What is PrestaShop?

PrestaShop is an online platform that allows users to create an e-commerce presence, enabling them to sell products and services through the web to an online audience. Business owners looking to move their company online can use PrestaShop to build their website.

PrestaShop is also an open source e-commerce platform, just like WooCommerce, meaning the original source code of the software has been made publicly available. This means that users can customise the software for their individual requirements and can continually improve and update what’s on offer. The software is written in the PHP programming language and is published under the Open Software License.

PrestaShop is a hugely popular e-comm solution, with over 30,000 companies using the platform worldwide in 60 different languages. The company was launched in 2007 and is headquartered in Paris, but has now grown into a multi-national business. PrestaShop states that their mission is ‘to develop a world-class e-commerce software through open source innovation.’

For your PrestaShop shop, you can select a trustworthy cloud package from a trustworthy cloud hosting company. While there are several cloud service providers, it is important to choose a reputable and genuine cloud solution for your company.

Why choose PrestaShop?

PrestaShop is an ideal solution for users who have a little technical experience, or who have the help of a developer to get started. This is because the open source nature of the programme allows a huge amount of flexibility and personalisation. Users can programme extra modules and features and arrange components to make unique solutions for themselves and their business type. There are also 3,000 different features and 2,000 designs to choose from, so the scope for customisation is enormous.

If you’re still unsure about whether PrestaShop is for you, there’s also a demo version you can try. This is a huge bonus for potential PrestaShop customers, giving you the chance to explore the platform, view the features and get used to the software before committing.

Additionally, the amount of support on offer from PrestaShop is really encouraging to see from an e-commerce platform. The company offers training for both new merchants and developers, so you can attend classes, either in person or online, to get to grips with the software. Plus, they have very active forums where users can discuss updates and new features, and also share tips and tricks with the community. Even better, by purchasing the SumUp payment integration, customers automatically get 3 months of support for the integration. This means that for 90 days after purchase, you can enjoy technical and feature support, as well as access to updates available for the product.

What’s more, the platform is free to download and use, making it pretty cost-effective. However, you do need to pay for the hosting of your e-commerce site and for some of the additional modules you’d like to use to customise it.

Advantages of Cloud Server

There is more scalability you will be able to add more servers in moment’s notice.

Clients will be able to add the custom network architecture, firewalls, load balancing and IP deployment.

There is high availability in a cloud server if one of the physical server fails cloud servers are migrated to another physical server without experiencing any type of outage.

Cloud is completely secure since you will be having your own server virtually. If the client on the shared cloud gets hacked or gets a virus, then the cloud server will be completely separated with a no risk to the data.

Here each of the customers on the cloud will be able to select their specific operating system.

Unlimited storage is provided in a cloud server.

Some of the things to be remembered while managing an eCommerce website are as follows:

• Down-time Might Be Expensive: If your website is going through a downtime because of poor server performance, it might cost your business a lot and prove fatal. During such down-times, your business might have lost plenty of leads. If you wish to avoid such losses, it’s vital to opt for a reliable and secure environment to run the site and choose a dedicated server.
• Your E-commerce Business Generates Revenue: If your e-commerce business is the main revenue source, down-times can pose a risk to revenues, and credibility of your online store. So, consider this factor very carefully. Imagine if a potential customer is unable to browse through your product collection just because of slow performance and he just opts not to shop from you. This will directly have an adverse effect on your business.
• Your Website Experiences Peak Hours Sometimes: If your website experiences huge traffic flow occasionally, you must go for a dedicated server. This again applies to e-commerce businesses that get lots of traffic when discounts are announced and during festivals.
• Your Business Needs Exceptional Hosting Features: Consider this factor well in advance before opting for hosting. If you need special hosting features such as extra backup, additional redundancy, server software, and high server specifications, a dedicated server is the best bet as ordinary hosting servers might not be able to offer such features. Since dedicated servers are exclusively designed for individual business, such advanced features can easily be incorporated.