Erson Case Study: Migrating a German Ecommerce Store from WooCommerce to Payload CMS
1,600 products. 4 languages scaled to 27. Zero data loss. A 10% lift in store revenue.
Erson Case Study: Migrating a German Acrylic Glass Manufacturer from WooCommerce to Payload CMS
1,600 products. 4 languages scaled to 27. Zero data loss. A 10% lift in store revenue.
At a glance
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Client | Erson (German B2B manufacturer) |
| Products migrated | 1,600 |
| Languages | 4 → 27 |
| Data loss | 0 |
| Order history preserved | 100% |
| Payment methods added | +6 |
| Store revenue (post-launch) | +10% |
| Translation method | AI-powered, automated |
About Erson
Erson is a German B2B manufacturer of acrylic glass products — selling configurable, made-to-order pieces to businesses across Europe. The product catalog includes 1,600 SKUs with variations for size, thickness, finish, and customization options.
Their customer base spans architectural studios, signage manufacturers, retail fitouts, and industrial buyers — each needing accurate pricing, VAT compliance, and the ability to request quotes for non-standard orders.
A serious B2B operation that had outgrown what WooCommerce was built for.
The starting point
Before migration, Erson ran on the classic stack: WordPress + WooCommerce, with layers of plugins for translations, payments, pricing rules, and B2B features.
It worked. It also had problems:
- Plugin maintenance burden — roughly 15 third-party plugins, each one a maintenance line item
- Translation ceiling — 4 languages only, with per-product manual configuration and translator costs that didn't scale
- Payment limitations — only 2 payment methods, despite European B2B expectations for SEPA, bank transfer, invoicing
- Admin friction — slow workflows, unreliable bulk operations, degrading page load times
- B2B pricing complexity — tier pricing, customer deals, VAT rules — WooCommerce plus plugins could handle some, but not cleanly
What we built
The migration wasn't a 1:1 port. It was a modernization — same business, redesigned and re-architected for the next decade, built on our ecommerce package for Payload CMS. Four categories of work:
1. Migration core (preserving the business)
- 1,600 products migrated with full variant data, pricing, and attributes
- Complete order history preserved — every past order, including HPOS and legacy tables
- All user accounts preserved — login credentials, address books, order history intact
- 301 redirects mapped — every WooCommerce permalink redirected to its Payload equivalent
- Media library re-hosted to S3-compatible storage with CDN delivery
The migration ran as a parallel-environment cutover. Old site stayed live until the new one was validated; DNS switched in a single window.
2. AI-powered automation
This is where the new platform pulled ahead of what WooCommerce could ever do.
- Languages scaled from 4 to 27 — using our AI Studio plugin, 1,600 products were translated into 27 locales. What previously took weeks of agency work became a background job.
- SEO-friendly multilingual URLs with hreflang automation
- Global pricing changes in a single operation — propagate across all 27 locales with correct currency formatting
Editors can review and override AI translations per-field, with full audit history. It's not a black box.
3. Ecommerce capabilities
- 6 new payment methods — integrated through our Payments Hub plugin: Stripe, regional EU methods, SEPA, invoice-based B2B payments
- Flexible B2B pricing — tier-based, customer-specific deals, volume discounts, all configurable without plugins
- VAT validation — real-time VIES (EU VAT Information Exchange) integration for B2B checkout
- Fast Request Form — for non-standard orders, customers submit detailed inquiries routed directly to sales, replacing the previous email workflow
4. Operations and analytics
- End of plugin hell — translation, VAT, pricing, payments, B2B logic now live in Erson's own codebase
- Simplified admin panel — workflows redesigned around Erson's actual process, not WordPress conventions
- Faster system overall — admin operations and storefront measurably faster than the previous stack
- Analytics and Google Search Console properly integrated, with schema.org markup baked in
Results
The hard numbers, four months after launch:
Revenue: +10% in store-driven sales
Direct ecommerce orders grew 10% compared to the pre-migration baseline. This is the floor, not the ceiling — a significant portion of Erson's revenue runs through email inquiries and custom quotes, which the new Fast Request Form is now capturing more efficiently.
Reach: 4× more accessible markets
Going from 4 to 27 languages means appearing in regional search results, ranking for native-language queries, and removing friction for non-English-speaking B2B buyers. Markets that were previously inaccessible are now in the addressable pipeline.
Operations: 15+ plugin dependencies eliminated
Every feature lives in Erson's own codebase now — version-controlled, type-safe, predictable. No more compatibility matrices, no more "the update broke staging."
Admin: Faster team workflows
Common operations — adding product variants, updating pricing across locales, processing returns — are measurably faster than the previous WooCommerce admin. Less context-switching between plugin interfaces.
Key takeaways
For businesses considering a similar migration:
1. Translation is the killer feature. Once Erson saw 27 languages running on automated AI translation, the ROI conversation was over. For European B2B specifically, language reach is a direct revenue lever.
2. Plugin elimination compounds. Removing 15 plugin dependencies isn't just about maintenance hours — it's about predictability, security, and shipping new features without checking compatibility matrices.
3. Order history must transfer. For B2B, losing past orders in migration destroys trust. Customers expect to reorder previous configurations and reference past invoices. This non-negotiable shaped the entire migration plan.
4. The admin is the daily reality. Customers see the storefront once. The team uses the admin every day. A well-designed Payload admin compounds in value over months and years.
The platforms behind this migration
Erson runs on our full-stack ecommerce package for Payload CMS — a production-tested foundation covering products, variants, multi-language, multi-currency, B2B pricing, VAT, and EU compliance. The same package is available for similar migrations.
Two of our plugins powered the headline features:
- AI Studio — the AI-powered translation plugin that scaled Erson from 4 to 27 languages
- Payments Hub — the unified payment provider plugin behind Erson's 6 new payment methods
All built on Payload CMS, production-tested in the Erson deployment.
Considering a similar migration?
If you're running a WooCommerce store and the patterns above sound familiar — plugin sprawl, translation limits, B2B feature gaps, admin friction — we'd happily walk you through what a Payload migration would look like for your specific setup.
We offer a free WordPress audit: send us your site, get a written migration assessment within 48 hours. No commitment.
This case study was written by the team at Zavcode — a software studio specializing in Payload CMS.