Nowadays, it’s essential for any company to have an online presence.
Having a showcase site allows you to showcase your company, its products and services to the world.
Prestashop, before being one of the most widely used solutions for building an online store, is also a CMS.
Let’s take a look at why and how to use Prestashop to build a showcase site.
We’ll also see if there’s an alternative.
A few reminders about Prestashop
Prestashop is an open-source solution for developing an online store.
Prestashop offers all the functionalities needed to manage an e-commerce business: product catalog management, inventory management, customer management, order management, payment management… It is one of the most powerful e-commerce solutions, and undoubtedly one of the most widely used in the world.
Beyond the online store, Prestashop is a true CMS (Content Management System).
As such, it can also be used to create a showcase site for your company, much simpler than a full-fledged store.
Why create a showcase site?
A showcase site is primarily used to present a company and its activities.
In particular, it allows you to describe and promote your products and services.
A showcase site cannot be used for online transactions, for example.
Rather, it’s a point of contact, a gateway for Internet users and customers to find the company more easily.
While a showcase site remains simple, it does offer a number of advantages:
- Corporate visibility: your company and its activities are visible 24/7 worldwide.
- Credibility: the site reinforces the company’s credibility by demonstrating its professionalism.
- Marketing: products, services and company news are highlighted to attract new customers.
- Contact: you can contact the company at any time via the showcase site to obtain a quote more quickly.
Why use Prestashop to create a showcase site?
As a full-featured CMS, Prestashop offers many advantages when it comes to creating a showcase site.
Easy presentation of products and services
Thanks to its catalog management functions, it’s easy to create pages presenting the products and services offered by your company.
Visitors can easily find out what you have to offer, and keep up to date with what’s new.
With specialized pages, you can promote your brand and make it known worldwide, especially with Prestashop’s language management features.
Optimize your company website’s SEO
The advanced SEO features of the Prestashop CMS help optimize your site’s search engine optimization.
The management of keywords, meta-descriptions, titles and urls enables you to position your storefront site more precisely on the most relevant search engine queries.
Easily upgrade your showcase site to an e-commerce site
With all the necessary functionality already natively present, it will of course be much easier to upgrade a Prestashop-developed showcase site to a full-fledged online store.
The disadvantages of using Prestashop to create a showcase site
Prestashop is an open source solution that can be downloaded free of charge, making it quick and easy to create a website.
It’s therefore an ideal solution for creating a showcase site for small businesses.
However, for larger companies, or if you have particular needs in terms of functionality or simply appearance and layout, you’ll probably need to consider extensions or paid themes.
If you want a more advanced or highly customized design, or features that can’t be implemented natively (such as a survey mechanism, for example), you’ll almost certainly have to pay for a theme or extension.
Last but not least, Prestashop requires a certain amount of skill to fully customize it.
If you want to create a theme that reflects your company’s image, or adapt an existing one, you’ll undoubtedly need to call on the services of an experienced developer.
So it’s important to take these additional costs into account before opting for Prestashop for the development of a showcase site.
The initial investment may be worthwhile if, for example, you plan to switch from a showcase site to an online store in the medium term.
How do I create a showcase site with Prestashop?
Choosing a hosting and domain name
One of the first things to do is choose a domain name, which will determine the address at which the site will then be available.
It must be representative of the company and its activity.
The next step is to select the hosting solution that will enable the deployment of a Prestashop site.
There are many different packages available, ranging in price from a few euros to several dozen euros per month.
Hosting companies generally offer packages that include the domain name in the price (note that this often has to be renewed after one year) and the space dedicated to hosting the site.
Download, install and configure Prestashop
Once you’ve chosen your web host and domain name, you’ll need to download and install the latest version of Prestashop.
You can do this on a local development server or directly at the hosting provider.
Disable e-commerce features
Disabling features you don’t need will also improve site performance.
There’s no need to manage shopping carts, orders, stocks or sales statistics.
As all these functionalities are not loaded when a page is displayed, the site will be all the faster and the user experience improved.
Customize your website
With the basic configuration complete and only the essential functionalities activated, it’s now time to customize the site.
Select a Prestashop theme and adapt it to your corporate identity.
Getting to grips with the CMS is relatively straightforward, and you’ll be able to create your catalog of products and services, as well as explanatory pages, for example.
Beware, however, that this phase may require some knowledge of development in order to be able to really personalize the site.
Don’t hesitate to call in a professional.
Think of this additional cost as an investment.
An experienced developer will save you time and give you a showcase site that truly reflects your company’s identity.
WordPress, the real alternative to Prestashop for a showcase site?
Creating a showcase site with Prestashop can be a real plus if you’re planning to turn it into an online store in the short or medium term.
If this isn’t the case and you really only want to keep a showcase site, Prestashop may not be the best solution.
Having to deactivate a number of e-commerce functionalities and add paid modules to fully customize the site introduces a complexity and cost that may be too great for a showcase site.
It’s probably better to opt for a solution more suited to the creation of a simple showcase site: WordPress.
WordPress is a simple, flexible CMS.
It’s often used to create showcase sites or more complex websites.
It also offers a wealth of free themes and modules for customizing a site.
It can be set up and customized just as quickly as Prestashop, but there’s no need to disable a number of native features to create a showcase site.
It’s important to note that WordPress powers nothing less than around a third of the world’s websites.
While WordPress is easier to get to grips with than Prestashop, don’t hesitate to call on an experienced WordPress developer to set up your showcase site.
Once again, it’s an investment in the future.
To conclude on the Prestashop showcase site
Prestashop remains the logical choice if you want to create a showcase site that will evolve into an online store in the near future.
However, if you know you’ll never need e-commerce functionality, you’re probably better off with a simpler, more reliable solution like WordPress.
In any case, don’t hesitate to call on an experienced developer to build your showcase site.
You’ll save time, avoid unnecessary stress and ultimately reduce the cost of building your site.
I’ve been a developer for many years, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like to create your own website.
Equally at ease with Prestashop or WordPress, I’ll be able to advise you and we’ll work together to determine the solution best suited to your needs.
