Before You Start: Key Concepts
Throughout this post, two very important words will appear: Backoffice and Frontoffice. Here is what they mean:
Backoffice: This is the part where you will modify your store.
Frontoffice: This is the part that your customers will see.
Initial Store Setup
Enable friendly URLs
This serves to enhance the SEO of your store. To enable them, go to the Backoffice menu Preferences > SEO and URLs, and look for the "Link configuration" section. By activating this, you ensure that the URLs of your store are search engine friendly, which is beneficial for the SEO of your store and therefore for your sales.
General Settings: Store Information
In this step, you will enter billing information and email for your store. To do this, go to the Backoffice menu Preferences > Store Contacts, and fill in the fields in the "Contact Details" section with information about the store you are setting up.
Design & Customisation
Change the logo and customization
To change the logo, you have to go to the Backoffice menu Preferences > Themes. In PrestaShop, you have the opportunity to select different logos for desktop, mobile, etc. How you customize the template depends on which theme you are using.
Modify the Frontoffice
To modify the Frontoffice, go to the Modules and Services menu in the Backoffice and search for the module of the part you want to edit. For example, if you want to modify the top part with the large image slideshow, you would search for "Image Slideshows for your website" in Modules and Services.
Modify the columns
Templates for PrestaShop are usually designed for 2 or 3 columns: left, right, and center. In the default theme, you can activate or deactivate any of the side columns. To access this, go to the Backoffice menu, select Preferences > Themes, and click on the "Advanced Settings" button to activate or deactivate the columns you want.
Customize font and text color
The default theme has options for modifying the font and color without editing CSS code. To change this configuration, go to the Backoffice menu Modules and Services, and look for "Theme Configurator". Once there, find the option to enable live configuration and set it to "Yes". After activating this option, go to the Frontoffice and an icon will appear that allows you to modify styles directly.
Catalogue Management
Manage categories
Categories are very useful because they allow you to keep your store well organized. To create categories, go to the Backoffice menu Catalog > Categories. Here you can create categories and, within these, create subcategories.