bernetshop for TYPO3

Not every TYPO3 shop needs a full e-commerce framework

Aimeos is the standard for e-commerce in TYPO3. But Aimeos is also complex: its own database abstraction layer, its own template system, more than 30 configuration tables. For a club selling 8 merchandise items, or a mid-sized company with 50 spare parts, that is overkill. bernetshop offers a lightweight alternative: product list, shopping cart, payment, done. No inventory management, no warehouse management, no multi-store capability, but no months-long setup effort either.

The extension is aimed at organizations that want to sell a small number of products through their existing TYPO3 website without running a separate shop system. The typical scope: 10-200 products, simple variants (size, color), payment by invoice, PayPal or Stripe.

Typical use cases

Clubs and non-profit organizations. Sports clubs sell jerseys and tickets, cultural institutions offer annual passes and publications. The shop has to be easy to maintain, because volunteers run it. bernetshop is configured through standard TYPO3 content elements: a product is a record with an image, price, description and variants. No training is needed beyond normal TYPO3 editing.

Spare parts and accessories. Machine builders and equipment manufacturers sell wear parts, accessories and consumables through the company website. The product data already exists in TYPO3 (product pages, data sheets), and bernetshop adds the shopping cart and payment. Product maintenance stays where the technical data already lives: in the CMS.

Internal ordering portals. Larger companies use simple ordering systems for office supplies, promotional material or IT accessories. bernetshop combined with the TYPO3 frontend login gives you a password-protected ordering portal without any external software. Orders are forwarded by email to the responsible department. An ERP connection is not provided, and in this context it is not needed.

Technical architecture

bernetshop is built on Extbase/Fluid, the standard framework for TYPO3 extensions. Product data is stored in a dedicated table, tx_bernetshop_domain_model_product. Variants (sizes, colors) are modeled as inline relations. The shopping cart is held in the PHP session and, for registered users, can optionally be persisted in the database.

The shop logic is straightforward: there are controllers for the product list, product detail, cart and checkout. The templates are standard Fluid and can be customized like any other TYPO3 template. Payments are handled through a payment provider adapter, with PayPal, Stripe and invoice implemented by default. Further providers can be added via a PHP interface.

Orders are stored in a database table and trigger a confirmation email to both the customer and the shop operator. A backend module lists all orders with their status (open, paid, shipped). CSV export is built in; a direct ERP interface is not.

The extension uses TYPO3’s standard caching for product lists. The cart and checkout are uncacheable (USER_INT). As a result, product list pages benefit from the TYPO3 cache, while the checkout runs uncached, which becomes relevant under high load.

Common problems and solutions

Scaling limits beyond 200 products. The product list slows down as the product count grows if no pagination is configured. bernetshop ships with simple pagination, but no faceted search or category filters. The fix: from 200 products onward, create category pages and limit the product list per category. From 500 products, it is time to seriously consider Aimeos or an external shop.

Outdated payment integration. Some of the bundled payment adapters use older API versions of the payment providers. PayPal’s Classic API has been deprecated, and Stripe has updated its API several times. The fix: review the payment adapters and update them to current API versions. The effort is 1-2 developer days per adapter.

Legal requirements not fully covered. Selling online in the EU brings requirements such as the right of withdrawal, unit price display, packaging rules and the stricter e-commerce information obligations in force since 2024. They call for adjustments that bernetshop does not deliver out of the box. (US: There is no general statutory right of withdrawal for online purchases; return policies are largely set by the merchant.) The fix: extend the checkout templates with the legally required information. That is template work, not extension development.

Migration and version compatibility

bernetshop is a niche extension with limited maintenance. The latest stable version supports TYPO3 v10 and v11. There is no official update for TYPO3 v12. Porting it is a manageable effort (Extbase API changes, TCA adjustments), but it has to be done by hand. There are no plans for TYPO3 v13.

Organizations migrating to TYPO3 v12 or v13 therefore face a choice: port bernetshop or switch to an alternative. The options are Aimeos (a full e-commerce framework, at significantly higher effort), cart (an Extbase-based shop with active maintenance and v12 compatibility) or an external shop (Shopify, WooCommerce) integrated with TYPO3 via API.

Either way, migrating the product data is simple: the table has a clear structure that can be transferred into any target system with an SQL script. For one client with 85 products, the complete migration from bernetshop to EXT:cart, including template adjustments, took 4 working days. Gosign advises on the most cost-effective option and takes on the porting or migration if needed.