What is Shopware?

Shopware: definition and origin

Shopware is developed by Shopware AG from Schöppingen in North Rhine-Westphalia and has been one of the widely used store systems in the German-speaking region since the early 2000s. It is especially popular with mid-sized companies, retailers and manufacturers that need a customizable store with interfaces to ERP, inventory management and product information management.

The current generation, Shopware 6, was developed from scratch: the backend is based on the PHP framework Symfony, the administration interface on Vue.js, and all functions are accessible through an API. The Community Edition is open source; for larger requirements there are paid plans and cloud offerings from the vendor.

How Shopware works

A Shopware store consists of the core system, the storefront, the administration and extensions. With the “Shopping Experiences” editor, content editors design pages without programming, while the team manages products, prices, customer groups and payment methods in the administration. Additional functions come from plugins and apps from the Shopware Store or from custom development.

• Storefront: the online store with catalog, cart and checkout
• Administration: management of products, orders and customers
• Shopping Experiences: design pages and layouts with an editor
• Plugins and apps: payment methods, shipping, marketing and interfaces
• Store API: the basis for apps and headless frontends

Real-world example: a B2B store for a technical wholesaler

A technical wholesaler wants to offer regular customers an ordering store with customer-specific prices and tiered pricing. Items, prices and stock levels are to come from the inventory management system, and orders should flow back automatically. Shopware supports customer groups and individual prices; the connection to the ERP is developed as an integration.

The advantage lies in customizability: special processes such as framework agreements or internal approvals can be implemented in extensions instead of being squeezed into a ready-made scheme. The flip side is more project effort than with a simple website-builder store, which shows up mainly in interfaces, testing and data migration.

Current version, migration and imple­menta­tion

Shopware 5 has not received security updates since July 31, 2024; operators should move to Shopware 6. This is a rebuild: products, customers and orders can be carried over with the migration assistant, while the theme and custom plugins have to be redeveloped. Shopware 6 is continuously developed by the vendor and receives security updates.

Nano Concepts develops Shopware stores, plugins and interfaces and supports migrations from Shopware 5 to Shopware 6, including data transfer, redirects and testing before go-live. Together we clarify beforehand which extensions stay, which are replaced and which functions you will really need in the future.

• Strengths: high customizability, B2B features, connection to ERP and PIM
• Data and hosting stay under your control
• Limits: more project and development effort than with website builders
• Operations: plan for regular updates, testing and suitable hosting
• Check extensions for compatibility with the Shopware version before updates