Case Study - E-Commerce Template with Direct CRM Integration

FC St. Pauli needed a modern, high-performance e-commerce solution for merchandise sales that integrates directly into the club's existing CRM infrastructure. The core requirement was clear: customer data, orders, and communication histories needed to synchronize automatically across all systems – no manual exports, no data silos, no delays between shop and back-office. The existing solution had grown out of an off-the-shelf template that could no longer be extended to meet the club's operational demands, and the overhead of maintaining data consistency manually was consuming significant staff time.

We developed a fully custom template using Next.js, optimized for performance, mobile conversion, and a clean fan-facing shopping experience. The bidirectional CRM interface was the technical centerpiece of the project: orders placed in the shop trigger real-time updates in the CRM, while CRM data – including customer loyalty status, purchase history, and communication preferences – flows back into the shop to enable personalized experiences. The integration was built via a REST API layer with robust error handling and retry logic, ensuring no order was ever lost in transit between systems even during peak traffic.

The project was executed in close collaboration with FC St. Pauli's internal IT team, with structured sprint reviews to ensure the solution matched both technical requirements and real-world operational workflows. The entire project was completed within the planned budget and timeline: 6 weeks from kickoff to production deployment. Since launch, the platform has maintained 98% uptime, reduced manual data work for the club's operations team by 40%, and cut order processing time in half – freeing staff to focus on fan engagement rather than data maintenance.