How to Enable & Manage Multi Stores in PrestaShop?

If you’re selling products or services online, you might have a well-developed eCommerce store. How about having separate stores for your retail and wholesale transactions or different stores for different regions / countries with restricted inventories  or diferent stores for different locales? Yes, you read that right! PrestaShop made it possible with its convenient Multistore feature.

Any PrestaShop admin can create and manage multiple e-stores with different domains from a single dashboard. Fortunately, the best part is its hassle-free process of just three easy steps without any module installation.

Before we jump to the process, let’s just quickly clarify what a multistore is and why we recommend it for Prestashop.

What is a Multistore and Why Do You Need it for PrestaShop?

Multistore is a super productive Prestashop feature that allows merchants to enable and control multiple stores from the back office. While it’s an exclusive feature of PrestaShop 1.5, it works perfectly for newer versions including PrestaShop 1.7.

Don’t worry! Enabling PrestaShop multistore doesn’t demand any module installation or third-party integration. It’s a basic feature available right in the General Settings.

Additionally, there’s no need to develop every PrestaShop multi-store from scratch. Whether you want to use common components or different themes, the multistore feature is flexible enough for desired customizations.

But the benefits of multistore don’t end here. If we dig down deeper, the feature can help your business with,

BENEFITS OF MULTISTORE FEATURE

Single-admin access

As discussed above, multistore enables merchants to manage numerous online stores using a single admin dashboard. You can manage everything related to every store, from themes to customer reviews, without signing in to different admin accounts.

Even if you’re looking to apply anything to the stores, the multistore allows you to update all the selected stores in one go.

Save time in adding products

Adding products in different stores was never easier! With PrestaShop Multistore, you can add products or categories from your admin dashboard. It gives you access to detailed reports regarding the products available in each store in a straightforward interface.

Especially in the case of the same products, you can add them once instead of adding every product separately in different stores.

Multistore different domains

Another advantage of PrestaShop multistore is its support of different domains with different pricing, discounts, and more. A merchant selling its products in retail and wholesale can utilize it to create a separate store for each domain.

Whether you want to customize pricing or discounts, you can set specialized credentials for a group of clients without disclosing it to all.

Efficient Global Expansion

It’s no surprise that everyone prefers shopping in their native currency. With the multistore feature, you can build country-specific stores with a custom currency and discount. The prices in your store are valued according to the currency value to prevent market fluctuations.

For instance, if the value of the currency in the buyer’s country is reduced, the price at your store will be adjusted accordingly so that you don’t lose your profits.

How to Enable Multi Stores in PrestaShop?

That’s the best part of PrestaShop multistore! Unlike most functionalities, you don’t need to install a separate module to enable the multistore feature. It’s available in your admin dashboard if you’re working on PrestaShop 1.5 or higher. Here’s how you can enable it.

• Step 1: Open your PrestaShop back office and navigate to Configure section
• Step 2: You may see Shop Parameters underneath it that will drop down a menu. From the menu, choose General to get access to the General Setting page.
• Step 3: Find the Enable Multistore button which is set at No by default. Turn it to Yes to enable the Multistore page in the Advanced Parameters menu.
• Step 4: That’s it, you’re ready to rock! Click on the Save button.

How to Setup a PrestaShop Multistore?

Once you have enabled the PrestaShop multistore, you can easily access it and set it up from the advanced menu. It’s a really convenient process involving just 2 simple steps that we have mentioned below.

Step 1: Add a New Shop

Look for the Advanced Parameters menu and find the Multistore option. Hit on Add a New Shop tab and you may get access to fields including,

• Shop name — The name that will represent your online shop
• Shop Group — Link the desired group to your new shop
• Category Root — Customize the category selection from PrestaShop Home set by default
• Associated Categories — Associate product and page categories to your new shop
• Themes — Select, customize or just reuse the existing theme

Don’t forget to hit the Save button!  

Step 2: Set URL Link

All right! Your new shop is ready and available for editing the information you need. All you have to do is to create a URL link for the shop and set it up for the desired end-user experience. Just three quick clicks and you’re good to go!

• Click on the Click Here tab to set a URL link for your new store
• Navigate to Edit and customize the new shop in the way you want
• Specify the Domain, SSL Domain, Physical URL, Virtual URL, and Final URL according to your needs

Click Save to get that link working! 
 

Conclusion:

Managing multiple stores can be cumbersome, but PrestaShop makes it super easy with its Multistore feature. You can create and manage different e-stores with separate domains from one single dashboard without any module installation.

Contact us today if you’re looking for help with professional PrestaShop Development Services. Our team of experts will be more than happy to assist you in creating a stellar eCommerce store that meets all your needs.