Brand Overview

NFC21 GmbH exists to unlock the full potential of NFC technology. Their mission goes beyond selling products. They develop, produce, and deliver intelligent NFC-based solutions that help businesses build smarter customer interactions. Since launching in 2012 with just two products, NFC21 has grown into a broad-spectrum NFC product company, continuously evolving its eCommerce store into a high-performance sales hub.

Driven by a passion for IT and technology, NFC21 relentlessly pushes the boundaries of what's possible, both in their product range and in how they sell online. Their commitment to quality, performance, and innovation is non-negotiable.

The Challenge

NFC21's Shopware 6 store had outgrown its original technical setup. To support the pace of their growth, they needed a more resilient foundation, one that could scale without breaking, deploy without risk, and adapt without heavy developer intervention.

Three critical gaps needed to be closed:

• Their development and deployment process lacked structure. Without CI/CD pipelines, every update carried unnecessary risk and slowed the team down.
• Their content management system was outdated and rigid. Marketers couldn't move fast enough, and developers were stuck in the middle.
• The storefront, SEO performance, and website efficiency had never been audited. No one knew where the biggest conversion leaks were, or how much performance was being left on the table.

NFC21 needed a technical partner who could diagnose the real problems, implement sustainable solutions, and communicate as developers, not account managers.

The Solution & KPI Results

1. Headless CMS Integrated with Shopware 6

Kiwee replaced NFC21's legacy CMS with a modern headless architecture built on Strapi and 11ty. Content is now managed independently from the storefront, enabling the marketing team to create, update, and publish pages without developer involvement. The result is a faster, more flexible content workflow, and a shop that can evolve without friction

2. Audits & Targeted Improvements

• Identified friction points across the storefront and checkout flow. Implemented targeted improvements to reduce drop-off and improve conversion through https://kiwee.eu/services/ecommerce-software-development/
• Analysed search visibility gaps and conversion barriers. Improvements were implemented directly into the storefront to boost organic traffic and revenue through Kiwee’s SEO & Conversion Rate (CRO) Audit.
• Identified performance bottlenecks and energy-heavy processes. Optimisations reduced load times, improved sustainability metrics, and brought the store in line with modern performance standards through Website Energy Efficiency Audit.
• Aligned technical decisions with NFC21's commitment to responsible, forward-thinking digital operations.

3. CI/CD Pipeline Implementation

Kiwee set up a robust Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery pipeline for NFC21's Shopware 6 store (cooperation started at the end of 2021). Every deployment is now automated, tested, and repeatable, eliminating release anxiety and freeing the development team to ship features faster and with greater confidence.

Shopware Features Leveraged by NFC21

NFC21's setup takes full advantage of the following Shopware 6 capabilities, each one chosen to reduce operational complexity and accelerate growth:

• Rule Builder: Automates complex business logic without a single line of code. NFC21 uses it to dynamically control pricing, shipping conditions, and promotional eligibility based on customer segments, cart value, and product attributes. No developer needed every time a rule changes.
• Flow Builder:  A no-code workflow automation engine that triggers actions based on store events. From sending personalised post-purchase emails to updating order statuses automatically, Flow Builder saves NFC21's team hours of manual work every week.
• Custom Pricing: Enables NFC21 to display different prices based on customer group, region, currency, or order volume. Ideal for serving both B2C buyers and B2B clients from a single storefront without duplicating product catalogues.
• Advanced Search:  Ensures customers find exactly what they're looking for, fast. With NFC21's growing product catalogue spanning a wide range of NFC applications and hardware, an intelligent search experience directly impacts conversion rates.

Why Shopware 6 Was the Right Choice for NFC21

Shopware 6 gave NFC21 the flexibility to grow without being held back by their platform. Here's what that means in practice:

• Headless-Ready Architecture: Shopware 6's API-first design made the transition to a headless CMS seamless. NFC21 now has full control over their content layer, independent of the commerce engine, enabling faster iteration and a cleaner separation of concerns.
• No-Code Business Automation: With the Rule Builder and Flow Builder, NFC21's team can configure complex workflows and pricing logic without waiting on developers. Operational agility goes up; engineering bottlenecks go down.
• Scalable by Design: As NFC21's product range and traffic grow, Shopware 6 scales with them. The platform handles increasing complexity, more products, more customer segments, more markets, without requiring a full re-architecture.
• Open Ecosystem: Shopware's open-source foundation and extensive plugin marketplace gave Kiwee the freedom to build a bespoke technical stack tailored to NFC21's exact needs, rather than forcing the business to adapt to platform limitations.
• Developer-First Tooling: The CI/CD setup Kiwee implemented pairs perfectly with Shopware 6's modern development model. Clean code structure, solid APIs, and strong documentation make it a platform serious technical teams want to work with.

The improvements delivered through this project translate directly into business outcomes for Holzland Becker's operations, team, and customers.

What NFC21 Says

Thanks to Kiwee, we improved our Git workflow and focused on achieving new goals. Kiwee delivered the project on time, conducted one-on-one sessions, and discussed challenges in an agile manner. The communication and quality feedback were commendable. What I find unique about Kiwee is their honest feedback and direct developer-to-developer communication, where the whole team strives for solid and sustainable technical solutions.

Current State & Future Outlook

Four years in, NFC21 and Kiwee are still building. The early work,pipelines, audits, CMS migration, laid the groundwork. Today the partnership covers ongoing development and shop maintenance, with new challenges coming in regularly. That's how it tends to go when two technical teams actually get along.