Why switch to Shopware 6

Magento 1 will soon reach its end-of-life. For many webshop owners, this is an opportunity to consider other e-commerce platforms. One of these platforms is Shopware 6. Shopware 6 was launched last January, and is extremely fast, stable and user-friendly. If you are considering a switch to another platform, then Shopware 6 is a good option to consider.

In this blog post, guest author Michel Doens, owner of Shopware Enterprise Partner Sition, explains why Shopware 6 is a good alternative and which migration options you have. The switch from Magento to Shopware is not difficult, but does require proper preparation.

Switching to Shopware 6

Switching to Shopware offers numerous benefits, including:

• Magento 2 updates can be fairly time-consuming, such as if you use different modules or custom themes. The update from version 2.2 to version 2.3 for example was certainly a daunting task.
• Adobe focuses on Magento Commerce or Enterprise, which means good content management is only possible to a very limited degree in the Magento Community or open source version. In contrast, Shopware offers an entire user-friendly CMS for a very modest investment.
• As noted in the introduction, Magento 1 will no longer be supported as of the 30th of June. Fun fact: if you switch to Shopware 6, you also get Mage One free of charge. This way you continue to receive security updates for Magento 1, so you can take your time and make the switch to Shopware with a sound plan in place.

Migration options

Various options are available to migrate your products to Shopware 6 with their corresponding categories and attributes. A couple of possibilities would be:

The Shopware Migration Tool and the Plug-in for Shopware 6

Pros:

• This migration also includes your customers and orders

Cons:

• Customers and orders are only migrated if a product still exists
• The migration is difficult to control or monitor, and is not always successful
• A great deal of manual work is still needed
• The tool is not yet available for Magento 2

Shopware Import/Export tool:

This tool lets you import CSV/Excel files directly using different profiles. This is possible for customers, orders, products, categories, etc.

Pros:

• This tool is relatively easy to use

Cons:

• At this time, the tool is not yet available for Shopware 6. (It is actually expected this month)

Akeneo PIM in combination with Shopware connector

Pros:

• This option makes product data verifiable and offers optimal verification when using multiple languages
• Missing fields can be identified quickly
• You can use this option for multiple purposes, such as data provision to customers with B2B applications
• Easy to make “mappings” for data providers

Cons:

• Setup requires an additional investment

Read more about how to migrate Magento product data to Shopware 6 with Akeneo PIM here.

Our partners would love to advise you when switching to another e-commerce platform, such as Magento 2 or Shopware. Please contact us and tell us about your situation, so we can take a look at which partner(s) would be of best help for you.