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Shopware Store Development from Scratch: Steps and Costs

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Shopware Store Development from Scratch: Steps and Costs

In a world where Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Weebly, Squarespace, and other eCommerce sites strive to get your attention, Shopware is steadily gaining more market share in Europe, and for a good reason.

So, why Shopware?

With its in-built interface, easy-to-customize features, and open-source nature, Shopware is quickly becoming popular as an ideal B2B e-commerce platform that has also seen significant uptake in the B2C sector.

Users get extendable plugins from the Shopware marketplace, manufacturer support, client streams, product streams, a digital publishing feature, a free initial installation, and shopping world presets.

According to recent statistics, Shopware currently powers over 100,000 brands worldwide, with about 28% of the market share in Germany, where it leads. While relatively new in the US market, Shopware has been around since 2000 and is well-regarded and widely used in Europe.

This comprehensive guide will share the insights you need to know to set up a Shopware online shop from scratch for your enterprise.

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Let’s dive in!



Advantages of Shopware

In addition to the standard fare of security, mobile responsiveness, a user-friendly interface, client, order, and product management, payment gateway integration, and more than an eCommerce site needs to have, Shopware 6 provides some unique opportunities to shop owners.

Here are some of the Shopware advantages you can expect:



1. Built On Symfony

Symfony is a PHP framework renowned among the dev community for its flexibility and extensibility. That means that Shopware is more tailorable than many eCommerce platforms available today and can be extensively tweaked to address particular requirements.



2. More Community-Driven Compared To Peers

Symfony is open-source, too, meaning there is a large and growing community of Shopware developers working to extend and improve the framework. For a store owner, that means a more accessible process of finding a Shopware specialist familiar with Symfony to help build and customize a store. For the developer, it implies access to a large community with expertise and resources like plugins and extensions for an easier and more efficient development process.



3. Capability To Reach Customers Through Multiple Channels Based On Location And Lifestyle

Shopware provides a variety of perks that can help you reach customers through multiple channels. For example, Shopware has built-in SEO features that come in handy for you to optimize your site for search engines and improve your visibility online.

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Shopware also supports integrations with social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, which can help you reach new clients quickly.

Additionally, Shopware has features allowing you to come up with targeted marketing campaigns based on customer location and lifestyle. For example, you can create campaigns that target merchants in particular geographic regions or are tailored to specific interests or demographics.



4. An API-First Approach

Why does that matter? From a developer standpoint, the API-first-driven approach taken by Shopware allows us to help integrate your store with other platforms and systems, creating a seamless shopping experience for users across all channels.

For instance, you can use Shopware to integrate your store with social media sites or other eCommerce platforms such as Amazon, allowing you to design a business that meets your specific needs and subsequently impact revenue positively.

Let’s dive into the editions offered to learn more!



Which Shopware Editions Are Available?

Shopware divides its offering into various editions intended to serve different levels of need. Let’s talk about them briefly:

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Rise

The Rise plan is designed for small businesses that need a base-level e-commerce platform. It includes perks like:

  • Page builder: Create appealing shop pages with nothing but drag & drop. Zero coding is required.
  • Unlimited stores
  • Premium themes
  • Blog: Keep your customers up-to-date with your industry’s latest news and trends.
  • Rule builder: Create custom rules for automation and efficiency
  • Flow builder: Create custom workflows for your store to automate processes and save time.
  • Flow sharing: Share your workflows with other users in your organization.
  • Flow preview: Preview your workflows before you publish them.



Evolve

The Evolve plan is designed for mid-sized businesses that need more advanced features than the Rise plan.

It includes all of the Rise plan’s features and additional features like:

  • Advanced B2B features: Create custom pricing rules for your B2B customers.
  • CMS Rules: Create custom rules for your store’s content management system to automate processes and save time.
  • Story telling: Create engaging stories to showcase your products and brand.
  • Quick view: Allow customers to quickly view product details without leaving the category page.
  • Flow promotion actions (create custom promotions)
  • Advance search (allow customers to use filters)
  • Create a store’s custom forms to gather customer data.
  • Phone support



Beyond

The Beyond plan is designed for big businesses that need more improved features than the Evolve plan.

It includes all of the Evolve plan’s perks and extra features like:

  • Subscriptions: Allow customers to subscribe to the products you offer and receive them regularly.
  • Returns and refunds management directly from your Shopware store.
  • Guided shopping with tailored recommendations and product suggestions.
  • Customer-specific pricing for individual customers or groups of customers.
  • Multi-inventory: Manage inventory across multiple locations.
  • DevOps support

As always, with every Shopware 6 upgrade, you get the features of the levels below it in addition to more enhanced functionality. Shopware 6 pricing starts at $600 for the Rise tier, with custom pricing for the other levels.

However, it is worth noting that there is a Shopware Community Edition. It forms the basis for all Shopware paid tiers, and also it is:

  • MIT-licensed
  • Free
  • Open-source
  • Supported by its community



How To Develop A Shopware Store



1. Find The Right Product Niche

Before we dive into the technical side of things, it is worth noting that you could have the best, most intuitively-developed Shopware store online but not experience the success you may be looking for. Your product development process needs to start with establishing a niche if you haven’t already.

This will not only help you succeed once the shop is launched but also help you hire Shopware developers who understand what your vision is and stick to its philosophy. Hence, your product and presentation complement each other.



2. Set Up Your Online Store With Shopware

Setting up an online store with Shopware is a simple process that involves signing up for a Shopware account, installing Shopware 6 (the most current version as of this writing), and familiarizing yourself with how it works.

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Luckily for anyone pondering about Shopware 6 development, the provider gives extensive documentation to get you started with things like:

  • Installation
  • The First Run Wizard
  • Administration Overview
  • Profile settings
  • Search (Administration)
  • Dashboard
  • Internalization

On the documentation page, still, you can get details concerning migration, features, configuration, Shopware in the cloud, Shopware extensions, tutorials and FAQs, update guides, and security updates.



3. Planning, Wireframing, And Designing

After you figure out how to use the Shopware platform, you can move on to designing the structure and layout of your website. The planning step uses wireframing to determine where each interface element will land on the important pages.

The planning stage allows developers to visualize their Shopware websites before building them to iron out usually time-consuming kinks to fix if identified late.



4. Choose A Shipping Partner

When it comes to shipping, Shopware, with its open design, connects to many couriers via extensions. They include DPD, UPS, FedEx, DHL, MRW, Correos, Smartpost, Deutsche Post, Royal Mail, La Poste, and many more. With Shopware 6, you can automate shipping, tracking, and returns using comprehensive tools that handle the post-sales process from beginning to end.

To find the right shipping partner, follow the industry’s best practices, like comparing prices between the options, checking the reputation with other merchants, and, most importantly, finding a shipping partner that addresses your specific needs.



5. Choose Shopware Third-Party Plugins

Shopware plugins are utilized for extending, modifying, and overriding almost any software part of the Symfony PHP framework. They are an extension of Symfony bundles and offer you resources such as assets, tests, and controllers.

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The capabilities power your Shopware payments integration, launching the store, adding custom commands, routes and logic, executing webhooks, and more. Some of the best and most popular plugins on Shopware include Rapidmail for newsletters and email marketing, Mailchimp for Shopware 6, Popup to accept all cookies, and more.



6. Shopware Integration With Payment Systems

Remember the API-first approach we mentioned earlier. When it comes to payments integration in Shopware, that open environment lays ample grounds for developers to integrate the payment providers of your choice effortlessly.

The Shopware 6 payment system is important for checkout as the payment is applied to the order transaction. Like any order change, the process is completed via the state machine, with payment handlers in the middle. The handlers extend the platform to support payment integrations like Klarna, Computop Payment, Mollie, and more.



7. Choose Extensions To Connect With Your Clients

To connect with your customers on Shopware, you can use extensions that include plugins for live chat, marketing, social media integration, and more. For instance, using the Facebook Pixel extension, you can track customer behavior and optimize how you present ads.

Mailchimp is another great extension allowing you to connect the store to the email marketing platform, while a plugin like Zendesk Chat allows you to use the live chat feature so clients can talk to you. Extensions add new features and functionality to the open landscape that is a Shopware store.

You can directly install Shopware extensions from the store or utilize the admin interface. After installation, you must customize and configure them to fit your needs.

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8. Development And Implementation

In the Shopware development and implementation phase, all the ideas you would like to implement in the shop come to life. The development stage is where the actual coding and testing of the store to ensure it meets all requirements happens.

The development stage comes after brainstorming ideas and wireframing the draft of the store. Guided by the insights gained from that planning stage, developers build the store with all the functionalities required before deploying it to the production environment for launch.



9. Security, Optimization, And Testing

As developers, we understand how to approach security, optimization, and testing using a variety of development frameworks that take these aspects into account from the beginning. Security, optimization, and testing aren’t the ends; they happen concurrently as we work on the store from the bottom up.

With the right Shopware solution partner, you can access tools for checking for unauthorized code changes, data encryption, and administrating user permissions and access. To optimize performance, we start our work long before installing Shopware, during development, testing, and implementation, ensuring it can handle high requests per second without missing a beat.



How Much Does It Cost To Develop A Shopware Store?

Developing a Shopware store can entail a range of costs depending on various aspects.

  • One key cost aspect is the complexity of the design and functionality you require for your store. For instance, a simple store with basic design elements and functionality costs less than one with a more elaborate design and custom functionality.
  • Another important cost factor is the level of customization you need for your store. A store that requires extensive customization, such as custom plugins and integrations, will require more development time and resources, thus resulting in a higher cost.
  • Your Shopware cost can also be affected by the expertise needed for the development team. A more experienced Shopware agency or developer typically charges more than a less experienced team.
  • Additionally, the chosen hosting solution can affect the cost, as high-performance hosting options tend to be more expensive.

Generally, factors such as design complexity, customization requirements, level of expertise, and hosting solution all play a significant role in determining the cost of developing a Shopware store.



Are You Ready To Build Your Shopware Store?

As we bring this comprehensive guide on Shopware store development to a close, we hope we have provided you with valuable insights and tips to help build a fruitful online store using this eCommerce platform.

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Our Shopware development company has a team of experienced and skilled developers who are well-versed in creating custom stores that cater to unique business needs. We understand that every business is different, and we engage closely with our clients to ensure that their online store reflects their brand image and vision.

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5 Hidden Features of WordPress.com – WordPress.com News

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5 Hidden Features of WordPress.com – WordPress.com News

Whether you’re a blogger, a developer, or fall somewhere between, you’re likely to discover something new and useful in this video.

Isn’t it amazing how you can learn new things about someone, even after years of knowing them? That’s how Jamie Marsland has felt in the last few weeks while diving deeper into WordPress.com’s capabilities. In today’s Build and Beyond video, he shares five incredible features built right into the platform that aren’t as well known as they should be. Whether you’re a blogger, a developer, or fall somewhere between, you’re likely to discover something new and useful. 

Ready to build on WordPress.com? Start a free trial today:


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New WordPress.com Themes for March 2024 – WordPress.com News

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New WordPress.com Themes for March 2024 – WordPress.com News

Five of our favorite new themes.

The WordPress.com team is always working on new design ideas to bring your website to life. Check out the latest themes in our library, including great options for small businesses, sports fan, nostalgic bloggers, and more.


Feelin’ Good is a vibrant (to say the least!) blog theme with a bold vaporwave aesthetic. Its nostalgic atmosphere pays homage to the daring, over-the-top visual art and advertisements of the ’80s and early ’90s. We’ve combined a lot of elements that shouldn’t work together, but do. If you’re looking for a dynamic, attention-grabbing, eye-popping visual feast of a theme, try Feelin’ Good.

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Click here to view a demo of this theme.


1711610762 938 New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Low Fi is a simple blog theme featuring a narrow column layout that’s optimized for seamless browsing on mobile devices. With six style variations, you’re sure to find a palette you’re drawn to. Taking inspiration from the lo-fi beats music scene, the theme’s design cues, such as the square header image, offer a nod to album artwork.

The overall aesthetic is deliberately understated, with each element—from the muted color schemes to the textured background—crafted to evoke a sense of nostalgia and warmth.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


1711610763 567 New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Cakely is the ultimate WordPress theme designed specifically for passionate bakers, cake enthusiasts, and dessert lovers. Tailored for small businesses aiming to shine in the world of sweets, Cakely effortlessly combines style and functionality to showcase mouthwatering creations. Its vibrant pink color scheme exudes joy while maintaining a classy, clean layout with easy navigation. This theme ultimately strikes the perfect balance between professionalism and playfulness, making it an ideal choice for showcasing your delicious masterpieces.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Treehouse is a carefree, fun, and friendly theme ideal for Woo stores selling children’s products. With its unlimited customization options, Treehouse enables you to set up an online shop with just a few clicks. Utilizing a soft color palette, playful design details, and simplified layouts, your site will attract a wide range of customers, from young parents to over-the-moon grandparents. This theme is fully responsive and cross-browser compatible.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.


New WordPresscom Themes for March 2024 – WordPresscom News

Major League Baseball’s 2024 season kicks off on Thursday, March 28. What better way to show your home team the love it deserves than with a baseball-themed fan site! With a somewhat old-school layout, this theme evokes some of the classic sports sites of the ’90s, back before fantasy leagues took over. The header and accent colors are customizable, ensuring that your favorite crew is properly saluted.

Click here to view a demo of this theme.

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To install any of the above themes, click the name of the theme you like, which brings you right to the installation page. Then click the “Activate this design” button. You can also click “Open live demo,” which brings up a clickable, scrollable version of the theme for you to preview.

Premium themes are available to use at no extra charge for customers on the Explorer plan or above. Partner themes are third-party products that can be purchased for $79/year each.

You can explore all of our themes by navigating to the “Themes” page, which is found under “Appearance” in the left-side menu of your WordPress.com dashboard. Or you can click below:


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How to Get Started: Investigating Payment Gateways Online

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How to Get Started: Investigating Payment Gateways Online

When investigating a website, app, or online shop, one of the key questions you may need to answer is ‘How are they making money?’ 

Investigating the financial transactions of an organisation can reveal details about its connections and funding. Furthermore, if the website or app is engaged in illicit transactions, tracing the payment gateway can help achieve accountability by identifying what sites they are using to earn money.   Bellingcat has looked into the payment processors in previous investigations on far-right merchandise, Britain’s far-right influencers, and non-consensual deepfake pornography.

Credit: Nicolas Guyonnet / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

Payment gateways are a technology that takes a customer’s payment information, checks it with their financial institution, verifies that the transaction is legitimate, and then completes the transaction. As explained by Forbes, online stores need a payment gateway to be able to facilitate payments. Companies including PayPal, Stripe, and Square are commonly used as a payment gateway for online purchases.

Most mainstream payment gateways (like Stripe and PayPal) prohibit their services from being used in illegal transactions including the sale of illegal drugs, the promotion of hate or racial intolerance, and non-consensual adult content. Finding evidence that someone is violating the Terms of Services of these companies – and how they are doing so- can lead to the closure of loopholes and accounts. It can also provide additional information about an organisation’s revenue streams. 

It is nearly impossible to conduct online transactions without a payment gateway. So it should be possible to find the payment gateway of an organisation earning money, even if it is not obvious at first. One resource that is extremely useful is Chrome’s built- in developer tools (other browsers also have similar tools). Below we’ll provide an overview of the tools to use and questions to ask when scrutinising payment systems. 

How are they Taking Payment?

For online transactions, you’ll typically see websites accept traditional forms of payment including credit cards, debit cards and, more recently, cryptocurrency. Since cryptocurrency is not subject to the same regulations as traditional financial systems, cryptocurrency is often used to process payments for illegal services. Since this does not need to be ‘hidden’, websites will usually disclose which currency they accept and how to transfer funds into a crypto wallet. There are other ways you can track funding through cryptocurrency, as discussed in this guide.

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If none of the above apply?  Other sites that use a payment gateway will accept money directly via credit card payment,  bank transfer, or through peer-to-peer payment apps (i.e., PayPal, Cash App, Zelle). If this is the case, you should be able to identify the payment gateway being used. In the case of the peer-to-peer apps, these services may be used by businesses and not just individuals’ transactions. They also require a bank account or credit card to use them. It is helpful to view transaction options on both the mobile app and web browser, in case the options differ.  It is also worth checking the currency that payments are being taken in – if it is a US website taking payment in a foreign currency, that can also provide clues. Further, if a website is using different payment gateways depending on the currency, this can lead to additional leads in your investigation. Payment options may also change depending on what IP address you are using. In other words, setting your IP address in the UK and then changing it to the US may result in different payment gateway options.

Where are they Soliciting for Payment?

Organisations may solicit for payment via a website or a messaging app like Telegram. It is important to investigate all avenues where  payment is being requested as each method may provide different clues for your investigation. For example, for some of the AI deep fake services we investigated here we found that companies would accept different payment methods depending on how you tried to pay – via their website, via a web browser or via Telegram. Sellers may want to direct their users away from their website to more private forums such as Telegram to facilitate transactions and avoid detection.

Is the Organisation Trying to Hide How Payment is Taken?

For some sellers, using a mainstream payment gateway may  violate the terms of service of that company. To be able to use their services, these sellers may  try to hide the nature of their goods from the payment gateway company. 

A Walk Through Example

Some sites may not show their payment options without signing up first. 

This was the case with the Nudify.VIP site which offers non-consensual AI Deep Fake pornography.  

Initially, the website states that their services are free. 

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“With our service you can undress any person in a photo absolutely FREE!” 

However, this is misdirection, as you are then prompted to log in or sign up. Only once you create an account do you discover that you need to pay to access the service and how much it costs.

After creating an account, we were presented with two options to pay, by card or crypto. 

You are then presented with an option to pay via crypto or via credit card, but it does not yet say what cards they accept or what payment gateway they use. 

Clicking through to ‘Go To Payment’ gives us a new screen that lets the user pay via credit card (ie MasterCard, Visa), a US Bank account (ie Wells Fargo, USAA), or through Cash App. 

There is no indication of the payment gateway they are using, but if we look at the URL on the checkout page, we can see that it no longer says that we are on a Nudify.VIP domain. This is a clue that users are being directed to the checkout page through another website. This method is used to hide the true source of purchases from payment gateway providers. There’s another clue  that the domain has changed- in the fine print at the bottom of the checkout page. Via the Checkout Page using either Cash App or credit card options, it discloses:

“By providing your card information, you allow aiphotos.art to charge your card for future payments in accordance with their terms.”

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This is another clue that the payment gateway does not know this belongs to an AI Deep fake service Nudify.VIP.

Three checkout options for Nudify.VIP: credit card, US bank account, and Cash App.

Use Browser Developer Tools to Investigate Further

All modern browsers have some form of built-in developer tools. You can search online for your specific browser (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Safari). If you are in Chrome, you can right-click anywhere on the screen to get a menu and an option to ‘Inspect.’ You can also use keyboard shortcuts which can vary between MacOS or Windows. For Windows, you can click CTRL + SHIFT + I and on MacOS you can click Option + Command + I on your keyboard. Any of these actions will open the developer tools which allows you to  view the code of a webpage (such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript). This should appear on the right-hand side of your screen. While developer tools are designed to check for bugs or errors in a website, you can use them in your investigation.

There should be a list of tabbed options for you to view on the top menu bar. Clicking on ‘Sources’ shows you all the resources that the website is using. 

This is a good place to start to look for any clues about what piece of code is being used in the checkout process.  In the example below, one of the listed sources on the page is titled ‘js.stripe.com.’



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