Magento Multiple Websites

I have moved hosts and am in the process of setting up three Magento stores running off of one installation of Magento, one IP and one wildcard SSL.

Previously I used addon domains and ran them as separate websites in Magento.

However, using one IP and SSL certificate this will not work as each would need their own IP address to run as an independent website.

If you want to do this perhaps you may as well get 3 cheap SSL certificates and run them separately? This would of course negate any benefit from Magento’s multiple site ability and make 3 times the work.

Magento and Parked Domains

Now the stores are set up with allgiftsdirect.co.uk as the main domain and the other two as parked domains. This allows the other websites to share the main websites information but requires no extra folders or files. It also proved to be more straightforward to initiate the change in stores using the parked domain method.

Of course nothing in Magento is ever straightforward, using a set up of multiple websites did not work. When purchasing in one website and then going to checkout using the wildcard SSL on the main site, the cookie for the shopping basket would not carry over. There would be an error about ‘your shopping cart is empty’. After trying different cookie settings it still did not work so I switched to using one Magento website.

Magento Stores

I am now running the configuration ‘A’ on the left (but with 3 stores). I have one website with 3 magento stores, each with their own store view.

This allows the swapping of customer accounts, shopping baskets and store switching.

Plus,  I am able to use the wildcard SSL so customers can use the checkout and customer login at summerinflatables.allgiftsdirect.co.uk and access the store with summerinflatables.com.

Most templates also have a store switcher so going back and forth between the different stores should be easy.

If you are not sure about the difference in Magento between stores, websites and store views please click the picture above for more information from the magento commerce website.

The only drawback is that any SSL pages are served on the main website using that template. I therefore need to create a uniform look for customer pages and the checkout so it matches all the stores. The would prevent customers from being concerned they are being redirected to a completely different site and make it clear all the stores are part of the same group.