HWS Online Shop

Carpenters, joiners and woodworkers need tools with very specific technical properties. Someone looking for a hinge milling cutter for a particular Glutz lock plate doesn't want to browse a generic product list, but to find the right article directly. We built the shop around exactly this logic.

HWS AG from Stäfa made the move into e-commerce to mark its 40th anniversary. We built the shop on Shopware 5 and organised the range along the technical structures of the woodworking trade: tool types such as hinge milling cutters or circular saw blades, sub-categorised by manufacturer and model. The filter system narrows results by technical criteria such as diameter, material or application. For search we integrated Doofinder, a specialised search engine that responds both to keywords and to article numbers from the printed catalogue. Regular customers find familiar items directly, without having to relearn the system.

The theme was individually adapted to HWS AG's branding, with a clear visual language for technical products and a presentation that keeps even complex tool specifications readable. We integrated Payrexx as the payment gateway, which covers all common Swiss payment methods from TWINT and Postfinance to credit cards. The shop has grown from a few hundred articles at launch to over 3,000 today. The structural clarity has held, because the categorisation was built around the trade's reality from the start, not around technical convenience.

Direct consultation by the HWS team remains available in parallel. The shop is the digital extension of personal contact, not its replacement.