With The Northman Dry Gin, the name says it all – the two founders have made it their mission to bottle their home, the north of Germany, so that it can be enjoyed from anywhere at any time. They set up an online store so that they could share the unique taste, and the lifestyle of the North that goes with it, outside their home country.
Learn more about the history of the company and why they chose Shopware in the cloud in this interview with Lars Wischnewski, co-founder of The Northman.
In 2020, the young company faced a major challenge. The previous store system SUPR, a Wirecard subsidiary, was no longer sustainable in the wake of Wirecard's sudden insolvency and a new store system solution had to be found quickly. Reliability and stability were particularly important when choosing a new system. In addition to a wide range of functions, especially with regard to third-party integration, the usability, design and growth possibilities were also decisive factors. That's why the decision about the right store system and also the hosting was easy, explains Claas Harnack, co-founder of The Northman:
"It was clear to us that we needed a cloud solution that could grow with us and for which we didn't have to worry about security or updates. As we increasingly professionalize and prepare for further growth, integration opportunities are important to us. We have found the right partner for us in Shopware."
Within 2 weeks, the previous online store was migrated to Shopware 6. The company carried out the migration independently, and praised the intuitive navigation in the system.
"With a little knowledge of IT or design, you can quickly find your way around Shopware. In addition, Shopware provided us with good, personal help, so that we were able to set up our new store in record time without any downtimes and were always available for our customers despite what was happening."
The Northman store features a wonderfully clean design and tells the story of the North.
Their mission to make the North a tangible experience was to be reflected above all in the online store. With the Shopware Shopping Experiences, visually appealing content pages and layouts can be created in no time at all.
The new online store should not serve as a replacement for local retail, but as an ideal complement. In addition to the products and the history of the founders, creative video cocktail recipes can also be discovered in the store.
Social media also plays an important role. The Northman uses its social media presence to generate customer awareness and provide information about discount promotions, product news and cocktail recipes.
The Shopware cloud allows The Northman to focus on its core business, because updates to the software are carried out automatically in the cloud. The topic of security is also covered in the Shopware cloud. For The Northman, it was particularly important that existing third-party suppliers could be seamlessly integrated into Shopware. Thanks to the numerous apps and themes in the App Store, The Northman was able to easily add the desired functions. A particular challenge in this case was integrating an age query. The store sells spirits that are available in Germany for people over the age of 18. For this reason, an age check is required both in the store and during the shipping process. With Shopware and the service provider Shipcloud, this problem was easily solved by linking ERP, online store and DHL processes.
The Northman is completely satisfied with the decision to expand its online growth with Shopware, explains Claas Harnack:
"We have never regretted switching to Shopware cloud. We are very happy with our store and the collaboration, and we regularly look forward to new features that enable us to have an even better store and thus even more growth."
For the future of its online business, the company is planning even more interactive content, such as more videos and more dynamic product presentation, and stronger networking of all tools with the store in order to be able to further automate the processes and a significant expansion of the online business in overall sales.
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