Nordhorn is a border town in the literal sense: the Netherlands are only a few kilometres away, and Twente is right next door. For decades the textile industry shaped the district town of the Grafschaft Bentheim; since its decline the economy has broadened — with mid-sized industry, logistics, retail and services. In the town centre, Dutch shoppers are a natural part of the customer base, and many firms work with partners on both sides of the border. This mix determines what websites and shops have to do here: address customers from two countries, take data cleanly from existing systems, and stay maintainable for years without every change turning into a project.
Cross-border trade is everyday life in Nordhorn, but online it often is not yet. Many shops are available only in German, with shipping costs, payment methods and texts geared to German customers. Reaching Dutch customers online takes more than an automatic translation: separate URLs for the Dutch version, prices with the correct tax rate, clear delivery and returns terms, and content that appears in Dutch search results. Conversely, companies from Twente look for suppliers and service providers in the Grafschaft whose websites they can understand. Technically none of this is unusual if it is planned in from the start. You or your translation agency provide the translations themselves.
For retailers in Nordhorn we build Shopware 6 shops that extend the bricks-and-mortar store rather than compete with it: range, prices and stock come from the merchandise management system, so nothing is sold online that has already gone from the shelf. For industrial firms in the Grafschaft we build B2B shops with customer prices, approvals and an ERP link. A Dutch version is added as a separate sales channel. After launch we take care of the shop: updates on staging first, plugin upkeep, prompt security patches, an eye on logs and imports. A maintenance contract makes this binding, with an SLA that sets the response time — from 24 down to 2 hours.
For companies, associations and institutions in the Grafschaft that work with partners in Twente, TYPO3 is the obvious choice: one installation carries German, Dutch and English versions, with linked pages and permissions for separate editorial teams. We bring older TYPO3 sites to v14 LTS along a planned upgrade path — inventory first, then a test environment, then the switchover. After that the site stays under maintenance: every TYPO3 security bulletin is checked for relevance, patches go through staging, and we regularly test backups by restoring them. After each cycle you get a brief note on what has been done and what is due.
The drive from Oldenburg to Nordhorn takes about 1 hour 45 minutes. For the kick-off, a workshop on shop or site structure and the sign-off we come to the Grafschaft by arrangement; for the ongoing work the trip is not needed. Development, testing and maintenance happen in Oldenburg, with fixed contacts, a ticket system and interim builds you can check yourself on a staging environment. Hosting runs on our own Proxmox servers in Germany. We have no office in Nordhorn — our only location is Oldenburg, reachable Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 16:00, and Friday, 9:00 to 13:00 CET, on +49 441 21 21 63 0.