Today, we are pleased to celebrate PrestaShop’s 5th birthday! It has been a long time since we first opened our doors on May 10, 2007. Just five years later, more than 120,000 active stores worldwide are selling online using our solution!
With the help of our Community, we have come a long way since Bruno Lévêque and Igor Schlumberger decided to offer a new Open-source e-commerce solution to the world.
Check out below for some fun information about where this journey has taken us over the last five years.
Thank you to everyone who has helped us make PrestaShop the world’s fastest growing e-commerce solution!
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Category Archives: prestashop
May
10
2012
Jan
13
2012
With more than 100,000 stores throughout the world, PrestaShop, created 4 years ago, is now Europe’s no.1 e-commerce solution! At the beginning of 2012, we reviewed our solution, and we are sharing this with you in graphics… everything you need to know about PrestaShop is in this infography.
Nov
10
2008
The long-awaited version 1.1 of the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution—now available as a beta release—features many new functions and fixes. Here’s an incomplete list of what to expect:
New features
Back Office
General
- Complete statistics system (PrestaShop Statistics™)
- Import via .CSV file (rebuilt feature)
- Improved billing system (numbering and invoice names)
- Faster TinyMCE thanks to PHP Compressor
- Check on your shop using your IP address even if the shop is in maintenance mode
- Create a voucher valid for one or several specific categories
- Deactivate a module without having to uninstall it
- Send vouchers to customers on their birthdays
- Improved payment-module system (filter by currency, zones, etc.)
- Search for product by reference #
- Search for an order by cart ID
Products
- Enter the location of a product (e.g., “warehouse”) on the product page
- Enter the wholesale price for a specific product model/attribute combination
Orders
- Create a voucher for each order
- Manage pre-defined messages for your customers
- Reimburse shipping costs
- Display total weight of the order in the order summary
Front Office
General
- Create wishlists
- Loyalty program
- Simple CMS manager for static pages (Terms and Conditions, Legal Mentions, etc.)
- Meta-tag organizer for all site pages
Cart
- Display the last product added
- Display the amount left to buy in order to earn free shipping
Categories
- Add image maps in order to highlight certain products
Produits
- Customer-customized products (images, text)
- Customer reviews
- Watermarks on photos
- Improved item-availability messages
- Improved friendly URL that includes the product’s category (e.g., /category/24-product.html)
Documentation
- Physical model of the database (MPD) using MySQL Workbench
Bug fixes and updates
Incidentally, many bugs were fixed on the Paypal module thanks to the user community. 
Updated tools: jQuery, TinyMCE, FPDP
On the way toward PrestaShop v1.1 final
We have decided to alter our naming scheme for our versions. From now on, pre-stable releases will be called “beta” releases and no longer “release candidates/RCs”. Either way, you should not be using these versions for live shops.
We are counting on your help as we finalize this version 1.1 in order to quickly make it available to the general public!
Sep
18
2008
If you will be attending the 5th Annual e-Commerce Convention in Paris next week from September 23-25, 2008, be sure to stop by the PrestaShop stand to say, "Bonjour!"
Bruno (PrestaShop CEO) and Peter (PrestaShop Director of Communications), along with several of our developers and graphic designers, will be on hand at stand # G 75 to answer your questions about how to use the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution in order to create your professional online store. Whether you are an e-Commerce novice starting from scratch or an e-Commerce expert looking to migrate an existing site to the PrestaShop platform, we will be glad to help you get up and running.
On Wednesday, September 24 at 3:45 PM, Bruno and Igor (PrestaShop President) will lead an hour-long seminar, in French, entitled "Open Source Solutions: How to create your online store for free". Topics to be discussed include the open-source software business model and the history and major players of the open-source e-Commerce software industry. One of our pro customers, Gr
Aug
18
2008
Good news! According to Alexa.com, PrestaShop is currently among the leaders of open source e-Commerce software in terms of page views to its Website:
Also, the overall "reach" of PrestaShop appears to have doubled over the past three months:
Traffic rankings can vary widely, of course, so such statistics should be taken with a grain of salt. But there is little doubt that more people are hearing about the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution and using it as their shopping-cart platform.
This bump is due in large part to our enthusiastic users who have been opening stores using PrestaShop software, posting messages on blogs and forums across the Web, and via that ancient but most valuable PR technique known as ‘word of mouth’.
You may be wondering: why should our users care about traffic rankings and product buzz for a free open-source solution? Because more people using PrestaShop begets more feedback and participation in the PrestaShop community, which in turn help PrestaShop evolve more quickly to become the best solution for all your e-Commerce needs.
So, a big merci to everyone for helping us spread the word!
Aug
13
2008
Now that we’ve released the first stable, production-ready version of PrestaShop, we don’t have time to just lean back with a refreshing summer drink and count the downloads (over 18,000 in the first week). There’s simply too much work to do.
Within the next month or so, we’ll be unveiling our new one-stop hosting service, a new POS software, and of course a new version of PrestaShop. (See this post for a peek at which features to expect in PrestaShop v1.1.)
In the meantime, we’re putting the finishing touches on some new pro Web stores, handling bugs and feature requests on our new Bug Tracker tool (which has quickly become one of the most-visited pages on our Website), preparing major additions to our documentation Wiki (including step-by-step tutorials, a Developer’s Guide, a System Administrator Guide, and a Theme Guide), and putting together partnership and affiliation programs that will help make the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution more accessible to everyone the world over.
Oh, and we’ve also started preparing for two big e-Commerce expos: E-Commerce Paris 2008 in late September, and the VAD Show in Lille, France, in early October. If you’ll be attending either one of these expos, please let us know, or just stop by and say, "Hi"!
Aug
01
2008
Everyone at PrestaShop is excited and not a little relieved to see v1.0 stable finally see the light of day. It’s not easy building professional-grade software from scratch, as any developer will tell you.
Many of our developers will now take some well-deserved time off to live their lives and recharge their batteries. They’re tired of fixing bugs and are looking forward to spending more developing new features for PrestaShop. PrestaShop v1.1 is already in development and the goal is to release it in September.
Speaking of bugs, be sure make good use of our new Bug Tracker tool that debuts today. Anyone can report a bug or request a new feature; however, we do require that all bug reports and feature requests be written in English.
Below is a copy of the press release that will hit the wires on Monday. Have a great weekend!
Paris, France (PRWEB) August 4, 2008–PrestaShop, a leader in open-source e-Commerce, announced today the release of its first official stable version, 1.0, as well as the unveiling of its newly redesigned Website, PrestaShop.com.
Development began nearly two years ago, and today, a dozen beta releases later, the PrestaShop™ e-Commerce Solution v1.0 makes its debut as mature, production-ready, shopping-cart software for the Web 2.0 era.
Why PrestaShop?
In order to reach the increasing number of online shoppers, business owners have been searching for the best system for extending their activity to the Internet.
"The first generation of e-Commerce software, still prevalent in today’s market, was based on the traditional ‘proprietary’ software model," said Bruno Lévêque, PrestaShop CEO. "This is software created by a staff of developers that is sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars and, often, requires monthly payments. Only the software company has access to the source code, so fixes and improvements can only be made by its developers, who sometimes struggle to keep up with user requests.
"PrestaShop, on the other hand, is a committed member of the open-source software movement. Anyone can download PrestaShop software, and a growing number of people do–at a rate of more than 25,000 downloads per month. This world-wide user community helps our developers fix bugs and make feature improvements at a rapid rate.
"And, like other open-source e-Commerce applications such as osCommerce, PrestaShop is free. Its license (OSL 3.0) is one of the least restrictive. And users aren’t even required to register first."
A professional Open-Source solution
Some small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) cast a wary eye upon open-source software, concerned that it is too complicated to use or not sophisticated enough to handle their business needs, or both.
Igor Schlumberger, President of PrestaShop, said that while this hesitation is understandable, the PrestaShop™ e-Commerce Solution is as powerful as it is user-friendly, for both shoppers and shop owners.
"Businesses love PrestaShop because it’s easy to manage their online stores," said Schlumberger. "Customers love PrestaShop because its smooth, Web-2.0 interface is pleasant to shop on. And software developers love PrestaShop because it’s easy to integrate and because the user community is very active and helpful–for example, PrestaShop users have already translated PrestaShop into over 20 different languages, and it’s only at version 1.0."
Scalable and modular
The PrestaShop™ e-Commerce Solution was built to grow as your business grows. Thanks to its admin tool (Back Office), it is easy to customize PrestaShop by adding or deleting functionality according to your needs. Developers appreciate the uncluttered framework and clean PrestaShop code.
Light and fast
Despite its technical sophistication, PrestaShop is very light (around 5.5 MB), it’s easy to install and update, and even customers with slow connection speeds will enjoy buying from you.
Sleek and intuitive interface
On the Web, look-and-feel is make-or-break. PrestaShop not only looks good, it also guides users through your product catalog intelligently and effortlessly, turning visitors into customers.
Sophisticated features and tools
PrestaShop is as robust as most commercial e-Commerce software. Customers enjoy such features as price reductions, gift vouchers, free-shipping minimums, recommended accessories, quantity discounts, and the chance to order out-of-stock items. On the back end, store owners control an unlimited number of products, currencies, tax settings, shipping options, and languages. (For a list of current and upcoming features, visit the PrestaShop Features page.)
Assistance for shop owners
For users looking to get more out of their online businesses, PrestaShop also offers custom-built solutions by adapting the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution to their specific needs, such as unique functionality and professionally designed storefronts.
PrestaShop can also host customer Websites on their servers, and help create additional visitor traffic with its Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
About PrestaShop
Founded in Paris, France, by Internet enthusiasts and e-Commerce professionals Igor Schlumberger and Bruno Lévêque, PrestaShop aspires to provide the best open-source e-Commerce solution to the greatest number of business owners worldwide as the e-Commerce sector of the global economy continues to become more democratic.
Jul
28
2008
Last Thursday, in reponse to numerous requests on our Forum, we put our new Donation Page online. Within an hour we had received our first donation!
David Demay, a graphic designer from Paris, told us that he was inspired to donate because via his Website, fashionconception.com, he sells services to merchants looking to create personalized online stores based on the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution.
He also uses PrestaShop to sell custom-designed T-shirts on his online store, Teeshirt Fashion Conception.
He had tried out several other open-source solutions but found PrestaShop to be best suited to his needs, so he wanted to show his appreciation.
Merci David!