Professional online shop development

We plan, build and run online shops – from the first outline of the product range to the point where orders land in your inventory system without you touching them.

What actually matters in a shop

Putting a shop online is no longer a hurdle. Building it so that it holds up for years still is. The projects that reach us for repair rarely fail on design. They fail on product data nobody can maintain, on a checkout with four steps too many, on filters flushing thousands of duplicates into the Google index, or on an inventory system that was never properly connected and is therefore updated by hand.

That is why a project here does not start with a draft but with your product range: how many articles, how many variants, how do prices change, where do the images come from, who maintains this later? Almost everything else follows from those answers – system choice, effort, and the question of what can be automated.

Choosing the system

We work with Shopware, Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento Open Source, and develop custom where no standard system fits. Which system makes sense depends on the size of the range, the connections needed, the audience, and whether you want to take on operations yourself.

Two points up front, because they cost or save money later. A hosted system such as Shopify takes updates and server operations off your hands, but ties you to platform fees and to what the platform provides for. A self-hosted system gives you every freedom and demands regular maintenance in return. We work predominantly with open-source technology so that you are tied neither to licences nor to us.

What we do

Potential and competitor analysis

Before anything is built, we look at what your audience actually searches for, who ranks for it today, and what it would take to achieve something there. Sometimes the conclusion is that a different product range would be the better idea.

Concept and information architecture

Category tree, filter logic, search, navigation paths. With a range of 20 articles this is quickly settled; with 20,000 it determines the entire shop.

Design and usability

Layouts for homepage, category, product and checkout – phone first, because that is where most visits happen.

Technical build

Shop setup, templates, interfaces to inventory management, payment and shipping providers, import of product data. Plus the things you do not see: image delivery in WebP or AVIF, caching, clean URLs, redirects from the old shop.

Search engine optimisation

Indexability, handling of variants and filter pages, structured data for price and availability, category texts that answer a question.

Product copy

Descriptions that support a purchase decision instead of repeating manufacturer specifications. Where ranges are large we work with AI-assisted drafts that are then edited editorially – unedited generated text serves neither customers nor search engines.

Operations and maintenance

Updates, security patches, monitoring, adjustments. On request we take on server operations as well.

From idea to launch

• Preparation. What is to be sold, to whom, in which countries, on what budget? This is also where we establish which systems you already run that need to be connected.
• Concept. The analysis turns into a concept with range structure, feature scope and a system recommendation. At this point you know what will be built and why.
• Build. Development on a staging environment you can look at any time. Intermediate states instead of one big reveal at the end.
• Launch. Data migration, redirects, switching payment methods live, test orders through every route. Only then does the shop go live.
• Marketing. After launch the work on visibility begins – organic and through paid channels. What runs through search engine advertising and what through existing customers depends on margin and range.

Legal obligations and accessibility

A shop selling to consumers in Germany is subject to a set of requirements: a legal notice (Impressum), the right of withdrawal and its associated instructions under § 355 BGB, the button solution under § 312j BGB, complete price information including VAT and shipping costs, a privacy policy, and a consent banner that loads marketing and tracking scripts only after active consent.

Accessibility has been added to this. Since 28 June 2025 the German Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz (BFSG) applies, implementing the European Accessibility Act and covering services in electronic commerce – including online shops aimed at consumers. The governing standard is EN 301 549 with its reference to the WCAG; the law provides exemptions for micro-enterprises. Whether your offering is affected is a legal question and belongs with a specialist lawyer. We handle the technical implementation: operable forms, keyboard navigation, visible focus, sufficient contrast, sensible labelling in the checkout.

Having an existing shop reviewed

You already have a shop, but the orders are not coming? Then an analysis pays off before anything is rebuilt. We look at where visitors come from, at which point in the checkout they drop out, how fast the page actually loads, and what stands technically in the way of indexing. Often the bottleneck sits at a single point that can be fixed with manageable effort.

Book on the subject

The book E-Commerce für klein- und mittelständische Unternehmen is by Yannik Süß, founder and managing director of Intent GmbH, published in cooperation with Springer. It works through the steps that come before a shop: concept, budget planning, legal framework, design, search engine optimisation and marketing. The book is in German. Details about the book

Frequently asked questions

What does it cost to have an online shop built?

That depends on the number of products and variants, on the interfaces needed, and on how much has to be developed individually. A standard shop on an existing platform sits well below a custom build with ERP integration. Describe your project and we will give you a first order of magnitude you can plan with.

What are the running costs?

Typically hosting, domain, updates and maintenance, payment provider fees per transaction, licence or platform fees where applicable, and the marketing budget. The order of magnitude differs sharply between a self-hosted and a hosted system.

How long does a project take?

From a few weeks for a manageable standard shop to several months when product data has to be migrated and several systems connected. In our experience the biggest influence on the schedule comes from product data and from approval cycles on the client side.

Which shop system does Intent GmbH use?

We are not committed to one system. For smaller projects with an editorial focus, WooCommerce on a WordPress base makes sense; for medium and larger projects, Shopware, Shopify or Magento Open Source. The decision comes after the analysis, not before.

Can I maintain products and content myself later?

Yes. You get accounts with appropriate permissions, and we set up the interface so that your staff can edit articles, images, prices and content pages without us. An introduction is part of the deal.

Can a shop be integrated into an existing website?

As a rule, yes. Depending on the starting point, the shop is embedded into the existing system or run as its own system and matched visually. Which route is cheaper depends on the existing foundation.

Is the shop optimised for search engines?

We build the technical foundation in: reachable URLs, clean handling of variants and filters, structured data, short loading times, maintained redirects. Beyond that, rankings come from content and links – that is ongoing work, not a one-time setting.

Which payment methods should I offer?

In Germany, customers expect at least PayPal, invoice, direct debit and credit card, and on mobile devices Apple Pay and Google Pay as well. Which selection makes sense depends on the audience and the basket size; every additional method costs fees or risk.

How do I secure the shop technically?

Through regular updates of the system and its extensions, TLS encryption, two-factor authentication for administrator accounts, separate staging and production environments, and backups whose restoration has actually been rehearsed once.

How do I keep track of stock levels?

Through the shop system’s inventory management or – as soon as several sales channels are involved – through the ERP as the leading system. What matters is that only one place knows the truth about stock.

How do I measure whether the shop works?

Through conversion rate per channel, average basket value, drop-out rate per checkout step, return rate and the share of returning customers. Revenue alone does not reveal where the bottleneck is.

Do I need a registered trade?

For commercial trading in Germany, yes. Which registrations and permits are necessary in an individual case is something to clarify with the trade office or legal advice – it also depends on the product range.

Which countries should I ship to?

It usually makes sense to start nationally and expand the shipping area according to revenue. Every additional country brings its own tax, legal and logistical requirements.

Build it myself or have it built?

If you have time, technical understanding and a simple range, a standard shop is feasible in-house. As soon as interfaces, larger data volumes or legal subtleties come into play, building it yourself usually ends up more expensive than commissioning it – because the mistakes only show up in live operation.

Let’s talk about your project

Whether it is a new shop, a system change, or an existing shop that is not delivering: describe briefly what it is about and what is in the way today. To the contact page – you can also book a slot directly there. Who we are is on our about page.