1.7.6.5 now, what to do?

[DDD]

Hi,

I'm currently on 1.7.6.5 with Warehouse Theme and some customization and wondering how much effort/cost it would be to upgrade to a later standard and which to chose?

//Hans

[ComGrafPL]

Clean 8.2.3 with install latest warehouse, data migrate and theme visuals. To early for version 9

[PrestaHeroes.com]

15 hours ago, DDD said:

Hi,

I'm currently on 1.7.6.5 with Warehouse Theme and some customization and wondering how much effort/cost it would be to upgrade to a later standard and which to chose?

//Hans

The real question is: what new features in later PrestaShop releases actually make upgrading appealing?

Historically, PrestaShop’s major releases rarely introduce front-office features that materially increase sales. Most changes are architectural, and the practical consequence is that merchants are forced to repurchase compatible modules and themes. From a merchant’s perspective, this is a poor business model.

In my experience, PrestaShop 8 installations have also proven to be more susceptible to hacks than stable 1.7 shops. As for PrestaShop 9, there are only a handful of genuinely new features introduced in 9.0 (for example, unlimited guest checkout using the same email), and even those were broken in 9.0.1.

From a revenue and growth standpoint, upgrading PrestaShop itself is rarely what drives results. Increasing sales through new features does not require a platform upgrade. The same functionality can almost always be implemented on 1.7 if you know what features are missing.

So how do you identify those gaps?
By analyzing competitors in your product vertical and studying best-in-class e-commerce sites such as Walmart or Newegg. Look at what they are doing to improve the visitor experience—navigation, filtering, checkout flow, trust signals, performance—and implement comparable improvements.

In short, rather than upgrading to a new PrestaShop version for minimal or no tangible gain, the better investment is to upgrade features that improve user experience and conversion, regardless of the core version.