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    PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide
    PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide
    PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide
    Ebook886 pages4 hours

    PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide

    By John Horton

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    In Detail

    PrestaShop is a hidden gem. There are many much more widely known online shopping cart solutions that have nothing like the features, potential, and ease of use that this open source, completely free-to-use, system has. But until now there has been no information available on how to make the most of it. This book takes a step-by-step approach to help you set up your own e-commerce store and maximize its potential. Even if you are totally new to e-commerce and PrestaShop, you can have your own functioning e-commerce store quickly and with tiny expenditure. Imagine the feeling when you get that glorious e-mail saying that you have your first paying customer.

    This practical guide follows the order of developing an active business. Packed with easy-to-follow steps with loads of screenshots and clear explanations, it follows a step-by-step approach to set up a PrestaShop e-commerce store from the very beginning through finding a web host, setting up your PrestaShop store, accepting money from customers, and planning for the future of your business.

    The first few chapters are a lightening, but thorough, illustration of how to get your shop online, stocked up, and looking smart and unique, including some really cool and really simple product features to show off your wares in style - very quickly. The later chapters are quite diverse and cover some exciting stuff such as newsletters, loyalty schemes, alternative revenue streams, statistics and analytics. You will also learn about security, disaster recovery, payment handling, currencies, taxes, shipping, and more. Towards the end, the chapters cover final preparations before going live, handling orders in PrestaShop, and how to promote your store and get more customers. Once the money starts to flow, the book looks at the future of e-commerce and your PrestaShop business. Then it discusses how to get to the top of your niche and stay there. And then the big secret: to use the knowledge you have gained to turn a single PrestaShop into a thriving e-commerce empire.

    The Appendix covers a number of worthwhile topics such as a handy PrestaShop control panel reference and various web resources for PrestaShop.

    Start and run your own e-commerce business using PrestaShop

    Approach

    The book is structured so that following the chapters in order leads to building a fully functioning and live trading PrestaShop. Guidance is also given should you wish to learn or practice your skills in an offline, non-trading environment.

    Every chapter contains clearly structured and illustrated step-by-step explanation to achieve the goals discussed. Nothing is left for readers to work out themselves, but it would be very simple for them to use the information to go beyond the specific tutorials, should they wish to do so.

    There is optional additional reading, including more than a dozen specifically written downloadable e-books made available on the book's support website just for readers of PrestaShop 1.3 Beginners Guide.

    Who this book is for

    This book is for anybody who wants a fully functioning e-commerce store using PrestaShop. You do not have to have any previous knowledge of PrestaShop or any aspect of e-commerce or business in general. If you do, then you will probably find this guide really valuable as well. The book covers all you need to know about starting your own e-commerce business.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPackt Publishing
    Release dateJun 14, 2010
    ISBN9781849511155
    PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide

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      Book preview

      PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide - John Horton

      Table of Contents

      PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide

      Credits

      About the Author

      Acknowledgement

      About the Reviewers

      Preface

      Why PrestaShop?

      Simplicity and function

      Stability and progress

      It's cool!

      Open source and OSL are the best!

      Availability

      Cost

      Updates

      Support

      My golden rule of e-commerce

      What this book covers

      John's 7-day challenge

      Installing, configuring, and stocking-up

      Customers, search engines, and customization

      Now and the future

      Who this book is for

      Which hosting environment?

      Option 1: Developing on your own PC

      Option 2: Live hosting accounts

      PrestaShop turn-key hosting

      Get your hosting ready to go

      What happens if I get stuck?

      www.prestashop-book.com

      www.prestashop.com

      www.businessdreams.net

      Help others to help you

      Remember

      Conventions

      Time for action - heading

      What just happened?

      Pop quiz - heading

      Have a go hero - heading

      Reader feedback

      Customer support

      Errata

      Piracy

      Questions

      1. Building Your PrestaShop

      Case studies

      Downloading PrestaShop

      Time for action - transferring files to your web host

      What just happened?

      Making a database

      Time for action - creating a database

      What just happened?

      How to install PrestaShop

      Time for action - the PrestaShop auto-installer

      What just happened?

      Post-install security

      Deleting the install folder

      Time for action - how to delete the install folder

      What just happened?

      Renaming the admin folder

      Time for action - renaming the admin folder

      What just happened?

      Your shop-front explained

      Header

      Column (left & right)

      Main content

      Footer

      Your admin control panel

      Time for action - logging in to your PrestaShop control panel

      What just happened?

      Control panel guided tour

      Have a go hero - hunt the PrestaShop thimble

      Before we continue

      Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 1

      Summary

      2. Shop Fitting and Layout

      Arranging key modules

      Cart block

      Time for action - installing the shopping cart module

      What just happened?

      Categories block

      User info block

      My account block

      Time for action - making a customer account

      What just happened?

      Permanent links block

      Suppliers and manufacturers blocks

      Quick search block

      Footer links block

      Have a go hero - moving the blocks around

      Creating your home page

      What goes on your home page?

      Unique Selling Proposition

      Most important facts or navigation

      Products

      Time for action - how to add your content to your home page

      What just happened?

      Creating the 'must-have' pages

      Delivery

      Legal notice

      Terms and conditions

      About us

      Secure payment

      Time for action - using the content management system

      What just happened?

      Suppliers and manufacturers

      What about suppliers?

      Time for action - defining manufacturers and suppliers

      What just happened?

      Contacting your store

      Contacts

      Time for action - creating departments to contact

      What just happened?

      PrestaShop themes

      Finding themes

      Choosing a great theme

      Installing the themes

      Time for action - installing a PrestaShop theme

      What just happened?

      Pop quiz - themes and things

      Customizing your template

      Important preliminary point

      Moving modules around

      Time for action - moving modules

      What just happened?

      Customizing the default image sizes

      Time for action - changing the default image size

      What just happened?

      PrestaShop templates

      Time for action - creating a new template

      What just happened?

      Editing your CSS file

      Background-color

      Font-size

      Want more?

      Time for action - editing and updating your CSS file

      What just happened?

      Changing graphics

      Buttons and icons

      Themes summary

      The cherry on top

      Time for action - uploading your company/store logo

      What just happened?

      Summary

      3. Merchandising for Success

      Shop categories

      Planning your category structure

      Creating your categories

      Time for action - how to create product categories

      What just happened?

      Creating content for your categories and subcategories

      Time for action - adding category descriptions

      What just happened?

      Adding products

      Product descriptions that sell

      Actually selling the product

      Ask for the sale

      Create some images with GIMP

      Time for action - how to add a product to your PrestaShop

      What just happened?

      Highlighting products

      New products

      Time for action - how to highlight your newest products

      What just happened?

      Specials

      Time for action - creating a special offer

      What just happened?

      Recently viewed

      Best sellers

      Accessories

      Time for action - creating an accessory

      What just happened?

      Features

      Time for action - using PrestaShop's 'Features'

      What just happened?

      Attributes

      Time for action - an attributes example

      What just happened?

      Have a go hero - the combinations generator

      Customizing

      Time for action - allowing your customers to customize

      What just happened?

      Product mania!

      Pop quiz - a few product marketing questions

      Summary

      4. Giving Customers More and Getting More Customers

      SEO: Search Engine Optimization

      Which keywords should we use?

      Discovering the value of keywords

      A keyword success story

      Don't fall off your chair

      Keyword clarification

      Meta tags

      Types of meta tag

      Time for action - PrestaShop meta tags

      What just happened?

      Search aliases

      Choosing aliases

      Time for action - creating the article

      What just happened?

      Tag clouds

      Time for action - creating a tag cloud

      What just happened?

      Search-friendly and canonical URLs

      Search-friendly

      Time for action - how to get search-friendly URLs

      What just happened?

      Canonical

      Time for action - choosing your canonical URL

      What just happened?

      Writing and displaying articles

      Good ideas when writing articles

      Make your articles easy reading

      Think about your audience

      Sell, but sell subtly

      I before e except after c

      Now what?

      Page formatting and keyword density

      How many times should the keywords/phrases be used?

      Quick tips

      Writing Summary

      Using the CMS

      Time for action - creating the article

      What just happened?

      Time for action - displaying the article

      What just happened?

      Have a go hero - article prominence

      I am a robots.txt

      Time for action - creating robots.txt

      What just happened?

      Helping Google with site maps

      Time for action - Google site maps tutorial

      What just happened?

      PrestaShop search weightings

      Speaking to new audiences

      Switching languages

      Time for action - enabling a second language

      What just happened?

      Creating translations

      Time for action - translating product descriptions

      What just happened?

      A quick alternative to all of the above

      Time for action - translating your whole website

      What just happened?

      Languages conclusion

      Pop quiz - PrestaShop search

      Summary

      5. Tools, Newsletters, Extra Income, and Statistics

      Exploring the Preferences and Tools tabs

      Useful Preferences

      PS directory

      Terms of service

      Cart re-display at login

      Timezone

      Contact

      Meta-Tags

      Products

      Price display

      Minimum purchase total

      Number of days the product is considered new

      Products per page

      Default order by

      Default order way

      Images options

      Email

      Image

      Localization

      Database

      Top tools

      Tabs

      Time for action - customizing your tabs

      What just happened?

      Quick accesses

      Time for action - creating a Quick Access

      What just happened?

      Pop quiz - Tools and Preferences challenge

      E-mail marketing with newsletters

      Most people don't buy!

      Why?

      The stages of e-mail marketing

      Setting up the newsletter module

      Time for action - the newsletter module

      What just happened?

      Switching on product notifications

      Time for action - product notifications

      What just happened?

      Building a big list of subscribers

      Advertising your newsletter

      Compelling content

      Incentives

      What to give away

      Offering more via e-mail

      Creating newsletters

      Product Information

      Genuine news

      Company announcements

      Designing your newsletters

      Sending newsletters

      A quick word about spam

      Using a PrestaShop module to send newsletters

      Using your web host to send newsletters

      A dedicated e-mail service provider to send newsletters

      A free e-mail system to send newsletters

      Getting your subscriber list

      Time for action - accessing your e-mail list

      What just happened?

      Extra revenue with Google AdSense

      Creating the Google AdSense code

      Time for action - creating the Google code

      What just happened?

      Setting up Google AdSense in PrestaShop

      Time for action - installing Google AdSense

      What just happened?

      Setting up PrestaShop statistics

      Graph and grid engines

      Statistics modules

      Time for action - setting up statistics engines and modules

      What just happened?

      Exploring the statistics options

      Visitors online

      Pages not found

      Search engine keywords

      Best categories

      Best customers

      Best products

      Best suppliers

      Best vouchers

      Carrier distribution

      Catalog statistics

      Software

      Geolocation

      Newsletter

      Visitors origin

      Registered customer info

      Product details

      Customer accounts

      Sales and orders

      Shop search

      Visits and visitors

      Installing Google Analytics

      Getting a Google Analytics account

      Have a go hero - doing more with the thing

      Time for action - installing Google Analytics

      What just happened?

      Using Google Analytics

      Summary

      6. Security and Disaster Recovery

      Types of attack

      Common sense issues

      Brute force

      SQL injection attack

      Cross-site scripting

      User error

      Employees and user security

      Time for action - creating users

      What just happened?

      Profiles

      Time for action - creating profiles

      What just happened?

      Permissions

      Permissions and their levels

      Time for action - configuring permissions to profiles

      What just happened?

      Pop quiz - security

      SSL—Secure Sockets Layer

      Shared SSL, dedicated SSL, or no SSL

      Setting up SSL in PrestaShop

      Time for action - setting up SSL in PrestaShop

      What just happened?

      Making a copy of your store

      Introducing the backup process

      Frequency

      Backing up your database

      Time for action - backing up your database

      What just happened?

      Backing up your files

      Time for action - backing up your files

      What just happened?

      Using your copy

      Restoring the database

      Time for action - how to restore the database

      What just happened?

      Restoring the files

      Time for action - how to restore your files

      What just happened?

      Assessing what went wrong

      Have a go hero - securing your newly restored shop

      Upgrading PrestaShop

      Time for action - how to upgrade PrestaShop

      What just happened?

      Have a go hero - keeping your store live while upgrading

      This chapter in a nutshell

      Summary

      7. Checkouts and Shipping

      Introduction

      Which payment provider should I use?

      Merchant accounts

      PayPal or Google Checkout

      SSL requirements

      Cost

      Getting your money

      Flexibility

      Chargebacks

      Friendliness

      Conclusion

      Have a go hero - turning a negative into a positive

      Using PayPal

      PayPal account

      Setting up your PayPal checkout

      Time for action - installing the PayPal module

      What just happened?

      Using Google Checkout

      Google Checkout account

      Installing the checkout

      Time for action - how to set up Google Checkout payments

      What just happened?

      Other payment methods

      Cheque

      Cash on delivery

      Bank wire

      Sales taxes

      Time for action - setting up PrestaShop to handle sales tax

      What just happened?

      Currencies

      Adding a currency

      Time for action - adding a currency

      What just happened?

      Setting currency rates

      Time for action - setting a currency rate

      What just happened?

      Auto exchange rate updates

      Vouchers

      Creating a voucher

      Time for action - creating a voucher

      What just happened?

      Giving the vouchers to your customer

      Shipping options

      Super-simple shipping configuration options

      Common shipping scenarios

      Shipping calculated by sale value

      Time for action - configuring shipping by sale value

      What just happened?

      Configuring shipping by weight

      Time for action - how to configure shipping by weight

      What just happened?

      Shipping configuration in depth

      Gift wrapping and recycled packaging

      Time for action - setting up gift wrapping and recycled packaging options

      What just happened?

      Pop quiz - a refresher

      Your PrestaShop so far

      Summary

      8. Get Set…

      Creating an account and placing an order

      Time for action - creating an account and placing an order

      What just happened?

      Repeat business with customer loyalty scheme

      Time for action - setting up your loyalty scheme

      What just happened?

      Getting some product comments

      All about comments

      How to get some product comments

      Time for action - getting some feedback for your products

      What just happened?

      Putting a discount voucher on the front page

      Creating the voucher (reminder)

      Showcasing the voucher

      Time for action - putting your voucher on the home page

      What just happened?

      Registering with the search engines

      Registering

      Time for action - registering with the search engines

      What just happened?

      Marketing your site

      Posting in forums

      Finding the forums

      How to write good posts

      Write at your skill level

      Criticism

      Don't shamelessly promote yourself

      Creating forum signatures and profiles

      Forum marketing conclusion

      Promoting your store using social media

      Twitter

      Branding your profile

      Following others

      A lightning guide to tweeting

      Regular tweets

      What's your frequency Kenneth?

      Broadcasting

      Humour

      Questions

      Achievements and events

      Replying and re-tweeting

      Sales tweets

      Twitter summary

      Facebook

      Avoid spamming

      Start a group

      Start an event

      Start a page

      Social media conclusion

      Google AdWords

      Setting up a campaign

      Time for action - Google AdWords made quick and simple

      What just happened?

      Have a go hero - optimizing for Google AdWords

      Handling orders and checking payments

      Creating order messages

      Time for action - creating messages

      What just happened?

      Statuses

      Time for action - Statuses

      What just happened?

      Checking Payments

      Processing an order

      Time for action - how to process an order

      What just happened?

      More about the Customers and Orders tabs

      Groups

      Time for action - creating and using groups

      What just happened?

      Customers

      Carts

      Invoices

      Time for action - Invoices

      What just happened?

      Merchandise return

      Pop quiz - refresher questions

      Summary

      9. Go… To the Future

      Why are we here?

      The power of e-commerce and a passive income

      The busy billionaire

      Perpetual analyzing, improvement, and marketing

      Analyzing statistics

      PrestaShop statistics

      Pages not found

      Best products, best categories, and catalog statistics

      Shop search

      PrestaShop statistics summary

      Google Analytics

      Visitors

      Traffic sources

      Content

      Google Analytics summary

      Improvement

      Optimizing your articles, product descriptions, and category descriptions

      Optimizing your AdWords campaign

      Time for action - optimizing Google AdWords

      What just happened?

      Adding new articles

      Marketing

      Devising a routine and sticking to it

      Time for action - making a plan

      What just happened?

      The big secret

      High street retail

      Duplication

      Look at it like this

      An analogy to explain

      What about all these corner shops?

      Technical duplication tips

      Varying your payment provider

      Varying your web host

      Varying your content

      Vary your cart software

      Try something totally new

      Have a go hero - John's 24-hour challenge

      The future of e-commerce and PrestaShop

      Pop quiz - questions about Chapter 9

      Picture this

      Summary

      A. Control Panel Quick Reference

      Catalog

      Tracking

      Manufacturers

      Suppliers

      Attributes and groups

      Features

      Image mapping

      Tags

      Attachments

      Customers

      Addresses

      Groups

      Carts

      Orders

      Invoices

      Delivery slips

      Merchandise return

      Credit slips

      Customer messages

      Statuses

      Order messages

      Payment

      Currencies

      Taxes

      Vouchers

      Shipping

      Carriers

      States

      Countries

      Zones

      Price ranges

      Weight ranges

      Stats

      Modules

      Settings

      Search engines

      Referrers

      Modules

      Positions

      Employees

      Profiles

      Permissions

      Contacts

      Preferences

      Contact

      Appearance

      Meta-Tags

      Products

      Email

      Image

      Database

      PDF

      Localization

      Search

      Tools

      Languages

      Translations

      Tabs

      Quick Accesses

      Aliases

      Import

      Subdomains

      DB backup

      CMS

      Generators

      B. Web Resources

      PrestaShop related

      Sales and marketing

      Technical

      Resources

      Other shopping carts and content management systems

      Other

      C. Pop quiz - Answers

      Chapter 1

      A few questions about Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Themes and things

      Chapter 3

      A few product marketing questions

      Chapter 4

      PrestaShop search

      Chapter 5

      Tools and Preferences challenge

      Chapter 6

      Security

      Chapter 7

      A few product marketing questions

      Chapter 8

      Refresher questions

      Chapter 9

      Questions about Chapter 9

      Index

      PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide

      PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide

      Copyright © 2010 Packt Publishing

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

      Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

      Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

      First published: June 2010

      Production Reference: 1080610

      Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

      ISBN 978-1-849511-14-8

      www.packtpub.com

      Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar ( <vinayak.chittar@gmail.com> )

      Credits

      Author

      John Horton

      Reviewers

      Tomer Grassiany

      Ardian Yuli Setyanto

      Acquisition Editor

      Dilip Venkatesh

      Development Editor

      Tarun Singh

      Technical Editors

      Shadab Khan

      Hithesh Uchil

      Copy Editor

      Lakshmi Menon

      Indexer

      Hemangini Bari

      Editorial Team Leader

      Akshara Aware

      Project Team Leader

      Lata Basantani

      Project Coordinator

      Shubhanjan Chatterjee

      Proofreader

      Aaron Nash

      Production Coordinator

      Shantanu Zagade

      Cover Work

      Shantanu Zagade

      About the Author

      John Horton comes from a retail sales background where he learned the importance of selling, rather than the mere passive offering of a product or service. By 2005 he was disillusioned with the greedy, integrity-lacking, low-reward, corporate world, and was looking for a way to earn a living without the grind of the 9 to 5 and without having to sell his soul. He decided to investigate an e-commerce venture.

      John started his first e-commerce website in 2005. Although only a modest success initially, it was the seed of a eureka moment, a blindingly obvious moment that comes only once in a lifetime. If you can start and run a business with virtually no costs (one that once up and running, has virtually no ongoing time commitment), why not make lots of businesses around the same idea?

      John now has numerous e-commerce sites as well as other types of web businesses, earning revenue in different ways. John's latest venture is a product comparison website with a unique slant.

      It is the low-time commitment model of John's businesses that has allowed him to write books aimed at helping others who want to achieve the same thing. He has published training manuals and books with other publishers on the same subject area and this is his first book for Packt. He is an avid fan of all things open source.

      John has no formal, technical, or programming background, had no relevant previous business experience, no related educational qualifications, has never borrowed startup capital, is of average intelligence at best, does not have the gift of the gab or any other magical quality, is not especially lucky and would sincerely like to point out that it doesn't matter if you are in the same situation as him!

      John works from home and spends his spare time with his family, Jo, Jack, and James, in Norwich, UK and pursues his hobbies of running, computer gaming, and reading.

      Acknowledgement

      To Jack for being such a wonderful son. I am so proud of you. James for being the loveliest little fellow anybody could wish to know. Jo, whom I love so much, for accepting me and my mad ideas and for your love. Ray for being someone I admire so highly and Rita as well. Olivia and Casey for being the prettiest girls, bar none, and Stan for being a great dad to them. And also to my newly found friend Mary Patel.

      Sylvia for actually wanting a copy of my crazy ramblings and the first person in the whole world (and probably the last) to ask for my autograph.

      A big thanks to all the people at Packt who made this a better book than I could ever have done on my own. A big thanks to the technical reviewers, Tomer Grassiany in New York and Ardian Yuli Setyanto, for pointing out improvements and blunders.

      Also worth a mention: Higgsy, John (eboy) Barton, and Peter EggbuttNoBacon for being my friends. David Swinnerton for being a friend, doing my math homework and completing Bounty Bob Strikes Back. A long overdue thanks to the Ebbutt family for putting up with me and letting me in their house so often, especially when mine was empty. And to Chris, I sincerely apologize about the loft, bucket, shower thing—it was Pete’s idea!

      And mostly to those whose memory has inspired me all my life, especially this last year, who will sadly never read the next sentence. To Valerie and Ann, I dedicate this book.

      About the Reviewers

      Tomer Grassiany, born in Israel, has been interested in computer science since an early age. His serious work in computers and computer networks began during his high school years in Israel. Prior to coming to the U.S. at the age of 19, he administered networks at two Israeli computer animation schools.

      As Chief Technology Officer and later Chief Software Architect of Meaningful Machines, a New York-based company, Tomer was in charge of research and development, including bringing the inventors' ideas to life. His focus was on the company's new and sometimes experimental applications. From 1999 to 2007, Tomer developed applications that brought the company's new technologies from concept to reality in the fields of Machine Translation, Data Mining, and Artificial Intelligence. During this time, he worked closely on machine translation with Professor Jaime Carbonell, the Allen Newell Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.

      Tomer went on to found COMET Classifieds in 2007. The leading classifieds website in COMET's portfolio is TennisLessons.com, which has coaches listed in over 400 cities across 40 countries. Helping to connect over 30,000 students and coaches every month, it has become the most popular website for finding tennis lessons.

      Tomer has been working since the start of 2009 doing custom PrestaShop projects for new and existing shops worldwide. He is also a PrestaShop Moderator on the English and Hebrew forums.

      Tomer's newest venture is Presto-Changeo.com. Created in 2009, the website offers his PrestaShop modules and provides tips on how to troubleshoot and customize PrestaShop. His modules help shops to create a better experience for their customers, and increase productivity and sales.

      I would like to acknowledge my parents, Dalia and Telo Grassiany, who supported and backed me throughout my life, and Eli Abir, who taught me a lot and always believed in me and my abilities.

      Ardian Yuli Setyanto is a 22-year-old website developer from Indonesia and currently specializes in PrestaShop module and theme creation. He also moderates the PrestaShop local forum for Indonesian users.

      Being a freelancer and a householder for a year has been a wonderful experience for him and he thanks his wife, Niela Pratamasari, for always supporting him.

      You can get an update on PrestaShop tutorials and modifications on Ardian's blog (http://ardianys.com/) and follow him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ardianys). His opinion about PrestaShop: Although currently PrestaShop lacks in documentation, I have already found the great PrestaShop documentation in its source code.

      Preface

      PrestaShop is a hidden gem. There are many, much more widely known online shopping cart solutions but none of them have anything like the number of features, the potential, and the ease-of-use that this OSL-licensed, completely free-to-use system has. PrestaShop is definitely a very big part of the future of e-commerce!

      This book is called a 'beginner's guide' only because that is where it starts! Using both realistic and unusual case studies throughout, PrestaShop 1.3 Beginner's Guide will take you on a click-by-click, yet whirlwind journey to the realization of a fully featured, highly professional e-commerce business.

      And then a bit further!

      To make sure you are ready to sprint off the starting blocks let's talk about:

      Why PrestaShop?

      Open source and OSL licenses

      The order of events

      Which hosting environment?

      What if I get stuck?

      So let's get on with it...

      Why PrestaShop?

      I have already enthusiastically introduced PrestaShop. But there is so much to PrestaShop that the only way to really grasp its innovation is to open a shop and make money with it, which we will do really soon! First, here are some of the ways that PrestaShop stands out from the crowd.

      Simplicity and function

      There are dozens of shopping cart solutions to choose from. But with my hand on my heart I can say that NONE are so damn easy to use! Every feature has a clearly labeled button or tab. And some of the previously most frustrating tasks like product attributes, customization, and statistics, are now, thanks to PrestaShop, a breeze. And PrestaShop achieves this simplicity without cutting back on options. To get anywhere near the advanced options available (as standard in PrestaShop when using other carts) you will need to install add-ons, upgrades, and even mess with the PHP code that makes the software. Yuck!

      Stability and progress

      PrestaShop is stable as a table! It is highly unlikely to crash on you or your customers. It doesn't lose their shopping cart or fail to find searched-for products.

      And it is getting better all the time. The development team at PrestaShop is working on new features and bug fixes, probably even as you read these words. So often when a shopping cart reaches a certain stage of development, the team sits

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