PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution v0.9.7 released

With the release of PrestaShop versions 0.9.6 and now 0.9.7, the beta phase of development enters its final stage. There’s a lot yet to be done, but we’re starting to get excited about the upcoming delivery of our official stable version, PrestaShop 1.0.

Much of our excitement comes from the reactions we’ve been getting of late from our terrific user community and the Web community at large.

Within the past month, PrestaShop has been mentioned favorably on well-known software review Websites such as Webappers, FeedMyApp, Killer Startups, and Web Resources Depot.

Positive feedback about PrestaShop can also be read in many languages: Bloggers have mentioned us in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia, Turkish, Traditional Chinese, German, Greek, Russian, and (bien sûr) French, among others.

Most of all, though, we’re thrilled to see a big increase in the number of new and returning participants in our Community Forum. This can only mean one thing: more users!

The following are improvements made in v0.9.6 and v0.9.7:

+ Bulk Lister. You can now import any .CSV file. This of course allows for easy importing of product databases from any e-Commerce solution that exports into the CSV format.

+ Alias Search. Manage an Alias Search list of anticipated search terms typed in by visitors. This could also be useful for linguistic differences between regions. For example, a search for "appartment" or "apartement" or "apart*" could still result in a hit for apartment, as could flat or lodging if the Alias Search list is set up that way.

+ SMS/text-message notification. Now PrestaShop can send you an SMS every time your store makes a sale! For now, it can only send one message to one mobile phone, but we’ll soon be adding multiple recipients.

+ Cash On Delivery (COD). Receive payment upon delivery of the purchased item.

+ Translations Export & Import. While these features existed before, they had only exported the Back Office translation. We completely rebuilt it and added new functionality; it now exports theme and module translations, too.

Once you’ve completed your translations, please share them with the rest of us by posting them in the Translation section of our Forum:

http://www.prestashop.com/forum/index.php/board,9.0.html

+ Wholesale price in the Back Office. Keep better track of expenditures for accounting purposes.

+ Manufacturers block module. Add a sidebar block of manufacturer/brand links.

+ Suppliers block module. Add a sidebar block of supplier links.

+ Product on sale option. Add an “On Sale” image to product pages.

+ Pre-tax price option. Display the pre-tax price on the product page.

+ Homepage ‘modularization’. Certain elements of the homepage that had been hardcoded, such as the Currency drop-down and the Language flags, have been transformed into modules for easy deactivation or transplantation to other parts of the page.

Official PrestaShop homepage:

http://www.prestashop.com/

Sourceforge project page:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/prestashop/