How to build eCommerce website using Laravel?

Building a Laravel eCommerce website requires a thorough understanding of the eCommerce ecosystem and right data workflows.

With that comes the use of the framework that should be easy to code, have wide community support and should be scalable.

Of all the PHP Frameworks, Laravel as of now is the most suited PHP Frameworks that one should use for their eCommerce shop.

Source: Acuity Software

However, with the complexity involved in developing the eCommerce framework, one should better use a combination of Open Source eCommerce Framework that is truly built on Laravel like Bagisto.

Bagisto is the next-gen eCommerce Framework that offers Multi-Warehouse Inventory out of the box

Here I am going to highlight how you easily set up your eCommerce Shop using Bagisto Laravel eCommerce package.

Bagisto — Laravel eCommerce

Bagisto is an Open Source eCommerce Framework built on tech stack comprising Laravel & Vue.js.

Live Demo – Bagisto

With the code-driven approach and the fully customisable structure, you can easily add/change anything and even deploy your code in Bagisto framework.

Prerequisites

OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or higher or WAMP/XAMPP environment
Server: Apache 2 or NGINX
RAM: 2 GB or higher.
PHP: 7.1.17 or higher.
Processor: Clock Cycle 1Ghz or higher.
MySQL: 5.7.23 or higher.
Node: 8.11.3 LTS or higher.
Composer: 1.6.5 or higher.

Using Composer

Below we are going to describe how you can install bagisto using composer.

Configuration

Follow the below steps to configure Bagisto.

Downloading Bagisto

Open the SSH terminal and go to the specified folder. Run this Command to download the project on to your local machine or server

composer create-project bagisto/bagisto

In case, the composer is not installed in your system, you can run the composer commands, by downloading composer.phar file put in the root directory, then run the below command

php composer.phar create-project bagisto/bagisto

For downloadable zip file

In case you have downloaded the zip file, get inside the directory bagisto-master, then run the below command.

composer install

Setting .env Variables

Once the process has been executed, open the .env file using editors and set your .env variable, especially the ones below:

APP_URL
DB_CONNECTION
DB_HOST
DB_PORT
DB_DATABASE
DB_USERNAME
DB_PASSWORD

For downloadable zip file

If you have downloaded the zip file, you will get the .env.example file. Just make a copy of that file as .env

cp .env.example .env

and set all the .env variable as mentioned above. Once the variables have been set, generate the application key

php artisan key:generate

Installation

Run the commands to continue the installation process

Execute below command to create a migration table in the database as defined in your .env file

php artisan migrate

Now the database will be seeded with default data using seed classes.

php artisan db:seed

With the below command, your configuration, assets (CSS, js, images etc) and all necessary files will be copied to the specified publish location

php artisan vendor:publish
-> Press 0 and then press enter to publish all assets and configurations.

You should create a symbolic link of storage directory with the public using the below command so images will be publicly accessible

php artisan storage:link

This is the end of the installation process.

Installation Video

You can also go through with the video tutorial for the complete installation process.

Accessing Front-End

After successful installation, just need to hit the public folder

and the front page of your website will pop up in front of you.

Accessing Admin Panel

To access the admin panel of your shop, you can follow the below URL

http(s)://example.com/admin/login

And use the following credentials

email:admin@example.com
password:admin123

Using GUI Installer

In the new version recently launched, GUI Installer has been added, which has made the process of setting up your Bagisto eCommerce store much easier.

Kindly follow the below steps to install Bagisto using GUI Installer.

After you have downloaded the Bagisto package and extracted that, click the public folder as there in the directory.
The Bagisto installer will pop up in the next step where it will check for the minimum configuration as mentioned in the prerequisites. If everything is right, click Continue.
In the next step, you need to fill the environment variables. Save and Continue.App Name: Here you need to provide the name of your application or your eCommerce store.
App URL: Here you need to provide the application URL, after hitting which front-end of your store appears
Database Connection: Choose the Database Connection that you will be using.
Database Port: Here you need to provide the port number of the database engine that you would use.
Database Host: Provide database hostname to connect your site to your database.
Database Name: Provide the name of the database that you have created for your store.
Username: Here you need to provide the Database server username for a successful connection.
Password: Provide the password for the database server.
Next, you need to click Migrate and Seed button to perform successful migration and loading test data in the tables.
Once the Migration and Seeder operation is completed, click Continue.
At last, you need to provide Admin details of your eCommerce store.
Click Finish after the installation has been done and you will be redirected to Sign In Page where you can provide admin credentials to check the admin panel.

Conclusion

Above are the steps by which you can easily set up your Laravel eCommerce store Bagisto and modify as per your requirement. As per their roadmap, new features will also be added like Multi-Vendor marketplace and Laravel POS System.

That is to say, the best thing with Bagisto is the simplicity and customisable structure by which you can easily customise the eCommerce Framework.

Moreover, the framework was developed by Webkul which has been the leader in crafting e-commerce extension and plugins for the past 10 years.

Let us know your feedback in comments below or If you are looking for any help regarding Bagisto Installation.