rom January 2023, Shopware users can extend the capabilities of their shops with Ergonode's product information management system. The integration was designed and implemented for Ergonode by the Strix team and is available for free to all Shopware and Ergonode clients.
The importance of PIM in e-commerce
Product information management (PIM) has always been one of the biggest challenges in e-commerce, especially large ones offering thousands of items. Images, descriptions, specifications, attributes, tags, video – each of the information assigned to an individual product is the basis for the customer to make a purchasing decision and must be tailored to the requirements of the various sales channels. A company that wanted to manually manage this amount of information would need an entire team responsible only for updating the data in the system. Fortunately, modern PIM tools save time and money by offering a range of functionalities to automate the entire process. And Ergonode is a perfect example of such a solution.
What does the integration with Ergonode offer?
Shopware is an open-source e-commerce platform for the B2B and B2C sectors, allowing the creation of an online shop tailored to individual business expectations. Shopware itself provides the basic functions for managing product information, but the integration with Ergonode significantly expands the platform's capabilities in this aspect, and additionally allows for a seamless, automated exchange of information between systems thanks to API technology. Customers also gain the ability to generate product content and templates using AI, as well as an automatic translation function. The plug-in is available for free for Shopware and Ergonode customers and can be installed here. Performing the integration yourself can be done by following these instructions.
Key functionalities of the Ergonode extension:
- Mapping of Ergonode attributes with Shopware properties.
- Creation and mapping of custom fields and attributes.
- Ability to schedule automatic synchronisation of product data.
- Manual synchronisation of product data.
- Assignment of product segments to selected sales channels.
- Insight into change history (e.g. to identify potential errors).
By integrating with Ergonode, Shopware customers gain access to the functionality of both systems without having to update data manually. The PIM tool allows the flexibility to create more personalised product pages by adding new attributes for each product, for example, colour version, size, or electronic hardware parameters. Each product information can be implemented into all or selected sales channels, such as the shop window, mobile app, or social media.
The Composable Commerce approach in online shops architecture
The extension of e-commerce platforms with integrations offered by third-party service providers is part of the Composable Commerce approach, of which we are passionate advocates. It relies on the concept of building modular, flexible sales platforms that draw on the most modern solutions available that communicate with each other via APIs. Composable Commerce is a modern alternative to the monolithic model, in which all the elements of an application are cobbled together into a single system with limited possibilities for scaling and rebuilding. The idea of composing software from independent, interconnected modules gives online shop owners almost unlimited customisation possibilities and the chance to react instantly to changing market needs and expectations. Sounds interesting? We have written everything you need to know about the Composable Commerce approach and the supporting technologies in our ebook.