In the ever-evolving world of eCommerce, the synergy of innovative tools and platforms can pave the way for online businesses’ success. In today’s article, we will take a closer look at Sylius, Pimcore, and Sulu CMS, which we think are the Symfony trio that embodies the essence of cutting-edge solutions for eCommerce, content management, and data management. Individually renowned for their value in specific domains, together, they form a technology dream team that improves eCommerce operations and delivers exceptional online experiences. 

We will briefly describe each solution and explain the benefits of picking them all together, starting with a brief overview of each solution.

Quick jump

What is Sylius, Pimcore, and Sulu CMS?

Sylius is an eCommerce framework that works best for custom and complex eCommerce projects. The reason for that is that its most unique values are flexibility and high performance. The solution provides developers with a robust foundation for creating customized eCommerce websites that exactly suit the needs of online businesses and offer a unique shopping experience for the customers. Over 7,000 online stores trusted Sylius, including the most renowned ones, such as Mytheresa, Carrefour, Intersport, Dr.Oetker, IQOS, and more.

Mytheresa

Moving on, Sulu is a Content Management System (CMS) that streamlines the process of managing, editing, and publishing content on a website. It supports companies (especially marketing teams) in delivering multilingual and personalized content that resonates with their target audience, making each visit to the website more engaging and relevant. Furthermore, Sulu CMS is an extremely valuable tool for businesses where content management is divided into stages, for instance, creating drafts ⭢ editing ⭢ translating ⭢ publishing.

An example of Sulu’s capabilities is the Panattoni Europe website, where 12 markets and languages are managed with a single CMS.

Pimcore, in turn, is a software mainly used as a Product Information Management (PIM) and Master Data Management (MDM). It is an excellent tool for eCommerce businesses that need a “single source of truth” for their operations. It gathers all valuable information regarding product information, descriptions, prices, language versions, attributes, customer information, and more. Thanks to that, the online store has one unified data source, ensuring consistency and accuracy across various channels. Currently, Pimcore has been implemented in 110,000 businesses, including world-renowned companies like Audi, Burger King, IKEA, Carrefour, Intersport, and more.

As can be seen, each software is responsible for solving problems and streamlining operations in their field, supporting companies on a daily basis to fulfill the needs of the business and the customers.

How do online businesses benefit from those solutions?

As presented above, each software has its own use. When an online business is divided into teams or departments, each team can benefit from a particular solution to perform its tasks and keep the website running. For example, Sylius is used as an eCommerce foundation of the website, providing the developers an environment to maintain and develop the online store. 

Sulu CMS can be used by marketing teams and graphic designers to distribute and optimize content across the website efficiently via advanced features for page building, data assets management, or content creation processes. 

Pimcore, on the other hand, can be used by other teams responsible for updating product descriptions and metadata, product returns, stock levels, prices, etc. Beyond that, advanced object modeling could easily enhance the data storage capabilities as Pimcore, by design, is nothing else than a Master Data Management. In the digital age, data is often referred to as the main asset. That being said, a single source of truth (SSOT) is what many would find handy while working with data, analytics, or managing it across multiple contexts.

As shown above, each solution works really well in its field. However, they share many similarities that allow us to connect them like puzzle pieces to create an advanced online store that perfectly deals with the various challenges of the modern eCommerce market. 

Why do these solutions work really well together?

Although recognized by their own capabilities, the following similarities create a unique and powerful synergy between these solutions. Let’s take a look: 

Open-source foundation

Firstly, Sylius, Sulu CMS, and Pimcore are open-source technologies, which means they offer significant benefits in terms of flexibility, security, and data control. Access to the source code is key, allowing one to customize and develop the platform according to unique business needs. In the case of off-the-shelf SaaS solutions, such capabilities are often limited, which can prevent developers from meeting all of the business requirements.

In turn, complete control over data ensures greater privacy and information security. In the era of growing awareness of the importance of data – often referred to as the currency of our times, and its protection, the choice of open-source technology seems to be a strategic decision. It allows one to have complete control over the owned data and avoid many pitfalls associated with cloud solutions, where data is often stored on external servers, increasing the risk of data loss.

Their common ground goes far beyond just the above. Each solution has a strong open-source foundation and is built with the same technology stack – PHP & Symfony framework, that many tech teams will find handy and which can significantly reduce the complexity of the whole technology stack, reducing technology debt and total ownership cost at the same time.

Flexible architecture

Our technology trio can be combined using a headless approach and microservices architecture to build technology stacks that correspond with the internal and external needs of modern businesses. Each system is created independently and communicates with others via API. This approach minimizes the technical debt and future website maintenance costs.

For example, Sylius can include systems like CMS, MDM, or others. However, such a monolithic architecture would pose the risk of shutting down the entire site if one of the systems failed. Moreover, total maintenance costs and technical debt could increase in the future.

Easier maintenance and development

Speaking of maintenance, the developer’s team also greatly benefits from utilizing these three solutions, as all of them are open-source and based on the aforementioned PHP Symfony framework. Due to that, the developer’s team is only required to know one programming language instead of multiple ones. It’s a cost-efficient approach that requires fewer specialists to maintain the platform.

Licensing

Moving on, the three mentioned open-source software are free to use, which is another argument for cost-efficiency. Even though there is an available commercial license built on top of the OS core, it is often cheaper than other enterprise-first solutions. Usually, the alternative is to move forward with a hermetic, cloud-first software vendor, which, beyond higher licensing costs, significantly limits data possession and increases the single-vendor lock-in risk.

Community & official vendor support

As these solutions are freely available, their communities are bigger and more active than those of proprietary ones due to many contributions. If people can download and modify the software for free, we can benefit from their experience and ask questions about it. Also, many people contribute to developing new extensions and integrations and detecting security vulnerabilities, which help make the software more secure.

Geolocation

As Sylius is based in Poland, and Sulu CMS and Pimcore are companies from Austria, European companies that are based in those countries or have departments there can freely communicate with them in German, English, and other languages like Polish and French in the case of Sylius which helps to communicate business needs more accurately. 

In addition, companies interested in these solutions can meet representatives of Sylius, Sulu, and Pimcore at European events or at their headquarters in the same region! 

Why is Poland one of the best regions to hire agencies, freelancers, and individuals for eCommerce projects?

Companies that trust these technologies

Each solution already has great portfolios available on its website. However, let’s examine the businesses that utilized two or three of these solutions in one project.

BMZ

BMZ is a German company renowned for manufacturing and distributing high-performance battery systems that are used, for example, on electronic bikes. BMZ is a large company that has production facilities in China, Poland, and the USA, as well as branches in Japan, the UK, and France, hiring over 2300 highly qualified specialists. By utilizing the trio of Sylius, Sulu, and Pimcore, the online website(s) is complex and well-designed, and the number of products is always up-to-date, which translates into the best shopping experience for B2B and B2C customers who visit the website. 

Groothandel Solar

Another result of combining these systems is the Groothandel Solar website, which specializes in distributing solar panels and related equipment. By leveraging Sylius and Sulu CMS, the company’s website loads quickly and is easy to navigate despite the number of products offered. Also, it provides customers with great functionalities like a package configurator, which allows customers to create a solar panel configuration project with step-by-step instructions.

Planeta Huerto

The third example here is Planeta Huerto, which is built on top of Sylius and Pimcore, along with other plugins. It is the largest Spanish online retailer, with over 35,000 products in its offer. With such a large number of products, it might seem challenging to organize them well without overloading the website. Fortunately, Sylius provided great architecture for the project, enabling high performance on all devices, even during peak hours, while Pimcore distributes and updates product information.

Planeta Huerto

Stöckli

Stöckli is a Swiss ski manufacturer known for its high-quality skis and ski equipment, focusing on precision, performance, and a rich heritage of Swiss craftsmanship – owning the production facility in Malters, Switzerland, and supplying 800 specialist dealers in around 40 countries. As Stöckli Swiss Sports AG sells 70,000 pairs of skis each year, the trio of Sylius, Sulu CMS, and Pimcore allows for effective management of the online platform and the distribution of its products globally. 

Brille24

Moving on, Brille24’s website is another example of combining these technologies. The company is one of the leading online opticians in Europe, offering a wide range of glasses from well-known brands like Ray-Ban or Gucci to more niche manufacturers, including their own line called Circular. By leveraging Sylius and Sulu CMS, the online store offers a large number of products and their variations in a clear and organized way, allowing users to navigate the website content with ease while advanced processes work in the background. 

Mofakult

The last example of combining Symfony-based technologies is Mofakult, a store that sells parts for two-stroke mopeds. Founded in 2010 as a hobby project, the company has grown significantly over the years, expanding the team to over 40 people. Mofakult utilized the combination of Sylius and Sulu CMS to offer a lightning-fast website with high-quality content and a seamless customer experience from the first click. 

For whom will this trio be best?

Wrapping up, the combination of Sylius, Sulu CMS, and Pimcore would be best for mid-size online businesses and enterprises where their potential, both as a standalone solution and as a tech stack, can be fully utilized. It also includes companies divided into teams and departments, as well as the ones with extensive product catalogs.

Nonetheless, we believe that they would also suit smaller stores with unique needs and ambitious projects that require advanced solutions.

Want to learn more about these powerful technologies? We are happy to answer your questions!

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