Magento OR Prestashop?

March 8, 201115 yr

Hi to all!

Following up my previous thread regarding a web shop I'm supposed to build, I'm happy to announce that I finally have been given the go ahead to start building my first ever web shop for a friend of mine.

He will be selling olive oil in it.

I have already made some wireframes and will be producing the template in PS soon.

Before I start though, I'm still undecided whether to choose Magento or Prestashop for this project?

Prestashop seems to be a really good shopping cart system and it looks easier to use than Magento (especially for a newbie lik me ;-))

My questions basically boil down to this:

1: When designing a theme in PS, I would really like to follow my own inspiration and not modify any exisiting theme. Is it possible to do that when designing for a web shop? I mean, is it like a normal site where I would design in PS and then code up everything in my editor? Or are there any specific rules/ guidelines I should follow for web shops in particular? I mean; am I constricted to a sort of layout that is set by whichever system I use?

2: What's the difference in approach between designing for a web shop (based on a shopping cart system) and a "normal" website?

3: What system would you recommend based on the info I gave? Magento or Prestacart? I would have a preference for Prestacart, since as said, it seems to be "easier" thus faster than Magento.

Well, I hope you can help me in deciding which route to take :-)

Thanks!!

B rgds

Leon

March 8, 201115 yr

Author

Prestacart = Prestashop sorry...;-)

March 8, 201115 yr

1: When designing a theme in PS, I would really like to follow my own inspiration and not modify any exisiting theme. Is it possible to do that when designing for a web shop? I mean, is it like a normal site where I would design in PS and then code up everything in my editor? Or are there any specific rules/ guidelines I should follow for web shops in particular? I mean; am I constricted to a sort of layout that is set by whichever system I use?

Different cart systems have different templating methods. You can modify templates to suit but some systems are more complex and therefore take more time to customise. On the other hand, some carts use more "easy" templating to develop with.

As far as layout and presentation goes you have a blank slate to start with, but, and it's a big but, if you make something too complex visitors will get lost/confused and end up not ordering anything - there's something to be said from generic layout because they work

Whatever happens if you have a custom design you will have to dig in to modify themes/templates etc!

2: What's the difference in approach between designing for a web shop (based on a shopping cart system) and a "normal" website?

I'd say web shops differ from "normal" sites in that you have to be very customer task focussed - not that non-shop sites don't have to be task focussed but shopping sites need sales so it's extra important!

Also you must remember that a web shop "design" where that the owner can manage content must be ultra flexible because they can (and do) shove all sorts of content in, forget to format text copy in WYSIWYG editors, and lots more.

3: What system would you recommend based on the info I gave? Magento or Prestacart? I would have a preference for Prestacart, since as said, it seems to be "easier" thus faster than Magento.

One thing to consider here:

1. Which system best fits the needs of the shop owner, their products, and business goals?

- whichever is the best system for them is the one you need to recommend and work with

Edited March 8, 201115 yr by BlueDreamer

March 8, 201115 yr

For me...Magento is quite a hard piece of software to learn and could well be overkill for your site. I have tried using magento, Prestashop and OsCommerce and found them all vey different. But the one i now use and have developed well over 20 sites with, is Opencart. I couldn't recommend this enough and i believe it was voted the second best open source software of last year. Prestashop was top!

So, i would highly recommend that you stay away from Magento and either use prestashop or Opencart?

J90
1

March 8, 201115 yr

Author

Thanks guys, really helpful so far! :-)

So, say I choose the Prestashop route, how would I go about designing something like that in PS?

I mean, I can think of a million additions and buttons I could create to use in that shop but would it all be implementable or would I really need to adhere to the structure as set up "out of the box" in Prestashop?

So is it question of modifying existing modules/ buttons etc. or can I also implement some completely new design elements that I made myself?

I'm not sure how these systems are designed and to what extend they allow flexibility on the side of the designer?

Would not want to create a cool design to find out later that it is impossible to implement.

Thanks again, really appreciated!

March 8, 201115 yr

Unfortunately i haven't worked enough with Prestashop to say what your best options are. But i know i can design and build almost any type of website and turn it into a working ecommerce store using Opencart.

The best thing to do, is download a free prestashop template and see how it's put together or download any other template and try and turn it into a shop within Prestashop. It might take you all day to get familiar with it but it will help no end.

But, from what i remember....prestashop is similar to Opencart and should be nice and easy once you get stuck into it?

March 8, 201115 yr

Your best bet would be to install a copy of Prestashop somewhere and turn on every single feature and widget, and add some dummy category and product data which uses all available features such as extra fields, options and so on. Once you see it all in place you should be able to see all the elements you need to cater for in your "design".

If you want a pro tip you'd be better off doing some HTML/CSS wireframes first, then take a stock Prestashop template set and strip out all the styling so all you have left is generic plain HTML. Using this bare bones template set write your layout CSS to position all key elements (eg header, footer, articles, sections, sidebar etc). Once that's all in place you can fire up your image editor to make any graphics you need and apply them. After that the rest is styling all that content

March 10, 201115 yr

hi,

Well I think in this case I will go with Magneto

March 10, 201115 yr

A client of mine uses prestashop, and while I didn't make the site, the templating system is very easy to get to grips with. I don't think you'll find it very difficult.

I do think as a piece of software it's not perfect though, and I've had a few issues with trying to modify some of the more technical bits & bobs.

March 13, 201115 yr

Magento is where it is all at. Learn how this system works and you will have a job for life.

March 14, 201115 yr

I just begin to work with PrestaShop software. I create 5 templates based on PrestaShop system, but I am going to create more. And I can say that PrestaShop is good, quality and multifunctional. PrestaShop is new, but really user-friendly. Try to use it)))

Edited March 14, 201115 yr by EvaBrown

March 29, 201115 yr

I just begin to work with PrestaShop software. I create 5 templates based on PrestaShop system, but I am going to create more. And I can say that PrestaShop is good, quality and multifunctional. PrestaShop is new, but really user-friendly. Try to use it)))

Agree with EvaBrown.

We used PrestaShop for 2 websites, and it is very easy to use and understand...

>> lilymorgane.com paragonsquare.com

March 29, 201115 yr

Magento is where it is all at. Learn how this system works and you will have a job for life.

This statement couldn't be more true!

Magento has almost every feature that you could ever dream of, and since your friend will be using this website to run a part of his business, he will start asking for features that he sees on other websites; with Magento your answer to the question "Can I have that on my site" will be "Yeah no problem - give me a few days"...

By learning Magento, you will also learn advanced PHP OOP techniques as Magento makes use of the leading PHP framework, Zend Framework. This is an object orientated PHP framework with a full MVC separation, learning this will open more doors than you could ever imagine.

Magento all the way!

Good luck with your project.

March 31, 201115 yr

Magento is not for the faint-hearted (and especially not for someone who is half-heartedly into learning it before he's even started learning it). I've used,is still using, and will probably always be using Magento, not because I'm some high-calibre developer, but because Magento has such flexible IT architecture the possibilities are quite endless. As for you, if the simpler, "easier" Prestacart has enough features to serve your needs for now, then do, use it. If you're ready for hard-core e-commerce, try Magento. =)

Edited March 31, 201115 yr by ZetaPrints

January 4, 201313 yr

3: What system would you recommend based on the info I gave? Magento or Prestacart? I would have a preference for Prestacart, since as said, it seems to be "easier" thus faster than Magento.

I hope you had already built your site, but I am just looking to migrate from CoreCommerce to another cart. Another mean PrestaShop or Magento. I think that's would be right, and less problematic. I had even found service- Cart2Cart to transfer all my data, because I don't want to do it manually (I have over 2000 products) But still What is better in SEO, security, and speed?