Comparing Shop Systems

Comparing Shop Systems The two-day seminar for everyone facing a platform decision or unhappy with the current one: you learn to gather requirements, compare systems fairly and calculate costs over five years instead of over one licence. By the end you can justify a decision that still holds in three years.

Comparing Shop Systems at a glance

• Format: 2 days on site + self-learning track
• Level: basic to advanced
• Participants: max. 16 people
• Language: German (English on request)
• Certificate: AEI certificate of attendance
• Investment: €290.00 plus VAT

Choosing a shop system is one of the few decisions that cannot be corrected quickly. Whoever chooses wrongly keeps paying three years later: in customisation, in missing functions, in a migration that costs more than the original licence.

Most comparisons fail at two points. First, features nobody needs are ticked off against each other. Second, the licence price is confused with the cost of the system — operation, customisation, staff and migration risk stay outside.

This seminar starts from the requirements. You gather what your business model really demands, translate it into assessment criteria and calculate the total cost over several years. The comparison becomes traceable afterwards, not more persuasive.

What you take away

• A requirement profile derived from your business model instead of a feature list.
• Weighted criteria for systems, operation and providers.
• A five-year total cost calculation including operation and customisation.
• A checklist for migration so that a move does not lead to a standstill.
• An approach for a test that shows more than a demo.

Your learning objectives

• You distinguish system types and know which fits which business model.
• You gather requirements so that they become assessable.
• You calculate total cost instead of licence prices.
• You recognise dependencies in hosting, updates and customisation.
• You plan a migration or an introduction with realistic steps.

The levers at a glance

The feature set almost never decides. Most systems can do what a normal shop needs. The decision is made on operation, customisability and the question of who implements changes in future — you yourself or an agency you have to pay.

The licence is the smallest item. Over five years, operation, staff, customisation and updates together are usually a multiple. Whoever compares only the licence compares the wrong thing.

Customisability is an obligation. A system that adapts to everything requires somebody to maintain it. Without that person every change becomes an external invoice.

The exit is part of the decision. Whoever does not count the exit costs chooses optimistically. Whoever knows them chooses deliberately.

A demo answers no question you could not answer alone. A guided demo shows what the provider wants to show. A test with your own product data, your own payment provider and your own returns process shows whether the system fits — and that is the only evidence worth collecting.

Who is this seminar for?

For people who decide about a shop system or are responsible for it.

• Managing directors and e-commerce leads before a platform decision.
• Shop managers whose system is hitting limits and who need arguments.
• IT owners who have to assess operation and security.
• Project leads steering an introduction or a migration.

Technical background helps but is not required. The terms are explained during the seminar; the assessment is a management task, not a developer task.

The seminar is not suitable for teams wanting to be trained in a specific system. We compare and assess, we do not train in a platform.

Investment and dates

Participation costs €290.00 plus VAT, including the self-learning track, materials and certificate of attendance. There are six dates per year in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and live online, plus an in-house variant for teams. You will find all dates in the list on this page.

For the exercises bring your own requirement list if possible. Whoever faces the decision works on their own case; whoever does not works on an example from retail.

After the seminar

You keep the materials, an assessment matrix to fill in and a calculation sheet for the five-year total cost. Both are built so that you can discuss them with the provider of your choice.

The calculation sheet has one column per year, so a rising support contract or a growing internal effort becomes visible instead of being averaged away.

Two weeks after the seminar you receive a short follow-up: your requirement profile and the three criteria that decide for you. We check whether they really come from the business model.

For teams the seminar is available as an in-house event with your own system context. The procedure stays the same, the examples come from you.

Programme: 2 days

Day 1 – Shop system fundamentals

• Why a shop system
• System types
• Gathering requirements
• Scaling and growth
• Criteria and costs
• Binding and migration

Day 2 – Assessment

• Hosting and responsibility
• Updates and security
• Selection and testing
• Planning the introduction

Both days run from 09:00 to 16:15 with breaks in the morning, at midday and in the afternoon. Short self-checks sit between the blocks so you can test where you stand before moving on.

Each day has three parts: an introduction to the pattern, an exercise on your own case and a review in the group. At the end of day one your requirement profile stands; on day two you assess two options against it.

The seminar includes a self-learning track. It contains the patterns from both days as short units with examples and one self-check each. You can work through it before the date to clarify terms, or afterwards to repeat what stuck and what did not.

Our approach

We work on your decision, not on a recommendation for a product. At the start of each exercise you decide which requirement you are testing and why it matters for your business model; at the end stands a criterion you can assess.

The exercises are short and repeat in variations. That is deliberate: the ability to sharpen requirements does not come from listening but from repeatedly deleting what only sounds good.

Every block ends with a sentence you could show a colleague: which requirement, why it matters, and which option wins on it.

We work in pairs, in small groups and in plenary, with changing partners. Every participant gets feedback on their requirement profile, not just on their favourite. Group level and participant count are deliberately limited: with 16 people no anonymous lecture is possible.