Big Chief builds a scalable digital foundation for complex B2B purchasing with Shopware

From a Complex Catalog to Bigger Digital Ambition

For Big Chief, launching ecommerce was never simply about putting products online.

The company serves customers across the complete thermal loop—from buyers who know the exact replacement part they need to engineering and procurement teams working through complex industrial applications. Some customers want to find a product, pay by credit card, and move on within minutes. Others need technical confirmation, pricing discussions, custom work, or direct collaboration with an expert.

Behind those different buying journeys was an equally complex digital landscape. Big Chief and sister brand Thermal Devices operated separate legacy WordPress sites, with overlapping products, content, manufacturer information, and digital assets.

The opportunity was bigger than replacing two websites. Big Chief wanted to create a digital foundation that could bring those resources together, connect commerce with its existing operations, and grow with the business for years to come.

“We want to build a really strong foundation here so we’re not switching platforms five or 10 years down the road,” said Adam Strayton, Director of Strategic Operations at Big Chief.

Choosing a platform for where Big Chief is going

That long-term ambition led Big Chief to Shopware.

Rather than optimizing only for what the business needed at launch, the team looked for a platform flexible enough to support specialized processes, integrate with existing systems, accommodate an expanding technical catalog, and create new customer experiences over time.

“It seemed like, as far as the best sustainable long-term solution, Shopware was the better option,” Strayton said.

The timing made that flexibility especially important. Big Chief is part of the broader Thermal Technology Distribution Solutions organization, backed by Gryphon Investors. As TTDS built a growing platform of thermal-management businesses, the project became an opportunity to modernize legacy digital operations while establishing infrastructure capable of supporting a much larger consolidated catalog in the future.

Big Chief selected Web Solutions NYC as its implementation partner, beginning with an in-depth discovery. What followed was not simply a platform implementation, but a close examination of how the business worked—and how digital commerce could make it better.

Starting with the business opportunities, not the technology

Web Solutions NYC worked alongside cross-functional teams throughout Big Chief, including warehouse, customer service, sales, finance, and other departments.

Together, they mapped systems, processes, requirements, data flows, and integration points in detail. The exercise gave Big Chief something valuable even before development began: a clearer picture of its own digital ecosystem.

“I don’t think we had ever even had mapping that was that detailed, showing how all of these systems connect,” Strayton said. “For us, it was a great learning experience.”

That collaborative discovery became the foundation for the project. Instead of forcing Big Chief into a predefined ecommerce model, the teams identified what already worked, what could improve, and where better data and digital experiences could unlock new opportunities.

Turning two legacy sites into a unified commerce operation

One of the first major challenges was bringing the Big Chief and Thermal Devices digital estates together.

Web Solutions NYC migrated and consolidated product and content data from both legacy sites into a single Shopware catalog. The team created a new product-data architecture, category structure, manufacturer organization, digital-asset library, and framework for informational content.

At the same time, the solution preserved an important principle: modernization should complement Big Chief’s operations, not disrupt them.

Shopware became the environment for product content and customer-facing commerce, while Epicor remained the system of record for inventory and pricing. A custom integration layer connected the two, allowing ecommerce orders to flow into Big Chief’s established fulfillment process.

“The fact that it was customizable enough to integrate cleanly into our business processes was a big deal,” Strayton said. “When you’re in that foundational phase, that’s one of the most important things to get right.”

Creating a digital purchasing experience that aligns with customer needs

The partnership also gave Big Chief an opportunity to rethink what ecommerce should mean for a technical B2B business.

Not every buyer needs the same experience—and the new storefront doesn't pretend they do.

Customers who already know what they need can use a streamlined self-service journey: find a product, check out as a guest or account holder, pay by card, and receive an order number within minutes.

“Customers can go to the site and, in a matter of minutes, check out with a credit card, have the order number, and be done with it,” Strayton said.

But Big Chief's expertise has always been an important part of the customer relationship. The team didn't want ecommerce to remove that expertise from the buying process.

Instead, they turned it into a digital experience.

The bespoke Expert Check workflow allows customers who need reassurance to move through checkout without immediately submitting payment. Big Chief's team can then verify form, fit, and function, confirm pricing, review technical requirements, and help the customer complete the order.

It brings together two things that can be difficult to reconcile in industrial commerce: the speed and convenience of ecommerce and the confidence that comes from working with a knowledgeable expert.

Early performance results create momentum

When the new Big Chief store went live, the early signals quickly gave the team reasons to be excited.

The site launched with Lighthouse scores near 100. Within just five weeks, new Shopware pages were already beginning to outrank overlapping pages on the established Thermal Devices site—including pages that had been live for eight to ten years.

“The Shopware site is already starting to outrank that site for those overlapping products,” Strayton said. “I was shocked.”

Customers also began placing ecommerce orders within those first five weeks, earlier than Big Chief expected for a domain that had never previously operated as an ecommerce store. Meanwhile, new quotation functionality opened another route to digital demand, allowing buyers to submit detailed, multi-product requests rather than relying on a simple contact form.

For a project designed around building the right long-term foundation, those early results offered an encouraging glimpse of what that foundation could enable.

A roadmap for continued digital transformation

Perhaps the most important outcome of the project is that Big Chief isn't treating the new store as finished. It is the first stage of a broader ecommerce excellence roadmap.

As suppliers introduce new parts and Big Chief adds product lines, the online catalog can continue to expand. Self-service and Expert Check can evolve alongside customer needs. And in the future, an additional expert-led journey could support customers working through larger custom and engineered projects.

Expanding account capabilities, integrations, automation, and digital buying experiences are all potential next steps. The normalized product model and structured catalog also create technical readiness for future AI-assisted commerce applications.

“This site is really a living thing, and it will continue to evolve and grow,” Strayton said. “That’s part of why we chose Shopware, because we knew that’s how this was likely going to go.”

A partnership focused on more than technology

Web Solutions NYC led the project from discovery and solution architecture through design, implementation, integration, training, and launch. Shopware supported the platform setup and provided technical assistance, while Forthea coordinated SEO requirements and legacy URL mappings.

For Big Chief, the ability to combine technical depth with an understanding of the business became a defining part of the collaboration. It is far more than just technology.

“I think it’s rare that you work with an agency that can get as technical as they can, but also communicate it to just about any audience in the business in a way that audience would understand,” Strayton said.

The project launched on time and on budget. But its bigger success is what happens next.

Big Chief now has a fast, flexible commerce platform that works with its existing operations, brings its digital catalog together, and gives customers new ways to buy. More importantly, it has a foundation the company can continue building on as its catalog, customer experiences, and digital ambitions grow.

For Big Chief, Shopware, and Web Solutions NYC, launch wasn't the end of the project. It was the beginning of the next phase and long-term partnership for growth.

“The finished product is fantastic,” Strayton said. “We couldn’t be more pleased. The credit really does go to Web Solutions and Shopware for building such a fantastic product.”