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PrestaShop releases free OS e-Commerce soln

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CIOL Bureau
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PARIS, FRANCE: PrestaShop, a leader in open-source e-Commerce, has announced the release of its first official stable version, 1.0, as well as the unveiling of its newly redesigned Website, PrestaShop.com.

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The PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution v1.0 makes its debut as mature, production-ready, shopping-cart software for the Web 2.0 era.

Why PrestaShop? In order to reach the increasing number of online shoppers, business owners have been searching for the best system for extending their activity to the Internet.

"The first generation of e-Commerce software, still prevalent in today's market, was based on the traditional 'proprietary' software model," said Bruno Lévêque, PrestaShop CEO. "This is software created by a staff of developers that is sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars and, often, requires monthly payments. Only the software company has access to the source code, so fixes and improvements can only be made by its developers, who sometimes struggle to keep up with user requests.

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"PrestaShop, on the other hand, is a committed member of the open-source software movement. Anyone can download PrestaShop software, and a growing number of people do - at a rate of more than 25,000 downloads per month. This world-wide user community helps our developers fix bugs and make feature improvements at a rapid rate.

"And, like other open-source e-Commerce applications such as osCommerce, PrestaShop is free. Its license (OLS 3.0) is one of the least restrictive. And users aren't even required to register first."

A professional Open-Source solution

Some small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) cast a wary eye upon open-source software, concerned that it is too complicated to use or not sophisticated enough to handle their business needs, or both.

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Igor Schlumberger, President of PrestaShop, said that while this hesitation is understandable, the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution is as powerful as it is user-friendly, for both shoppers and shop owners.

"Businesses love PrestaShop because it's easy to manage their online stores," said Schlumberger. "Customers love PrestaShop because its smooth, Web-2.0 interface is pleasant to shop on. And software developers love PrestaShop because it's easy to integrate and because the user community is very active and helpful - for example, PrestaShop users have already translated PrestaShop into over 20 different languages, and it's only at version 1.0."

Scalable and modular

The PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution was built to grow as your business grows. Thanks to its admin tool (Back Office), it is easy to customize PrestaShop by adding or deleting functionality according to your needs. Developers appreciate the uncluttered framework and clean PrestaShop code.

PrestaShop can also host customer Websites on their servers, and help create additional visitor traffic with its search engine optimization (SEO).