The advantages of PrestaShop's multistore feature

PrestaShop is undoubtedly one of the best e-commerce platforms for creating your online store. This is due to its flexibility, robustness, and growth potential. Among these possibilities, the use of the multistore PrestaShop's feature stands out, allowing us to manage various stores from a single PrestaShop back office or administration panel, while maintaining their independence and being able to develop completely different behaviors.

Advantages of PrestaShop's Multistore

• Each store will have its own distinct design.
• Each store will have its own domain.
• Each store will have its main language.
• Each store will have its own SEO.
• Each store will have its own shipping costs and payment systems.
• Each store can have its own customers or share them with others, so when a customer registers in one of the stores, their account will be available in the others.
• Assign different roles to users. We can thus assign the management of each store to a different user.
• Each store can generate its own invoices with its own numbering.

Advantages at the product catalog level

• Stores can share categories, brands, and product listings. Every time we add a category or product in the back office, we decide in which store or stores it will be shown, avoiding duplications and errors, as well as saving a lot of time in managing our store.
• We can have different prices for a product in each store.
• The stock control of the stores can be joint, thus maintaining a single control center, even though the product is sold in several stores. It is possible to access the stock of products separately, although it is possible to have a list of published products.

Disadvantages of PrestaShop's multistore

Implementing a multistore in PrestaShop, although it offers numerous advantages, also entails certain disadvantages that must be carefully considered:

• Complexity in management. Managing several stores through a single control panel can complicate daily management, especially if the stores have very different needs in terms of products, promotions, and pricing strategies. It must be acknowledged that the panel is not as user-friendly as possible.
• Maintenance and updates. The need to maintain and update multiple sites simultaneously can increase the workload and costs. This is especially important in the selection of Addons since not all are adapted for multisites; you must always read the fine print of the Addons before buying them.
• Server costs. Although a PrestaShop multisite is installed on a single hosting, and that a priori seems like a cost saving, however, at the SSL level, we will find ourselves with the obligation to hire premium paid SSL and the need to hire more powerful hosting.
• SEO and duplicate content. If not managed properly, the content of the stores can fall into duplicate content, which will penalize us in the SEO of the online stores. We must ensure that each store has unique content and is optimized correctly for search engines.
• Brand consistency. Maintaining consistency in the application of the brand and the brand language is important. It is essential to have clear brand guidelines and ensure that all stores follow them to maintain a strong and consistent brand identity.

When is the use of PrestaShop's multistore recommended?

• When we want, for example, to sell our products under two differentiated e-commerce sites. We can thus compete with ourselves or target various market niches or consumer targets, but simplifying their management.
• It also allows us to target various geographical markets. So when a company plans to expand internationally and needs to adapt its offer, prices, and marketing strategies to the particularities of each region or country. The multisite allows creating specific stores by country or region, facilitating the localization of content and the offer and, at the SEO level, it even allows us to work with a territorial domain for each store, improving positioning in each target market.
• It is also very helpful when we want to carry out centralized management but with different operational, logistical, or marketing needs among the stores. In this case, the multisite allows us to take advantage of synergies in management but customizing each store according to its specific needs. A classic example would be a company that wants one store for individual customers and another private one for professional clients.

Conclusions

Before implementing a multistore strategy in PrestaShop, we must carry out a detailed evaluation of all the points analyzed and see if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in the medium and long term.