PrestaShop 1.5 Beginners Guide

Table of Contents

PrestaShop 1.5 Beginner's Guide

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Time for action – heading

What just happened?

Pop quiz – heading

Have a go hero – heading

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Getting Started

Know your business

Downloading PrestaShop

Technical requirements

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

Your shop-back explained

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. Back Office

Dashboard

Catalog

Orders

Customers

Price rules

Shipping and localization

Modules

Arranging key modules

Cart block

Time for action – installing the shopping cart module

What just happened?

What goes on your home page?

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

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

What just happened?

Secure payment

Time for action – using the content management system

What just happened?

Moving modules around

Time for action – moving modules

What just happened?

Preferences

Time for action – changing the default image size

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

Time for action – creating a new template

What just happened?

Editing your CSS file

Background color

Font size

Themes summary

Time for action – uploading your company/store logo

What just happened?

Advanced parameters and administration

Time for action – making a customer account

What just happened?

Permanent links block

Stats

Creating the must have pages

Delivery

Legal notice

Terms and conditions

About us

Contacting your store

Contacts

Time for action – creating departments to contact

What just happened?

Multistore feature

Downloadable products

Are you an existing user of osCommerce? Let’s import it to PrestaShop

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 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. Getting More Customers

SEO: Search Engine Optimization

Which keywords should we use?

Discovering the value of keywords

Meta tags

Types of meta tags

Time for action – PrestaShop meta tags

What just happened?

Tag clouds

Time for action – creating a tag cloud

What just happened?

Friendly URLs

Time for action – how to get search-friendly URLs

What just happened?

Canonical URLs

Time for action – choosing your canonical URL

What just happened?

Writing and displaying articles

Good ideas when writing articles

Make your articles easy to read

Think about your audience

Sell, but sell subtly

Page formatting and keyword density

How many times should the keywords/phrases be used?

Quick tips

Writing the summary

Using the CMS

Time for action – creating the article

What just happened?

robots.txt

Time for action – creating robots.txt

What just happened?

Helping Google with sitemaps

Time for action – Google sitemaps tutorial

What just happened?

PrestaShop search weightings

Switching languages

Time for action – enabling a second language

What just happened?

Creating translations

Time for action – translating product descriptions

What just happened?

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 tab

Useful preferences

General

Orders

Cart redisplay at login

Store contacts

E-mail

Image

Localization

Maintenance

Administration

Menus

Time for action – customizing your tabs

What just happened?

Quick access

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?

Powerful newsletter modules

Building a big list of subscribers

Understanding what a newsletter is

Incentives

What to give away

Offering more via e-mail

Creating newsletters

Product information

Genuine news

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?

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

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 attacks

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 – restoring 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

Handling payments

Which payment provider should I use?

Merchant accounts

PayPal, Google Checkout, bank wire, or cash on delivery?

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

Installing the checkout

Time for action – how to set up Google Checkout payments

What just happened?

Cheque

Cash on delivery

Bank wire

Sales taxes

Time for action – setting up PrestaShop to handle sales tax

What just happened?

One page checkout

Guest checkout

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. Ready to Sell

Creating an account and placing an order

Time for action – creating an account and placing an order

What just happened?

Repeat business with a 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 up 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

How to write good posts

Write at your skill level

Social share buttons

Criticism

Don't shamelessly promote yourself

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

Humor

Questions

Achievements and events

Replying and retweeting

Sales tweets

Twitter summary

Facebook

Avoid spamming

Start a group

Start an event

Start a page

Social media conclusion

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 returns

Pop quiz – Sell your products

Summary

9. Go… to the Future

Why are we here?

The power of e-commerce and a passive income

The busy billionaire

Learning from competitors

Perpetual analysis, improvement, and marketing

Analyzing statistics

PrestaShop statistics

Pages not found

Best products, best categories, and catalog statistics

Shop search

PrestaShop statistics summary

Google Analytics

Audience

Traffic sources

Content

Google Analytics summary

Improvement

Optimizing your articles, product descriptions, and category descriptions

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

Varying your cart software

Try something totally new

The future of e-commerce and PrestaShop

Pop quiz – become an e-commerce expert

Picture this

Summary

A. Control Panel Quick Reference

Catalog

Products

Categories

Monitoring

Attributes and Values

Features

Suppliers

Image Mapping

Tags

Attachments

Orders

Customers

Price Rules

Cart Rules

Catalog Price Rules

Shipping

Localization

Modules

Modules & Themes Catalog

Positions

Payment

Preferences

Advanced Parameters

Administration

Stats

B. Web Resources

PrestaShop related resources

Sales and marketing

Technical

Resources

Other shopping carts and content management systems

Other

Pop Quiz Answers

Chapter 1, Getting Started

Pop quiz – starting your e-commerce

Chapter 2, Back Office

Pop quiz – themes and things

Chapter 3, Merchandising for Success

Pop quiz – a few product marketing questions

Chapter 4, Getting More Customers

Pop quiz – PrestaShop search

Chapter 5, Tools, Newsletters, Extra Income, and Statistics

Pop quiz – tools and preferences challenge

Chapter 6, Security and Disaster Recovery

Pop quiz – security

Chapter 7, Checkouts and Shipping

Pop quiz – a refresher

Chapter 8, Ready to Sell

Pop quiz – sell your products

Chapter 9, Go… to the Future

Pop quiz – become an e-commerce expert

Index

PrestaShop 1.5 Beginner's Guide

PrestaShop 1.5 Beginner's Guide

Copyright © 2013 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

Second Edition: April 2013

Production Reference: 1120413

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78216-106-6

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Asher Wishkerman (<wishkerman@hotmail.com>)

Credits

Authors

Jose A. Tizon

John Horton

Reviewers

Bart Sallé

Bryan Shaw

Acquisition Editor

Andrew Duckworth

Lead Technical Editor

Susmita Panda

Technical Editors

Saumya Kunder

Ishita Malhi

Project Coordinator

Anugya Khurana

Proofreader

Samantha Lyon

Indexer

Tejal R. Soni

Production Coordinator

Pooja Chiplunkar

Cover Work

Pooja Chiplunkar

About the Authors

Jose A. Tizon studied computer engineering at the University of Huelva and Czech Technical University in Prague.

He started developing websites as a hobby in the year 2000. It then became a profession, as he is now a Software Development Engineer at Amazon.

In this way, he has developed e-commerce websites for small and big companies in Spain, Czech Republic, and the UK, finding a new experience in every single one.

Jose spends his spare time with his love, Yolanda, and in developing new ideas.

Yolanda, for standing me every day and not getting angry when I spend so much time developing some of my ideas. I love you! Mua.

My parents Antonio and Paqui; brother, Francisco; and my dog, Simba who give me all the support in the world and inspire me.

Ivan (Kaly), for being himself, and friends from Huelva and Prague, who were with me in every significant moment of my life.

Cesar Mariel, for pushing me in the startup world.

The open source community, because without them, this world would be completely different.

And of course, you, for reading this!

John Horton is a fan of most things digital and particularly enjoys the growing mobile industry. He has published books, apps, and websites.

He spends his working hours helping people make a success out of their web/ e-commerce enterprises through his design business, www.HadronWebDesign.com.

He is encouraging the pursuit of mathematics through the free Android app, MathLegends. www.MathLegends.com.

In his spare time, he likes shooting Zombies with his two sons.

To the other author, who must take the credit for this book!

About the Reviewers

Bart Sallé is a web developer from the Netherlands specializing in HTML5, CSS3, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and jQuery.

He loves open source software and works with TYPO3, WordPress, Joomla!, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, osCommerce, and VirtueMart.

Bart Sallé was one of the first people in the Netherlands who started building his webshops using PrestaShop as a base.

He is still as excited about PrestaShop now as he was back when the first stable version of PrestaShop was released.

His company website can be found at www.os-evolution.com.

His personal website can be found at www.bartsalle.nl.

I would like to acknowledge Jolanda, my wife, and my beautiful kids, Noa and Fenne.

I would also like to acknowledge my mother Lies, and my father Theo, who passed away in January this year.

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Preface

If you want to start your e-commerce business but are not so much of a technical person, then PrestaShop could be your solution because it is an easy, open source, and free-for-use software that helps sell your products over the Internet.

PrestaShop is a live software, due for an open source license; there is a big community developing new features and fixing bugs very fast.

This book is called a beginner's guide only because that is where it starts! Using both realistic and unusual case studies throughout, PrestaShop 1.5 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.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started, covers how to download and prepare the PrestaShop files, make a database, install PrestaShop, and implement post-installation security.

Chapter 2, Back Office, helps you with setting the shape of your store, including the logo. We will set up your home page, make some more key pages such as Contact us and Conditions of use, and change and customize themes.