Animal & Farm Supplies • Netherlands
Macrovet.nl needed to retire Magento 1 without risking revenue, orders or years of customer history. StageBit planned and executed a migration to Shopware 6 Evolve with 0 hours of downtime, 100% catalog, customer & order data preserved, and a new frontend tuned for 90+ performance scores on mobile and desktop.
In 30 minutes, we review your Magento 1 stack, highlight key risks and outline a realistic Shopware 6 migration path (downtime, data, integrations, budget ranges).
Downtime during migration
0 hours
Store remained online through cut-over.
Data migration
100%
Products, customers, orders & content preserved.
Performance scores
90+
Lighthouse on key templates (home, PLP, PDP, checkout).
Integrations
Clerk.io · AFAS Profit · Mollie · Sendcloud
End-to-end automation from storefront to ERP & logistics.
Client Overview
Macrovet.nl is a Dutch online specialist in veterinary products, animal grooming, pest control, fencing and farm supplies. With thousands of SKUs and next-day delivery across the Netherlands, they operate like a high-volume B2C store with B2B-level operational complexity.
What Macrovet asked for
“We want to shut down Magento 1 without shutting down our business. We can’t afford downtime, we can’t lose data, and we need a faster, more automated storefront on Shopware 6.”
Is this you?
Macrovet’s situation matches what we hear from most Magento 1 merchants moving to Shopware 6. If these points sound familiar, this case study is essentially your playbook.
This is the risk profile we designed Macrovet’s migration around: zero downtime, verifiable data integrity and a performance-first frontend…
Goals & success criteria
Before touching the migration scripts or Shopware theme, we worked with Macrovet to define a set of non-negotiable outcomes. These goals shaped every architectural decision and gave both teams a clear way to judge success.
Customers should never see a “maintenance” screen. The switch from Magento 1 to Shopware 6 had to happen with 0 hours of planned downtime and no lost sessions or orders.
All products, customers, orders and content had to move from Magento 1 to Shopware 6 with matching counts, totals and relationships.
The new Shopware 6 storefront needed to be visibly faster and cleaner, with Lighthouse scores of 90+ for performance on home, category, product and checkout.
From day one, Macrovet’s finance, stock and fulfilment flows had to continue smoothly via AFAS Profit, Clerk.io, Mollie and Sendcloud.
The new stack should feel easier to work with than the old one — simpler catalog updates, clearer merchandising tools and fewer manual steps.
Beyond launch, Shopware 6 needed to be a stable base for new features, campaigns and categories without large rebuilds.
Shopware features
The Shopware 6 build wasn’t just a copy of Magento 1. We used the migration as a chance to make the catalogue easier to navigate, checkout faster and operations less manual.
How these features break down
This mix is typical for Magento 1 → Shopware 6 merchants with both online sales and operational complexity.
Navigation
A custom Shopware 6 mega menu makes Macrovet’s large catalogue scannable by species, use-case and brand, so customers reach the right category in fewer clicks.
Checkout
We replaced the default multi-step flow with a one-page checkout that keeps all key steps visible and works smoothly with preferred Mollie payment methods.
Back-office & dropship
Orders, including dropship lines, flow from Shopware 6 into AFAS Profit with consistent statuses and data, so finance and fulfilment teams see a single source of truth.
Logistics & data quality
Address validation at checkout, combined with Sendcloud for labels and tracking, reduces failed deliveries and support tickets from incorrect addresses.
Approach
With the goals defined, we designed a migration approach around rehearsal, observability and tight integration between Shopware 6 and AFAS. The aim: make launch day feel boring — because the risky work was already done in advance.
Phase 1
Audit Magento 1 data, extensions and integrations. Map them to Shopware 6 and decide where custom plugins, migration rules or integration work were required.
Phase 2
Build the Shopware 6 Evolve storefront, AFAS bridge, Clerk.io setup, and payment/shipping integrations in a dedicated environment.
Phase 3
Repeat full migrations from Magento 1 → Shopware 6, resolve edge cases and lock scripts before final cut-over.
Phase 4
Operate Shopware 6 in parallel, validate integrations, and switch DNS in a low-traffic window with rollback ready.
We treated data migration as its own product: idempotent, testable and observable.
AFAS remained the single source of truth for products, stock and finance.
Rebuilt Macrovet’s storefront with Shopware best practices and custom plugins.
Clerk.io, Mollie, Sendcloud and Postcode.eu integrated before launch.
Tech stack
Instead of a long list of tools, Macrovet runs on a focused set of platforms working together: Shopware 6 for the storefront, AFAS for the back-office and a small group of services for search, payments and logistics.
Storefront
Custom theme, mega menu and one-page checkout tuned for Macrovet’s veterinary catalogue.
Back-office
AFAS stays in charge of products, stock and finance. Shopware syncs around it instead of duplicating logic.
Customer experience
Smarter search and product discovery for vets and buyers, with controls for Macrovet’s merchandising team.
Payments & logistics
Region-ready payments and shipping with address validation built into checkout to reduce friction and errors.
For similar migrations, we adjust the tools to your region and back-office, but keep the same pattern: a lean, measurable storefront on top of a clear system of record and observable integrations.
Results
The migration was not just a platform switch. Macrovet saw measurable improvements in performance, reliability and the day-to-day experience for both customers and the internal team.
Performance scores (Lighthouse)
Home, category, product, checkout
Mixed 50–70 range
Slower mobile, heavy theme and scripts.
90+ on key templates
Optimised assets, cleaner frontend and checkout.
Downtime during migration
Planned cut-over period
Expected multi-hour maintenance window
Initial assumption before blueprint.
0 hours
Parallel run and rehearsed cut-over.
Data integrity & history
Products, customers, orders
Risk of gaps and mismatched totals
Typical concern with a full replatform.
100% migrated with verification
Counts and sample checks matched Magento 1.
Operations & integrations
AFAS, dropship, payments, shipping
Fragmented flows, Magento-centric logic
More ecommerce logic in the old platform.
AFAS-first, Shopware as storefront
Orders, stock and dropship flows via AFAS + Shopware.
Customer journey
Navigation, search, checkout
Standard Magento 1 flows
Multi-step checkout, basic search and menus.
Faster, guided storefront
Mega menu, one-page checkout, Clerk.io search & recs.
For Macrovet, the biggest win was confidence. The team could close the book on Magento 1 knowing their data, operations and customer experience all moved forward at the same time. There was no “we’ll fix it later” backlog waiting for them after launch.
From here, new features — whether that’s expanded product ranges, targeted campaigns or more automation — can be built on top of a clean, measurable Shopware 6 foundation.
Next steps
Macrovet’s project is one example of how we handle Magento 1 → Shopware 6 migrations with zero planned downtime, verified data integrity and a performance-first storefront. If your situation sounds similar, the next step is a short, focused migration roadmap call.
Ideal for mid-market merchants with complex operations, multiple integrations or plans to grow into a more automated, performance-focused Shopware 6 stack.
More client stories
If Macrovet’s Magento 1 → Shopware 6 migration feels close but not identical to your situation, these case studies show how we approach Hyvä frontends, Shopify builds and other complex stacks.
