Article Overview:
- Background
- Introduction to nopCommerce
- Configuration and Installation of nopCommerce
- First Step: Download Latest version
- Second Step: Load Installation Screen
- Third Step: Create Database to Install
- Fourth Step: Completing Installation
- Summary
- References
Background
nopCommerce is a feature-rich eCommerce platform using which one can develop interactive eCommerce websites. It is one of the best open-source eCommerce platforms that is capable of supporting both individual entrepreneurs as well as large businesses.
nopCommerce - an Open Source and Free eCommerce Solution
Introduction and features of nopCommerce
History
Nop is an open-source eCommerce solution developed using ASP.NET MVC 4.0 and SQL Server 2008. Its development was started in 2008 by Andrei Mazulnitsyn in Russia. It launched officially in October 2008 for small and medium-sized businesses. During 2010-2011, nop reached the finals of Packt Open Source eCommerce Award. It was listed in top 20 most downloaded applications by Microsoft Web Platform Installer.
Demo
One can access the
Nop demo store online without any configuration and installation. It will give you an insight of the rich features and functionality provided by nopCommerce.
Hence, keep it open.
Features
It is a feature-rich eCommerce solution. Here are some of the top features.
- Mobile commerce
- Multi-store
- Multi-vendor support
- Product features
- Search engine optimization
- Checkout
- Marketing
- Payment methods
- Shipping features
- Tax features
- Customer service
- Secure
- Mobile commerce
It has many well-designed responsive templates which scale up or down appropriately and show appropriate content optimized for all kinds of devices and browsers.
- Multi-store
It allows the users to run more than one store with exclusive domains and then manage all of them from the nopCommerce Admin panel.
- Multi-vendor support
It allows multiple vendors to sell on your eCommerce website just like Amazon. Various products from several independent vendors can be viewed in a common product catalog and your online customers can shop at one web store from any of the vendors as per their choice.
- Product features
It has reached a level where if you are not providing a WOW experience to your customer, you are losing the sale. An online shopper expects an eCommerce store to provide global standards.
- Search engine optimization
SEO is must to increase the visibility of your website in search results. nopCommerce provides a comprehensive SEO out of the box.
- Checkout
nopCommerce by default supports well-designed checkout options that are used by most of the eCommerce websites these days including "Anonymous checkout" and "One-page checkout"
- Marketing
nopCommerce offers a variety of popular marketing features such as "Reward Points System", "Discounts and Coupons", "support news, forums, polls, blog, and custom pages (topics)", "Gift Card", "Product Review and Ratings", "Affiliate program", etc. to run marketing campaigns on your eCommerce website.
- Payment methods
nopCommerce is integrated with more than 50 payment methods and gateways hence it gives your customers the freedom to pay the way they wish. Nop is accepting most of all major debit cards and credit cards.
- Shipping features
A well-designed tool which allows an owner to cater to their customers throughout the globe.
- Tax features
It allows assigning tax to order category wise and country/state wise.
- Customer service
It offers some great customer service tools by default, such as "External authentication", "Wish List", "RTL support", "Customer attributes", "GDPR support", "Security and permissions", "Live chat integration", etc., which can help you provide High-Quality Customer Experience.
- Secure
nopCommerce is PCI-DSS compliant. Hence, you can rest assured that the software powering your eCommerce website is safe, secure, and well equipped in handling your customer’s information and financial transactions
Configuration and Installation of nopCommerce
It is very easy to download and install nopCommerce on your computer or a local machine. Just follow the following steps step-by-step in the mentioned sequence.
First Step - Download the latest version
- Visit nopCommerce website and click on the “download” tab and then click on “Download nopCommerce” option. You will reach the nopCommerce Download page.
- Choose the first option that says “nopCommerce 4.00 – Source code” and download the nopCommerce setup to your computer.
- After downloading the nopCommerce setup file, extract the file.
Second Step - Load Installation Screen
- After extracting, open the nopCommerce Setup in Visual Studio.
- Once the Visual Studio is open, wait for the solution to load.
For installation, then, click on “Nop Web” and right-click on “Presentation”.
Click on Internet explorer button in the middle.
It will open up the browser and will load the installation screen of nopCommerce.
Third Step - Create a Database to Install
After opening, right-click on “Database” folder and then left-click on the “New Database” option to create a new database where the nopCommerce database will be installed.
Now, name your database (as per your choice). Over here, we are using the name “testdatabase” and then click “Ok” at the bottom. It will create a new database entry and also without tables.
Fourth Step - Completing Installation
After creating the database, go back to the nopCommerce installation screen and fill in the required field to create an Administrator. Then, check the box for “Create Sample Data”.
Now, select “Database” radio-button “Use SQL Server (or SQL Express) database [Recommended]”.
Then, select radio-button of “Connecting string” option “Enter SQL connection value”.
Important Note
Please make sure you note down the Administrator credentials as they will be needed to make changes to your eCommerce website.
After this, you need to fill the database information for the database we created in the SQL Server Management Studio.
From the Server Management Studio credential screen, the name of the server should be obtained
The Database name is “testdatabase” as we created.
In the next fields, use the credentials that you use for your SQL Server Management Studio software.
- After all the above fields are filled properly click the button “Install” and the nopCommerce will be installed on your computer.
- To confirm the installation go back to SQL Server Management Studio and refresh it, you find all the tables installed during the nopCommerce installation process listed under the newly created database table folder
- To access your administrator panel for your ecommerce website to go back to the browser and click on “login” and then enter the “Administrator credential” that you used during the installation process
Now, access Admin panel and customize your store as per your requirements.
Summary
Compared to other open-source eCommerce solutions, the project structure of nopCommerce is well organized, highly scalable, and easy to customize.
One of the best things about nopCommerce is that it is “Free” and there are no hidden fees or any other traps. It best fits today’s highly competitive business environment. It is a robust eCommerce platform which caters to everyone's needs.
References
- https://www.nopaccelerate.com/nopcommerce-review-all-you-need-to-know-about-nopcommerce/#prettyPhoto
- http://demo.nopaccelerate.com/en/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NopCommerce
- https://www.youtube.com/user/nopCommerce