Since becoming the first UK agency to be Shopware 6 ready, we have had some time to really get to grips with Shopware’s newest offering and come up with our first impressions of the platform. As the leading eCommerce platform in Germany, with over 19 years in the industry and 80,000 installations of Shopware 5, it’s no surprise that this eCommerce giant is making moves on the English-speaking market.
Evolution of a platform
Shopware 5 has become known as ‘the eCommerce platform to drive your customer’s experience’. The main emphasis coming from meaningful interactions with customers through personalised involvement, whether that’s through a stores interactive Shopping Worlds or intuitive Customer Streams.
Shopware 6 builds on the principle ‘Emotional shopping on any device’ by being a platform that is prepared to meet the challenges of an ever-changing eCommerce landscape, while still creating the best customer experiences on all devices. Out of the box it utilises a modern technology stack; Symfony and Twig for templating, Vue.js (Shopware 6 administration), Webpack for asset bundling, scss, ES6, and the popular Bootstrap 4 framework. Using this API-first methodology allows for easier integration with other third-party systems, without the need to further extend the platform. This makes the system open for all users, not just those with specialist knowledge.
'The Shopware 6 platform is really focused on performance and UX which is great for vendors and users. The API-first development approach makes it easier on developers to integrate bespoke functionality, and really lends itself to headless solutions. Shopware 6 feels like a modern eCommerce developer experience. The platform will be super flexible - I'm excited to see what the Shopware team and the community do with it.' Ben Hogben, Junior Back-end Developer, Certified Shopware Developer.
So, what’s new in Shopware 6?
With the new platform comes a plethora of new features out-of-the-box. Below we outline the most notable new features you should be excited about.
Rule Builder
Sell your products the way you want to – make rules to set sale pricing using any set of parameters you wish, allowing a more flexible way to sell.
Sales Channels
Shopware can be used to sell everywhere, from social media, third-party marketplaces or POS; Shopware does it all centrally from one solution. Sales channels can differ in assortment, currencies and languages and in addition to the default channels, the API can be used to create custom connections and effectively reach customers wherever they are.
Shopping Experiences
An update of the Shopware 5 Shopping Worlds to build on the concept of “emotional shopping”. Shopping Experiences allows for quick design of content that makes your brand and products look elegant on any device and platform, without the technical requirements.
New Admin Design
The new admin design is much more elegant in Shopware 6, and is designed using modern JavaScript technology, Vue.js, improving extensibility, and reducing complexity for developers.
Internationalisation
Expanding into overseas markets is a major opportunity for a company to grow but it can be complicated to set up. Shopware 6 has been developed with these complexities in mind so retailers don’t have to jump over as many hurdles when it comes to internationalising their business. Internationalisation features include being prepared for different legal situations in different countries, multi-currency capabilities, country-specific sales channels and configurable tax calculations.
'From a front-end perspective, Shopware 6 offers an exciting new platform to create a more modern, more adaptable eCommerce website. Built on a completely new technology stack and headless environment, development now offers so much more flexibility for building custom templates and themes.' Siggi Sveinsson, Lead Front-end Developer, Shopware Certified Template Designer.
The direction of Shopware 6
In July 2019, the industry will have access to the download package with installation and the official public demo, with the ability to create personalised demo shops on the Shopware infrastructure (on request to Shopware). Shopware 6 editions will also be launched; Community, Professional and Enterprise. From December 2019, there will be the introduction of regular update cycles, starting with Shopware 6.1 and patch updates to come every 6-8 weeks.
If you would like to start your next eCommerce project on this unique system, we’re working with the shopware experts at supercharged commerce to deliver the full lifecycle and ecosystem of your website.
Get in touch with one of our experts to discuss your next steps.