I recently ran into an issue with one of my PrestaShop powered stores, the product was in limited supply and shipping more than a preset number of items per order was causing problems.

Luckily I found this excellent module developed by Patrick Puecher:

“PrestaShop maximum order quantity allows you to set a maximum order quantity for each product for PrestaShop 1.4.5.1+. Each customer is able to purchase a maximum quantity of a single item.”

In fact I liked the module so much that I contacted Patrick and asked if I could sell it via my shop here at PrestaThemes, he said yes! so I’m pleased that I’m now able to offer this simple yet fantastic module via my shop.

PrestaShop has made selling products online cost effective, easy and quick, it’s a great ecommerce solution, ironically one area where it’s lacking is in the Payment area.

Internet Merchant Account, or just use PayPal?

For most people, deciding which solution to use for their online store depends on setup costs, time and complexity, this is generally why most smaller online shops opt for a standard PayPal account and use the included PayPal module that is included with PrestaShop.

Whilst there’s nothing wrong with this approach, I imagine many PrestaShop users are frustrated, as the standard PayPal module, although free and simple to setup, looks a little amateurish when compared to a ‘proper’ payment system as used by the big ecommerce websites.

If, like me, you want a middle option, an affordable solution that looks much more professional than a redirect to a PayPal payment page, then what you really need is a ‘PayPal Websites Payments Pro‘ account and a better PayPal Module.

PrestaShop PayPal Payments Pro Module

Well look no further!, the PayPal Direct Module, allows you to accept credit/debit cards directly on your PrestaShop store, no ugly redirects and PayPal payment pages to scare off potential customers here.

Setup is simple, firstly you need a PayPal Website Payments Pro account, if you don’t already have one then simply apply for one via the PayPal website, for UK sellers you also need a 3D Secure account, don’t worry this is free and just requires a simple registration form to be completed online and takes a day or two to be setup, visit this website and complete the required fields with the following details:

Once installed and configured you’ll be able to start accepting credit and debit card payments, you may need to tweak your PrestaShop Theme and/or the included CSS stylesheet ( which needs copying and pasting into your Global CSS file ).

We now use this module in our own store, shop.prestathemes.com and I’ve also just replaced the standard PayPal module on one of my other websites here: stickybottles.co.uk , the module worked perfectly once configured, I did need to make a small alteration to my Themes CSS to align the payment page correctly, however this will depend on your particular Theme.

I hope this post has been helpful, especially to the UK PrestaShop owners out there, as this module is sure to reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts and is also more secure for your customers as it uses the Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode .

A project, which came about purely due to a chance meeting on Google + has evolved into my latest online ecommerce website!

StickyBottles, as I decided to name it, is a brilliant yet really affordable way to make a unique and personalised gift for someone, simply by creating bottle labels that stick over the original label.

A Corking Gift Idea!

Visit StickyBottles.com to create your own personalised bottle label , simply choose a design that you like, add your own text and personalise it with your own message, once purchased, the labels are printed and posted quickly to you and you can stick them over the original bottle label.

Lots of designs to choose from and suitable for all types of bottle, including wine, beer, vodka etc.

Visit StickyBottles.com now and make a boring bottle a Sticky Bottle!

As a Costa Coffee lover myself, I thought wouldn’t it be great if I could order their beans online, well now you can! I created costashop.co.uk to provide a service to other CostaCoffee fans and also to showcase the abilities of the PrestaShop Shopping Cart

So if you live in mainland UK and want to buy Costa Coffee beans Online then visit Costa Shop!

As with all forms of software, there comes a time when an update is released, the difficulty is deciding if you should upgrade or not, having an online shop that requires an update is even more of a difficult decision, after all, for many it’s their livelihood we’re talking about!

Probably the biggest feature of the latest PrestaShop update is the one click upgrade feature, and although this may not be of any help at the moment, it’s sure to make things much easier for us with PrestaShop powered ecommerce stores in the future.

As well as being faster and more efficient, the new PrestaShop 1.4.4 is, in my opinion a worthwhile upgrade, just be careful and take the usual precautions such as backups before you attempt an upgrade!

1.4.4 Compatible Themes

Obviously you must also consider the impact of an upgrade in relation to your Theme, it’s possible that your existing PrestaShop Theme may not look or function correctly, although if you were already running version 1.4 of PrestaShop then there’s a good chance all will be ok.

If you are new to PrestaShop ecommerce, then this is a great time to join the party!, with future upgrades being a one click affair things will be much easier for you.

Free Web Hosting with our PrestaShop 1.4.4 Theme

Even better news, if you are just creating your first online shop and have never had ecommerce experience, then we have a great deal for you. Our PT003 PrestaShop Theme now includes free web hosting for 1 year, so you could have your own web shop from just €20 ( not including domain name )

The website has just gone live and there’s some pretty impressive strongman videos on there!