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  • First steps with PrestaShop 1.5

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Overview of the interface

The

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top bar

At the top of the back-office is a black containing a handful of links:

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Tip
Reinstalling rather than deleting
Reinstalling rather than deleting

While deleting all this data takes only a handful of minutes, you might prefer to not have to do it at all. In this case, you can install your shop again and chose choose not to install the sample data during the installation process: simply relaunch the installer, and in the "Shop Configuration" screen, choose "No" for the "Install demo products" option. ONLY DO THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T CUSTOMIZED ANYTHING YET.

Note that you will also lose some useful content, such as all the modules, the default theme, as well as the default contacts and administration profiles, which you will have to recreate by yourself. In short: you'd be better off deleting the sample content by hand.

Configure your shop's information

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To create an employee account, go to the "Employees" menu, select "Employees", and click the "Add new" button. Fill in the details, and do not forget to select the employee profile at the bottom. Once done, click the "Save" button.

Payment configuration

Your shop is meant to earn money, and this can only become a reality if you use at least one payment module. 13 modules are already available in the default install, which you can install and configure (from the "Modules" page, "Payments & Gateways"). Many payment modules require you to first set up an account on the service they were built for.

See the "Managing Payment Methods" chapter of this guide in order to learn about them all.

You can also install other payment modules, downloaded from the Addons marketplace: http://addons.prestashop.com/en/4-payments-gateways

Carrier configuration

Managing orders

Theme choice

Modules choice

Activate your shop

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Products sold on your shop must be shipped to your customers – unless you only sell downloadable products, in which case the "Shipping" tab will be of little use to you.

Whether you are sending your products yourself by mail, or you have set up a contract with a carrier, you should set these information within PrestaShop.

See the "Managing Shipping" chapter of this guide in order to learn you shipping and carriers.

Theme choice

Your shop should have its own theme in order to have a distinctive style, and therefore be more recognizable, separating it from the numerous other shops online.

There are many themes to choose from on the PrestaShop Addons marketplace: http://addons.prestashop.com/en/3-templates-prestashop

You can also choose to create your own theme, or have it created for you by a developer. Refer to the online Designer Guide for help, at http://doc.prestashop.com/

Modules choice

PrestaShop comes bundled with more than a hundred modules. These are very varied: analytics, front-office features, payment, shipping... You should explore the available modules in full, in order to know which ones you might want to enable, and which you'd rather keep disabled.

See the "Managing Modules" chapter of this guide in order to learn about them all.

You can also install other payment modules, downloaded from the Addons marketplace: http://addons.prestashop.com/en/2-modules-prestashop

Every time you activate and configure a module, make sure that it does work will within the confines of your theme, if its features impact your shop's front-end.

Create products and product categories

This is described in details in the next chapter, "Adding Products and Product Categories".

Create

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This is described in details in the next chapter, "Adding Products and Product Categories".

Build your top menu ("Top horizontal menu" module)

static content

If you haven't done this already, you should take the time to write the content for the various CMS that are either already present in the PrestaShop, or that you feel should be created.

Some page already exist, but their content should really be triple-checked, as they can have a lot of impact on your shop's legal status, among other things.

The default pages are "About Us", "Delivery", "Legal Notice", "Terms and Conditions", and "Secure Payment". Some of them have default content, which you should update; some others are empty, and you should paste your own text.

To edit these pages, go to the "Preferences" tab, click the "CMS" options, then choose the page you want to edit, or create new ones.

You can create as many pages as you feel is necessary.

Build your top menu

Now that you have product categories and CMS pages, you should arrange them in a logical and compelling way in the top menu.

This is done using the "Top horizontal menu" module: go to the "Modules" page, type "menu" in the module search form, and you should find the module. Enable it if it is disabled, then configure it: remove the pages or categories you deem unnecessary, add other pages, move the content around, until you are satisfied with your menu's hierarchy.

Activate your shop

Now that all is set and done, you can finally open your shop to the public.

Go the "Preferences / Maintenance" page, and change the two options:

  • Enable Shop: set it back to "Yes".
  • Maintenance IP: remove your IP from the list. This is optional: your shop will still work if you leave the field as it is.

Your shop should now be fully read to receive its first visitors... and its first orders!