Why Prestashop?
After months of testing each software individually we found that Prestashop's admin features were outstanding and exceptionally easy to use and set up. All sections of the store were organized in an easy to access manner and it was effortless to get our store up and running quickly. We were also aware that future expansion of the business was something we had to consider even at this early stage, Prestashop allows for growth both in terms of adding new categories, new products and even new employees.
Features
As standard Prestashop comes pre-loaded with some amazing features that are a must for any store, such as inventory and stock management, great stats and analytics tools to see how customers are using your site and an intuitive customer service area to see orders and to read and respond to customer messages.
There are also a number of neat features on the store front side of things. You can have cross selling enabled to offer similar products to customers, allow customers to create a wish or to compare products and you can also organize your customers into groups, so those who are most loyal to your business could be offered greater discounts or rewards.
Other features include: Gift vouchers creation (you can even have an unlimited amount or restrict them to a certain number), Simple one page check-out option, a simple CMS system for creating unique pages and easy to set up shipping options (including offering shipping discounts).
Additional Design Needs
Whilst you can use Prestashop 'out of the box' it is always a good idea to install a theme that is better suited to your business. There are loads of themes available from either Prestashop's add-ons section on their site or a quick search of the net would yield numerous results. Many themes are available free of charge and instantly make your site look a lot more professional.
Those who are experienced in dealing with css style sheets, or those who feel adventurous can bend and shape the basic theme to suit their business. It is always a good idea to make a copy of the default theme and work on the second theme folder when re-designing your site. To be honest it was quite easy to change the style with very little prior coding knowledge.
The Prestashop website has a fantastic community forum where you can post questions or search for answers to any questions you may have.
Conclusion
Prestashop offers the best features at present of any e-commerce software, there are always areas that can be improved on, as with any software, but overall Prestashop is the one I would always recommend.
