A new proposal for eCommerce is online multi shops and the appropriate tool to access this technological alternative is Prestashop 1.7. They have excellent management capabilities and extensive customization in one place.

Multi-stores will provide you with a wide number of opportunities, offering an unbeatable experience to eCommerce users.

What is Multistore?

A multi-store is a system that facilitates the management of several online stores with a single administration panel. In other words, you can create several groups of stores with a single manager. This system will allow you to manage different independent stores, suitable for different behaviors. If you wish, it is possible to have common elements such as categories, brands, and product sheets.

It is the ideal system for people who want to manage several online stores at the same time. They are perfect for retailers who want to position themselves in various niches, use different categories, and choose whether customers will be independent of each store or shared. It also allows each store to use different languages, currencies, and even layout.

You will find a great variety of Prestashop 1.7 templates to create your multistore, with a diversity of appearance and themes. This will allow you to choose the format that best suits your preferences or make a different design for each store.

You can also include various functionalities and utility modules such as a blog, cookie notice, the concentration of the purchase process on a single page, among others, which you can activate or deactivate independently for each of the online stores.

Advantages of Multi stores

Among the many advantages of this functionality for owners of online multi-stores, we can mention the following:

Administration Panel Simplification

By allowing you to manage several online stores in the same administration panel, tasks are simplified. The eCommerce administrators can make individual or joint modifications to all stores, reducing management time.

Assignment of various roles

The system allows defining different roles for each eCommerce employee, without the need for them to intervene in the other stores. Through the permission administration, you define the actions that each of the workers managing the online store can take.

The administration permissions can be modified at the necessary moment by the team members, based on their position, without requiring other editing permissions.

Individual customization

The multi-store system allows you to customize each of the online stores separately. Therefore, despite sharing an administration, each of them can be totally different from the other. You can even have different prices in each of your stores. You will have your own combinations for each of the stores, which will give you freedom of movement in management.

Accessibility to the stock of products

You will have access to the stock of your products separately, although it is possible to have a list of published products. When creating a product, the person in charge of the store will have access to the set of products in the stores, in this way avoiding duplication of products.

Different stores with different domains

Each store may have a different domain. It is particularly useful when you market your products in different countries since the name can be changed to the native language, you can also change the currency of each one of them.

Additionally, multi-stores offer benefits for users such as:

• Greater convenience in finding a product
• It does not require visiting the different online stores since the search engine will locate the product in any of the stores.
• They will have access to the stores 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• They will be able to give opinions about the products, which is useful for other buyers
• The level of security and privacy is high.
• The process of product selection, payment, and delivery coordination are simple.

How to activate the Multistore in PrestaShop?

Activating the functionality within your Prestashop eCommerce is very simple. You just have to access the «Preferences» section, «General» section, and select the «Yes» option in «activate the multi-store». Once the option is activated, a new tab will appear with the name “Multishop” in the advanced parameters.

By accessing the Multi-store tab, you will find a general view, in the form of an outline, of all your stores and you can create a new group of stores or include a new one with the name you want. You will be able to manage employee permissions for each of your online stores individually.

Best PrestaShop Multistore modules

Prestashop offers two modules to install multi-stores, which include suitable functionalities for your online store.

Multi-Language and Multi-Store Sitemaps Pro Module – SEO

This is a compliment for your online store that will allow you to optimize and implement a sitemap for your eCommerce, which will make it easier for Google to understand the content and structure within your website.

It will also help you improve your SEO positioning, giving you greater online visibility. This addon allows you to create 4 types of sitemaps:

• One of the product pages.
• One that groups the URLs of all the pages – categories.
• One that groups the URLs of the CMS-type pages
• One for the manufacturer’s pages.

Custom numbering module, invoices orders, multi-store

This module will allow you to customize the invoices, orders, delivery notes, and other printed documents that you need to manage your business. You can customize the official documents of your eCommerce according to your preferences.

recommendations

An online multi-store is ideal if you want to sell products from different sectors, as it will facilitate the approach to your potential customers and increase your sales. It is important that you keep in mind that using different fronts will imply a cost, so it will be necessary for you to consider it in your budget.

On the other hand, it is necessary that you configure the SEO properly, since due to its structure there may be some limitations that would affect the positioning of all your stores. It is recommended that you request the opinion of a Prestashop specialist since a multi-store is not always suitable for everyone. It is necessary that they review your catalogs since if they are very different from each other, only some aspects should be synchronized, which will require a certain level of professionalization.