How to set up multi-store in OpenCart 2.0.x

OpenCart is a powerful ecommerce platform and as such it comes with a built-in multi-store functionality. This means that you can set-up and manage as many stores as you like in just a single OpenCart installation.

In this blog post we will guide you through the steps of setting up multi-store in OpenCart 2.0.x. In order to ease things up the tutorial will be split into two parts: part one - creating a domain or subdomain for your new store and part two - creating the actual store in the OpenCart admin panel.

Creating a new domain or subdomain

Login to your web hosting account control panel. In this tutorial we will be using cPanel. Once you are logged in, navigate to the Domains section.

domain_section.png

Note: Registering a new domain requires purchasing the new domain name from your hosting provider.

1. Create a new domain

Click on the Addon Domains icon in the Domains section. The following screen should appear:

new_domain.png

  • New Domain Name -  here you have to enter the website address of your new store.
  • Subdomain or FTP Username - this should be filled automatically.
  • Document Root - this is the key part of this step. The Document Root directory of your new domain should be exactly the same as the one of your existing OpenCart installation.

After clicking the Add domain button your new website address will be created.

2. Create a subdomain

If you choose to have your other store on a subdomain like mynewstore.mystore.com you just have to click on the Subdomain icon in the Domains section and the following screen will load up:

subdomain.png

  • Subdomain field - this is the place to fill in your subdomain name.
  • Document root - the procedure here is the same as in the previous step. In order to make multi-store work your new subdomain should point to the same Document root directory as your existing OpenCart installation.

Set up multi-store in OpenCart 2.0.x

Login to your admin panel and navigate to System -> Settings and click on the Add new

button at the upper right corner of the page.

insert store.png

This will open a new store configuration window.

new store configuration.jpg

 

Here we can see several different tabs. Lets check each one of them in details.

  • General - the most important setting in this tab is the Store URL. Here you have to specify your new store’s url. In our example this is either the new domain name or subdomain we created in part one of this tutorial - mynewstore.com or mynewstore.yourstore.com

The SSL URL setting is needed in order to provide secure check out in the front-end of your store. If you have a SSL certificate for this domain or subdomain you should enter your SSL URL here.

  • Store - this is the place where you make the main configuration of your store . Here you can specify different theme and default layout.
  • Local - under this tab you can configure your store’s localization settings. Most of the settings are self explanatory, but it is recommended to pay special attention to the Currency setting as it is used to set the specific currency your customers will be prompted with during their checkout.
  • Option - here you can tweak different settings related to Items, Taxes, Account , Checkout and Stock.
  • Image - in this section you can change your store logo, favicon and configure image dimensions.
  • Server - the only option here is to enable or disable the SSL setting.

After configuring all the settings according to your preferences just click the  Save button at the upper right corner of the page.

Assigning specific categories to your new store

Whether you want to create a new category or add an existing one to your new store all you have to do is navigate to the Data tab of the selected category and at the Store section select your newly created store.

Edit Category.jpg

 

Lets see the equivalent settings regarding the products’ management.

Go to Catalog -> Products. Select an existing product or create a new one. Navigate to the Links tab. Here you will find the same Store section where all the available stores are listed. Just select the one which you want the product to appear on.

The same procedure of configuration applies to the other entities as Manufacturers, Information, Layouts etc.

Configuring your store front

OpenCart will duplicate the default layout configuration of your main store to each of the newly created stores. In order to change that and make the stores look different you can go to System -> Design -> Layouts and configure them according to your preferences.

Conclusion

OpenCart multi-store functionality is really easy to use and powerful. It gives you all the necessary settings to configure each one of the stores in the multi-store set up. You can configure different currencies, taxes and have different user groups. This is very useful when using the multi-store functionality to run different stores in different countries. Adding to these features the easy-to-use administration makes OpenCart a really good choice of an e-commerce platform for your next project.

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