online presences including the Seidensticker and Jacques Britt online shops. "With the relaunch, we are focusing specifically and fully on the needs of our end consumers and offering them a maximised shopping experience. We want to reach our target group emotionally through high-quality imagery and act as a mirror image of our own stores," says Katharina Brinkmann, Head of eCommerce at Seidensticker and project manager.

This is precisely where Shopware's strengths come into play, namely when it comes to emotionality and elaborate shopping worlds in the online shop. The integrated shopping worlds, for example, enable the uncomplicated but effective use of large-scale graphics, while the fully responsive design ensures an optimised shopping experience on every conceivable end device. Not least for these reasons, Seidensticker, together with the implementing agency Valtech, which is one of the largest players in the European agency landscape, opted for Shopware 5 as shop basis decided.

The end result is a shop with a modern lifestyle and magazine character that has been thought through down to the last detail and ideally reflects Seidensticker's exclusive brand image. This is ensured on the one hand by the tidy, no-frills layout in a flat design and on the other by the simple navigation through the product range and a short ordering process. There are also additional features such as a wish list, product recommendations and a store locator, which sustainably promote user engagement in the Seidensticker online shops and increase both customer satisfaction and the number of orders. On the technical side, Valtech primarily focussed on the standard functions of Shopwaresuch as the shopping worlds.

The goal of independently managing the eCommerce business of the Jacques Britt own brand was achieved with a multi-shop licence. Seidensticker and Valtech are thus demonstrating the possibilities that Shopware 5 already offers as standard for setting up a modern and exclusive brand shop. However, the relaunch of the online shops is just the beginning for Seidensticker. "With the new concept, we will continue to drive forward our cross-channel commerce strategy and create a consistent brand and shopping experience across all channels," says Frank Seidensticker, Managing Partner of the Seidensticker Group. With Shopware as the basis, this is no problem at all.