Saleor: Headless eCommerce Platform Overview

3.8.2020 Open-source platform, built with Python (Django) and JS (React.js), with a GraphQL API Why Saleor What is Saleor Dashboard overview Conclusion Reading time: 6 min. Watch on YouTube

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It is fairly difficult to find information about Saleor on the internet.

Yandex.Wordstat shows that as of 22.07.2020, only 26 people were interested in the Saleor platform.

When we started writing this article, we understood that perhaps no one would read it. However, a few years ago in

The same was true for Magento in CIS.

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Why Saleor?

Saleor caught my attention because in eCommerce, it is rare to build something from scratch.

A CMS is used more often because ready-made solutions cover the main user scenarios. In this case, we see a solution from developers who know Magento inside out and rewrote the platform in a new way, taking the latest requirements into account. The solution, which started in 2016, does not need to support a huge number of legacy dependencies.

The second reason is the cost of developers' work.

Any CMS needs finishing work and custom modules.

To do this, you need to assemble a team of developers.

The best-known CMS platforms are Magento, Bitrix, and WordPress.

They are all written in PHP.

PHP developers started their careers in development about ten years ago, and now their level is middle and senior.

They will need to be paid accordingly.

Saleor is written in Python, a language popular among programmers. Those who are learning programming today often choose Python. In the TIOBE Index, it ranks third in the world in popularity.

This is both an advantage and a drawback: the number of developers on the market is growing. The drawback is that in such conditions, someone who was a junior just half a year ago may already call themselves a senior, so the pool of candidates seems larger, but finding competent specialists is not that easy because only a small share of this variety can actually deliver.

The third reason is that the Saleor license is free.

And this is less about budget savings than simply about not having to approve payment requests every year. From a business perspective, that is enough reason to take a closer look at Saleor.

This article is an overview of the out-of-the-box functionality of the Saleor CMS. We will not go into the development details.

This article will be useful for CTOs, retail executives, entrepreneurs, and anyone planning to launch an eCommerce project.

What is Saleor?

Saleor is an e-commerce platform for building online stores. Saleor is an e-commerce platform for creating online stores.
It consists of the "Storefront," which can be adapted to the project's specifics, and the store "Dashboard." Saleor is an open-source platform written in Python (Django) and JS (React.js) with a GraphQL API.
One of Saleor's main advantages is that it is available both as a standard online store and as a PWA application.
PWA improves site performance and lets users browse the store without an Internet connection.
The Saleor team itself positions the product as a "CMS for the PWA era."

Dashboard

This is the panel from which the site administrator can add content, products, and services to the system, create and track processes, set access levels, and manage staff operations. The "Dashboard" has several sections: "Home" (Home); "Product Catalog" (Catalog); "Orders" (Orders); "Customers" (Customers); "Discounts" (Discounts); "Multilingual" (Translations); "Settings" (Configuration).

Home page (Home)

When logging in, the user lands on the home page. The home page shows recent store activity, an order summary, total sales, and top sellers. From there, you can open order details. Home page (Home)

Orders

The Orders section shows all orders placed by customers through Saleor, as well as orders created manually by administrators.
Orders can be filtered by status or searched by keyword.
Clicking an order opens the order details page.
The order card consists of several blocks:
Order fulfillment (Order fulfillment card)
This section shows information about delivering the order to the customer: SKU and quantity, warehouse, tracking number, and more.
Order payment (Order payment card) This block contains the order and shipping cost details, as well as the tax total.
Order history contains the full history of order status changes.
Comments can also be left here.
Customer details
Contact information, shipping address, etc. Notes (Notes) Orders (Orders)

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Products

This page displays all products in the online store.

They can be filtered by type, visibility on the site, and price.

It is also possible to add filters for other parameters.

The following logic is built into "Products." "Product Type" is a template for products.

Several products can share the same type. "Products" is a template for multiple product variants.

If any characteristics are not set in Products, they are inherited from the type the product belongs to. Products have attributes.

Products with different attribute values form Product Variants. For example, the product "Book" has the attribute "Cover."

A paperback book and a hardcover book belong to the same product, but they are different variants because of different attribute values. The Inventory block shows stock availability and quantity.

It separately shows how many units of a product have been allocated to existing orders.

To add a product to the site, you need to create a product card and fill in the information.

Customers

This page lists all users who left their contact details when creating an account or placing an order. A user can register in the online store independently or with help from an administrator. Clicking a user's name takes you to their profile card, which contains information about them, their orders, and their user history. Customers

Sales

Saleor includes built-in tools for running sales in an online store. In the Sales section, you can define which conditions and parameters determine discounts for specific products. You can simply lower the price or specify a percentage discount. You can also discount specific product types, categories, and collections. Sale periods can be configured, and discounts can depend on date or time. Discounts (Sales)

Multilingual support (Translations)

By default, the Saleor CMS language is English, but you can choose multiple languages for displaying content, which is especially convenient if the online store operates in several countries. Multilingual support (Translations)

Configuration

Features that the site administrator will not use every day are placed in a separate section, "Settings," which is used to manage site settings, staff access, and product configurations. "Attributes and Product Types." In this section, you can choose or create product types and attributes according to the store's needs. "Product Settings."

Here, the administrator configures the tax system, selects the country, and chooses how taxes are shown to customers, either separately or included in the total product price. Staff Settings allow different access levels to be set and new employees to be added to the system. In Shipping Settings, the administrator defines shipping rules. For shipping, you can choose one of the available zones or create your own.

This is also where shipping pricing logic is controlled based on the order value and weight. "Miscellaneous": in "Navigation" you can configure the header and footer, in "Site settings" you can enter store information, and in "Page settings" you can add new pages to the site and change content. Settings (Configuration)

Storefront

The Saleor team says the "Storefront" was designed with UX analytics in mind. In the demo version, everything looks polished. But it is important to remember that the Storefront's main task is to support the full user journey: from finding a product to buying it. And if your customers' buying flow differs from the built-in one and you need to adapt the Storefront, then the UX responsibility will be yours. Storefront

Conclusion

The Saleor CMS is a relatively new platform. And that is both its strength and its weakness.

A plus is that the platform is built on a modern technology stack.

The downside is that the built-in functionality is quite limited.

Saleor's key difference from the leading players is separated front end and back end.

And perhaps also a certain spirit of freedom typical of teams with an open-source philosophy.

Overview of the Saleor e-Commerce platform

It is fairly difficult to find information about Saleor on the internet.