December 2022, peak season for E-Commerce. All Shopware shops are generating big sales, sometimes with double-digit growth. What’s going on at Plentymarkets? We see shop-operators and agencies sweating when a Plentymarkets ERP actually is used. This year the big performance breakthrough should have happened.
The alphanauten ERP specialists have asked around and are presenting a short blog post on the topic: “Switching from Plentymarkets to Shopware”. There you will find out everything about the problems, reasons and deadlines.
The primary goal of a regular change of an ERP system usually consists of the following points: General improvements, increase in sales, UX, and backend process optimization. At the end of October 2022, we had published a guide to switching from Plentymarkets to Shopware. We describe the usual possible migrations between the two known ERP and CMS systems.
Now in mid-December 2022, the requirements and conditions have changed fundamentally. We update our comparison between Plentymarkets and Shopware and show the current advantages and disadvantages of the ERPs.
Plentymarkets vs Shopware [December 2022]
All users of the current Shopware 6 system operate their online business within a reasonable and calculable environment. The latest Shopware release and the associated extensions mean a lot of fun. Both for the shop visitors at the front-end and for all technical people in the back-end of the system.
Shopware 5 also still runs great and is very stable. Under no circumstances retailers will be forced to carry out critical system updates during the Christmas period. You can plan your change to the next level of system upgrade economically and consistently for the long term.
Before we go into the current Plentymarkets problems at this point, here is the last official news from Kassel:
- plentymarkets App: Problem-free data exchange with the Shopify online shop
- November Plenty Partners Plugin News
Plentymarkets Plugin Innovations isn’t earth-devastating news apart from connections to the XML catalog creation with external elements (third party). The app for seamlessly integrating Shopify shops into Plentymarkets isn’t running well either. Order imports, which were actually well adjusted and ran reliably, so far.
The PayPal plugin connection is not mentioned in the Plentymarkets November News. But there are more activities from the dealer side. Voices of dissatisfaction around Plentymarkets are getting stronger. Bubbles on the forum: “Plenty! We need to talk.“
Plenty of problems
Many Plentymarkets system processes that had been running very well for years are now being disrupted by immature updates. Some of the retailers are so well-rehearsed and so deeply integrated into processes that small adjustments by Plentymarkets caused lots of adjustments.
Third-party plugin developers had almost no time to switch to PHP 8. Finished updates got stuck in the Plentymarkets developer loop and were only approved with a long delay. The update or the actual switch that had been planned in the middle of the summer holidays is still dragging on today.
The PayPal Plugin is probably the biggest annoyance within all Plentymarkets eCommerce companies. There is a PayPal plugin for all Plentymarkets shops.
That was so during the Calisto Template times, as well as afterward under Ceres. During the times of the Ceres template, there was a new PayPal Plus plugin. Now there is the PayPal checkout itself.
Plentymarkets Problem PayPal Plugin Details
The PayPal Plus plugin enabled selected retailers to offer purchase on account and other extra payment options during the checkout. The sales of the dealers went so up due to the PayPal upgrade.
Then it came to an almost total failure. PayPal commissioned developers within Plentymarkets to integrate the new 2023 PayPal Checkout. At the same time, Prestashop, Shopware and other development teams were made familiar with the task.
Right now in December 2022, there are still major problems with the new PayPal checkout in all Plentymarkets systems. Initial comparatively small bugs in the Shopware plugin version have been ironed out and the process is running well. Likewise with Prestashop. Why not with Plenty?
By the Christmas festival, Plentymarkets eCommerce companies have to import and test the thirtieth version of the PayPal plugin! And that for each individual client in the system. There is no plan to also update plugins globally or automatically.
The big Plentymarkets problem with the PayPal plugin is that customers don’t notice the problem during the checkout. Only days later your own shop customers become impatient and ask the retailer. However, no data was received. A suspicion of fraud quickly arises.
The customers are always asking: “Where is my money? I have paid!”.
The customer clicked on purchase with later payment. The money is booked into a Ratepay account via PayPal. It goes wrong and the connection to the dealer and the IDs fails. PayPal is aware of that and is actively working on a solution with the affected systems.
Internally at Plentymarkets, the adjustments are not going so well. As well as communication with the dealers in the in-house forum.
The fact that PayPal plugins at Plentymarkets are causing so much bad that is actually surprises us. Just recently, Mr. Markus Fuchs was recruited by PayPal and hired internally as a customer relationship expert. The relationship(s) between the two companies should be excellent.
Various Plentymarkets problems 2022
Plentymarkets User Interfaces — why change one UI or even several internal UIs? Nobody bothered with the design of the backend. In the front end, however, many open points had to be clarified. The story never ends, the shop builder, the email builder, the new CRM… in the end, there is only one question: WHY?!
General performance under all current Plentymarkets plugins with an unmodified Ceres shop. According to Plentymarkets, you should shine with maximum performance values. Instead, the topic of Core Web Vitals is ignored as much as possible. The Page Speed Insights of all Plentymarkets shops are getting worse and worse.
Business Intelligence — Plenty Bi, yes that would have been a great update in 2022 to the bad old stats section. Unfortunately, the support for this is also lagging behind. Due to the large checkout problems, only a few traders are interested in the topic Bi within Plenty.
Top off all the big and small problems in the current Plentymarkets ERP, an eMail about the price increase from January 17, 2023, fluttered into the Plentyians’ inboxes on December 2nd.
Plentymarket prices 2023
The adjustment of Plentymarkets’ basic fee as of January 17, 2023, is a tough one. If you compare the individual positions, maybe even years back; who sees how violently the price screw has now been turned.
The price of the monthly basic fee for a Plentymarkets FLEX ERP system from January 17, 2023, increases from €265.00 to €299.00 per month. In addition, the consumption-dependent price adjustments shown above are predicted.
A maximum of three different languages including a search function are possible in a Plentymarkets FLEX system. Each extra shop is charged a minimum of €19.00 per month. One speaks of clients, analogous to the Presta Multishop. An extra camp for the three included costs €6.00 per month.
Loyal Plentymarkets eCommerce traders who are now terminating their contract with Plentymarkets are confronted with a sometimes lengthy period of notice. Do you also belong to the group? We would be happy to advise you at the alphanauten in Unna on a possible timeline for a change away from your active Plentymarkets to a Shopware 6 system. You should plan around half a year for a complete change (as of December 2022).
Advantages of Shopware
As already mentioned in the introduction to our blog post, all Shopware users are doing very well at the moment! The first initial PayPal checkout problems were corrected quickly and efficiently.
Shopware 6 is always seen as a 100% real opponent to a Magento ERP system. All types of eCommerce companies are getting an absolutely perfect partner for further growth in Shopware.
The new plugins in the Shopware Store are really additions that give you extra value. Here you go directly to the new plugins for Shopware from the alphanauten. It is a great pride that we receive a lot of positive feedback on all new releases. Our partners and dealers focus on the key facts of their business and marketing plans.
Get to know and love Shopware
You don’t need a long time to know Shopware and to love it. This applies to all and then also very strongly to all Plentymarkets users. Around after 7 days, you can move away from the familiar places in the ERP layout, for example, to invoke order data.
The Shopware backend settings require a little more than just intuition. With a strong migration partner, the smooth transition from Plentymarkets to Shopware will be easier. After knowing all the critical parts, you will quickly discover your own Shopware expert in you.
If you are good enough with a Plentymarkets ERP, and you maybe also take care of a whole range of technical settings by yourself, you will find your way around Shopware 6 quickly.
Further information and blog posts for all interested readers:
- Shopware 6: The Ultimate Solution for Online Shops | What and Why?
- Shopware vs Magento | Which shop system should you choose?
- Shopware vs Shopify | Pros and cons explained
Here you go back to the blog homepage. There you will find the galactic website of your alphanauten. We are a team of award-winning German Shopware specialists. A migration away from Plentymarkets, or from Shopify, Magento, WIX and other systems to Shopware is one of our digital services. Contact us and we will plan your ERP conversion with our team.
