How To Use Magento Multistore?

The main use of the Magento multistore functionality is to set up multiple stores that can be accessed on different URLs for the same Magento installation. All the stores present under the Magento multistore installation are connected to the same backend, this makes the administration easier.

The first step for setting up Magento multistore is to have Magento installed, you can install Magento either through Softaculous or manually. You can start building the multistore after installing Magento.

Refer to the steps mention below for adding a new store:

Login and go to the backend of your Magento installation
Go to ‘catalogue’ and click on the ‘Add Root Category’ option
Enter the name of your store
Select the ‘Yes’ option through the drop down menu of the ‘Is Active’ option
Click on ‘Display Settings’ and select ‘Yes’ from the drop down menu of the ‘Is Active’ option
Save the category

Once the category is saved, a new store can be created with the steps mentioned below:

Go to ‘System’ and click on ‘Manage Stores’
Click on the ‘Create Website’ option
Enter the name of your website, example – mywebsite.com and for code we will use the example – mywebsite.
Save the website
Create on the ‘Create Store’ button
Select mywebsite.com for the ‘Website’ and ‘Root Directory’
Save the store and click on the ‘Create Store View’ option
Select the new store that you created from the drop down menu (mywebsite.com)
Select ‘Enabled’ for the store status
Click on ‘Save the store view’

The last part of completing the store creation is to configure the store settings through your Magento configuration. For that, refer to the steps mentioned below:

Go to System > Configuration
Select the store that you created from the ‘Current Configuration Scope’ drop down menu present on the left hand side
Go to the ‘Web’ tab, uncheck the option – ‘Use Default’ present next to ‘Base URL’
Change both the ‘Secure’ and ‘Unsecure’ URLs to your domain
Save the configuration