Today in the 21st century, everyone knows what is online shopping and gets fascinated by online shopping. From groceries to electronics to furniture to clothing and embellishments, everything is available online. People find online shopping better, time-saving, and attractive as there are huge options available than physical shopping. This whole thing comes under E-commerce development and is thriving among the young generation. To be at the foot of modern trends and to catch the changing demands, E-commerce platforms have to stay streamlined. This is where a platform like Shopware comes into the picture.
What exactly is Shopware?
Shopware is a highly scalable, powerful, and configurable E-commerce solution that allows customers to create their online stores fast and effectively, regardless of their specifications or other business needs. It is an open-source platform from Germany that focuses on improving customer experience. Shopware was founded in the year 2000 by Sebastian Hamann along with his brother. We are celebrating 20 years of Shopware with the 6th version, which was introduced in 2019 and continues to be updated with versions such as 6.1, 6.2, 6.4, and 6.9 and higher.
Talking about this article, let us first understand Shopware 5 and Shopware 6 in detail.
Shopware 5: Overview
Shopware 5 is a feature-rich, mature, and stable E-commerce solution that is presently utilised by over 80,000 online shops. With the launch of Shopware 5, the German E-commerce platform aims to provide a more emotional and appealing webshop experience to stay ahead in the competition.
New features in Shopware 5
- Storytelling – Storytelling is a brand-new feature in Shopware 5. Storytelling takes visitors on a step-by-step trip via an atmospheric narrative, similar to how a retail store takes customers on a journey around their product world. We give completely new opportunities for merchants to imaginatively stage and promote their products through storytelling.
- Advanced Shopping Experience – Shopware 5 provides customers with a high-end and productive shopping experience. You can find any product, zoom out it, and return to the previous page in the easily understandable layout.
- Consistent Design language – The designers have adhered to a uniform design language down to the tiniest of elements. It is design for maximum usability by the customers.
- Highly Responsive – Shopware 5 is designed in a manner that it enhances shopping experiences in every device be it a computer, mobile phone or tablet and does not create any obstacle in any of the system.
- Faster – Shopware 5 has a revamped and enhanced core, making it speedier all around and allowing it to scale bigger numbers of items.
Shopware 6: Overview
According to the founders, Shopware 6 is built from the ground up and includes many fixes for flaws and bugs that were present in the previous versions. Its installation also is time-saving and simple.
According to the user requirement, it is available in 4 different editions:
- Community Edition
- Professional Edition
- Professional Plus
- Shopware Enterprise
New features/updates in Shopware 6
Shopware 6 came up with many new and modern features like cloud integration, usage of modern technology such as Vue.JS and PHP Symphony, integrated Paypal module, the rule builder, plugin manager and many more. Other advantages are as follows:
- Improvement in Admin Panel – The Vue framework is used for the front in Shopware 6 hence management has evolved into a more intuitive and basic approach than in Shopware 5.
- Channels for sales supported by APIs – The Shopware backend now has new functionality that allows users to effortlessly sell things in several languages and currencies.
- Redesigned Shopware frontend – ‘Twig’, a new template system with enhanced customizability and versatility, has been developed in Shopware 6.
- New Tools for SEO – Unlike Shopware 5, the new version allows for much faster adaptation to ever-changing search engine requirements.
Difference between Shopware 5 and Shopware 6
Shopware 6 provides Shopware Migration Solution, Shopware Integration Solution and Shopware Mobile Commerce Solution better than Shopware 5. Hence we can see the latest version is better and improved in many ways than version 5 making the interactions between the clients easy. Let us consider a chart form to clearly understand the major differences.
| Shopware 5 features | Shopware 6 features |
|---|---|
| Complicated APIs | Integrated APIs |
| Template Engine – Smarty | Template Engine – Twig |
| CSS and LESS | Bootstrap 4 and SASS |
| Extend.Js | ES 6, VUE JS and Webpack |
| Plugin structure (plugin.xml) | Advance plugin structure (Composer.json) |
| Uses Shopping World | Uses Experience world |
| ORM and DBAL | DBAL |
Conclusion
People are accustomed to following new trends, therefore having up-to-date technology is essential. Technologies and software update regularly, however not every upgrade is adequate or superior to the previous one. However, as stated in the preceding discussion, the 6th version is plainly superior to the 5th version of Shopware in every aspect. It’s also worth noting that, following the introduction of Shopware 6.1 in December, Shopware intends to deliver regular upgrade cycles every 6-8 weeks. Thus there will be several opportunities for all of us to gain an advantage of and shape its future development.
Want to upgrade your Shopware to the 6th version? The transition is not always easy and it will require skilled Shopware development company. iCreative Technologies has joined the Shopware team as an official partner of the new E-commerce framework. Hence hire dedicated Shopware developers like us to discuss vast online opportunities for you.
Jainesh Shah
Jainesh Shah is a CEO and Co-Founder of iCreative Technologies Inc. iCreative Technologies is a digital eCommerce agency mainly serving B2B clients across the globe. With over 15 years of experience in technology and business, he is helping his client thrive in this competitive era. He is specialized in eCommerce consulting, creative thinking, generating new business ideas, and delivering end products to market in the digital space. He is working with the vision to help his partner agencies and Clients to grow in their respective businesses.