TYPO3 takes more effort to set up than any other system on this site, and that is not a drawback but the price for something the others cannot do: separate permissions, real language hierarchies and an editorial structure that holds up with fifty editors.
No system fits everywhere. These cases speak against TYPO3, and I will say so:
For cetrac.com the structure was re-cut entirely: categories and product structure following what customers search for, not the internal order that had grown over time. That decision comes before the technology and determines everything else.
German, English, French, Italian and Spanish fully live editorially, with AI support directly in the backend. Dedicated keyword research per target market, because people search differently in Spain than in Germany, and consistent hreflang.
With large ranges internal search becomes the most important entry point. The store uses Solr-backed search.
A TYPO3 backend is not self-explanatory to anyone. Part of the project is that the people who work with it afterwards can actually operate it.
If TYPO3 does not fit, these are the alternatives:
WordPress runs a large share of the web, and that is both a blessing and a curse: there is a plugin for every problem, and after two years the site has thirty of them, is slow and vulnerable.
Go to WordPressShopware pays off from the point where a website builder starts to creak: many variants, prices per customer group, tiered pricing, an ERP system in the background.
Go to ShopwareShopify takes hosting, payment integration, security and updates off your hands.
Go to ShopifyOften yes, and then I say so. TYPO3 pays off from several languages with their own content, several editors with separate permissions, or a structure that grows over years. Below that you are faster and cheaper with WordPress.
That depends on how many extensions accumulated over the years. With a well-maintained installation the update is the cheaper route. Where extensions are no longer maintained a rebuild is more honest, because otherwise the update becomes a permanent construction site.
That is exactly what happened for cetrac.com: five languages fully live editorially, with AI support directly in the backend, plus keyword research per target market. Not as literal translation but as market adaptation.
TYPO3 provides the foundations, but they do not appear by themselves. Semantic structure, contrast, keyboard operability and meaningful alternative text belong in the concept, not in a check at the end.
Not sure whether TYPO3 is the right system? Ask me, I am happy to sort it out, even if the answer is a different system.