Once you have your PrestaShop store successfully installed, you should settle down to properly configure and customize your store for your purpose. In this tutorial, we examine the basic configuration settings for your PrestaShop store:
- Configuring the SMTP Settings
- Configuring the Payment Methods
- Configuring the Shipping methods
- Configuring Contacts and Our Store pages
- How to configure SSL for your Store
- How to Change the Logo of your Store
- How to Configure Special Promotion
- How to Activate Maintenance Mode
- How to configure the Email templates
Also read our other Prestashop tutorials:
Basic Steps to Take After a PrestaShop Installation
How to install PrestaShop on a Live Website
SMTP Settings
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and as the name suggests the protocol is mainly used for sending messages from your web hosting account to another user. Our Hosting packages fully support that protocol and in the next few lines of this tutorial we will provide you with more information on the integration of that protocol with your Store in order for all the emails sent from your Store to use that protocol.
To activate the SMTP protocol for your Store, you need to:
- Step 1: Access the Mail Configuration for your Store
- Step 2: Configure the SMTP mailer
Access the Mail Configuration for your Store
PrestaShop provides you with a fully dedicated to the mailing system of your store page where you can configure entirely the mailing system and also to test it. In order to access that page you will need to login into the Back Office of your Store and to navigate to Advanced Parameters>E-mail.
Once you click on that link you will be presented with all the emailing options which we will review further in the second step of this tutorial.
Read more Prestashop tutorials:
Basic Steps to Take After a PrestaShop Installation
How to install PrestaShop on a Live Website
Step 2: Configure the SMTP mailer
In order to activate the SMTP mailer you will need to select the “Set my own SMTP parameters (for advanced users ONLY)” from the email section of the email configuration page.
Once you are done with the selection of that option you should click on the Save button so this setting can be saved.
This will allow you to have the SMTP configuration options displayed just below the form and there you will be able to configure the actual settings for the SMTP mailer class. The settings you will find there are the most basic settings required for the SMTP protocol to be utilized by php scripts:
- Mail domain name – The domain name of your store
- SMTP server - This can be your actual domain name or the IP address of the web hosting server where your account is hosted at
- SMTP user – The username for the SMTP mail service. Usually this is an actual email account you have created via your cPanel > Email Accounts
- SMTP password – The password for that email account
- Encryption – If the web hosting server where your account is hosted support Encryption methods for the SMTP service here you can define them. For the shared hosting packages we offer you should use none as if you choose encryption you will need to use the hostname of the server as “My Domain name” in this configuration screen
- Port – The default port of the SMTP service is 25 and here you should specify it
Once you are done with this configuration options please use the Save button for this interface so you can save the settings and fully enable the SMTP protocol for your store.
Once the settings are saved you can test the sending function of your Store by simply using the final section of this page located at the bottom – Test your email configuration. There you should simply input a sample email account where the test email can be send and hit the Send an email test button.
If there is an error you will be provided with it just below this form and if the email is sent successfully you will be also notified.
You can now fully utilize the SMTP protocol for the outgoing emails of your Store!
Read more Prestashop tutorials:
Basic Steps to Take After a PrestaShop Installation
How to install PrestaShop on a Live Website
Configuring the Payment Methods
The payment methods for your Store are the key fragment which will make your online Store complete in terms of user experience and of course convenient payment options which the users can choose from. The configuration of the payment options for your store is relatively simple and in the next few lines of this tutorial we will provide some additional information on the matter.
To configure the payment methods of your Store, you need to:
- Step 1: Access the Payments page
- Step 2: Configure Active Payment Methods
- Step 3: Activate Alternative Payment Methods
Step 1: Access the Payments page
In order to have an easy way to manage all the payment options for your store PrestaShop provides you with a dedicated page where the applications makes this possible. In order to access that page you will need to login into the Back Office of your store and to navigate to Modules>Payment.
Once the Payment page is opened you will be able to see all of the currently activated payment methods and respectively to configure those further which we will review in the next step of this tutorial.
Step 2: Configure Active Payment Methods
At the top of the Payment page you will see a list of the “Active Payment” methods. These are actual modules activated for your Store by default. Currently with PrestaShop the default activated payment methods are Bank wire and of course Payment by check. In order to configure any of these payment methods you will need to simply click on the configure button.
Once you do that you will be redirected to another page where you will be able to perform the required configuration related to the concrete payment method you have chosen.
Step 3: Activate Alternative Payment Methods
The alternative payment methods are nothing more than simply another payment method which is not activated nor configured with the default installation of PrestaShop. On the Payment page you will find these methods listed right below the already activated payment methods.
In order to activate any of these payment methods simply click on the Install button and the payment method will be installed as separate module which afterwards you will be able to configure.
Of course the configuration for every payment method is different, however quite intuitive and mostly you will need to contact the payment method provider in order to obtain critical information such as standard usernames, passwords, API keys and so on. If you are experiencing difficulties configuring certain payment method, our PrestaShop Hosting package includes dedicated support for such tasks so you will never feel alone in the dark.
Read more Prestashop tutorials:
Basic Steps to Take After a PrestaShop Installation
How to install PrestaShop on a Live Website
Configuring the Shipping methods
When selling products Online one of the most important aspects for your customers is the shipping method that will be used for the purchased product to be shipped to them. PrestaShop provides you with an easy way to add carriers which are automatically shown as shipping methods for your products and in the next few lines of this tutorial we will show you how to add and configure shipping methods.
To configure the Shipping methods for your Store, you will need to:
- Step 1: Add a Custom Shipping Method
- Step 2: Add a New Carrier
Step 1: Add a Custom Shipping Method
As we have mentioned the payment methods are nothing more than configuring the correct carrier. In order for this to happen you will need to first access the Carriers page which you can find the Back office of your Store and then by navigating to Shipping>Carriers .
Next you will be redirected to a page where you will be able to see a list of the already configured carriers.
Step 2: Add a New Carrier
With the default setup of the PrestaShop platform you will get a total of two predefined carriers. These are only for sample purpose and you can remove them if you are not going to need them.
Now let’s add a new carrier. In order to do so you will need to click on the Add New Carrier button located at the top action bar of the page.
On the next page you will be presented with a detailed description of the carriers and the availability of large variety of such modules in the official PrestaShop modules marketplace. Bellow the large description box you will find the Add new carrier button which you should use in order to start the process of adding a new carrier.
The process itself consist of 4 steps representing different options you are enabled to configure for the new carrier you are adding. Let’s begin with the first step called General Settings. Here you will be able to find the following configuration options:
- Carrier name – The actual name of the new carrier you are adding
- Transit name – The transit time is the actual estimated delivery time which will be displayed upon checkout for this carrier in particular
- Speed grade – This is a scale from 0 to 9 which represents the actual time required by the carrier to ship the product
- Logo – The actual logo for this carrier
- Tracking URL – If the carrier provides a tracking URL you should specify it here so the client can track the delivery of the product
Once you are done with the configuration for this first step please click on the second step so you can proceed with the configuration.
The next step called “Shipping locations and costs” will provide you with configuration options for the respectful locations and additional costs for this shipping method. The configuration options available here are:
- Add Handling Cost – if the handling cost for this carrier should be included
- Free Shipping – If the shipping via this carrier should be free
- Billing – The billing for this carrier based on total price or total weight of the package
- Tax – The tax rate that should be applied to this carrier
- Out of range behavior – Behavior for this carrier when for example the weight of the package exceeds the limitation of the carrier
- Ranges – The range this carrier will be shipping to
The third step of the configuration for this carrier is the “Size, weight and group access” step. Here you will find configuration options related to the limitations for the packages this carrier will be shipping from your store to your clients. The configuration options are quite self-explanatory and you will be able to adapt to those quite easily.
The final step with configuration options is called Summary and there you will be able to see a brief summary of the configuration you have just performed. At the end of the form you will see the Enabled option which will actually provide you with the option to directly enable or disable this carrier.
Now that you are done with these options it is time to save the new carrier and to use it for the shipping of your products. In order to save all those options for the new carrier simply click on the Finish button and the carrier will be saved successfully.
You can now configure as much as carriers you would like to for your products!
Read more Prestashop tutorials:
Basic Steps to Take After a PrestaShop Installation
How to install PrestaShop on a Live Website
Configuring Contacts and Our Store pages
PrestaShop provides you with the option to show your customers key location of your physical shops or just a location where your customers can meet your representatives. In the next few lines of this tutorial we will show you how to configure the Our Store static page from within the Back office of your website.
To configure the Contacts and Our Store pages, you need to:
- Step 1: Add a New Contact
- Step 2: Edit and Delete Existing Store Contacts
Step 1: Add a New Contact
In order for you to be able to access the page where you can edit the contacts for your Store you will need to simply login into the admin area of your website and to navigate to the Preferences>Store Contacts menu item.
Once there you will notice that the page is separated on two sections which we will discuss in the next step of this tutorial. In order for you to add a new contact please click on the Add new store button located at the top action bar.
This action will bring a simple form where you will need to fill the required information before you can save it. The options available for editing on that page are:
- Name – The name of the contact store you are adding
- Address - The physical address of the contact store you are adding
- Zip/postal Code – The Zip Code of the contact store you are adding
- City - The city where the contact store is located
- Country - The country where the contact store is located
- Latitude / Longitude – The geographical coordinates for the contact store. This is used for the generation of a map
- Phone – The phone of the contact store you are adding
- Fax – The FAX for the contact store you are adding
- Email Address – The email address for the contact store you are adding
- Note – Here you can place any additional notes to the contact store you are adding
- Hours – The working hours for the contact store you are adding
Once you are done with the configuration of all these fields you can hit the Save button located at the bottom of the page and the information for your contact store will be added.
Step 2: Edit and Delete Existing Store Contacts
With the default setup of PrestaShop you will notice how there will be 5 store contacts added to the Store Contacts section of the same page. Now since these are added only with sample purpose you might want to either edit them or delete them entirely.
Let’s review the editing process. It is relatively simple process and the only thing you will need to do is to click on the Edit button provided next to every specific contact.
Then you will be presented with an interface similar to the one you have used for adding a new contact store, however this time you will notice how all the fields will be filled with the concrete data you have added when the store contact was created previously.
Once you set the options to their new values you should simply click on the Save button in order for these edits to be saved and that is all.
The second part of this step is if you would like to have a contact store deleted as you do not need it anymore. This is also quite a simple process which you will be able to achieve via the small arrow next to the Edit button. Once you click on the same you will be provided with the Delete option which you can use for deleting the concrete contact.
The only thing left on the Store Contacts page is the second section called Parameters. There you will be able to find few settings which we will discuss bellow.
- Display in the footer – Option which will allow you to have the store contact information displayed in the footer of your Store
- Display in the sitemap page – Option which will allow you to have the store contact information displayed on the Sitemap page
- Show a simplified store locator – Option which will allow you to hide the map and the search features and to show only the store directory
- Default latitude and longitude – The values will provide you with option to define the default latitude and longitude of the map view you will get whenever you access the Our Stores static page
How to configure SSL for your Store
The security of your clients’ personal information nowadays is something which basically every online store should ensure. In order for all of the information transmitted between the clients of your Store and the Store itself to be encrypted you will need to use SSL certificate. This type of cryptographic layer will basically enable the https protocol which will be used by your Store to encrypt the communication.
Currently our E-Commerce shared hosting plan included in our Prestashop Hosting package promotes free SSL certificate for your domain name which will dramatically drop the things in your to do list as we will fully take care for the installation and the integration of the SSL certificate with your Store.
In the next few lines of this tutorial we will show you how to configure the SSL certificate with your Store in PrestaShop.
Let’s begin!
In order to activate the SSL certificate for your Store, you will need to first access the General page located inside the Back Office of your Store. In order to do so you will need to simply navigate to Preferences>General.
Once there you will notice that on the top of the configuration section there is an option called Enable SSL. Please click on the link next to it (“Please click here to use HTTPS protocol before enabling SSL.”) so you can verify that your Store supports the SSL certificate and then you will be able to activate it easily.
Finally, please make sure that the option Increase Front Office security is set to Yes so you can have an additional security improvement.
How to Change the Logo of your PrestaShop Store
The logos of your website are the small icon which will represent your brand and most probably will be saved in your customers mind as the face your store. PrestaShop fully enables you to change the logos of your website and by logos we mean not only the main logo of your website but also the logos displayed in the Invoices, Emails, the favicon and also the logo displayed in the mobile version of your website. In the next few steps of this tutorial we will show you how to actually perform the change.
To change the logo of your Store, you need to complete the following steps:
- Step 1: Access the Theme Editing page
- Step 2: Change the Logo
Step 1: Access the Theme Editing page
The logos of your website are actually part of the visual package of components usually called a visual theme. So in order to change those you will need to actually edit the visual theme of your Store. The tools for editing a visual theme are allocated in the Back Office of your store under the Preferences>Themes menu item.
Once there you will notice how immediately you will be provided with a large section showing the currently used theme and the available options for the same.
Step 2: Change the logo
Assuming that you have prepared images for your logos we will now cover the process of changing every logo in your Store. Let’s begin with the main logo displayed on the home page of your store. It can be found directly under the Logo tab on the same page.
In order to upload the new logo you will need to click on the Add File button and to choose the image from your local computer. Once the image is selected you will need to simply press the Save button located at the bottom of that section.
Next is the logos for your Invoices and Emails. In order to change that logo you will need to simply navigate to the Invoice and Email Logos tab on the same page and to again select, upload and then save the logos.
The third type of logos is the Icons available in the tab of the same name. There you will be able toa again choose, upload and save the logos for your Favicon and Storeicon.
Last but not least there is the “Mobile” logo of your website which will be available in the last tab of this section – Mobile. Once there you will need to simply again select the logo, upload it and finally save the changes.
That’s it! Congratulations, you can now change all the logos of your PrestaShop based Online Store!
How to Configure Special Promotion
With the term Special Promotions we are describing the Cart Rules functionality of PrestaShop In simple words this functionality enables you to easily create, manage and delete custom promotional codes for your customers and in the next few lines of this tutorial we will show you how exactly this can be achieved.
To configure Special Promotions, you will need to follow these steps:
- Step 1: Access the Cart Rules page
- Step 2: Create a Cart Rule using a Shortcode
Step 1: Access the Cart Rules page
In order to be able to fully manage the shortcodes of your Store you will first need to access the Cart Rules page located in Price Rules>Cart Rules.
Once there you will notice a complete list of the currently configured Cart Rules.
Step 2: Create a Cart Rule using a Shortcode
In order for a new Cart Rule to be created you will need to click on the Add new cart rule button so you can begin with the configuration of the new Cart Rule.
This will bring a set of settings you will need to complete before the new Cart Rule can be added. The settings are separated on 3 tabs and we will review all of them in the next lines of this tutorial.
The first tab of settings is called Information and there you will find the following options:
- Name – The name of the Cart rule which will be displayed when your customers are using it
- Description – The actual description of the Cart Rule which will be displayed only to you and not to the customers using the rule
- Code – The actual shortcode for this Cart Rule. It will be used when a customer decides to take advantage of this Car Rule
- Highlight – If the voucher is not in the cart it will be displayed in the cart summary
- Partial Use – If the voucher discount amount is flat and it is greater than the total amount of the order then you can allow or disallow for the difference in the total price and the voucher to be added as a new voucher to the customer’s account
- Priority – The actual priority of the voucher. This is used when multiple vouchers are applied to an order
- Status – If the Cart Rule you are creating should be enabled or disabled immediately after setup
The second tab is called Conditions and it is used in order for the conditions behind this cart rule to be configured. The options available here are the following:
- Limit to a single customer – If the Cart Rule you are creating should be only for a single customer
- Valid – The period this Cart Rule will be valid for
- Minimum Amount – The minimum amount of the order before the Cart Rule can be applied
- Total Available – The amount of customers who will be using the Cart Rule
- Total available for each user – The amount of times a Cart Rule can be used by a single customer
- Restrictions – Here you will find options to restrict the Cart rule to certain Carrier, Customer group or a single Product
The third and final tab is called Actions and there you will be able to configure some additional actions that will be taken once the voucher is used by your customers. The options here are the following:
- Free Shipping – If the shipping of the products purchased with this Cart Rule should be free
- Apply a Discount – If any additional discount should be applied to the order where this Cart Rule has been used
- Send a free gift – If the store should automatically send a free gift to the customer who used this Cart Rule
Once you are ready with the configuration please use the Save button located at the bottom of this section.
Congratulations! You now know how to configure and use the Cart Rules for your online Store!
How to Activate PrestaShop Maintenance Mode
No matter if you would like to implement some minor changes or you are performing a large scale content push on your Online Store, you might want to consider disabling the availability of the store so no orders can be submitted during the changes you are implementing. This is usually done in order for major issues and customer dissatisfaction to be avoided in the process of upgrade implementations, design changes and basically every drastic change you make on your store.
In the next few lines of this tutorial we will show you how to activate the Maintenance mode of the PrestaShop platform!
The activation process is relatively simple as PrestaShop fully integrates this method as a simple routine in the Back Office of your application. In order to access the dedicated page for the maintenance mode you will need to login into your Back Office and then to navigate to Preferences>Maintenance.
Once there you will be presented with a single section of settings containing two fields you have the option to edit.
The first one is called Enable Shop and as the name suggests there you can enable or disable your Online Store.
The second field is called “Maintenance IP” and it is usually used for only specific IP addresses to be allowed access to your Online Store during the maintenance window. If you would like to enter your IP address only you are provided with the Add my IP button which will automatically detect and insert your IP address in that field.
Once you are ready with the configuration of these two options please use the Save button located at the bottom of the page so the changes can be saved.
Congratulations! You can now activate or deactivate the maintenance mode of your PrestaShop based Online Store!
How to configure the Email templates
The email templates are used by your Online Store when the platform should email the customers about an order or if it should welcome them upon a signup. PrestaShop allows for all the email templates to be configured and predefined so you can easily tailor them based on your needs and personal likes. In the next few lines of this tutorial we will show you how exactly to edit the email templates of your store.
To configure the Email Templates, you will need to:
- Step 1: Access the Email Templates page
- Step 2: Edit an Email Template
Step 1: Access the Email Templates page
The email templates are conveniently stored in the back-end of your store and those are strongly dependent on the translation you are using. For this reason you will need to of course edit the currently used translation. Thus please login into the Back Office of your Store and then navigate to Locallization>Translations.
Once there you will notice that the first section called “Modify Translations” is the one you will need. There you should select from the “Type of translation” drop-down list the last option called “Email Template Translation”.
Once this is done you will need to select the language for that translation. This can be achieved via the “Select your language” drop-down list where you should simply click on the language you would like to edit the translation for.
