Similar to WooCommerce and BigCommerce, PrestaShop is another open-source e-commerce solution. It is free and published under open software licenses. In this PrestaShop review, we will be analyzing what makes this platform great for creating a website.
Just like other e-commerce platforms, it is written in PHP with database management services from MySQL.
According to the official stats, PrestaShop is proudly powering 2,50,000 shops worldwide with availability in 60 different languages. What actually PrestaShop offers; here are a number of features to consider.
Important Features of PrestaShop
From the front end of PrestaShop to the back, we have worked with our inhouse developers to come up with a cohesive review to explain PrestaShop to anyone who is interested in using the platform. Here are some of the key elements we found as we worked on the platform:
Website Design with PrestaShop
PrestaShop offers easy customization to design your store with maximum creativity. You can pick a theme template, choose your colors, pick a logo, and it’s mobile-friendly right out of the box!
The themes marketplace has some great options for people who are just starting off, and PrestaShop offers some great add-ons to help people add custom functionality to their website.
Store & Product Management
Unlike other e-commerce solutions where inventory management is complex, PrestaShop features a ‘Drive Your Business’ tagline. PrestaShop is an easy platform to manage products, orders, customer relationships, and website analytics.
If you’re serious about taking control of your whole business, especially from the backend, PrestaShop is a great solution.
Built-In Blogging Functionality
With a blog attached to your store, you have the power to attract more readers that can be converted into customers later on with product announcements, sponsored ads, and other advertisement strategies to push products within your blog posts.
With PrestaShop, we have the power to share content on social networks and blog with easy customizations. Remember, the more quality content you publish on your blog, the more quality customers you’ll be able to fetch.
Is PrestaShop SEO-Friendly?
After you write some blog posts and add content to your website, you will want to rank your articles across search engines to bring in traffic.
PrestaShop has a support team as well as some articles that explain how to effectively implement SEO strategies into your PrestaShop website. The platform itself is built with SEO in mind, and allows users to add meta descriptions, title tags, and heading tags across your valuable pages!
Most PrestaShop themes are highly SEO-friendly and the optimization options are provided for you, so you don’t need to install plugins or hire custom development.
Global Sales using PrestaShop
No worries if your store is going global as PrestaShop has got everything to keep your store in the race!
With thousands of add-ons that help grow stores online, these add-ons empower your store with multiple currencies and languages.
According to the reports shared by eCom specialists, their platform is working with over 60+ languages and this is the reason it is named as a global e-commerce solution.
Optimize for Product Navigation
What if your store is beautiful to look at, but customers find it difficult to find the products they are looking for?
Categories and product organization can impact the user experience, as well as create opportunities for new keywords. PrestaShop offers product categories and several organizational elements right out of the box.
PrestaShop Payment Gateways
Payment gateways are essential for bringing down the costs and barriers involved in your e-commerce store. With several options for international payment gateways built into PrestaShop, it’s a great option for businesses who are trying to reach the world.
You might require an additional add-on for some of the payment methods but as you install them, there are no extra configurations needed.
It is easy to determine the pricing of the offered shipping methods as the payment gateways are international and offer no borders transaction processed in no time.
Build Additional Pages
Using Prestashop page functionalities you can easily configure your internal search engine, display the results with the information specified. Additional pages like Error 404 pages are what you can get access to. You can simply choose the built-in templates for empty pages or design your own pattern to help your customers get back from the wrong page they have just come across.
Tools to Increase User Engagement
A great feature of PrestaShop is that they give basic users access to important tools for increasing user engagement.
- Reduce Abandonment cart rate by sending emails
- Emails with products they have visited
- Automatic sign-in for users who navigate through email
With these three features put together, many PrestaShop owners can work to understand and optimize user engagement across their websites.
Pricing for a PrestaShop store
The pricing factor is what we are always interested in before making a final decision. Here’s a precise description of what it costs to start selling online:
- The PrestaShop software itself is a freemium open-source eCommerce solution and anyone can visit their website to download the software.
- You can run a demo store for free. A demo store is fully functional with unlimited product listings with for a limited time.
- For additional add-ons, it costs about $50 to $150 per module. This is where you require some investments to have the best SEO practice, abandoned cart reminders, loyalty coupons, and a lot more functionality, but it can take your e-commerce store to the next level.
