Transforming traditional companies into digital ones - how to get started

Digital transformation in companies very often begins with one simple sentence: „we finally have to do e-commerce”. Sometimes the impulse is a decline in the efficiency of traditional sales. Sometimes it is pressure from customers who increasingly ask about the possibility of placing orders online. Sometimes it is a competitor who has launched a B2B platform or a marketplace. Sometimes it is the management board, which sees the rising costs of manual handling. Sometimes it is the sales department, which is no longer able to handle the growing number of inquiries, price lists, quotes, documents and order statuses without greater support from technology.

The problem is that the decision to „go digital” is not yet a transformation in itself. Launching an online store, a B2B panel, an ordering platform or a new system does not automatically mean that the company becomes digital. Very often a traditional organization transfers its existing problems into the technology: manual processes, scattered data, unclear responsibilities, the lack of a single source of truth, historical exceptions, undocumented commercial terms, dependence on individual people and a way of working based on emails, spreadsheets and phone calls.

In that case, digitization does not simplify the company's operation. It only creates a new layer on top of the old chaos.

That is why the transformation of a traditional company into a digital one should not begin with choosing a platform, a page layout or a list of features. It should begin with understanding how the company really works. How it sells. How it takes orders. How it serves customers. Where data is created. Who knows the commercial terms. What the document flow looks like. How the warehouse works. What information goes into the ERP. Which processes are repetitive. Where customers most often need contact with a salesperson. Which activities can be automated, and which still require a human.

From our perspective, the most important question at the beginning of a transformation should not be „which system to implement”, but „what way of operating the company do we want to build with the help of technology”.

Why traditional companies can no longer postpone digitization

For many years, many trading, manufacturing and distribution companies could grow without an advanced digital channel. Sales were based on relationships, salespeople, regular customers, phone calls, emails, PDFs, spreadsheets with price lists and manual order handling. This model worked as long as the scale was manageable, customers accepted a longer response time, and the number of sales channels and integrations was limited.

Today this model increasingly ceases to be enough. Customers, B2B included, expect access to information in near real time. They want to see prices, availability, order statuses, documents, purchase history and terms of cooperation without having to wait for a salesperson's reply. Companies want to grow sales in new markets, integrate marketplaces, automate service, leverage data, implement AI, improve the customer experience and reduce operating costs.

This direction is also visible in market data. Eurostat indicates that in 2024, enterprises in the European Union generated 19.49% of total turnover from e-sales, covering orders placed via websites, apps or other electronic sales channels. This shows that digital sales are no longer an add-on, but an increasingly important part of companies' turnover in Europe.

At the same time, the European Union, as part of the Digital Decade programme, monitors the progress of digital transformation up to 2030 in areas such as digital skills, infrastructure, the digitalization of business and digital public services. The very fact that the digitalization of business is one of the key strategic areas at the European level shows that we are not talking about a passing trend, but about a direction of development for the economy.

For traditional companies this means one thing: the absence of digital transformation ceases to be neutral. It is no longer just „the lack of a new channel”. It becomes a constraint in scaling sales, serving customers, using data, automation, recruitment, foreign expansion and building a competitive advantage.

Digital transformation does not begin with technology

The biggest mistake we see in companies starting a transformation is treating technology as the starting point. The company begins with the question: „which store to implement?”, „should we choose SaaS or open source?”, „how much will the platform cost?”, „how quickly will we launch e-commerce?”, „what features should we have at launch?”. These are important questions, but they should not come first.

The first question should be: „what exactly do we want to change in the way the company operates?”.

If a traditional company today operates mainly through salespeople, emails and manual processes, you first need to understand which elements of this model are a value and which are a constraint. Relationships with customers are a value. The salespeople's knowledge is a value. An individual approach to the customer can be a value. But manually re-entering orders, searching for documents, sending the same price lists, confirming availability, handling repetitive questions and the lack of data visibility in one place are not an advantage. They are an operating cost.

McKinsey, in one of its studies on the operating model, points out that the operating model is the backbone of the organization, because it determines how the company delivers value to customers, operates day to day and pursues strategic goals. This is very important in the context of digital transformation, because technology does not work in a vacuum. It reinforces or organizes the operating model, but it will not replace its conscious design.

That is why digitization should be treated as a change of the operating model, and not just as the implementation of a tool. An e-commerce platform, PIM, ERP, WMS, CRM, marketplace, AI or marketing automation make sense only once it is clear what role they play in the company's entire ecosystem. Otherwise, the company may buy modern systems that will handle old problems in a slightly more digital form.

Where to start? With a map of processes, not a list of features

The first step should be mapping the processes. Not in the form of a general description „sales, warehouse, invoice”, but in the form of a concrete understanding of how an order, information and responsibility really flow.

You need to see where the customer gets information about the offer. How they ask about price. How they confirm availability. How they place an order. Who receives it. Who checks the terms. Where the order goes. Who corrects the data. Who issues the documents. Who informs the customer about the status. Who handles complaints. Who knows the exceptions. Which activities are performed manually. Which take place outside the system. Which depend on a single person.

In traditional companies it very often turns out that the process does not exist as a process. It exists as a set of habits, the team's knowledge, files, emails, arrangements with customers and exceptions that everyone considers „normal”. As long as the company operates at a small scale, such a model can survive. When the need arises to develop e-commerce, automation or entry into new markets, it starts to be a barrier.

A process map allows you to understand what really should be digitized. Sometimes the most important problem is not the lack of an online store, but the lack of organized product data. Sometimes the biggest barrier is not the frontend, but inconsistent prices in the ERP. Sometimes the customer does not use the online channel not because the platform is inconvenient, but because they cannot see their commercial terms. Sometimes e-commerce does not grow because the warehouse integration does not show reliable availability.

Without such a diagnosis, the company may implement a platform that will look correct, but will not solve the most important operational problems.

The second step: organizing the data

The digital transformation of traditional companies very often stalls on data. The company wants to launch e-commerce, but it turns out that product data is scattered across Excel files, supplier descriptions, PDF catalogs, image folders and the ERP system. It wants to implement B2B self-service, but individual prices are partly in the ERP, partly in spreadsheets and partly in the salespeople's heads. It wants to automate sales, but there is no single source of truth for product availability. It wants to implement AI, but the data is not complete and consistent enough.

In a traditional company, data was often created to handle current internal work. In a digital company, data must be ready to work across channels, systems and automations. This is a completely different level of requirements. A product cannot have only a name and a price. It needs attributes, images, descriptions, variants, documentation, categories, translations, technical data, logistics information and relationships with other products. A B2B customer cannot be just a record in the ERP. They need roles, permissions, terms, history, limits, documents and organizational context.

That is why very often one of the first elements of a transformation should be a PIM, or at least a project to organize the product data model. Without it, e-commerce can launch, but it will be difficult to scale. Every new market, marketplace, language, sales channel or AI feature will require additional work, because the data foundation has not been prepared.

The same applies to customer data, orders, price lists and stock levels. A digital company must know which systems are the source of truth. The ERP can be the source for prices and orders. The PIM for product data. The WMS for availability and warehouse operations. The CRM for commercial relationships. The e-commerce platform for the customer experience and the sales channel. If these roles are not clearly defined, the transformation very quickly turns into a series of point integrations and manual workarounds.

The third step: choosing the first scope of the transformation

Traditional companies often try to digitize everything at once. They want a new platform, full integration with ERP, PIM, WMS, CRM, marketplaces, B2B, B2C, cross-border, marketing automation, AI, personalization and an extensive customer panel. The ambition is understandable, but too broad a scope at launch can increase the project's risk.

A better approach is to choose a first scope of the transformation that has real business value and allows a foundation to be built for the next stages. For one company it will be a B2B platform with individual prices and order history. For another, organizing product data and implementing a PIM. For a third, integrating e-commerce with the ERP and automating orders. For a fourth, a customer portal that relieves salespeople and customer service. For a fifth, entering cross-border sales.

The most important thing is that the first stage should not be a random MVP understood as „the cheapest version of a store”. It should be a minimal but strategic scope that solves a specific problem and creates a basis for growth. A good transformation MVP does not mean an unimportant project. It means a consciously limited stage that allows the company to start working digitally without trying to implement everything at once.

At CREHLER we very often help companies at precisely this stage: to separate what is needed at launch from what should be planned in the roadmap. This matters, because traditional companies often have very many needs, but not all of them should be pursued simultaneously. Transformation requires priorities.

The fourth step: understanding the role of e-commerce across the whole company

In a traditional company, e-commerce is sometimes treated as a separate sales channel. There is a sales department, there are salespeople, there is a warehouse, there is an ERP, there is marketing, and next to that an „online store” appears. Such thinking very quickly limits the potential of the transformation.

A modern e-commerce platform should not be a separate add-on. It should be an operational sales layer, connected with the company's data, processes and systems. In B2B it can take over part of the handling of repetitive orders, make documents available to customers, show individual prices, support quoting, handle roles and approvals, and reduce the number of inquiries to salespeople. In B2C it can integrate online sales, marketplaces, the warehouse, marketing automation, personalization and customer service. In a hybrid model it can combine B2B, B2C, D2C, marketplace and cross-border sales in one ecosystem.

Shopware, in its materials on the B2B Ecommerce Compass 2026, emphasizes that intelligent B2B commerce is based on digital maturity and a solid, scalable e-commerce foundation that enables automation, long-term growth and agentic commerce. This is an important direction, because it shows that e-commerce is no longer just a frontend, but the foundation for the next stages of digital development.

That is why it is worth asking, already at the beginning, what role the platform is to play in the company in two, three and five years. Is it to be only a channel for placing orders? Is it to relieve salespeople? Is it to support international sales? Is it to integrate marketplaces? Is it to be a customer portal? Is it to become the basis for AI, automation and agentic commerce? The answer influences the architecture from day one.

The fifth step: integrations as a foundation, not an add-on

In traditional companies, key processes are very often already partly handled by systems: ERP, warehouse, accounting, CRM, logistics systems, salespeople's tools, supplier files, marketplaces. The problem is that these systems do not always form a coherent ecosystem. Data is transferred manually, exported to files, corrected in spreadsheets or passed between departments by email.

Digital transformation requires changing this model. Integrations are not a technical add-on at the end of the project. They are one of the most important elements of the architecture. It is on them that it depends whether the customer will see the right price, whether the stock level will be current, whether the order will reach the ERP, whether the document will appear in the customer panel, whether the product will be correctly published on the marketplace, whether the data will be available for reporting and automation.

In a traditional company, many errors could be „caught manually”. In a digital company, processes must work at a larger scale and with fewer interventions. This means that integrations must not only be executed, but also designed: with a clear direction of data flow, a defined source of truth, error handling, monitoring, retries, logs and responsibility for maintenance.

If integrations are designed haphazardly, the transformation becomes fragile. The platform may work on the front end, but the sales process will still require manual control. This is one of the most common reasons why e-commerce in traditional companies does not bring the expected efficiency.

The sixth step: changing the role of people in the organization

Digital transformation is not about a system replacing people. It is about people ceasing to perform part of the repetitive activities and being able to focus on higher-value work. This is especially important in companies that for years have built their sales on commercial relationships.

A salesperson should not be a system for checking availability. Customer service should not manually send documents that the customer can download from the panel. Marketing should not have to request product data from several departments each time. The e-commerce manager should not manually reconcile data between the ERP, PIM and the platform. The operations department should not correct orders that could have been passed on correctly by an integration.

Digitization therefore changes roles. The salesperson becomes an advisor and relationship manager, not an order administrator. Customer service focuses on real problems, not on repetitive questions. The e-commerce manager manages the process and the development of the channel, not the manual firefighting of errors. IT and the technology partner not only implement features, but take care of the architecture, integrations and stability of the ecosystem.

This requires internal communication. The team must understand why the company is changing, which processes will be moved to the system, what will be automated, which decisions still require a human and how daily work will change. Without this, the transformation may meet with resistance, even if it is technologically well designed.

The seventh step: choosing a platform that will not close off growth

Only after understanding the processes, data, integrations and goals is it worth moving to the technology decision. The platform should respond not only to today's scope, but also to future scale. A traditional company that is beginning a transformation often does not need all the advanced features right away. It does, however, need an architecture that will not block the next stages.

This is especially important in companies that plan to develop B2B, cross-border, marketplace, omnichannel, integrations with ERP/PIM/WMS/CRM, headless, personalization, automation and AI. The platform must be flexible, but not chaotic. It should allow multiple channels to be managed, work with different customer models, handle complex product data, integrate with systems and grow without having to build everything from scratch each time.

Shopware is a good example of a platform that can support companies in such a model, because it combines an API-first approach, integration capabilities, architectural flexibility and functions important for complex B2B scenarios. Shopware B2B Components include, among others, quick orders, employee management, quote management, shopping lists and approval rules and rights, that is, elements particularly important for companies that want to move the purchasing processes of their business customers into the digital channel.

However, no platform will carry out a transformation on its own. The value of an implementation is determined by the way the architecture is designed: how processes are mapped, where the data comes from, how the integrations work, how the company manages the catalog, how B2B customers are served, which processes are automated and how the platform will be developed after launch.

The most common pitfalls at the start of a transformation

The first pitfall is trying to digitize chaos. The company wants to implement a platform without first organizing data, processes and responsibilities. As a result, the system becomes a new place in which the old problems are visible.

The second pitfall is too broad a scope at launch. The company wants to implement everything at once, which makes the project hard to control and architectural decisions are made under pressure. Staging is better, but based on strategy, not on random cutting of features.

The third pitfall is treating e-commerce as a marketing project or purely an IT one. Digital transformation touches sales, operations, data, the warehouse, finance, customer service and the management board. If the project is closed within one department, it will quickly run into limitations.

The fourth pitfall is the lack of a business owner. The platform may be implemented technically, but if no one on the company's side is responsible for developing the process, customer adoption, data quality and measuring results, the transformation stops after go-live.

The fifth pitfall is the lack of success metrics. The company launches the platform, but does not know whether the project actually reduced the number of manual orders, shortened service time, improved data availability, increased the share of the digital channel or relieved salespeople. Without metrics it is hard to manage a transformation.

How to measure the progress of digital transformation

Digital transformation should not be judged solely by whether the platform has been launched. Go-live is important, but it is not the end of the process. Far more important is whether the way the company operates has changed.

It is worth measuring what percentage of orders goes through the digital channel, how many of them do not require manual correction, how many customers log in to the platform regularly, how often they use order history, documents, quotes, quick orders and self-service. It is worth checking whether the number of repetitive inquiries to salespeople has fallen, whether order handling time has shortened, whether the number of data errors has decreased, whether the product publishing process is faster, whether the integrations work stably and whether the team can develop the channel without constant firefighting.

In B2B it is especially important to measure the adoption of key customers. If only smaller buyers use the platform while the most important customers still work outside the system, it is worth checking what they are missing: prices, documents, roles, approvals, integrations, quick orders, quoting, statuses, history or trust in the data.

In digital transformation, operational metrics also matter. How long does it take to prepare a product for sale? How many times does an order require manual correction? How many inquiries concern status or documents? How much data is transferred manually between systems? How many exceptions require a salesperson's intervention? It is precisely these indicators that show whether the company is really becoming digital, or merely owns a new platform.

From strategy to implementation

At CREHLER we view the digital transformation of traditional companies as a process that combines strategy, technology, data, integrations and operational change. We do not start with the implementation of the store itself. We start by understanding how the company operates and what is to change thanks to technology.

We analyze sales processes, product data, the customer model, integrations, ERP, PIM, WMS, CRM, the salespeople's work, order handling, documents, price lists, roles, sales channels and business goals. Only on this basis can you design a platform that will not merely be a new interface, but a real element of the company's transformation.

In Shopware-based projects it is especially important to us that the platform is ready not only for the first stage, but also for further development. Traditional companies rarely go through a full transformation in one step. First they organize data, launch a B2B or B2C channel, integrate the ERP, automate orders, implement a PIM, develop a customer portal, enter marketplaces, add further markets, and later prepare for AI, personalization and more advanced sales models.

That is why the architecture must be designed with the future in mind. If the company makes random decisions right at the start, in two years it may turn out that every subsequent stage is expensive and difficult. If from the beginning it builds a solid foundation, the transformation can develop in stages, without having to constantly rebuild the fundamentals.

Our role as a technology partner is not only to deliver a system, but also to help organize decisions. What to implement now? What to prepare for the next stage? Which processes to simplify? Which data to organize? Which integrations are critical? Where is the platform standard enough, and where is customization needed? How to avoid transferring old problems into the new system?

From a traditional company to a digital organization

Digital transformation does not mean that the company has to stop being itself. It is not about abandoning relationships, the salespeople's experience, industry knowledge and an individual approach to customers. It is about ceasing to base growth on processes that do not scale in the digital world.

A traditional company can have an enormous advantage: it knows its customers, it knows the market, it has experience, it has relationships, it has a product, it has a history and trust. Digital transformation should strengthen this advantage, not replace it. A well-designed platform allows customers to buy faster, salespeople to advise better, operations to work more efficiently, the management board to make decisions based on data, and the company to grow sales without a proportional increase in service costs.

That is why the question „how to start a digital transformation?” should not lead straight to choosing a tool. It should lead to a conversation about processes, data, customers, integrations and the company's operating model. Only then does technology become the right answer.

At CREHLER we help companies move from a traditional sales model to a scalable, digital ecosystem based on Shopware. If your organization wants to start a digital transformation, it is worth starting by organizing how sales, customer service, data and operations really work. That is where the difference begins between implementing an online store and a real change in the way the company operates.