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Many budding entrepreneurs rely on an ecommerce hosting service to handle the technical needs involved in setting up an online store so they can focus on selling and marketing. But Paula Slof doesn't rely on her hosting service to do all the work for her Paula and Chlo Handbags store. The service provider PrestaShop provides a starting point - a foundation that she and her programmer can customize and develop into a successful Internet business.

Slof, of Franklin, Michigan, signed up about a year ago with PrestaShop for a free ecommerce store after less-than-positive experiences with other hosting services. Her programmer, Stephanie Fredrickson of Sweet Boutique Designs, was able to customize her Paula & Chlo Handbags store thanks to PrestaShop's open platform.

"My programmer is able to customize everything for me," explains Slof. "She can write her own code or get one of hundreds of modules from PrestaShop. Some of the modules are free and some we purchased, but they allow us to customize our site and shape it into exactly what we want. The open platform allows the site to grow with me, as opposed to growing out of it. That makes it a good investment."

Other businesspeople who want to find a designer or programmer to help get their stores looking and functioning well can find them, says Matt Serralta, Chief Operating Officer of PrestaShop, which is based in Paris and Miami. "PrestaShop has a large network of certified agencies and freelancers who can design websites for merchants of all sizes, should the need arise."

But he adds that programmers aren't necessary. Most of the setup time merchants encounter is spent uploading photos and descriptions to their online catalogs, he says. "The time it takes to setup a fully-functional online store really depends on the merchant and the level of customization that's required."

PrestaShop was founded by Bruno Leveque and Igor Schlumberger in 2007. "When we opened our doors, we employed five people and powered approximately 200 active online stores worldwide," says Serralta. Nearly a year later, PrestaShop released its open-source ecommerce solution and made it available to anyone. Today, PrestaShop has 100 employees and is used to run about 125,000 active online stores in more than 150 countries.

PrestaShop is currently extending its reach to U.S. sellers; it now hosts more than 10,000 stores in this country. While it's free to download the PrestaShop shopping cart software, hosting a website via PrestaShop will cost about $5 per month depending on a store's level of traffic. Store owners can upload a CSV-formatted spreadsheet to import their sales listings in bulk or import them from other websites. Catalog items can be exported to eBay.

"In addition to hosting, merchants will also need to select and establish a payment-processing solution," adds Serralta. "Once an online payment solution is chosen, merchants will have to pay processing fees directly to a customers' credit card provider each time a transaction is made."

Marketing is a challenge for any online business, and PrestaShop store owners get some help with SEO when they use store templates that populate information in a way that maximizes exposure in search engine results.

"PrestaShop's source code has also been written to give merchants complete control of their online SEO by having the ability to modify the SEO data for each static page," says Serralta. "That said, driving traffic to one's store also depends on outside factors that are not controlled by the application. Many merchants elect to capitalize on different marketing activities such as advertising with Google, Facebook, newsletter marketing, weekly specials, writing blog articles and even creating YouTube Videos."

In addition to using SEO features and self-marketing tactics, online merchants can utilize native partner modules to distribute newsletters, create detailed marketing campaigns, promote products via social networks, host a blog feed, or offer loyalty programs. Some modules are provided by PrestaShop, some by third-party developers, and others by members of the PrestaShop community. Prices for the modules range from zero to $199, for example.

Slof, for her part, does include a blog on her storefront. The store is also on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest. A mobile version of the store is part of PrestaShop's free ecommerce package. "I do think that the mobile application is really important considering how many people use their phone and tablets for buying online," she adds.

With one previous ecommerce platform, when she posted a question she once received an answer three months later. PrestaShop's customer service has been far more responsive. "It's nice knowing there is someone there to help if we need it." When asked to provide tips for other merchants considering ecommerce software, she recommends not trying to do it all yourself. "Make sure the online seller looking to create a PrestaShop site hires a talented programmer," she says.

Find more information about PrestaShop features and access a demo on this page.

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About the author:

Greg Holden is EcommerceBytes Contributing Editor. He is a journalist and the author of many books, including "Starting an Online Business For Dummies," "Go Google: 20 Ways to Reach More Customers and Build Revenue with Google Business Tools," and several books about eBay, including "How to Do Everything with Your eBay Business," second edition, and "Secrets of the eBay Millionaires," both published by Osborne-McGraw Hill. Find out more on Greg's website, which includes his blog, a list of his books, and his fiction and biographical writing.

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