Success Story AWG
Digitalization with a Sense of Proportion
Why Personal Support Can Be Crucial in E‑Commerce
Like many success stories, AWG began modestly as a small trading house for textiles. Imanuel Maier founded the company AWG Allgemeine Warenvertriebs-GmbH in 1969 and opened the first AWG branch in Köngen near Stuttgart in 1970, where the headquarters remain located to this day. Today, AWG is among the thirty largest textile retailers in Germany, operates around 250 branches, and serves over 3.5 million loyal customers. The guiding principle “Everyone becomes happy” shapes not only the physical stores but also the digital presence of the fashion company since 2012. Year after year, independent studies on customer satisfaction and price-performance ratio confirm that this is more than just a slogan, with AWG consistently ranking highly. Most recently, AWG secured first place in customer service among fashion discounters (retailers) in the German Customer Award 2026 by the DtGV – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Verbraucherstudien.
Online business is an additional channel alongside a strong network of physical stores, and for this reason, the online shop faces special requirements: it must run reliably without tying up its own infrastructure team. After initial online experiences, AWG wanted to grow digitally without getting caught up in opaque cloud systems or becoming just another anonymous ticket in a call center queue. What was needed was a partner who would genuinely manage the platform, be accessible, and proactively intervene in case of disruptions. Thus arose the collaboration with Metaways Infosystems GmbH.
“People Instead of Ticket Numbers”
Menschen statt Ticketnummern
What AWG was looking for was not particularly complex technology, but a reliable, scalable foundation and direct access to people who listen and take action. Metaways relied on a proven platform concept with high-availability architecture that works stably, allows room for development, and is flexible enough to respond to campaigns and peak loads. The technical basis is well thought out but not overloaded: no Kubernetes clusters, no expensive cloud architectures, but a robust, standardized environment that runs resource-efficiently through campaign-oriented scaling.
However, what makes the difference are the people behind it. Queries do not end up in an anonymous queue but with individuals who know the shop, its history, and its specifics. This significantly shortens resolution paths: instead of having to explain a situation every time contact is made, work is done directly on the issue. Personal contacts at all levels, from platform to service and account management, create a trusting relationship and also simplify collaboration with other agency service providers.
In this way, Metaways hits a benchmark that AWG knows well from its own business. In the store, satisfaction is not determined by the range of products alone, but by whether someone listens, understands the concern, and solves it themselves, rather than passing it on. What AWG offers its customers daily, the company also expects from its service providers—and finds in hosting with Metaways.
“We’ve found a partner who guards our e-commerce platform, thinks along with us, and reaches out before we even have to ask. The servers are running, the shop is available. These are exactly the services we expect from hosting.”
Harry Henke
Head of E-Commerce
AWG
Proactivity and Technical Depth
The quality of support becomes particularly noticeable where it should ideally remain invisible. Anomalies in monitoring are reported by Metaways before they even become apparent in AWG’s daily operations. Before campaigns and peak periods, the environment is prepared together, rather than reacting to problems afterward. And if there is a problem, a root cause analysis follows the disruption report, not just a restart.
Additionally, there is technical depth: discussions take place on an equal footing. Metaways brings its own assessments, sometimes challenges them with justification, and considers the impact on performance, security, and operations. For AWG, this is especially valuable in conjunction with other service providers: instead of defending boundaries of responsibility, Metaways collaborates with the development agency during troubleshooting, even when the root cause ultimately does not lie in hosting. This exact behavior saves the most time on the customer side.
In addition to proven standard platforms, Metaways also offers cloud services at leading hyperscalers or in its own infrastructure. The strength lies not merely in the availability of various technologies, but in combining the right solution with the right support. The cloud remains a tool; the human element remains the driver.
“Our e-commerce shop is the heart of our 360‑degree omnichannel strategy. Metaways has been excellently managing the availability of our shop for years, giving us as AWG the freedom to further develop and implement our digital strategy.”
Michael Hövelmann
CEO/ AWG
Reliability in the Background
It is precisely in this role that Metaways contributes: the online shop’s infrastructure runs reliably in the background. Whether transitioning to a new shop system, rolling out new functionalities, or handling peak loads during sales events: the e-commerce team can focus on product range, campaigns, and further development, rather than tying up capacity on operational issues. For a leanly structured online department, this is a tangible advantage. And because every disruption in the shop ultimately affects a customer, stable operations directly contribute to what AWG is recognized for: customer satisfaction.
“We haven’t just rented computing power and storage,” says Harry Henke, Head of E-Commerce at AWG. “We’ve found a partner who guards our e-commerce platform, thinks along with us, and reaches out before we even have to ask. The servers are running, the shop is available. These are exactly the services we expect from hosting.”
Michael Hövelmann, CEO of AWG, adds: “Our e-commerce shop is the heart of our 360-degree omnichannel strategy. Metaways has been excellently managing the availability of our shop for years, giving us as AWG the freedom to further develop and implement our digital strategy.”
Metaways
Infosystems
GmbH
Adresse
Pickhuben 2
20457 Hamburg
Deutschland
Telefon
+49 40 31 70 31-0