What Are the Highlighted Features of Prestashop 1.7.5?

1.7.5.0 is the new minor release of the PrestaShop software, available for download, based largely on feedback from our community. We are committed to developing new innovations through collaborative working, from the ideas selection phase right through to implementation.

“We are proud to unveil this release to our community, with its wealth of new features for our merchants. It promises significant gains in productivity and performance, and is a real step forward in terms of Mobile and Social Networks”, states Alexandre Eruimy, CEO of PrestaShop.

1. New features in tune with the needs of users

As a direct result of working together with the community, this release provides a package of optimizations that will allow merchants to make considerable time savings in their recurring store management tasks.

Our aim is for greater performance both for the software itself and for the features offered (simplified administration, SEO, loading time, etc.), whilst satisfying the requirements and expectations of users.

2. Improvements and new features

Improvements in detail

For the back office:

• SEO optimizations have been made to the pages for categories, brands & suppliers, content (CMS); this brings an added advantage in terms of SEO rankings for stores as they are better recognized by search engines;

• A dynamic preview (on Google) of product meta tags is now featured, which is useful for ensuring that tags are completed and positioned correctly;

• Editing of specific prices: no need to edit and then delete specific prices for each promotion! From now on, and with just a few clicks, merchants will be free to modify the specific prices created for their products (including dates, countries, combinations, etc.), which will make it easier to set up promotional activities throughout the year;

• Physical stock management: it is possible to add a reference on customer order pages to indicate the physical location of the products in storage (shelf, aisle, warehouse, etc.). This storage location is specified on the product pages in the merchants’ back office. An essential tool for facilitating order processing and preparation;

• Now more intuitive, the new categorization for installed modules will make it easier to access these modules by using more precise terms and a sort by last use feature;

• The Notifications tab is split into two categories with specific functions:

– Updates to receive notifications for the functions that need to be updated to their latest version.

– Alerts to receive notifications about any alerts requiring rapid response (e.g. if a module needs to be configured or, more rarely, if it is corrupt).

This purpose of this new configuration is to make this page more legible with a direct view of pending actions with varying degrees of urgency;

• For new merchants, tips and advice on configuring SEO for the homepage is available on the SEO & URLs page. This provides better guidance on SEO for on-line stores in line with the criteria set out by the various search engines;

For front office:

• A different menu structure suited to Mobile browsing will add more user comfort and offer a more seamless experience;

• Optimized page loading times (chiefly the homepage, categories, products, order history pages) will lend greater responsiveness and performance: loading time will be between 15% and ten times quicker depending on the pages and usage scenarios.

New modules

• Buy Button Lite: This module generates links to be added to blog content, to an email campaign or to Facebook or YouTube posts, that will redirect visitors straight to their shopping cart in the merchant’s on-line store. These links are attached to products added automatically to the shopping carts created. Ideal for boosting conversion rates and high-quality traffic.

A Premium version is available in Marketplace Addons to extend this to card integration and statistics.

• Favicon notifications in the back office: Notifications of new orders for processing, new messages or new clients are no longer hidden in the back office! Simply select which notifications are relevant to you, and these will appear directly on your browser tab.

• Official Pixel Facebook: it is now possible to export a product catalog automatically to a Facebook Business Manager account.

• Google Sitemap: this module generates an .xml file containing the set of pages for a website; an important tool for improving the way that Google interprets a website’s tree structure and thereby for optimizing SEO for an e-commerce store.

• Cross-selling: on the product page, the products frequently bought together are displayed below the product. The ideal module for boosting the average cart value!

• Products viewed: this module promotes the add-to-cart feature by displaying recently viewed products on the product page.

New languages

Six new languages have been added to the PrestaShop installation, meaning there are now 43 languages available in the software installer: Arabic, Bosnian, Galician, Hindi, Latvian and Mexican Spanish.

3. How will users benefit from these optimizations and new features?

• Agencies will be able to boost and attract new customers with the optimizations in this version (functionality and front-office performance). In addition, the new features – such as the introduction of the Buy Button module – will be appreciated by customers who are present on social networks, or have blogs or YouTube channels. We are also continuing to focus our efforts on gradually migrating our software to the Symfony framework, which will offer greater stability and flexibility for projects.

•  Novice merchants will receive better guidance and it will be quicker and easier for them to familiarize themselves with the solution from the very first use. It’s simply a case of providing all the tools needed to use the solution to its full and making the experience as straightforward and as pleasant as possible.We will continue to work on optimizing functionality in terms of both SEO and browsing (UX, mobile), in keeping with our aim to provide a solution that is easy to use, seamless and user friendly.

• With the new UX guide as their reference, developers will enjoy access to tips, good practice and trends to follow when designing their module interfaces; an ideal reference when working to find ergonomic and graphic solutions, to overcome certain complexities relating to browsing or architecture, and to offer merchants a user experience of the highest quality.

Download PrestaShop 1.7.5.0 now!

Moving forward

Continuing on this basis, we have identified and are already working on developments for future releases.

Here are some of the different projects already underway:

• Price filters in faceted navigation (slider);
• Next stage of Symfony migration project for back office pages;
• Improving and reintegrating the most popular native modules from version 1.6 (with the Product Reviews, Wishlist, Legal Compliance, VAT number and Reassurance modules as a priority);
• Reworking the currency display function in the front office and adding settings for creating non-official currency (cryptocurrency, local currencies, etc.);
• Redesigning the transactional email template;
• Catalog mode with and without prices displayed.

The next version (1.7.6) is planned for release in Spring 2019. In the meantime, we encourage our community to adopt these features and improvements, to share their feedback and to report any issues experienced on the PrestaShop 1.7. We support the involvement of our community in any initiatives for development of the solution (feedback, beta testing, etc.) and to shape the future of PrestaShop.

Would you like to become a Beta tester and be the first to try out all the latest features? Just click HERE.

Source: https://www.prestashop.com/en/blog/features-prestashop-1-7-5-0