Detlev Louis: Legacy platform to Spryker at scale. +40% faster. New international stores in 20 days. No SEO impact.
Snapshot
Client
Detlev Louis Motorrad-Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH
Industry
Commerce / Retail - Motorcycle Accessories & Equipment
Geography
Hamburg, Germany (85+ stores across Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland)
Size
~2,300 employees; ~€270M annual revenue; 55,000+ products from 500+ brands
Challenge
Legacy platform migration to Spryker + international expansion enablement
Services
Enhanced performance, Facilitated global expansion, Seamless data integration, Production-grade Spryker delivery
Duration
Ongoing
Team
Not specified
+40%
page load speed
20-day
international store launches
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Client Context
Detlev Louis Motorrad-Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH is Europe's largest retailer of motorcycle clothing, parts, and accessories. Founded in Hamburg in 1938, the company has more than 80 years of motorbike heritage behind it and operates 85+ stores across Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, with over 70 locations in Germany alone. The online store at louis.de, launched in 1997, is one of Germany's longest-running specialty retail e-commerce operations, offering more than 55,000 products from over 500 brands. The business employs approximately 2,300 people and generates roughly €270 million in annual revenue. Since February 2015, Detlev Louis has operated as a standalone subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.
The Challenge
Detlev Louis had built a significant e-commerce operation over decades, but the platform that underpinned it had reached its limits. The legacy system struggled to keep pace with growing demand and the rate of change in the market. Scaling it further required increasing workarounds, and the architecture was not equipped to support the speed of international expansion the business required. The migration challenge was significant. Moving a high-traffic, revenue-critical retail platform to Spryker, while maintaining uninterrupted operations, required careful sequencing, deep technical planning, and rigorous execution. A poorly managed migration carries the risk of SEO disruption, data loss, and customer experience degradation, any of which could translate directly into revenue impact for a business of this scale. The migration required deep Spryker expertise that needed to be built through the project itself. This demanded a partner capable of executing at production quality while developing platform-specific knowledge in parallel with delivery. The stakes for getting it right were high: five years of customer reviews and data, SEO rankings built over decades of online operation, and the commercial credibility of a brand that had been serving motorcycle enthusiasts since 1938.
The Approach
Gradion has supported Detlev Louis's digital evolution since 2018. The Spryker migration engagement was structured around three parallel priorities that together addressed the platform, the team, and the business's international ambitions. Deepening Platform Expertise: Gradion's engineering team built hands-on Spryker expertise through the re-implementation project, working alongside the in-house team to ensure solid integration quality and strong test coverage throughout the engagement. Boosting Performance: Custom modules were developed to improve site speed, preserve SEO rankings, and ensure that the full suite of e-commerce features operated reliably under production load. The +40% improvement in page load speed was a direct result of this targeted engineering work, not a side effect of the new platform alone. Enabling Global Growth: The new Spryker architecture was designed to make launching country-specific stores fast and repeatable. The result was an international rollout capability that reduced new store go-live time to 20 days per market - a step change from what the legacy system had made possible. Throughout the migration, Gradion maintained SEO stability and executed the seamless transfer of five years of customer reviews and data. The legacy plugin architecture was preserved in parallel, creating a portfolio that now covers both self-hosted and cloud-based Shopware environments and minimizes customer churn during the transition.
20-day
international store launches
5
years of customer reviews and data migrated
The Results
The migration delivered measurable improvement across the dimensions that matter most for a retail platform operating at this scale: +40% page load speed increase - directly improving customer experience and conversion rate potential 20-day international store launches - enabling rapid, repeatable market entry without custom engineering per country 5 years of customer reviews and data migrated - no data loss, no disruption to customer history SEO stability maintained throughout the full system migration - protecting search rankings built over decades Lower operational costs through smarter resource use and a more maintainable architecture Proven Spryker delivery capability - built through production-grade re-implementation across multiple markets Detlev Louis now operates a modern, scalable e-commerce infrastructure aligned with its position as Europe's leading motorcycle accessories retailer, and is equipped to extend that platform into new markets at speed.
“It is a pleasure working with the team. They are focused and very driven. I'm looking forward to continuing the good and goal-oriented work.”
Franziska Hillmer
Product Owner
Services & Technology
Services delivered
- Spryker platform migration
- Spryker platform expertise built through delivery
- Custom module development (performance, SEO, e-commerce features)
- International store architecture and rollout
- Data migration (5 years of reviews and customer records)
- Operational cost optimization
Technology stack
- Spryker Commerce OS
- Custom performance and SEO modules
- E-commerce integration layer
- Legacy plugin interoperability maintained
Engagement model
Engineering partnership (since 2018)
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