With 125, 000-strong stores, PrestaShopis considered a leader in e-commerce platform with 350, 000 community members – and its counting. Conceived as a free open source shopping platform, Igor Schlumberger and Bruno Levequ developed and released the first PrestaShop version last May 2007, and since then PrestaShop had showcased its powerful innovations helping businesses to grow. In terms of foundation, PrestaShop is still a newborn compared to its counterparts, but with more than 300 features, PrestaShop maintained its strong influence on the online market, placing tremendous importance on valuable functionality and features. For two consecutive years, 2000 & 2011, PrestaShop received the Open Source Award, in acknowledgment of its strong dedication on the improvement of the e-commerce with its several translated versions.
Overview of PrestaShop
PrestaShop is considered as the number 1 shopping cart available with the preference of US-based and European sellers. As an open-source e-commerce solution, it can be downloaded for free, and you can start making money with your store in just few minutes. PrestaShop prides in its powerful and easy-to-use catalog management, site management, product displays, and client account. You don't have to search in the dark with PrestaShop's Analytics and Reporting feature that goes side by side with marketing and SEO capabilities. Plus, you can easily reach customer support when you need help to resolve issues. There is no need to sit on a problem and wait for a solution, resources on how to use PrestaShop have grown, after languishing on lack of available resources for long time, to help you troubleshoot your online store.
It had not been long since the debut of PrestaShop, but it has now a sizable portfolio of companies using this powerful e-commerce solution. Thousand stores have seen growth and successes in its marketing venture with the aid of PrestaShop. Few of PrestaShop's successful stores are Madame Choup, Belancy, Sutter's Mill and French Bazaar. Aside from its growing success stories, PrestaShop partners with eBay, Skrill-Moneybrookers, Merchant Warehouse, eMagicOne, and many more.
Website Design
With numerous templates available to keep a catchy and attention-grabbing online store, PrestaShop offers a simplified customization for your preference. The good thing about PrestaShop is its friendliness; online merchants don't need to know about HTML, CSS, XML, and other design languages to personalize the store design. There are free templates you can use through the PrestaShop Add Onstore, or you can buy great themes from other designers.
Back Office
PrestaShop offers a one-click update on the catalog of the store. Managing your store, whether you are selling a single product or thousands, comes easy with an import and export feature. Advanced store management feature gives an overview of your physical store or warehouses to manage deliveries and shipping efficiently. Export feature enables direct link to your eBay store, and you can take advantage of cross-selling capabilities of PrestaShop.
As the business grows, PrestaShop also offers flexible management. You can add users and specify permission on tasks users can do. Through the Content Management System, it is easy to add new products, upload images, or edit contents of your store. Reports, operations, sales, and other business activities are streamlined through integration with Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resource Planning.
Shopping Features
PrestaShop supports both downloadable products or soft items, and hard goods. It is easy to see music, software, movies, and pictures. There are unlimited product categories and attributes that can be used to define your online store and to help customers locate product easier and faster. The multiple product view and zoom capabilities of PrestaShop can help boost conversion sales. Images and clear attributes can educate consumers on the specifications of products to help them decide on the purchase or order.
Payment Options
PrestaShop's checkout feature offers a one-page system with easily-customizable fields. One of the reasons why customers abandon shopping carts is the hassle and inconvenience in checking out products. PrestaShop stores allow shoppers or buyers to continue checkout as guests or register an account on your store. The shopping cart can be set for a certain period of expiration date to trigger the decision of buyers when they leave shopping carts without checking out. Shipping fees can be customized according to weight of products. Setting up price and weight ranges can give a real-time and more accurate shipping fees, which will please your customers and give you a better management on the order. Aside from shipping fees customization, you can also provide different price range for consumers. For instance, you can give 20% discounts on buyers from Europe, but not for consumers from Asia.
PrestaShop offers wide range of payment options or gateways to give comfortable checkout for your customers. Credit card payments, wire transfer, check, and other payment methods are available across different countries. Integration with Authorize.net allows your store to accept payments on most customers across North America. Online merchants can also filter currencies to provide the best and commonly used payment gateways for customers' convenience.
Tax Customization
Taxing is another feature added to PrestaShop store. PrestaShop allows online merchants to configure taxes according to state or country rules and guidelines. Federal and Provincial taxes are allowed on PrestShop stores to automatically comply with the requirements of the government. Automating tax calculation streamlines business operation and simplifies the store management.
Taxing is another feature added to PrestaShop store. PrestaShop allows online merchants to configure taxes according to state or country rules and guidelines. Federal and Provincial taxes are allowed on PrestShop stores to automatically comply with the requirements of the government. Automating tax calculation streamlines business operation and simplifies the store management.
Marketing Features
If you want to reach or engage with customers, product reviews and comparison charts are available to help customers decide on purchases. This feature is reinforced by related products or recommended featured items to give consumers alternatives and options. You don't want to lose customers just because you cannot meet what they need. PrestaShop enables your store to expand its capability to reach consumers and engage with them pro-actively.
For an increased business performance, you can recommend product to friends through the 'Send to a Friend' feature. The email marketing capability of PrestaShop allows follow-up emails on abandoned shopping carts or repeat customers. Optimizing the site is another way to increase the performance of the online store. SEO techniques, including keyword tags, customized URLs, meta tags, and many more, optimize the online store in just few clicks.
You can create gift wishlist, discounts and sales promo to market products actively. Providing free shipping and giving incentives for referring products are few of the features you can take advantage with PrestaShop. Newsletters can be sent to consumers from time to time as method of triggering the buying behavior of consumers. Coupons and vouches can also be sent through emails.
Security Features
As customers need to register accounts, information or data are protected from hacking to avoid identity theft. A PCI Compliance logo will be added on your online store to assure clients that all financial information, including credit cards or online payments, are maintained and stored in a secured environment without the risk of hacking and third-party intrusion. The transfer protocol of PrestShop stores is supported by secure socket layer (SSL) technology to keep sending of data protected. Nonetheless, PrestaShop Back Office's architecture is loaded with security modules including encryption, password, and login.
Customer Support
There are several resources available to help online merchants utilize PrestaShop in managing their stores. Documentations and knowledge-based articles can aid retailers to setup the store, resolve issues, and understand the daily business activity. You can find a demonstration at the website of PrestaShop if it is your first time to use the e-commerce solution. A technical support team is always ready to help you in troubleshooting problems of your store, and avoid lengthening the problem which may affect the reputation and credibility of the store.
Perhaps, a problem with PrestaShop is the language limitation. Being a French-based e-commerce solution, most forums and communities are in French language that those who don't have enough knowledge with the language may find it hard to find adequate resolutions to their problems. But this problem has been reduced; more and more English-based forums, documentations, and tickets are created by store owners or retailers.
Cost
As a free open source e-commerce solution, PrestaShop can be downloaded without spending a dime. Online retailers favor PrestaShop because of its free and scalable features. However, if you need additional features or templates, you can buy from the PrestaShop Add On store. As an open source e-commerce solution, developers can explore templates and features, which provide better and wider options on features for online retailers.
