Great things happen when technology meets the right partners.
This sentence captures well what's been happening at BitBag over recent years and why today, together with cyber_Folks and Sylius, we're entering the next stage of development - taking over PrestaShop and building one of the strongest eCommerce ecosystems in Europe.
But to understand why this isn't a sudden pivot but rather a natural evolution, we need to go back to the very beginning.
BitBag from the start: built on technology, not chance
BitBag's story began in 2017 with a very specific tech decision. With the choice to build eCommerce on a modern stack, open software, and solutions that give real control over product development.
Sylius was a developing project back then, without the extensive ecosystem and scale it has today. For us, however, it had one key advantage: it was understandable, flexible, and allowed building exactly what the business needed without fighting the platform.
It started with open-source contributions, the first plugins, missing functionalities, and real influence on the technology's shape. Very quickly, it turned out that market needs were growing faster than the product itself, and well-designed implementations were a natural catalyst for platform development.
That's how BitBag was born as an agency that doesn't just implement but also co-creates the technology.
From agency to product co-responsibility
At some point, BitBag's scale as an implementation company began to exceed the scale of the technology vendor itself. We worked with the biggest brands, delivered international projects, grew the team, and at the same time increasingly saw what barriers were slowing Sylius's further development as a product.
In 2022, when the opportunity arose to make a capital investment in Sylius, the decision was difficult but logical. Instead of just being an ecosystem partner, we took co-responsibility for its future.
The results of this decision are measurable today:
- dynamic development of version 2.0
- record number of releases
- increase in installations
- expansion of commercial offering
- stronger partnerships and an active community
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Sylius became a full-fledged platform for mid-market and enterprise, especially in the B2B area, which from the beginning was one of our strongest development directions.</div>
https://bitbag.io/blog/5-years-with-sylius-as-sylius-developer-as-sylius-consultant-and-as-sylius-agency
Why PrestaShop?
The decision to enter PrestaShop wasn't driven by a short-term market opportunity, but by long-term analysis of the ecosystems we've operated in for years. PrestaShop and Sylius have long been naturally connected: technologically, community-wise, and business-wise. In practice, it's precisely from PrestaShop that projects most often originate, which, along with growing scale and complexity, transition to enterprise-class solutions like Sylius. For many partners and integrators, both ecosystems have coexisted for years, and the boundary between them is fluid.
From the perspective of entire market development, this means one thing: the health of the SMB segment has a direct impact on the future potential of the mid-market and enterprise segment. A strong, well-developing PrestaShop means more companies that naturally mature toward more advanced architecture. That's why strengthening this ecosystem isn't contradictory to Sylius's development - it's its long-term support.
Together with cyber_Folks, Sylius, and BitBag, a structure was designed that covers the full spectrum of merchants: from small stores, through growing scale-ups, to complex B2B and enterprise platforms. BitBag's service competencies play the role of R&D backbone in this model, enabling rapid testing of solutions in real projects and directly transferring implementation experience to product development. This means that, for us, entering the PrestaShop project alongside cyber_Folks and Sylius isn't a change of direction but an expansion of influence across the entire eCommerce ecosystem.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-100">In this context, PrestaShop and Sylius aren't competing products, but elements of one cohesive eCommerce development ecosystem in Europe - responding to the needs of companies at different stages of business and technological maturity.</div>
Partnership that accelerates eCommerce development
Thanks to collaboration with cyber_Folks, we gain access to enormous technological and operational resources: Shoper, Vercom, MailerLite, Apilo, SellRocket, and cyber_Folks' own services are competencies that allow looking at eCommerce not just through the platform lens, but the entire environment of sales, marketing, logistics, and automation.
For BitBag, this means:
- even stronger support for medium and large merchants
- real influence on the development of both Sylius and PrestaShop
- faster testing and implementation of new solutions at market scale
- combining R&D with project experience from hundreds of implementations
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">One thing emerges from our experience: when a product and implementation agency work closely together, technology development is faster, better suited to the market, and simply more effective business-wise.</div>
What does this mean for the eCommerce market in Europe?
Today, Sylius and PrestaShop together represent over 240,000 stores and more than €31 billion in GMV. This isn't just a big number - it's a real influence on what European eCommerce looks like.
In a world dominated by closed platforms, the open-source model still provides something that can't be easily replaced:
- freedom of choice
- technology flexibility
- ability to build a competitive advantage on your own terms
We believe a healthy market needs balance. Just as different operating systems or mobile ecosystems coexist, eCommerce must have space for both closed and open solutions. We consistently choose openness.
Looking ahead
For BitBag, this is the moment where it's clear that we've evolved from an implementation company into an active co-creator of the European eCommerce market. We don't just respond to merchant needs - we have real influence on what the technologies they build their businesses on will look like.
For our clients and partners, this is a clear signal that BitBag remains a stable, long-term technology partner, with even greater product, competency, and operational resources. We look with pride at where we are today and with even greater motivation at what lies ahead.
In 2026, we're opening a new chapter! 🙌🏻
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