PrestaShop for a large online store. Is it a good idea?

 

Can the PrestaShop eCommerce platform meet the needs of large companies and online stores? We have checked! See the conclusions and specific completed projects. 

Is PrestaShop the right eCommerce platform for your eCommerce?

Regardless of your business size, we can say that PrestaShop is highly likely to meet all your requirements. Why? The flexibility, scalability and the open source code of the platform make it the ideal environment in which experienced developers can show their skills and develop an online store that will meet all your requirements and expectations.

 

There are good reasons why PrestaShop is one of the most popular Open Source solutions in the eCommerce market (over 270,000 online stores in 195 countries), and the community associated with the platform exceeds one million users.

 

In this article, however, we will focus on the largest players, who - for obvious reasons - also require the most from the platform on which their store is based. Is PrestaShop the right choice for chains of stores, large wholesalers and producers trading B2B or busy online stores which accept several hundred retail orders a day?

 

At WAYNET, we have proven many a time that it is, and we want to share our experience with entrepreneurs who are still uncertain about choosing the right platform for their online store. Read more about that!

Proprietary design, usability and a custom selection of functionalities. A “must have” for online stores of serious brands.

SaaS (software as a service) solutions are easy to configure and usually relatively inexpensive. These are their obvious advantages, but could they be masking even more drawbacks and shortcomings? Have you ever wondered why so few owners of large brands choose such platforms?

 

The answer is not particularly complicated. Closed source code makes it difficult (and frequently even impossible) to introduce modifications and integrate with selected external systems (warehouses, wholesalers, accounting systems, suppliers, payments and others). The appearance of the store can be adjusted only to a limited extent previously foreseen by the author of the platform. The number of modules working with SaaS platforms is also much smaller than in the case of Open Source solutions. You can, of course, request changes from the authors of the platform, but these will be disproportionally expensive and may take weeks to complete.

 

Can your company accept such limitations?

Tailor-made eCommerce. 

Every business is different: it offers different products and services and operates in a specific business environment. This is why online stores for large brands as well as for smaller companies which treat their online sales seriously enough and plan a fast, scalable growth should be suited to the real needs of the company.

 

This need is fulfilled by PrestaShop, which allows a tailor-made online store to be launched. The design of such eCommerce requires an analysis of the competitors, business requirements and customer groups. These form the basis for preparing the information architecture and other elements of the store  UX (User Experience) which ensure its transparency, ease of navigation, usability and a satisfactory conversion. What is also important is the eCommerce design, i.e. the graphical design which should suit the nature of the brand and the products.

 

 

The next stage is to equip the store with all necessary modules, integrations and functions as well as to implement the previously prepared layout. This, of course, is a task for an experienced team of front-end and back-end developers. The last stage comprises tests carried out by a qualified specialist responsible for the compliance of the project with its assumptions and the final, correct operation of the store.

 

Thanks to its open source code, PrestaShop allows the design of the store as well as its individual functionalities (including the back office) to be freely changed. When this is combined with the right optimisation and high-performance hosting, there are absolutely no obstacles to creating a stable, attractive and effective eCommerce site for a large online business operator.

 

That was the theory. Now it is time to show how stores we have developed for such companies work in practice.

eCommerce for a retail chain. 

The scale of a company for which PrestaShop proved a great solution for opening a new sales channel and thus executing an omnichannel retail plan can be measured by the number of brick-and-mortar outlets of its brand.

 

The clients of WAYNET currently include several fashion retail chains, including such brands as Tatuum, Reporter Young, Patrizia Aryton or Vissavi. Apart from online stores, these companies have between 15 and over 100 brick-and-mortar shops serving thousands of customers every day.

 

 

In the case of the Patrizia Aryton brand, our work included not only creating a dedicated PrestaShop online store, its support, optimisation and hosting, but also the implementation of an advanced, proprietary system for managing multichannel sales called OMNIWAY. It integrated warehouse and loyalty systems as well as the returns program at brick-and-mortar and eCommerce stores.

 

PrestaShop store with tens of thousands of products.

If you intend to sell tens of thousands of products at your online store, then believe it or not, PrestaShop is the right choice for you. If your developer can correctly optimise the operation of the store, ensure code quality and select the right hosting for your needs, PrestaShop will turn out to be a very high-performance platform, able to handle thousands of products and a really high traffic of online users without any problems.

 

 

There is a project that stands out in our track record. It is the Sanitbuy store with bathroom accessories, featuring about 50,000 products. Stores with so many products also require the right navigation and product range categorisation to allow the user to easily find what they are looking for.

High traffic at the online store and hundreds of orders a day. Can PrestaShop handle this? 

The next and final argument discussed in this article to support the thesis that the PrestaShop platform is the right solution for large eCommerce operators is the ability of the store to handle increased traffic and process many orders a day.

 

Having worked for years with recognised brands which have little problem with attracting traffic to their eCommerce sites, we know that PrestaShop can handle a really high burden on the online store caused by the number of online users very well.  A great example of such an eCommerce site is offered by Botland, the largest Polish online store for robotics and electronics specialists.

 

 

This is an online store that is not only very popular among its customers, but also has a broad offer of products and is equipped with a large number of measures improving conversion and customer loyalty. All of this contributes to a high burden on the store, but the properly optimised scripts and the high-performance hosting of the store allows this eCommerce site to run faultlessly and smoothly even during promotions attracting many customers.

Summary 

PrestaShop is a platform of such flexibility and capacity that it can easily satisfy the needs of large brands and recognised, highly successful online stores. The examples cited above represent only a small fraction of the projects we have implemented in recent years, which were associated with various challenges.

 

When choosing the right eCommerce developer or agency, it is important to check their competencies, skills and their track record. The key word is quality, which guarantees that the implementation will be successful and will become a real, revenue-generating online showcase of the company.

If you would like to talk to us about the needs of your online store and learn whether PrestaShop will be able to meet your individual needs, please contact us! We are always happy to share our knowledge and experience to develop European and global eCommerce.

 

ABOUT AUTHOR

WAYNET eCommerce Agency – silver PrestaShop partner.

Dynamic and experienced eCommerce agency offering an innovative approach to projects combined with extensive knowledge on the most effective solutions. We have accomplished over

100 eCommerce projects, including over 25 complete implementations of dedicated online stores based on the PrestaShop platform. In our offer you can find a full range of services that PrestaShop online stores need: implementations, UX-design, audits, support and hosting. Contact us and let's talk about your project.