Browsing the front-office
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Browsing the front-office
A shop's front-office is what customers constantly see when browsing it. It's the interface, the products, the pictures, the description, the whole transaction process, etc.
As a customer, this is all you'll see of a shop during your browsing and buying experience, from start to finish.
As a shop owner, you should know your front-office like the back of your hand, not only because you owe it to yourself to know your shop inside and out, but also because you need to understand what your customers face, the number of pages and clicks they go through during a typical buying sessions, where they might get stuck and how to help them out, etc.
The default theme
PrestaShop comes with a default theme, which uses shades of gray on a white background. This simple design was intentional, in order to be adaptable to just about any line of business: cars, photographs, antiques, or anything at all! It was designed to be easy to browse, ergonomic and standard-compliant. It is complete, has been heavily tested by thousands of shops, and has proven its value.
If you installed PrestaShop with its sample data, you will see Apple products.
While the shop owner can change the front-office theme at any time, thanks to the wealth of themes that are available on the PrestaShop Addons website, we will base this chapter on the default theme only.
Note that we here are describing the default theme with its default settings and modules. Activating other modules or using another theme can dramatically change the shopping experience.
Navigating the shop
Whether your customer arrives on the front page by typing the shop web addresses or lands on a sub-page through a search engine, he or she will always have many options to navigate through the catalog.
The header
The header is a thin bar of content, accessible from any of the front-office pages. It contains several tools and links, which apply to the whole shop:
The shop's logo. Clocking the logo brings the customer back to the front page, from anywhere in the shop.
The currency block. The customer can choose the currency in which the shop should display prices. This is great for comparing prices in foreign currencies.
Contact and Sitemap. These two links take the customer to specific pages, out of the shopping context: contacting the shop administrators, or viewing a complete list of all the pages that are publicly accessible.
Bookmark. This is not a link per se, but a JavaScript action: when clicked, it will prompt the customer's browser to add the shop as a bookmark. The customer can then choose to complete the action or not.
The search engine. Many customers prefer to look for a specific item through the search engine rather than browsing through categories after categories of products. On some online shops, this is actually the preferred way to browse the site's content for most customers.
Welcome, XXX. An invitation for the customer to connect to the shop by entering their credentials. If connected, this will display "Welcome, (firstname)".
Your account. A link to the user's account, or if not connected, to the authentication/registration page.
Cart: (empty). A quick reminder of the current status of the customer's cart. Sometimes customers select items while browsing and forget about them after a few pages. It is therefore essential to give them a way to keep these products in mind.
This header will be consistent across the entire purchasing experience unless custom changes are applied.
The footer
The footer gives access to some of the interesting pages that could be useful to your users.
Three links to product lists:
Specials: all the current promotions.
New products: recently added items.
Top sellers: most popular items.
Four links to informational pages:
Our stores
Contact us
Terms and Conditions
Privacy policy
Right of withdrawal
About us
These links can all be changed by the shop owner: they are CMS pages.
The left column
The default theme's left column stays primarily static, as it mainly serves as a handy placeholder for navigation and secondary links:
(if logged in) "My account" block, with links to the customer's account pages.
Three of the default blocks help the user navigate the shop and filter content: tags, categories and manufacturers are the most common ways by which shoppers look for a given product.
"Viewed products" serves as a reminder of the products previously took interest in, and gives a shortcut back to these if he wants to pick them in the end.
Finally, "Information" is where PrestaShop lists the default static pages, as written by the shop owner: delivery information, legal notices, T&C... They are not selling points, but their content is important enough that it warrants being always available.
"My account" block
Once the customer is logged in, the "My account" block appears in the left column. Its sole purpose is to give the customer quick access to all his or her personal pages:
My orders. All past and currently processing orders.
My credit slips. Received when an order has been canceled, credit slips can be used for any future order.
My addresses. A customer can add multiple addresses for different delivery options.
My personal info. First name, last name, e-mail address, home address, phone number, date of birth: all the necessary information about the customer.
My vouchers. All coupons code that have not yet been used.
This block provides the same content as the "My account" page, which can be accessed from the link on the right of the header.
Tags
The shop owner can indicate a set of tags for each product. A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword, also described as metadata: it is not displayed on the product page as it does not bring any useful information, but it can prove very useful when building thematic lists – such as a tag-cloud, where the most common tags are written in a bigger font than the rarer ones.
Categories
A category is a hierarchical way of sorting items: it can contain any number of sub-categories, making it possible to easily browse from the more general category listings to the more specific products by following a logical path.
A PrestaShop shop can have as many categories and sub-categories as needed, with an infinite number of products in a given category level. All categories are actually sub-categories of the root category, "Home."
This is also the only product list view where the customer can compare products by ticking their checkbox and selecting the "Compare" button.
Viewed Products
Only displayed when the customer has viewed at least one product during the current session.
This block serves as a reminder of the products previously took interest in, and gives a shortcut back to these if he wants to pick them in the end.
Manufacturers
Customers can choose to display all the products from a single manufacturer, regardless of their types or prices.
CMS block
This is where PrestaShop lists the default static pages, as created by the shop owner: delivery information, legal notices, T&C, etc. They are not selling points, but their content is important enough that it warrants being always available.
Advertising block
By default, this block features a simple image with a link to PrestaShop's official website. You can change the settings of this block to turn this into an ad for a friend's website or another shop.
The right column
The default theme's right column hardly ever changes in the course of the shopping experience. Its main block is the "Cart," where the customer can glance over and see what currently in his cart and how much it will cost, and remove unwanted product with a click of the mouse.
The "new products" block presents the latest new products, with links to their respective pages.
It also gives your customers quick access to current promotions (if any) through the "Specials" block. Finally, customers can locate the closest store by clicking on the "Our stores" block.
These three blocks are always available, from any page, in the default theme.
The middle column
This is where the magic happens. The middle section changes constantly in response to the customer's choices.
The front page
The default front page gives the customer a broad overview of the shop and its possibilities. An image and welcome text serve as introduction to the shop.
These are followed by the "Featured products" block, presenting products that the shop owner chooses to highlight, either for their novelty or their current price.
Most seasoned web surfers will visit a shop via a search engine, landing directly on a product or category. Few stumble upon the home page, and this is why it should be tailored to new users.
Product listing pages
Categories, tags, manufacturers, search, specials, best sellers or new products; PrestaShop has many paths to a product, but in the end the customers are given a familiar listing of products, within the chosen context.
Despite the differing content, this listing designs are very similar, in order to keep it familiar even for the newcomers:
Thumbnail on the left
Name and description in the middle section
Price, availability, "Add to cart" button and link to the product's page on the right
This list view enables the customer to see at a glance the products' main information when they already know everything they need about a product, allowing for a quicker decision process.
A click on the "Add to Cart" triggers a quick animation, sending the product's thumbnail flying into the Cart block.
Image mapping
Some categories might feature a header image, where at least two products are displayed, and with direct link to these products. One category can feature an unlimited number of image-maps, which you can scroll through with the tool below.
A "+" symbol is placed upon the products which are linked from that image. The image can feature as many links as necessary: in the default demo shop content, the iPod Nanos image-map features 9 links.
Product sorting
Product listing by category or manufacturer can be further sorted by price, name or availability.
Note that listing by tags does not allow for such sorting.
Product comparison
Products within a category can be compared to each other, thanks to each item's "Select to compare" checkbox. This is the only way to compare products, since there is no sense in comparing products which do not have the same characteristics/features.
Provided the product's information is complete and consistent, the comparison page will display with a row for each comparable feature. This is immensely useful, particularly for products with technical differences.
Customers can compare up to 3 products at a time.
Product pages
This is where all the information entered by the shop owner is available to the user. Depending on the theme design, a product page can be very thorough, with extensive information, or simply present the most essential facts. The default theme is typical in that its most prominent feature is the product images, with a scrolling tool below it.
Next to the images are two blocks:
A "Short description" block, presenting the main facts for the current product.
The "Add to cart" block, with the option to choose among the available variations (as defined by the shop owner) and the quantity to be ordered.
At the bottom of the product page are tabs, the two default ones being:
More info. This is where the customer will find the full description for the product, as entered by the shop owner.
Data sheet. This is where PrestaShop lists all the detailed featured that were entered into database. This data is also the one that is used when comparing two products. Therefore, the content of this tab is very sparsely written: these are just raw facts, far from the product description in the "More info" tab.
The Cart page
Clicking on the "Cart" button from the "Cart" block in the right column, or on the cart symbol in the header, brings the customer to the "Shopping cart summary" page, which is the first step in the order process, as indicated by the breadcrumb trail at the top, indicating the next steps in the order process.
This page gives a succinct but complete view of the items that are in the cart: thumbnail, name, features, availability, price and ability to change the quantity of each product.
Detailed pricing is then displayed below, including the order's total cost with tax and shipping, and if applicable, a description of the voucher that was used. Further below, the available addresses are displayed.
Clicking "Next" starts the check-out process.
Creating an account
Because it is one of the main sources of lost customers for online shops, PrestaShop makes it simple and straightforward to create a customer account.
When clicking the "Your account" or "Log in" links, the visitor is taken to the authentication page, where they have to fill one of two forms:
Create a new account.
Login to an existing account.
The first step for a new customer to create his account is to enter his e-mail address in the form and validate. This will bring him to the account creation page itself. Two blocks of information are necessary to fill in order to get an account:
Personal information. Everything that can uniquely identify the customer: first name, last name, e-mail (already entered), date of birth.
Your address. This will be the default shipping address for this customer - he can have many more, but it's better to ask for one now rather than have him create one while confirming the order, and risk losing a sale.
Once registered, the customer is redirected to the "My account" page, where he can already see what he has access to: order history, credit slips, vouchers, and access to the previously entered information.
Buying a product
Almost every page of your store features an "Add to cart" button for the given product, and displays a quick summary of the cart’s content. This makes it easy for customers to take the first step towards an order.
The whole process of buying a product on a PrestaShop site can follow different paths, but they all reach the same conclusion, in e-commerce lingo, this is called the “conversion funnel”: from the moment the cart is filled and the customer starts to check out, he has to progress through various validation screens until the order is validated and can be processed.
This is called a conversion funnel because this is where a lot of online shops lose clients due to overly long, complicated or numerous screens. Read more on Wikipedia.
This process starts when the customer clicks on either the cart block's "Check out" button (on any page) or the cart's summary's "Next" button (on the Cart page), and always follows the same sequence of screens:
(If the visitor is not logged in) Display the authentication screen, where the visitor can either go to the account creation page or login.
The address-choosing page. Two addresses are necessary for an order:
The billing address, which should be the one that is tied to the payment method.
The delivery address, where the order should be sent. If you need to have it sent to another address, deselect the "Use the same address for billing" box and either select an address from the previously-added ones, or create a new one.
The shipping page. This is where the customer can choose from different shipping- and packaging- related options. Agreeing to the shop's terms of service is a requirement, but depending on what the shop can offer, the customer may be able to choose recycled packaging, gift-wrapping (with an optional gift note), and a choice of carriers that most suits him.
The payment page. The customer can choose many payment options, depending on what the shop owner has set up. Check and credit card are the most common, but PrestaShop makes it easy to offer payment through PayPal, Hipay or other 3rd party providers. The customer clicks on the chosen method and depending on the method, is either sent over to the chosen third-party handler or continues to one of PrestaShop's pages where he can enter the needed details, such as a validation before displaying check or bank wire information.
Once the customer has validated everything, he reaches the summary page, which begins with "Your order on (name of the shop) is complete". Depending on the chosen method of payment, some final information should be provided to the customer, along with a notification that a confirmation e-mail has been sent and a link to the customer support page. The customer must click on the "I confirm my order" button in order to have it validated
Finding a store
One of the great features of PrestaShop is the ability to get a geolocalized list of all the physical stores to which the online shop is tied. If available (as it is in the demo shop), a click on the "Our stores" block will bring up a map with a search form and radius selector.
On this map, stores are indicated using the shop's logo. A click on that logo brings up a small pop-up reveals the full address and phone number, as well as the business hours for the store, as indicated by the shop owner.
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